Chapter 39
Dante’s POV
The meeting dragged on, each word from the company sharehollers scraping against my nerves like jagged glass. My patience, already thin, wore to nothing as my mind tugged persently toward Valencia.
There was something wrong, I could feel it, a faint hum of uncase that had been building since the meeting started. But I couldn’t leave yet; my father had answers I needed.
The moment the discussion ended, I rose sharply from my seat and strode out, ignoring Caius’s questioning gaze. My boots echoed against the marble as I took the stairs to the tenth floor, beading toward my father’s office.
Raiden was there, seated behind the vast mahogany desk that dominated the room. Sunlight filtered through the high windows, casting long shadows across the intricately carved bookshelves lining the walls. Despite his age, Raiden Steele radiated a quiet strength, his silver–gray hair tied neatly behind him, and his piercing eyes sharp as ever.
He glanced up as I entered, his gaze immediately narrowing. “You look like hell,” he commented, his tone dry.
I ignored his remark and sat down opposite him, leaning forward with my hands on my knees. “Tell me everything.”
Raiden tilted his head, confusion flickering across his face. “Everything”
“Mother,” I clarified. “I want to know everything. Why didn’t you tell us what she was? Why didn’t you tell us what we are? What else are you hiding…and how exactly did she die?”
Not that I could feel my strength beightened. I knew for a fact that normal poison was in no way capable of subduing a dragon. And according to our Father that’s how mom died.
For a moment, Raiden didn’t speak, his expression unreadable. Then he sighed, leaning back in his chair. “I suppose it’s long overdue.” He gestured for me to sit back. “This will take time.”
I crossed my arms but leaned back, giving him the floor.
Raiden began slowly, his voice carrying a weight of memory. “I met Aurora almost twenty five years ago, during the war that tore the supernatural world apart. Back then, there was no courell to enforce peace. Wolves had their alliances, but vampires and shifters were our enemies. It was a brutal time.”
His gaze grew distant, his fingers drumming lightly against the armrest of his chair. “I was young, barely 22. During the Blue Moon Festival, I went on a hunt with my father. We were ambushed by shifters. I managed to kill most of them, but I was badly injured.”
He paused, his lips tightening. “That’s when Aurora found me. She saved my life.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Why would a dragon save a wolf?”
Especially during war times. When every creature had their own faction!
“She wasn’t just any dragon,” Raiden corrected. “She was alone, a survivor in hostile territory. Aurora had already been wounded, but she risked everything to pull me out of danger. Arst, I thought she was just another shifter–a rare one, maybe–but not a dragon. That truth came later.”
Raiden’s expression softened, a rare sight. “She didn’t even speak our language at first. But she stayed with me, nursed me back to health, and I brought her back to the pack to ensure her safety in return. She was…different. Fierce but gentle. Over time, she started to understand our ways, and we formed a bond
“A bond,” I repeated, skepticism lacing my tone.
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Chapter 39
Raiden’s gaze sharpened. “Not a mate bond. Not at first. It wasn until she went into heat that I realized what she truly was. Dragon heats are nothing like ours.”
“She transformed, 1 murmures.
Raiden nodded. “Yes. In her half–dragon form. When I promise that I would keep her secret she trusted me and told me everything. Her lineage, her form, the truth about her people. 1gons were dying out. Their inability to reproduce had decimated their kind. Aurora believed she was the last of her bloodline. She never spoke much of her own past, only that she had been hunted.”
“And you took her as your mate?”
“Eventually,” Raiden admitted. “She told me the risks. But when we discovered she was pregnant with you, I knew I couldn’t let her go. Thankfully you both were born as wolves so we had no complications.”
He leaned forward, his voice lowering. “Not everyone agreed with my decision. Least of all my father. He wanted me to marry Tatiana.”
I stiffened. “The Wolfe pack’s deceased Luna?”
Raiden’s expression darkened. “Yes. Tatiana was the daughter of powerful pack, and an alliance with their pack would have solidified our position and strengthened our pack’s military power. But I refused. I hadn’t agreed to the engagement, and when Tatiana married Roman, I thought the matter was settled.
1 frowned, confusion stirring. “What does this have to do with Mother?”
Raiden’s jaw clenched. “Everything I learned later on that Tatiana never forgave me for rejecting her. And when Aurora came into our lives.” He exhaledsharply. “When your mother passed away. You were just 18, Caius was 15.”
Pain rippled through me at the memory. I already knew that. At that time she had already been sick for a couple years. Raiden sighed. “I had always been suspicious about your mother’s condition. Her depression had no cure and it came from nowhere. I knew for a fact that she had been happy and content living with me. So I didn’t understand why she would become so…..” He paused, then continuet, “Anyways, I had told you later on that she was poisoned. That wasn’t incorrect, She had been poisoned. But it had been a gradual process. Three years after her death, I found a maid who had fled our pack. A maid that was supposed to have died earlier. She’d been living in Velhaven, disguised as a salon owner. When we brought her in for interrogation, she confessed.”
“Confessed to what?” I demanded, my voice tight.
“She revealed that Aurora’s paranoia and panic attacks were caused by the Snowmist flower,” Raiden said grimly. “I’m sure you have heard of it. It’s a slow poison that drives its victims into madness. Aurora began to believe she was a burden. She thought she was ruining our lives.”
“She wasn’t a burden,” I growled, my fists clenching.
“No,” Raiden agreed. “But the Snowmist made her believe otherwise. And it was Tatiana who gave the maid that poison.”
The revelation hit me like a thunderclap. “Tatiana?”
Raiden’s eyes burned with fury. “Yes. The Wolfe pack knew. Roman might not have sanctioned it, but someone in his pack did. That’s why the war began.”
My hands trembled as rage coursed through me. The memory of my mother’s laughter, her warmth, her kindness–stolen by the Wolfe pack’s cruelty.
Raiden’s gaze hardened. “She wrote us letters before she left, apologizing for the trouble she thought she’d caused. Then she took her own life with Weyog
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I frown, “Weyog?”
Dragon’s have a longer lifespan than wolves and also have a way stronger body than typical supernaturals. There are very few things that can kill a dragon, among them is the Snowmist, which if taken by a wolf is lethal, but taken by a dragon is a slow poison. And another among those is Weyog. Something only heard about in legends after the extinction of dragon shifters. It’s a poison made from the tears of a dragon and it’s lethal to them when consumed.”
My fingers clenched taking in everything he was saying. It had been five years since she died and almost two years since w discovered that mom had died from being poisoned.
In the beginning we had all assumed she had committed suicide after being depressed and suffering panic attacks for so long. We had found her body lying peacefully on her favorite hill near the lake. That had been her sanctuary.
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Then two years ago father had told us that someone else had poisoned her and that someone was sent from the Wolfe pack We had assumed it was Roman. Since the enmity between our packs was generational.
Maybe it was me being selfish but I had been happy knowing that she didn’t leave us because she gave up. I was happy knowing she didn’t commit suicide and that she had wanted to fight her depression for us, for her sons, for her family.
But it turns out I was wrong.
The room seemed to tilt around me as a realization dawned. “So in the end…she actually did kill herself, I whispered. Raiden froze and the air inside the room seemed to grow cooler No. She was forced to take her own life. Had Tatjana not sent the maid to slowly poison her…she wouldn’t have thought of herself as a burden.. she would have still been alive.
A lump rose in my throat as an image of that hill formed in my mind–a serene spot by the water, bathed in golden light. It had been my mother’s favourite spot.
Of course. It wouldn’t have made sense for her to die there if she had been poisoned by someone
else
A sharp knock at the door shattered the tense silence. A maid entered, her face pale and tear–streaked. She fell to her knees, sobbing. “Alpha Dante, please forgive me, but Miss Valencia..she refuses to get ready. She keeps saying she will not get married
The room seemed to freeze,
“What?” I growled, rising to my!
The maid trembled under my gaze. “She locked herself in her room, Alpha. She’s crying, saying she won’t go through with
it.”
My heart clenched painfully, anger and worry surging in equal measure. Without another word, 1 stormed out of the office, Raiden’s voice trailing after me. “Dante, don’t let your anger make you reckless.”
Reckless? My thoughts were a storm.
Why did I keep getting this weird feeling that everyone was going to leave me?
I wanted to break something.
