Blood Lust (COMPLETED)

Chapter Twenty: The Talk pt. 3

"A Royal?" I leaned back to look at him incredulously, my eyebrows knitting together. "So, when you said you needed a queen..?"

"I meant it literally." He finished for me. "You are the only Royal left in existence," he went on, looking serious. "And it's time for you to claim your birthright."

I pulled my legs up on the bed to sit cross-legged, taking care not to expose myself. "I think you're mistaken. I'm just some foster kid nobody wanted--there's nothing special about me."

He had to be wrong, had to have gotten me mixed up with someone else.

Pain flitted across his face, hurt evident in his eyes. "It's my fault you feel this way." Dean Lachlan covered his face with a pale hand, shaking his head. "I should have never allowed him to take you away from me."

"Him who? What are you talking about?"

Who did he allow to take me away? And when?

"Your father."

The world stopped.

My father? Dean Lachlan knew my father?

"How..?" It was all I could manage to say.

He let out a heavy sigh, standing slowly. I watched, dumbstruck, as Dean Lachlan walked over to the fireplace to stoke the fire. Then, he rested an elbow on the mantle, and gazed pensively into the flames while speaking. "Before your parents were killed, they lived here on the island." He paused to gaze at the ceiling, wearing a sad smile. "This was actually your nursery. Or, it was meant to be, anyway."

It felt like the wind was knocked out of me. "This was supposed to be my nursery?"

He nodded. "Yes. Unfortunately, you never got to see it...until now."

I didn't know what to say, how to process what he was telling me.

"I'm sorry, I know this a lot to take in," he came over to cup my chin, peering sincerely into my eyes. "We can talk about something else, if you prefer."

His thumb caressed my lower lip, and I closed my eyes, resolving to hear more. "No, I'm fine. Please, tell me everything."

He exhaled audibly. "Everything?"

"Everything." I stared up at him, determined to find out the truth.

"Okay." He took his seat on the bed next to me. "Close your eyes. Relax,"

Confused, I did as he asked, and felt his hands softly grip either side of my head. I stiffened when he started pulling me toward him, my heart shooting straight up my throat.

"Relax," he whispered as his cool breath tickled my lips.

Suddenly, my mind was flooded with distorted images, memories that didn't belong to me.

There was a couple at a dock, a man and a woman. The man had dark blond hair and a button nose. The woman was short, as short as me, with hazel eyes and a swollen belly.

"Please, Isaac, see reason."

Dean Lachlan's voice echoed in my head, but I couldn't see him. He sounded irritated, yet desperate.

The man at the dock stepped in front of the woman protectively, glaring straight at me.

"I am seeing reason, Gabriel." He growled. "Just not yours."

"You cannot leave," Dean Lachlan was pleading with the man. "Please, our bloodline-- your bloodline depends on it."

The man's face turned bright-red, his blue eyes bulging with rage. "Fuck our bloodline, and fuck you! I refuse to sacrifice my daughter's future just to please a bunch of leeches."