Chapter 2 - Deceit and war!

Sebastian

I WAS TORN! When I originally kidnapped Nadia, I couldn’t stand the werewolf baby. I let my servants take care of her most of the time. Each year on her birthday, I made sure she had a huge party. My people had to believe that I had accepted her as my daughter. I considered killing her and sending the parts to her parents, but I stuck to my plan. Unfortunately, that little girl grew on me. The way she took on whatever I gave her was breathtaking.

As each year passed, she grew on me. I saw the girl more and more, and the wolf less and less. In the back of my mind, I knew she would shift one day, and I would need her to for my plan to work, but I worried about it less as time passed by.

I raised her to take the ultimate revenge on the people who hurt me. Over the years, however, I couldn’t help but feel guilty. Nadia was innocent in all of it. Now that she could shift, I no longer wanted her to go after her parents, but I promised my people. I was torn! I wanted those mutts to feel the pain I felt, but I loved my daughter! I couldn’t put her in that kind of danger anymore!

Until now, it had all just been talk. We had our plans, but now those plans were going to be put into action. I didn’t know if I could do that to Nadia anymore. I still had some time. Nadia would seriously start with her training now. There was no way I would let her go after the mutts just yet. She was young and strong, but she wasn’t strong enough yet.

Nadia

I GOT EVERYTHING I HAD always dreamed about. I could shift and that has been my main concern all these years. The morning after my birthday, I was back at the gym. The castle was quiet at that time of the day and I could work out without worrying about anybody interrupting me.

I had some breakfast and went upstairs to have a nap. When the vampires wake up, the real training is going to start and I wanted to be on the top of my game. I wanted to make my father happy. He gave me so much throughout the years that I really didn’t want to disappoint him. I was a little disappointed, however, when my father didn’t show up for my first training session with the vampires.

I was too busy training to worry about it too much, but after I went in search of my father. I needed to find out what was going on. As I walked up to his office, I could hear why he wasn’t there. We were in an alliance with the spirits in the kingdom beside ours, and by the sound of things, the dragons were making a move on the Ghost Isles!

Those two territories had been at war forever! I decided not to bother my father and made my way to the library. The last thing he needed right now was for me to distract him. We could go and help the ghosts, but we also needed to prepare for our attack on the wolves! I opened the book my father gave me for my birthday and my fingers slipped over the first page.

It was a beautiful, hand drawn map of our entire continent. Across the Forsaken Fields where the only other werewolf pack lived, past the Dragon Territories and beyond the Ghostly Isles was the Dark Forest and my father’s kingdom. All these regions had been at war at some point or another. Many years ago, the previous vampire king took some wolves as prisoners.

Those prisoners split into two factions. One was loyal to the vampires and the other hated them, of course. When the wolves revolted against the rule of their masters, they went after the loyal wolves and the vampires. That was when my parents were killed! They killed my father’s mate, and worst of all, they killed the then vampire king. My father’s father …

“Hi, sweetheart.” My father’s voice pushed through my thoughts of war. I jumped out of my chair and ran straight into his arms, breathing in his familiar scent. It always gave me strength to just know he was there for me.

“Father!” I smiled as his cold hand slipped down the side of my cheek and I leaned into his touch. I just took in the moment before breathing in deeply and diving right into what was going on. “What’s going on?”

“The dragons have attacked one of the smaller villages.” He frowned. Okay, it wasn’t that bad, was it?

“They can’t take the ghosts prisoner, can they?” We sat down and he smiled the moment he saw my hand protectively resting on my book.

“No, but they can do a lot of other damage. The problem wasn’t the attack. The problem is that they took something that is very important to the ghosts’ survival. I’m afraid I have to leave for a couple of nights, sweetheart.” I hated it when my father had to leave, but over the years, I have grown used to it. The journey to the ghosts’ capital city was dangerous, but I also knew that my father could handle himself. He told me more about what was taken, and then I noticed a flash of something in his eyes I had never seen before. My father always hated leaving me behind. I knew that much, but something was different.

“Sweetheart, I need you to be careful. Please don’t leave the castle while I’m gone. There have been reports of wolves trying to breach our border.” I frowned. This was new information! I knew they always tried to breach our borders, but my father had never before asked me specifically not to leave the castle. Was there something he wasn’t telling me?! I felt really confused when he was gone and I looked at my book trying to figure out what was up.

He wasn’t taking all of it. He would just take enough that my parents wouldn’t notice. I tried to soothe my conscience by telling myself that it was all pack money after all, and it helped for a while until the guilt came back. Liam was not the wolf I wanted to spend the rest of my life with! When he tried to skim money from one of our deals again, I confronted him. He was about to lift his hands to me when I attacked and put him in his place.

Unfortunately, it didn’t change anything. The bastard just found other ways to hide his double dealings! In the meantime, I was training so that I could be ready for my finals. Once I graduate, I will be allowed to run my own team and take over the pack business! Since I already knew what Liam was up to and how he worked, I could stop all his deals right in their tracks!

My seventeenth birthday was great! It was my second birthday I shared with my real parents and I was overwhelmed by how much they loved me. Only to be disappointed when I heard that Liam even skimmed money from the caterer’s invoice! I really wanted to tell my parents about what he was up to! But I didn’t. I would wonder many times in the future why I didn’t just tell my parents, and always remind myself that it was because I was trying to save his parents the heartache!

Another year went by and by the time my eighteenth birthday came around, I was one of our best warriors and I no longer cared what the hell Liam was up to. I knew that as soon as I took over as alpha, I would get rid of him, but until then I wasn’t going to break any parent’s heart.