Page 81 of Half Wolf Mate
“We planned a life together. When you were born, I knew I couldn’t continue with an organization that hunted shifters. The woman I loved was a shifter, and my child would be half. We wanted to get Adam and disappear to live our lives far away as a family.”
“She was really planning to come back for me, then?”
I almost panicked when I saw Adam in the doorway, but he didn’t look agitated. Apparently, he and Cole were moving toward becoming great friends if he could show up at the compound anytime.
Benjamin held his gaze. “She never planned to leave without you. Sophia wanted you and Sydney to grow up together. But your father didn’t want to let you go.”
“So, you would have accepted me?” Adam asked.
“Yes. You’re a part of the woman I adored. Why wouldn’t I?”
Adam’s shoulders relaxed. “Who killed her? I want a name?”
Benjamin shrugged. “I’ve been trying to find that out since the night I found her dead.”
Scrubbing a hand over his face, Adam blew out a long breath. He’s spent years going after the wrong man. Justice was just ripped out of his grasp. When he turned to walk away, I called him back.
He turned back around.
“Please don’t just disappear. I want… we haven’t spent any time together.”
His expression softened. “I’m not going too far. I just need some air.”
I nodded, relieved.
After that, Benjamin told me everything. When he found Sophia, he assumed I was dead, too. He was in hiding for seventeen years, tailing the hunters, and trying to find out who destroyed his family. That’s how he got wind of the hit on me. He’d been following Philip, and that was how he ended up in New Orleans, where he found me in Macy’s diner. He wasn’t stalking me but watching over me. Benjamin had been afraid to tell me who he was, fearing I wouldn’t believe him.
Easing back into my chair after the entire story, I sighed. “Finally, I have all the pieces to the puzzle.”
Benjamin’s gaze roamed my face. “You look just like her.”
“Is that why you stared at me like that at the diner?”
He laughed. “Yes. I’m sorry if I scared you. I miss her so much.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Again, I wanted to cry. Pregnancy hormones were running amok. “That we lost seventeen years.” Benjamin reached for my hand across the table, and I held on to him. “Will you stay?”
He glanced at Cole and Damian. “Well, if those two decide to set me free, you’ll find me at the apartment building you once lived in. No way am I leaving this city now that my kid is here. And I want to meet my grandchild.”
My heart almost burst with relief. Tuning to my bodyguards, I asked, “Well?”
“We should keep him a little longer just in case,” Damian said.
Gasping, I looked at Cole. “We can’t keep my father prisoner.”
“No, we can’t,” he said.
Damian scoffed. “Why the hell not?”
“He helped us,” Cole replied. “He saved my life and Sydney’s.” His eyes danced with humor that was so unlike him. “Besides, he’s my father-in-law now. I can’t hold Pops prisoner.”
I snickered.
Damian’s eyes bulged. “Sydney has really rubbed off on you,” he muttered. “You even have a sense of humor now.”