Page 67 of Her Reborn Mate

I shifted back into my human form and approached Fred, trying to figure out what I would say to him after all this time after learning the truth.

Fred wheeled around in his wheelchair and looked at me. This time, there was no acting or faking. I could see the spite in his eyes and the malice on his face as clear as day. Had I not seen this, I’d have had a hard time believing that my brother was working against me this entire time. But I saw how he loathed me, witnessed his hateful glare, his pursed lips, and his furrowed brows, and I knew.

I knew that Fred had been the one all this time.

“Well?” I called out as I walked over to him. “Aren’t you going to say anything? What explanation do you have for all of this?”

“For all of what?” Fred asked, his voice sardonic and his manner of speaking very condescending.

“You know what you did, brother,” I said.

“And it took you this long to find out,” Fred said.

“I have just one question. Why?” I asked.

“One man’s heaven is another man’s hell,” Fred snarled. “And I have been burning in hell ever since you moved the pack to this accursed continent. Is that reason enough for you?”

“You could have left at any time. You could have moved back to Germany after the war was over. Why didn’t you? Why choose to relent against me and ruin my life?” It wasn’t that I was trying to get a confession out of him; I genuinely wanted to know what drove him to such an extreme length that he sought such drastic measures against me. It wasn’t a small thing when your brother betrayed you. At least, I deserved an explanation.

“How can a wolf leave his pack and still be called a wolf? All my family, the people I grew up with, flocked to you at every command. What good would I have done as a lone wolf back in Germany? You think that you’re so wise and intelligent. You’re nothing but a fool. You made us all give up hectares of our land in Germany in favor of what? A shoddy commune where we’re all piled together like lambs and pigs? Wars come and go, but truly wise men never let go of their heritage, their lands, and their property. You did all of that, and no one ever questioned you,” Fred said. He slowly put his hands on the wheelchair’s handles and got up. So he had been faking his crippled condition. He walked over to me quite normally, without even a little shuffle in his steps.

“Did you hate me so fiercely all this time?”

“I loved you, brother,” Fred said. “I looked up to you when we were little. You were the world to me, especially after our parents died. But you never saw me as your brother. You saw me as some helpless, hopeless sap who was too far gone for his good. You never really bonded with me. Never in your life did you ever ask me, your younger brother, for counsel. I had to grow up living in your shadow. Do you realize how humiliating that is?”

“Look at what you did all for the sake of your ego! You had me imprisoned, or do you deny having a role in that?” I yelled at him. Fred scoffed in response and looked over my shoulder at the town in the distance.

“I will not deny anything. I did what I did, knowing what I was doing. And imagine my surprise to see you come out alive and unscathed from his prison and not even aged a single day. That drove me mad. And all the subsequent times that I tried to end your life, I kept falling short. It was as if fate was itself favoring you over me. Well, after tonight, I’ll be known as the wolf who bent fate to his will, and you will have lost everything you held dear,” Fred said. He then revealed a remote that he was holding in his hand, solving the mystery of who had planted the bombs in the square.

“I held you dear all my life, brother,” I said. “Only for you to have betrayed me like this. And now you want to blow up the town? All for what?”

“I want to make sure that this beloved little town of yours, this so-called Fiddler’s Green, gets razed to the ground, and you can see it for the hell it truly is. I want you to lose everything like I lost everything. I will relish seeing you hear your mate’s dying scream as the flames envelop her body. It will be enough for me to know that even though I could not kill you, I took everything away from you. Only then will I consider us even,” Fred said and put his hand on the remote detonator.

“Don’t do it,” I said, raising my hand. “By all the gods, do not do it.”

“Oh? And you think I’m going to listen?”

“Please, Fred. Whatever you did in the past is another matter entirely. But there’s no coming back from committing such a huge crime. You’re about to mass murder thousands of innocents. Don’t do it.”

“I never seemed to get it across to you that you’re not my boss. You may be the Alpha of the pack, but you were never my Alpha. I never listened to you back then. What makes you think I’ll listen now?” Fred asked, putting his finger dangerously close to the trigger.

“Because I have something to say,” I said, taking a deep breath.

“What could you possibly have to say that would stop me from doing this?” Fred asked and then laughed loudly. I waited for him to quiet down.

“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry,” I said, looking him in the eyes. “I should have counseled with you. I should have paid heed to your words and decisions. And I wanted to say that I forgive you. For all that you did to me, I forgive you.”

There was a glint in Fred’s eyes that I mistook for tears. His lips moved, but words did not come out. He was taken aback, and now his finger was not on the trigger any longer. The next moment, he suddenly pushed me and snapped, “Your charade fooled me for a second. I thought you’d meant it. And if you had, I would have reconsidered. But you’re not sincere, are you? You never were. You’re just buying time. Pathetic.”

“Before you do it, I want you to confess,” I said, hoping Fred would take the bait.

“Confess what?”

“Confess everything that you did to me. Before you take away the lives of my pack, my mate, and the townspeople, I want you to confess that it was you who threw me to Edward Beckett,” I said.

“Fine,” Fred said, waving his arm. “I confess. It was me. I even helped Blair with concocting Wolf’s Bane. I take all the credit. Now can we please enjoy the best fireworks that you and I will ever get to see?”

Alexis, please tell me that you’ve got the situation in control,I called out desperately.Because I don’t. Fred’s the one who planted the bombs. He has the detonator. At any second, he can press the button and blow the entire square.