Chapter 0213
I stepped inside to find Julian already holding a glass of wine for me.
I kicked off the uncomfortable flats.
My feet ached from the lack of support.
I’d take heels over those any day.
I sank onto the sofa while he poured himself a whiskey.
“Tell me everything. I don’t care if it takes all night. I need to know it all. She has killed, hasn’t she? That part is true?”
He gave a slow nod. “She goes straight for the heart. She only shifts to kill. At least, that’s how it used to be. She never shifted just to run or for any other reason.”
“So her plan was to kill me.” I smiled faintly.
He frowned. “She doesn’t trust easily.”
“Well, that’s one more thing we have in common.” I took a large sip of wine and started unbuttoning my jeans.
He raised an eyebrow.
“Oh no, honey. You’re not getting any of this until I hear every detail. These are coming off because I can’t stand them another second.”
I settled back on the couch, letting the cool air soothe my irritated skin.
Sure, I would’ve preferred his head between my thighs, but that could wait.
First, I needed to know everything about my dear half-sister.
I spent the next few hours pulling every piece of information from him.
I asked questions he might not even have answers to.
“She had a terrible life too. If Alexander hadn’t found her, she probably would’ve died months ago. She was barely hanging on when he brought her home.”
A normal person would feel pity.
Maybe she deserved it after stealing my life.
But strangely, I didn’t wish her dead.
I just wanted her to see that everything rightfully belonged to me.
“I always thought the Alpha blood came from her father—your father,” he muttered before taking a drink.
I shook my head. “He wasn’t a true Alpha. Mother said he was a Beta by birth. He only took over as Alpha after he marked Athena’s mother. She was the one with pure Alpha blood. Mother didn’t learn the truth until after I was born.”
He tilted his head curiously.
“She believed I had Alpha blood. She tried to remind him that I was his first heir. The true heir. Turns out, I am his heir—but I’m not an Alpha.”
“Do you want to be Alpha?” he asked softly.
I shook my head. That was his dream, not mine. “I want her to lose everything.”
“Daddy dearest didn’t help Mother at all. No money, no clothes for me, no help with food—nothing. He knew about me and let us suffer while he raised his precious Alpha daughter. The last of her kind.”
I knew I had daddy issues.
It’s what happens when you spend years watching your mother desperately pine for a man who doesn’t care about you or his own daughter.
I watched her fade away for a man who was never truly hers—because she was foolish enough to let him get her pregnant.
Then the blame shifted to me.
I was the reason he never claimed her.
I was the reason he never returned.
I was the inconvenience.
I was the bastard child who trapped her.
I was the one who ruined her life.
Not him and his precious fucking daughter.
Tears welled in my eyes, and I was mortified.
“I need a shower!” I snapped, standing abruptly.
“Can I join you?”
“No.”
He watched me leave.
One thing about him—he always respected when I said no.
I rarely refused him, but it was one of his better qualities.
The hot water sprayed against my skin, and the tears finally fell, tracing paths down my cheeks.
Why was I even crying?
Today wasn’t a complete failure.
I had all the information I needed to move forward.
Yet the tears kept coming.
I heard the bathroom door open and turned my face toward the tiles so he wouldn’t see.
“Julian, I said no!”
“I’m staying here,” he murmured. “Could you sense her?”
“No. I don’t think she sensed me either.”
As siblings, looking alike and sharing the same father was where it ended.
Maybe it was better that I couldn’t sense her.
“I want to take down Alexander. I want the pack to be mine. I deserve it. But Athena…” He hesitated, struggling to finish.
“Her history makes you feel sorry for her.”
“And you don’t? Now that you know everything?” he asked.
“No.”
“Not even a little?”
“No.”
She had been beaten, abused, blood-tied, and poisoned.
Bound multiple times, and yet she survived.
It made me despise her even more.
Because no one should have that kind of power.