** Just a quick note - I hope everyone is staying safe at this time and are coping well ❤️ **
When I entered the house after walking home with my friends from school, I could hear the guys laughing in the living room.
As I strolled him, they both glanced at me with smiles. "Hey baby, how did it go?" Zach asked me, pulling me towards him to kiss my forehead.
I dropped onto the sofa opposite them and swung my feet up so I could lie back and shrugged. "No idea but one down, about 20 to go." I frowned while he laughed softly. "Anyway, what have you guys done today?" I asked them.
"Not much." Liam shrugged and I couldn't conceal my smile. I was so happy Zach had a brother he could laugh with and do guy things with. He got on with my friends and they liked him but he wasn't close with anyone but me so I was relieved he had his brother when he needed him.
My phone started ringing in my pocket and I pulled it out to see Deans name across the screen. I swallowed down my nerves and answered, holding my breath while I waited for him to speak.
"Hey Ella," he greeted gently.
I managed to croak out a "hi."
"Is there any chance we could talk, there is something I think you might want to know." He sounded hesitant but I wasn't sure if he was worried about telling me the news or worried I would say no.
Despite not feeling completely ready to bond with my father, I always had been a sucker for information so I found myself agreeing. "Sure, can you come here?" It would be safer with Zach nearby and we could talk privately in the office.
"Of course." He sounded pleased and I was surprisingly relieved. "Its nothing to worry about, I just think it's important. I will be there soon," he assured me and ended the call instantly.
I took a deep, steady breath and glanced to Zach. "Dean is coming over," I told him and winced slightly at his agitated frown.
"What?" He growled. "Why?"
"He wants to talk," I explained. "I think I trust him Zach, I mean, we have proof that he didn't threaten me and that he didn't kill my mom," I reminded him.
He sighed. "I know, I just don't fully trust him. Not around you."
I scooted across to sit beside him and threw my arms onto his shoulders, clasping my hands at the back of his head. "You don't have to worry," I promised, resting my head against his.
"I still will."
I smiled up at him, my heart swelling with love before the sound of the doorbell interrupted. "Hey lovebirds? Are one of you going to get that?" Liam grumbled beside us.
"You could," Zach snapped back before slipping his tongue into my mouth and kissing me gently and lovingly.
"Fine." Liam stomped off and a second later, returned with Dean who stood uncomfortably until we tore apart.
Zach glared up at Dean furiously before reluctantly releasing me. I turned to my father and sent him a small smile. "Hey."
"Hey." He seemed as clueless and uncomfortable as me so rather than attempt small talk, I lead him to the office and closed the door behind us.
"So, whats up?" I asked him, taking a seat on one of the sofas near the fireplace.
He sat himself down opposite and carefully considered his words before speaking. "I was thinking about something that happened a while ago. When you were really young," he told me and I frowned.
"Ok?"
"There was a boy trespassing on my territory. Well, he wasn't really a boy, he was nearly a man but anyway, he was running or searching or something. I questioned him and learnt that he had been put up for adoption, not having a clue who his parents or pack were," he explained, shifting on the sofa.
"I took him in and he spent a few years in my pack, I thought of him as a second son and helped him understand his wolf. He also told me that he had been left at an adoption home with a letter addressed to him, explaining that he should hate being a werewolf and should devote his life to eliminate the species."
"Wait?" I interrupted. "He was told to kill his own species?"
He nodded. "I had heard of an Alpha who despised our species and preached to his pack that we were sinners and the world should be cleansed. Nobody ever paid him much notice or his pack and we all let them be really." He shrugged.
"But, as soon as I..." he trailed off and glanced to me with regret in his eyes, "as soon as I took your mom, his behaviour changed. He knew her, knew she was a descendant of the original. He tried to kill her."
My jaw dropped at his words. "What?"
"I stopped him and he ran from me, probably wise considering how angry I was. I managed to track down the pack that wanted to destroy werewolves and learnt that their first step was to destroy your bloodline so no more could ever be created that way. So I killed them."
"All of them?" I whispered, no longer looking at him.
"All of them." He sounded regretful. "Except one."
I glanced up with furrowed brows. "One?"
He nodded. "There was a cub, he was a little older than I knew you would be and he ran. His parents stayed to fight so he could run and I let him because he reminded me of the boy who had lived in my pack for years. They were almost identical."
He stopped and stared at me for a while, waiting for something but I still had no clue as to why he was telling me this. "Ella, the cub that ran was Zach."
Of course, I had heard this story. I had forgotten that my father had been the one to strip him of everything he had ever known, his parents, his pack, everyone he knew.
It was no surprise that Zach couldn't forgive as easily, he may not have been the one to threaten me but there was no doubt he was the one who hurt Zach.
I stared at my father with wide eyes. "And the boy was Liam," I told him, fitting together to pieces. Liam wanted me dead, he wanted my bloodline to end.
And Zach came from a family, from a pack, that wanted me dead. He came from a pack that hunted my bloodline, possibly over the generations. They both came from that pack.
"The thing is, when this happened, you were 8," he explained and I nodded, that was when I had lost my mom.
"And Zach was 10." I filled in, remembering the moment we figured out the same man had attacked at the same time... now I knew why.
"Liam would've been 12. Ella the boy who lived with me was much older, I would say 17, 18?" He told me and I furrowed my eyebrows.
"So not Liam?"
"No, someone else. Someone who came from the same pack and looked exactly the same as the two brothers, especially Liam. For a while, when I saw him I thought it was him but he would be older and when Liam looked at me, there was no recognition whatsoever."
"So its someone related to them?"
"I think so, and with the extreme similarities and the fact Liam was also put up for adoption..."
"You think its their brother," I concluded in a whisper.