"YOUR MOTHER IS GABRIELA BANE."
"Gabriela Bane?"
"She and her brother, Gabriel, are the Betas of the Blood Moon Pack."
There... The Blood Moon Pack.
Again.
It was the same Pack that Blayze's mother was from.
"She loves you, Martyn."
"I don't know her!" His eyes blackened within a matter of seconds. "Love? She loves me? Does the love of a woman - who I don't know - matter? I don't know her!"
"It does matter."
His voice was a mere whisper.
"Then, tell me this, Michael Grant! Why do I not know a woman who loves me so? Tell me!"
Michael hesitated.
"Why?! Why did she abandon me?"
"She did not have a choice... Martyn."
I watched as he slammed his fist into the wall beside his father.
"There is always a choice!"
"It was she kill you or they kill you! So... She did not have a choice in abandoning you at the Luna Falls to die... She was told what no mother should ever be told... She was told to kill you!"
"What?"
"She was told, by her Alpha, to kill you." He averted his eyes from his son. "You were abandoned in the Falls of their territory... The Luna Falls. You were only a month old, then. When I realised what she was told by Alpha Lachowski, I retrieved you from the Falls and brought you to Gray Valley. She was told to kill you. But... I retrieved you. And you are alive."
Lachowski. Lachowski. Lachowski.
Where had I heard that name before?
I turned to Luis.
"Who is Lachowski?"
"Didn't you know, Alpha? Marcus Lachowski is the Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack and the maternal uncle of Liam."
That was where I had heard it.
Liam had mentioned that his Lachowski blood was powerful.
But... I did not know it was the blood he shared with a family of powerful Alphas.
Lachowski. Lachowski. Lachowski.
He was heartless.
I realised that Marcus Lachowski was a heartless enough for his own sister to abandon him.
And he was heartless, to command a mother to kill her own son.
It made me wonder...
Was he the same Alpha that separated Blayze from his mother?
Martyn's voice brought me out of my thoughts.
"Are you even my father?"
There was a dreadful silence.
"Yes."
He did not speak but his disbelief was evident in his eyes as he looked at his father.
"Gabriela is my Soulmate."
"And why didn't your Soulmate return to Gray Valley with you?"
"She couldn't. Because... She and her brother are twins. And Werewolves that are twins share a bond. But Gabriela... It was not only a bond for her. She couldn't be with me because they share a Wolf Form."
"A Wolf Form?"
"The two of them shift into one Wolf."
"And you couldn't remain with her at the Blood Moon Pack?"
"How could I, Martyn? There is nothing the Blood Moon Pack hates more than Brown Wolves. And... The Luna Pack loves and gives protection to all Brown Wolves. I am the Third-in-Command of the Pack that loves Brown Wolves more than anything. They would not allow me to remain there, Martyn. So... How could I?"
I thought of the memories I had seen of that Pack.
The Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack had a Brown Wolf killed without a moment of thought.
There was no way Michael could remain at that Pack.
"It doesn't seem like you to give up."
He laughed.
"That's one thing you share with me... Martyn."
"What?"
"I was told, that I could be with her. But... I would have destroy the Brown Wolf Pack. Alpha Lachowski told me that, only then, could I be with her."
"Then... That is what this war is for. Isn't it... Michael?"
It was all part of Michael's plan.
To have all Brown Wolves killed in a war between Gray Wolves.
He made his own son hate him so that he would not be part of his plan.
He allied with the Brown Wolves so that he could destroy them.
He made me command the Wolves in my Pack to shift so that they would kill the Brown Wolves they believed to be enemies.
"Yes."
"And?" I asked.
"I returned to Gray Valley after I retrieved Martyn. But... It was only to do as Alpha Lachowski had told me. I, the Gamma and Third-in-Command, did anything and everything to turn the Luna Pack into a Pack that hated Brown Wolves."
"Was that not because you hate Brown Wolves, father?"
"No.... Martyn. It is not the Brown Wolves who I hate. No... I hate myself. I hate that I have become a monster for my Gabriela. I hate that I turned my daughter into a monster by raising her to hate. No..."
He was a dreadful man for what he had done.
He deserved to hate himself.
But I pitied him.
Because...
He did it with reason.
It was not all for himself but also for those he loved.
"Mary?" his son asked from in front of him. "What about Mary?"
"Mary... Is the daughter of Lucia and I. You know, Martyn... She was like Lucia. But I, tainted her - my own daughter - with my hatred."
"If that's true then Mary can change."
"No... That's true. But... She can't change. Mary is too tainted by hatred to return. She is a killer. And... A killer can't change. She can't return to how she was before she was 16. She can't change."
I frowned. "16?"
That was when my father was killed.
"Your brother didn't kill your father with no reason, Alpha Grayson. The reason... The reason was the Mercury that I told Mary to poison him with. West didn't kill Alpha Wesley. Mary and I did."
Mercury.
I did not know a lot about Werewolves.
But I did know that Mercury was like poison to all Werewolves.
It's use causes the prominence of the Wolf Form. Werewolves experience a loss of control over their shift and even their Wolf Form, resulting in episodes of animalistic and often, hostile behavior... They become insane. And with continued use, as it does for humans, Mercury causes the death of Werewolves.
It was poison.
And that poison had been in the blood of her brother from when he was 16 years old.
I didn't know how to respond to him.
"I'm sorry... Weslyn. Of all the people that have been hurt because of me, those of the Grayson Family have been hurt the most. I'm sorry..."
My father.
My mother.
My brother.
I know your sorry.
"And I'm so sorry... Martyn."
Martyn also stared at his father in silence.
"Martyn?"
"I can't forgive you... Father."
"I know."
"But, maybe, I understand you, now."
For a moment they both smiled at each other.
And not because they were happy.
But they smiled.
"This will all be over, soon, Martyn."
He reached out for the dagger on the ground.
I knew what he was going to do with the dagger.
And I didn't want that.
But maybe, for a man who believed he had no return, it was for the best.
"I love you."
And with that, he stabbed himself in the heart.
Michael Grant had killed himself.33Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEZpKmAW8DW
