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“Sorry to bring the conversation back, but I need to handle this and get charges filed with Ellie’s permission,” Gerald interjected.

She sighed. “Theresa blew that proposed mating up. Kenneth counted it, but it never even got to being signed. The guy liked me and the coven—he was tolerable, but when shefound out it was still going on after their whatever, she got to him and told him the truth. Things spun out from there. I physically looked like him then, so clearly I was his child.

“She looked like her mother. Kenneth was even worse when it fell through and the guy promised to keep the secret. He didn’t believe him and wanted me mated. He wanted it all settled and no more upset. He thought it would all be resolved then except Theresa trying to kill me and the stress of it all triggered whatever makes me different.”

“Different how?” Gerald asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Alan interjected. “No, it doesn’t. Clark has different gifts than other shifters. I have abilities over some vamps and so does Ellie. We all know people of our species with this or that gift because of interspecies mating. It happens.”

“Fair. Okay, sorry.” He met my gaze. “Sorry. I know this seems like prying and—my mind immediately went to Kenneth trying to say you’re dangerous or the arguments he could try to throw at me.”

I gave a half shrug. “He probably will and more. He will tell all kinds of lies and wild stories—shit I don’t even know or anything he thinks he can get away with. It’s who he is. I heard him tell someone once that I had angel blood. He’s a compulsive liar and gambler—not someone remotely reliable.”

“And no matter what he throws out, he hasn’t been in contact with Ellie in fifty years. He wouldn’t have any sort of idea of her control,” Carla interjected. “That’s your defense. One conversation with several of us who have worked with her for longer than her father has seen her and that’s it.”

“Yes, good, okay, so that’s how long she has roots here,” Gerald muttered, jotting down more notes. Okay, so he really was focused on the picture he was building to help Ellie, not just fishing for information.

Fine, he was a good attorney.

“Then Kenneth wanted to make me the coven leader and announce to everyone his daughter was special and—he’d go back and forth,” Ellie whispered. “He was all over. Constantly. Then there was talk of mating me to one of the elders of the coven since I would need the guidance as the first female coven leader.”

“What was the tipping point that made you run?” Dr. Bass asked when Ellie went quiet. “I think that’s what we really need to know to protect you and you’re so scared about.”

Dr. Carpenter cleared his throat when she simply covered her face. “She overheard her father yelling at her stepmother that he was going to impregnate Ellie. That she had denied him a son and the curse didn’t say anything about male grandchildren. That was the answer since Ellie was a bastard and someday it would get out and he would lose the coven.”

“Is that true?” Dr. Bass pushed for some reason I didn’t understand. “You believed it and not just one of his wild manic swings?”

“Yes,” Ellie choked out. “The pieces fit of things he was doing behind the scenes. He’d lost his grip on everything and—I think he was already losing money too fast then and my mating was supposed to repay the debts, but then he wanted me to take over—it all spun out on him. I packed that night, and my stepmother clearly believed him too because she gave me gold.”

“She helped you escape?” Gerald asked.

Ellie met his gaze, tears streaming down her cheeks. “No, and she made it clear to say she never did. I gave my word. She did not help me that night.”

Pride filled me when my wolf sensed that Ellie was lying. Her stepmother had helped her that night, and all these years later she kept her word.

She really was an amazing woman.

Ellie went over the other times her father had found her and tried to force her to mate to benefit him. Even after he’d lost the coven and been kicked out. Her sister had found her once and demanded everything for stealing her life and Ellie had let her have it that she’d had to run, so what life? Plus, she’d spared Theresa’s life, and that was a greater kindness than she deserved.

I wholeheartedly agreed.

Ellie looked so lost when she gathered her things to leave. She wouldn’t meet my gaze when I moved over by her. “I’m fine. You have patients and—”

“Dr. James is covering for me,” I promised her.

“You still have the little girl and…” She let out a long breath. “I’d like some space to settle with this. I’ll be fine.”

I swallowed loudly, pain slicing my heart that she was pushing me away at such a time. But it wasn’t about me. “Whatever you need. Do you want me to bring dinner or just let me know if you need anything?”

The latter. That was what she wasn’t willing to say.

“Clark, I’ll take Ellie home,” Dr. Carpenter called over.

“No, you both need to get to the police station with me,” Gerald corrected, looking at his phone again. “Or if you have that pressing patient to check on first, but then we have to go. They also need the security footage of the brawl to figure out how to book people with what.”

I sighed. That was fair, but also I would have thought just hitting them all with battery and disturbing the peace or some shit.Clearly, I was well-versed in that kind of thing.

Or some had their fangs out and tried to bite. That was a different crime over a punch.