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“That’s no longer any of your concern. I’ve given them my protection.”

“That was stupid.” Fury stamped across his father’s features. “You had a chance to come in with me, to be part of something great. I guess some people aren’t meant for greatness.”

“And you are? Greatness?” Caleb shook his head. “You’re deluded. You’re the one thing that has held the wolves back all these years.”

Ethan didn’t respond, but Caleb could hear his breathing, ragged and uneven.

“Tell me about my mother,” Caleb said.

Ethan sighed. “We’ve been through this. I’ve told you everything you need to know.”

“Ah, but I’ve found some things out on my own. I know her name, and I know what she was.” He looked at Ethan and allowed a small smile to play across his face. “What I’m wondering is—do you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well if you’d known what she was, then you probably wouldn’t have wasted your time torturing a child to make him turn.”

“Tell me what you know,” Ethan growled.

“You first.”

“I wanted a son. They gave me the woman in exchange for my promise that when the time came I would do their bidding. I didn’t know anything about her except they told me she was capable of bearing a werewolf’s child.”

“What was she like?”

“She was”—Ethan stared at him for long moments, clearly thinking what to say—“broken.”

Shock ripped through him. “What?” Then he remembered Kael saying his sister had been a prisoner for many, many years. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what that would be like.

“She was beautiful,” Ethan said. “Like some sort of fairy princess. Blond hair like the sun, eyes like the summer sky, and inside she was nothing but a broken doll.” He looked into Caleb’s eyes. “Whatever you’ve always thought—I didn’t kill her.”

Grief for a woman he had never even known washed through Caleb. “You didn’t try to save her either.”

For the first time, real anger showed on Ethan’s face. “You know nothing of what I did. I would have put Sarah aside, kept this woman as my mate for the chance of children.” He raked a hand through his dark hair. “I tried everything I knew to get through to her, but she was already dead in every way that mattered. In the end, I let her go. I gave her peace.”

“After you’d used her.”

“Yes, after I’d used her. After I’d got you.” He looked at Caleb. “I actually thought the one thing that might bring her back was a child. But I laid you in her arms, and she stared at you blankly.”

“Tell me something,” Caleb said. “Did you rape her?”

Ethan looked away. “She never fought me.”

Caleb shook his head in disgust. He got up, crossed the room, and poured himself a drink. He swallowed it in one go, and then came back to stand in front of Ethan.

“She was a shapeshifter.”

“A what?”

It occurred to Caleb then that Ethan was almost as ignorant about the supernatural world as he was. “A shapeshifter—they were an immortal race that was almost wiped out a thousand years ago. They can shift into any animal at will, but only change after puberty. Her name was Kyla, and she’d been a prisoner since long before her people were killed. Over a thousand years of God knows what torture. It’s no wonder she was broken.”

He glanced into his father’s face. It was avid with interest.

“Are there others?” Ethan asked. “Like your mother.”

“Still thinking about yourself? Think you have a chance for another son? Do you really believe you’d have better luck next time? That your next son wouldn’t hate you the way I do?” Caleb smiled. “Well, you’re out of luck. They’re all gone except for one.”

“Who?”