Ella's P.O.V.
I sat on the floor in my room, all of the documents we had acquired in the past few weeks spread out around me.
The only thing I didn't have was the duffle bag full of files on the doctor that Daniel and Jai had gotten in Frankfurt.
Those were in Cain's office.
I was still angry with him, even though it had been several hours since the revelation of my grandfather's Lycanthrope heritage that he had passed down to me.
While this theory had yet to be officially confirmed, I gathered from several pieces of information that he was indeed a Lycanthrope.
For starters, the book I found in his attic on Lycanthropy was a neon sign that flashed in my face. If I was being honest, I felt like an idiot for not noticing it sooner.
After a careful review of his medical records, I could see now that there were indicators of Lycanthropy all along. His white blood cell count, for one, was incredibly high, especially for a man of his age. Not to mention that he was nearly seventy years old and didn't need so much as a hearing aid or reading glasses.
As I sat on the rug with all of the various documents surrounding me, I felt the need to bash my head against a wall and admit myself into a mental asylum.
Why didn't I notice before now? I asked myself.
Because I didn't know what to look for before.
Standing up, I cautiously navigated my way through the sea of file folders to my bed where my laptop sat.
I had managed to think clearly enough after getting back to the room to submit the assignment I had been working on before it was due. I was thankful for this, seeing as it was well past midnight and I likely would have forgotten if I had waited.
Climbing up into the bed, I opened the laptop and started a video call.
If it was nearly one in the morning in Germany, I knew it was in the early evening in D.C.
When Zak's face appeared on the screen, I felt a wave of emotions rush over me.
Did he know? How was I supposed to tell him if he didn't? Would he believe me? If he did know, why didn't he ever tell me?
'Ella?' he signed, snapping me out of my worried thoughts and into reality.
'Hi,' I signed.
Zak waved his hand, but the narrowing of his eyes on my face that hadn't concealed my thoughts carefully told me that he knew something was wrong.
'What's going on?' he asked.
I took a deep breath before holding up my shaking hands to sign.
'Did Mom and Dad ever mention anything weird to you about Grandpa?' I asked him.
He raised an eyebrow.
'Like what?'
I shrugged, not knowing how to continue the conversation.
I looked over to my left and my eye caught the book that was laying on the bed.
Drawing in a shaky breath, I reached over and grabbed the book. I closed it and pulled it into the view of the laptop's camera so Zak could see it.
Showing him the cover of the book, I waited to gauge his reaction as he read the title.
He read the title and drew in a deep, exasperated breath as he ran a hand over his cropped hair.
The way he looked at me made me shake my head.
I laid the book back down on the bed.
'You knew,' I signed.
He nodded slowly.
'That means that you and I...'
I couldn't even finish the sentence before Zak was nodding his head again.
'Why didn't you tell me?' I asked him earnestly, feeling hot tears begin to burn behind my eyes.
The look of remorse that swept across his features made me feel sorry for even asking.
'I swore an oath when I joined the military that I wouldn't tell a soul. Myself and my team would be seriously compromised if I did. They didn't want anyone to know what they were doing with us. I didn't even tell Mom and Dad.'
My eyebrows furrowed.
'What do you mean?'
He drew in a breath.
'I'm not a tech guy, Ella.'
I shook my head feeling my jaw go slack.
'What do you do then?' I asked him.
Zak was hesitant to answer.
'Special operations.'
'You mean you're a spy?' I asked, my eyes wide.
He again ran a hand over his cropped hair, which I knew to be a nervous habit he had.
'Can we talk about this in person?' he asked.
'I'm still in Germany,' I reminded him. 'I don't know when I'll be leaving at this point.'
His eyebrows furrowed.
'Why? What's going on there?' he asked.
I bit my lip, not knowing even where to begin to explain the situation to him.
He waved his hands in front of the screen, trying to get my attention.
'How did you find out about Grandpa?' he asked, finally.
I threw up my hands, deciding to just tell him.
'I have a mate.'
Judging by the look on his face, I knew this held some significance with him.
'What's his name?'
'Cain.'
It was the look on his face when I finger-spelled Cain's name that made me believe he knew something that I didn't.
Before I could begin to ask him how he knew of Cain, he reached out and closed his laptop ending the call.
I sat on the bed for a moment in shock.
I couldn't believe Zak had just hung up on me.
Closing my own laptop slowly, our conversation was replaying over in my head as I tried to understand why Cain being my mate held so much significance. Maybe Zak knew of Cain through his work with the military.
Nonetheless, his reaction puzzled me.
I looked up from the bed at the endless stretch of documents that littered the bedroom floor strategically.
A headache hit me suddenly and I was reminded that my brain was supposed to be in low-impact, low-stress mode because of the concussion; ironic considering it had been two of the most stressful weeks of my life.
I laid back down on the bed, feeling the migraine set it.
Rolling over, I turned out the light beside my bed and the room sank into darkness.
I didn't even make it under the duvet before I had fallen asleep.
- - -
Narrative P.O.V.
Cain stood over the open duffel bag, peering into the stack of files that had been thrown inside it.
He wondered if it was even worth it to read through them all, knowing he had other things he needed to be doing.
Jai and Daniel, not wanting to further burden Ella, had taken it upon themselves for the time being to research into the lives of the Vampire men whom they had gotten the DNA results for.
They knew she was overwhelmed with the entire situation at hand and she needed to focus on what was important.
That left Cain, however, to be responsible for looking through the files on the doctor.
He reached into the bag, but stopped.
Cain took a deep breath.
"Sneaking up on me hasn't worked out too well for anyone in the past," he said.
Cain turned to look at his father who stood a few feet away.
Adam smirked.
"Just wanted to see if I could still do it."
Cain rolled his eyes and turned back to face the bag that sat on his desk.
"I heard you when you opened the door downstairs," he said, pulling out a stack of papers.
"Liar," Adam said.
Cain turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"It took you six minutes to go up thirty-two stairs because you don't come up them enough to know which ones creak."
Adam laughed hearing this.
"Well now I feel like an idiot."
Cain said nothing, leaving Adam's comment to hang in the air.
"Your mom and I missed you and that girl at dinner tonight," Adam said, pulling out a chair from under one of Cain's desks. He sat in it backwards, his elbows propping themselves on the back of the chair.
"That girl has a name," Cain said gruffly, trying to pay no mind to his father's subtle attempt to get on his nerves.
"Ella, right?"
Cain nodded as he pulled another stack of papers from the duffle bag.
"How old is she?"
Cain turned to look at Adam.
"I'm sure Mom would answer these questions if you asked her to."
Adam shrugged.
"If you had brought her to dinner, I could have asked her myself."
Cain turned his attention back to the files on the desk.
"Why didn't you come? Your mom told me that she invited the both of you."
"We were both busy."
"Doing what?"
Cain turned to level a glare at his father.
"I'm having a hard time understanding why you suddenly care so much."
Adam's jaw clenched as he stood from the chair.
"The future of this pack, hell, the future of the entire Lycanthrope race depends on you and a Lycan so weak she thought she was human. Your mother and I are just looking out for you, her, and everyone else involved."
"Thanks," Cain said, faking sincerity. "But I've got it under control."
Adam let out an airy laugh.
"From what I hear, control is the last thing you have."
Cain's jaw clenched as he felt the ache returning to his gums.
"How long until you decide to tell her that you can't mark her for fear of draining her? How long until you tell her about what you did to this family—"
"Enough!" Cain shouted.
"Relationships are built on trust, Cain," Adam said, his voice lowering. "You've lied to her too many times already to try and continue this pattern of behavior and still end up happy when it is all said and done."
"I'm trying to protect her," Cain said angrily. "Do you honestly think she could handle knowing half of what really goes on in this world?"
Adam shook his head.
"You're not trying to protect her from this world, you're trying to protect her from you."
Cain's fists clenched as he heard this.
"Get out of my office and out of this castle. I want you and Mom gone by noon tomorrow," he said.
Adam turned to leave.
"Take your opinions on love with you," Cain finished.
Adam stopped and turned to look at his son with sad eyes.
"You're not capable of love," he said. "You won't be able to give love to anyone until you've learned to receive it from yourself and that will never happen."
With those words looming over Cain, Adam turned and left the office.
He's wrong, Cain thought.
And I'll prove it to him.
- - -
Ella's P.O.V.
I woke up in the very early morning, before the sun had climbed over the mountains and chased the moon and stars away.
I laid in bed for a few moments before I got up to shower. Changing into fresh clothes after I had done so, I walked back out into the bedroom to see that the sun had just begun to rise.
I narrowly avoided the documents that still covered the floor as I walked around them to exit the bedroom.
Walking around the castle that hadn't yet been touched by the earliest rays of sunlight, I found myself wandering to Cain's office.
I knew he was likely there, but that didn't deter my feet from moving in that direction.
I made it to the office door, up the staircase, and eventually found myself staring into the inky blackness of his office.
"Are you up here?" I asked gently, my voice ringing loudly in my ears.
"Yes," his deep voice replied, coming from the dark abyss in front of me.
A few moments went by.
"Can I turn on a light?" I asked. "I can't see you."
After hearing no reply, I began to walk forward cautiously, holding my hands out to find the desk.
Suddenly I felt his hands enclose my outstretched ones, pulling my body closer to him.
I sucked in a shallow breath as my chest touched his.
"I apologize for not telling you about your grandfather," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
My mind was racing a hundred miles an hour, more than most of my thoughts directed towards our close physical proximity.
"I accept your apology," I told him.
I couldn't tell him it was okay that he had withheld that information from me because it wasn't. But, I refused to hold a grudge. That wouldn't do anything good for either of us.
Cain's fingers danced with mine as I felt his face lean down next to mine, his breath tickling my ear.
"How long had you known when you told me?" I asked him.
"Since we found out he had died," he answered.
I shook my head as his hands let loose of mine and traveled up my arms to touch my face.
"Not about him," I said, feeling dizzy. "About us."
From where my hands were pressed against him, I felt Cain's chest expand and release a deep intake of air as he sighed.
"I had a gut feeling when I saw you fall into that stupid spiderweb," he said, joking.
I rolled my eyes.
Did he just make a joke?
His thumb tilted my jaw up so my nose touched his.
"But I knew when I looked at you that you were for me," he admitted seriously.
Well, that's adorable.
His lips found mine in the dark room, gingerly kissing me as if they were light as feathers.
In that moment, I knew everything was true. I didn't need to be convinced any longer that we were connected. Someway, somehow, it all fit together perfectly in my mind.
As the kiss deepened, I found myself gravitating closer towards him.
My hand held the wrist of his hand that touched my face and my other hand was pressed against his chest.
The very scent of him, masculine and strong, made my knees weak.
Suddenly, I felt his body freeze and go rigid.
His lips pulled away from mine and I huffed.
"Good grief, Cain," I groaned.
I was sick of him doing that.
He immediately placed a hand over my mouth and shushed me as he dropped to his knees, pulling me to the floor with him.
"What the hell," I said, my voice muffled behind his large palm.
I swiped at his hand, pulling it away from my mouth.
"This isn't cute," I told him.
"Would you be quiet for two seconds?" he snapped.
I heard the door at the bottom of the staircase creak shut and it occurred to me then that his actions might not have been related to me or the kiss at all.
We laid there on the carpet, me on my back and Cain hovering over me, for a few moments.
I heard nothing but silence, but Cain clearly heard something as he pulled himself off of me onto his feet. I rolled over as he stepped over me.
Due to the fact that it was dark in the office, I couldn't see Cain as he walked towards the staircase.
I strained to hear something, but I didn't hear anything for a few seconds until a loud crash rang out. It sounded as if someone had fallen down the staircase.
"Ella..."
I jumped to my feet hearing my name.
"Turn on the light," Cain said.
I frantically wandered around the room for a few seconds until I found the lamp and turned it on.
The light split through the room and I squinted to see Cain standing above the staircase.
I ran over to stand by his side, peering down the stairs to see someone laying at the bottom of the landing.
"Zak?"
Cain looked at me.
"You know this man?"
I nodded as Zak rolled over, grimacing. Blood was running down the side of his face as he sat up, holding his ribcage.
"He's my brother."
- - -