Page 78 of Fractured Mates
Astor sneers. “I’ve waited too long for this moment.” His dark eyes leer at me, and I do the same back to him. He’s dressed in charcoal slacks with a matching suitcoat and white dress shirt beneath, presumably trying to exude the power he doesn’t actually hold. His hands are shoved in his pockets, and he rocks back and forth on his black loafers as if he doesn’t have a care in the world, but I see past all that. I see the fury in his stare.
He can’t hide what I’ve lived with myself since the day I killed his son. A rage that is blamed on the world for the choices we’ve had to make.
I want to look away, to check on my sister as I hear her whimper, but I won’t back down from this man. He needs to know that I’m not the little girl he last saw. That I’m not afraid of him.
The room is quiet until my father starts to speak. “She’s here. Now, it’s time for you?—”
Astor doesn’t let him finish, and I’m left wondering what the hell just happened as a knife that seems to come out of nowhere is drug across my father’s throat. Astor’s chest rumbles as he grimaces. “You’ve served your purpose, and I’m done listening to your petulant voice, James.”
I watch, doing nothing as the man whose DNA runs through me drops to his knees, holding his throat. Our eyes meet, and he blinks rapidly, but I can’t feel anything for him. Not sadness, not the drive to want to help him, not even relief. There’s just nothing.
He did nothing for me before, and I’m doing the same for him.
Why is your sister smiling? Kyler asks me and I finally move my stare.
She’s being held by a man I don’t pay attention to. Her shoulders are sagging in what I can only assume is relief, and she seems to watch our father die with pure glee.
“I can see you’re confused,” Astor says with a little too much enjoyment. “Let me catch you up. He is your father.” He points the knife toward my father’s unmoving body, then at Jules. “But he isn’t hers. Though, by your lack of reaction to his death, maybe he’s nothing to both of you. Pity.”
The only pity is that Astor kept my father alive as long as he had.
As much as I want to maintain control of my actions, when my gaze snaps back toward my sister and she refuses to look at me, I can’t stop the words from leaving my mouth. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
The laugh that pours out of Astor grates on my nerves, because I’ve just given him exactly what he wanted: my emotions.
He grabs Jules by the back of the head, jerking her out of the other shifter’s arms. “She’s mine.”
The way he says those two words has my head pounding and my vision blurring with ire. At first, I think he’s trying to tell me that he’s already claimed Jules as his mate, but then my mother’s previous words start to come back to me.
It wasn’t him.
She said Astor hadn’t been the one to physically hurt Jules. Astor just said James wasn’t her father, then answered with her being his.
As in his daughter.
Never before have I hated my parents more than I do now. How could my mother have… I don’t know, and honestly, I don’t want to.
My hardened gaze moves toward the man I wish I wasn’t related to. The one who inflicted pain on my baby sister. He’s still unmoving, but I listen for a heartbeat anyway because if he’s not already dead, I intend to take his life myself. Unfortunately, I hear nothing until Astor starts to laugh again.
“I see from the disgust on your face, you’re starting to piece things together,” he says, shoving my sister out of his grasp. She yelps, and I know that even if Astor never raised a fist to her, he’s still responsible for a lot of her hurt.
His wolves begin to come closer, and I start to pay them more attention. There are a few that I remember from my childhood. Ones I might have even called friends long ago. Yet, each of them is ready to destroy me for a man who couldn’t care less about them.
I glance back at my sister, wondering what chance she might have of escaping on her own, and when I pay more attention to the man behind her, I have to take a second look. Dark-hazel eyes, auburn hair, full lips.
Is that River? I ask Kyler quickly, regretting not having taken the opportunity to look closer at the picture that was texted to me of him and Jules earlier.
Yes, your sister might not know it, but she’s safe.
Holy shit. How did I not remember his name when his face was so clearly embedded in my memory as one of the protectors who found me in New York and took me to East Texas?
I don’t know, but I recognize him now and feel even better about him being in charge of my sister. Especially when I see her rest her head against his chest.
With that knowledge, I know it’s time to act. Astor needs to die, and the people fighting for him will follow suit or stand down. The choice will be up to them as soon as I know Jules is out of the crossfire.
“What do you think you’re going to do, Sophie?” Astor taunts, gesturing to the men around him. “You’ve come here with help, and I’ll give you credit for that because I didn’t expect anyone to give a shit about you. But you’re here in this room, facing me, with only one other. You have no chance of survival.” His lip curls into a snarl. “You were a pathetic excuse for a wolf shifter when my son found you, and it seems nothing has changed. He knew it and I know it still. Hell, even your parents did. Why do you think they were so eager to let you go with him? Nobody wanted you, but my son was willing to teach you and you killed him for it. Now, I finally get to right that wrong.”
Nobody wanted you.