Unmarked Mates

Chapter 25: "The cat is out of the bag"

Danny above

Julius POV

He lied to me; I can't believe that Danny lied. When he called, Natasha decided to dispatch patrols outside the territory to wait for him; she was right not to trust him.

He lied to me, to the pack. He was hiding Terry Nightingale and even helped him attack our pack warriors. Drake howls in my mind; I feel the sting of betrayal in his soul. I haven't felt him so strong in years. Danny lied to me; he lied to me, he lied...

Danny hasn't uttered a word during the ride back into the packhouse. Preston is furious; I can feel it. Chen and Natasha, it's hard to say. And I? I want to cry because of helplessness and betrayal.

When we sit again in the library, Danny in the middle, we all surround him. I can't shake off the feeling that this will be a trail.

"How long have you known about Terry?" Natasha breaks the silence.

"Since the first time I saw him. He begged me not to tell you, and later, he and Mae told me about her mate and the girls. Terry isn't a threat to the pack. I promise you that." he begs, and I feel my anger only rising because he is pleading for him, for this fucking killer and beast, whose hands are red because of the blood of our people.

"How did you know it was him?"

I can't even look in his direction; I can't let myself see his tears; I can't forgive him this, no matter what.

"Terry... Terry is an older brother of my adoptive mother. I was also born in Nightingale's clan but not in the main family."

I gasp; I haven't expected that. Danny, as a hunter, how the hell is it possible?

"I need more details, Danny," says Natasha in a neutral voice, but I have known her long enough to know she will not show him any mercy.

"I was born in the clan, but I was never trained. Ten years ago, when hunters' clans were slaughtered, David Nightingale, Terry's uncle, managed to take me and run away. We went to his niece, Celia Nightingale, who was living with her daughter, Kathy, close to the Black Moon pack in hiding from her family and the clan. But soon, we all were captured by Black Moon warriors and taken to their pack. There, it turned out that Celia and Hank, Beta of Black Moon, are true mates, and Kathy was his daughter."

Another gasp from everybody, for sure; I haven't seen it coming.

"Hank wanted to look after Celia, their daughter, and me. It took some time, but we managed to build a family and..."

"You lied to Brandon," Preston shouts. "You hid from him that you are..."

"No, I'm not a hunter; my father is the Beta of Black Moon; that's what he said; that's what his Alpha said," Danny says. I see hurt on his face.

But Preston keeps screaming about traitors, ungrateful bastards, and that all hunters should be five feet under!

"I think you should leave Preston, for now; it's not the problem of elders of the pack," Natasha finally stops his outburst, and furious Preston storms out.

"Coming back to Terry," Chen says, and Danny sighs.

"In the beginning, Terry wanted to rescue his sister from the Black Moon Pack because he thought we were prisoners. He managed to kidnap both my parents but ultimately decided to let them go and helped to save Alpha Mikkeli and his warriors. He secured the money to let people who survived our clan's massacre start new lives, not as hunters, and risked his life to give my parents and Black Moon warriors time to escape. After that, he only let us know that he was still alive and disappeared. To this day, he hasn't contacted my mother again. I met him here by pure coincidence."