Alpha Loren Book 3

ELLA

Minutes later, I heard two sets of footsteps marching toward the door. Then it flung open, and there in the arch stood the one and only Nicolòs Jones, a.k.a Dad.

“Dad?” I asked, tears already in my eyes.

He hadn’t changed a bit. The same friendly eyes and soft, warm features. I was always told I had my father’s looks, and now looking at his light-blond hair and blue-gray eyes, I could see why.

“Ella,” he replied, crying with me.

I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight, checking that he was really there.

“My little girl,” he whispered.

“How are you here?” I sobbed. “I thought you were dead.”

“I promise I will explain everything. But first, can we just have a moment?”

He stretched his hand out for Connor, and for a few minutes, we just hugged. With only Mom missing, it was the closest we’d been to the complete family together in far too long.

At some point, Connor went to get some food, and when he returned, we sat on the bed.

“I didn’t die in a car accident, Ella. That’s what your precious mate made it look like. He wanted me gone. Leonardo Loren became alpha when you were just eleven. That’s when I disappeared.

“It was practically his first action as alpha. His men came after me and left me close to death. They didn’t finish me because they didn’t think I’d live, and they wanted to maximize my suffering. But I did.”

All I could do was stare into his eyes. He could stare straight back.

I stood up and walked to the window, breathing heavily.

“He never told me that.”

“What your mate tells you is just the tip of an iceberg, Ella,” Connor said.

“Ask anyone in this castle and they can tell you a messed-up story about him you could never imagine. You may think he is a good man to you, but you have no idea.”

“I desperately wanted to come back to you both and your mother. I couldn’t bear the thought of you growing up without a father, and from what I hear, you hardly had a mother too—”

I spun around.

“Then why didn’t you? It’s been twelve years, Dad, and you were alive the whole time?”

“The monarchy found me. Revived me. I owe them my life, so a life of service I promised them. And I can’t return anyway. Not until Leonardo Loren is no longer alpha.”

“But my son isn’t seventeen for another ten years.”

“That is not what I meant. He will be gone in a month. I assure you.”

My dad put his hand on mine and squeezed it. I shook my head and pulled it away.

“No…if you are suggesting what I think you are suggesting, you will never succeed, and even if you do…he is the father of my eight children!

“Killing him would destroy both your daughter and your grandchildren! How could you even consider such a thing!”

“It is justice. He mercilessly stripped me away from you and your brother like he has to hundreds before!” my father argued. “How can you forgive him for what he did to our family?”

“He is our family now. His children are your grandchildren. His mate is your daughter. And I can’t forgive him. I never will.

“But that doesn’t mean I want him dead, and if you take my mate away from me, I’d never be able to forgive you either. You know what it is like to lose a mate. Don’t put your daughter through the same thing.”

“And let countless others? He will continue to kill and tear apart lives until the day he dies.”

“He was only seventeen when he ordered your death. Twelve years have passed, and he has changed. His pups and I have changed him; he’s no longer so cruel.”

“Seventeen is old enough to understand exactly what he was doing. And you can’t change a monster like him. He will always be a coldhearted killing machine, and that is why he has to die.

“Remember what your brother said about the iceberg? You have no idea what dark shit goes on under his command. The king has been kind enough to let you and your children reside here when he is gone.

“They believe your eldest is still too young to be influenced by his father, which is why this has to happen now before they change their minds.

“If there are any indications he will turn out like Leonardo, they will kill him before he gets too strong.”

“How can anyone say that about a child?! Cato is seven years old!”

“Be thankful they are having mercy at all. The children of that creature don’t deserve it, whether or not they are my grandchildren. It’s not just down to me, Ells. Everyone in this entire kingdom wants him dead.

“This is the Kingdom of the Banished. Every wolf that has ever gotten on the wrong side of him and lived to tell the tale is here. And they are ready to take him down once and for all.

“You’ve inherited my ability to argue, but even you would need a miracle to persuade them otherwise.”

He then marched out of the room without turning back.