Chapter 146

Chapter 146Book Two-Ch.# 37
“NO!” Kieran roared.
And right as the dagger pierced the surface of my shoulder, Daniel was promptly pushed off me.
“I said *don’t touch her*,” he growled.
The weight of his words fell over everyone in the room, and once again I experienced the tangible sway
of his order.
“Kieran,” Daniel huffed out, unable to get back up to his feet. “She-.”
“No, enough! You’re hereby forbidden from moving until further notice,” Kieran said. ” That goes for you
too Allison. Sit down. Now. And I don’t want to hear another word from either of you.”
Allison gritted her teeth but did as she was told.
“What… What is that?” I asked. “What did you do to them?”
Kieran looked defeated as he straightened back up, unable to meet my eyes. He simply stared at two
people he held dear as they were trapped on the floor.
“An Alpha heir order,” he said. “It’ll only hold them long enough until a full ranked member arrives
though.”
“Kieran-.”
“Leave… Rae,” he said quietly. “I can’t do anything else for you now.”The pain in his voice was clear, an echo in it that stung me. I didn’t want to upset him further, and so,
with one hand covering the shallow new wound to my shoulder, I hobbled back to my feet to grab the
book and dagger.
“There’s a cupboard to your left which has an emergency hidden staircase inside it. Use that and follow
it all the way down. It’ll take you to the car park outside safely without being seen.”
Just as he’d said, upon inspecting the cupboard, there was indeed a staircase inside. But as I stared
into the dark passage ahead, I hesitated once more.
…This was the last time I might see him. Did I really want to leave things like this? With lies intended to
push him away and a head full of questions?
“Kieran… I…,” I said, my voice trailing off.
So many things I wanted to say, to explain, to ask about. All of which would take too long to get
through. And so, in the end, I settled for one thing.
Just one line.
“…I’m sorry,” I whispered.
And I slipped through the doorway without another word, beginning the descent down.
“This isn’t over, Rae,” he called out behind me. “I’ll find you. I promise.”
But I just wiped at the stray tear that had escaped my eye and kept walking.
There were a lot of promises that were made lately. Too many.
“Do yourself a favour for both our sakes, Kieran,” I said quietly. “…Forget about me. My survival might
just rely on that very thing.”I knew what awaited me now. The only remaining path left.
A path that would lead me to the one place I ever truly belonged.
Back into the shadow of my father.
But first… first I had a job to do.
And as I got into the car and drove like hell out of Ashwood, I was reminded of the fact that my absence
had been long. Perhaps too long for an impatient man such as my father. I knew it would be punishable
to return like this empty-handed.
I felt numb as I went through the motions. I wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge everything that had
happened, simply just trying to get through the day without breaking down. To keep moving without
remembering his face or how much….
-No. I couldn’t think about Kieran anymore. He didn’t exist as of today.
Now, it was only me vs… them.
Long gone were my naive days of the past. Now, I’d need to work even harder to hide my presence, an
entire species probably soon intending to hunt me down. Because if a war could span over fifty years
because of one pack, then I was sure that they weren’t keen to just let me die of old age naturally.
The look of hatred on Allison’s face still haunted me every time I blinked.
“Here you are…,” I said to myself in the confines of a dark office.
The safe stared up at me from within the floorboard, promising to give me the very thing that had
started all of this. What my father had been desperate to get his hands on all this time.“My entire life was ruined because of you. Perhaps if you’d never existed, I could have lived my life in
ignorance until death came for me. That sounds better than this… than now living with this pain.”
I bit my tongue. There was no pain because I was fine. Completely fine. Just… a girl doing her job. And
I pushed back the feelings threatening to break me.
It only took a couple of minutes to crack into the lock, Miles clearly not investing enough in security, but
soon enough I caught my first glimpse of the coveted contents.
…The documents my father had been after.
And I could see why.
It was years worth of business transactions, photos and other pieces of evidence that would be enough
to crumble my father’s business to dust. Yes… Miles was a smuggler, but at some point he must have
switched sides. Probably working for someone who had it in their best interest to see my father finally
go to jail. Some of the information in here would have taken years to acquire.
This was… everything. Enough to risk it all to get back… even if it meant losing his daughter. All to
save the business.
Though, as I was shuffling the papers back together, I did catch one thing. Something that wasn’t quite
like everything else. It looked almost like a journal entry in my father’s handwriting, one dated a few
years ago.
Miles had written pencil notes around it, wondering if the passage pertained to an associate or partner
in crime but… but I wasn’t so sure.
‘… The woman came to me again last night and I basked in her glory,’ it read. ‘What I have, I owe to
her, and I am reminded of that fact every day by my fortune; with my business and my Raven. It isthrough her continuous instruction that I have loyally served and been rewarded for my efforts.’
I frowned as I read the snippet, confused by who he was talking about. Because for as long as I could
remember, my father had always been alone; both in business and in personal life. Never even so
much as bringing a casual one-night stand over to the house, let alone ever speaking about a woman
with such adoration; not like in the way he did in this entry.
No, the way he wrote here… it was nothing like the man I knew of. Not the cold-hearted, business
focused father who I’d lived with for years.
Not Eric Reid.
…And I instantly snapped the folder of documents closed, no longer wanting to read anymore.
I shouldn’t have gone looking through it to begin with, such a thing would get me in trouble. But I’d
figured since I’d already broken every rule, that adding ‘snooping’ to the list wasn’t that bad.
However, it seemed I’d been wrong about that, if only for unexpected reasons. The new information
merely added more questions to my already confused head.
And I sighed.
It felt like the more I looked into the reality of my world, the more dark truths I discovered. Truths that
would only lead me into situations I was better avoiding. Just like how chasing after Kieran had led me
to the state I was in now.
Feeling… broken… evil… a mistake. Undeserving.
I gritted my teeth and got back into the car, throwing the documents on the passenger seat. My father
could have them back and secure his business, just as he wanted. It was a testament to my loyalty, if
nothing else.But it was as I threw them down that the juxtaposition of my life really came into focus.
…Because it fell next to the book I’d stolen
from the Ashwood Archives. One I’d picked up out of curiosity at the time but then somehow hung onto
during the chaos.
And it now opened a new path of opportunity for me to take, one that could possibly lead to more
answers.
I stared at the two choices as they laid side by side.
My father’s documents… or a book with a title topic I was slowly starting to despise.
“The Council of the Silver Mist’ the front cover read. ‘A history of The Winter Mist and
Silver Lake’.
A book of my birth family’s history. Or… as was told by Ashwood, at least. I could only imagine the bias
I would find inside upon reading. Though some information was better than nothing. Better than…
being spat. at for being a Devil.
But was I really going to chase down another search into who I was?
And as I thought about it some more, my heart ached for Kieran for the millionth time. It felt as though
I’d had a part of myself torn away when I’d left, tearing more and more the further I went.
My other half.
My… mate.
The person I lo-.No.
No, I wasn’t going down this path. Not again.
I wasn’t Rae or Rheyna… I was Raven.
And it was time for me to go home.
Which is exactly what I did.
It took several hours of driving before I finally got back to Lockdale City. The familiar scent of my home
greeted me as I entered the house, the place quiet now within the late hour of the night. This was my
longest time being away and it felt almost… safe being back here. An odd feeling considering the
nature of my life, but a welcome one.
A needed one.
Atop of the staircase, a light shone brightly through, emanating from down the hallway. I knew what it
meant.
…My father was awake.
I felt nervous confronting him. Would he be angry? Had he somehow discovered what I’d been up to in
my absence?
A part of me resented him for everything he’d put me through and yet, despite that, I still craved his
presence now. Because if his cage could keep me trapped this whole time, then it could keep others
out. Only he had the power to make me disappear once more. He’d already done it once, doing so
without realising just how important it was to my survival growing up.
I was only alive because of him. Because of his name.And had he not put me through the rigorous training and pain he had, I never would have made it out of
Ashwood in one piece.
I needed him.
He was… all I had left.
…And so I knocked on his office door.
“Come in,” said his voice.
I took a second to calm my breathing before entering, the documents in hand.
“Father… I’m-.”
“Raven,” he quickly said, looking almost surprised to see me. “You’re home… You’re … bleeding?”
I looked at my clothes, now covered in my blood from where the silver dagger had pierced both my
hand and shoulder. Both thankfully healing… albeit painfully.
However, the physical pain was the least of my worries.
“I’m fine,” I said, brushing off the concern. “Nothing I can’t handle. I’m sorry it took so long but I-I got the
documents for you. Here … see?”
Looking upon his face again, those grey eyes. … I hated how comforted I felt. But, at the end of the
day, he was still my father. The person I’d loved for over sixteen years.
“Who did this to you?” he said, walking over. “The boy?”
But I shook my head, feeling as my eyes started to water over the mention of Kieran.I couldn’t cry here though. My father hated it when I cried.
Just a little bit longer and I could go to my room to be alone.
“Was it Victor? Someone else in the town?”
But I just shook my head again to both.
“I need to know, Raven. I thought this was just infiltration. If someone attacked you whilst undercover
then I ne-.”
“Please, daddy… I’m fine,” I said as tears escaped me involuntarily. “Please let it go. I- I got what you
wanted. I got the documents. I -I did it… I did it for you.”
And as I feebly held them out towards him, he simply took them from me and placed them back down
on the chair next to us.
…He placed them down… and proceeded to pull me into a hug.
I tensed in his embrace for a few seconds. until everything crumbled inside, sobs wracking through my
body. It was as if all my pain surfaced all at once, everything I’d pushed down deep inside.
Kieran… Ashwood… my birth family… the confusing devil revelations….
…The fact that I was finally home, safe, under the protection of my father. The only person able to now
protect me from being hunted.
All of it overwhelmed me as I clung to him, crying into his chest.
“I didn’t know if you were coming home,” he said. “I haven’t heard from you in weeks.”
“I-I’m sorry.”“I’m just glad you’re back, my Raven. You’re safe now.”
And as he patted my head, I momentarily let go of my anger towards him. Long enough to lie to myself
that there was at least one person who could truly accept me for what I was. One person who knew of
everything I’d done, of what I was, and could still love me.
Yes… this was fine. 5
This was my life. The only one a devil deserved.