Page 108 of A Chance at Redemption for the Alpha

“I was still trying to find what I truly wanted to do,” I say evasively. I don’t want to tell her I lived as a rogue. She will blame herself if she knows, and I don’t really want her to. I cast a glance at my father, hoping he understands.

For a moment, he looks confused, then he pales a little. Fortunately, he doesn’t say anything to blow my ruse, just clears his throat. “You needed time,” he says, equally evasive.

“Exactly.”

“And how exactly did you meet your mate?” Mom wants to know. “It’s rare for vampires to work together with any other species. How come you built this pack and coven together?”

“There were reasons,” I say. “Things I can’t just talk about.” There is no way I will tell Silas’s secret. He has enough issues with keeping an eye on his vampires and dealing with his brother. He isn’t really anonymous, not like I was for while, but our story involves a lot of details others don’t need to know, or it might become dangerous for those we want to protect.

“If you ever need something, you can always confide in us,” Dad offers.

“Thank you for the offer,” I say. “But I am fine, really. Silas and I are a good team. And if I’d confide in anyone, it’d rather be Liam or his father, or Cass or my friends in my pack.”

Only when I’ve said the last words do I realize that this might have been a low blow. Like, a really low blow. I don’t really mind that it is, but I didn’t actually mean it that way. It’s just the truth.

“They know my work better,” I add.

Silence engulfs us, and it makes me realize how odd this all is. It feels like I am a stranger here. Mom and Dad are obviously trying to open the door as much as possible, without being too overbearing and without pushing me, but I just don’t feel that sense of comfort here anymore. I thought five years of distance wouldn’t be that much, but it feels like a lifetime. Everything in my life has changed; I’ve changed, my position and rank have changed, my dreams, goals and hopes have changed.

It’s like I’ll need to get to know them all again.

“I should have let you go,” Mom says into the silence.

“Hm?”

“I wanted you to become Eugene’s beta to bind you to the pack,” she says. “Your father told me not to push you and to let you make your own decision.”

“You did?” I ask Dad.

He nods.

I am surprised. Usually, my parents were always a good team. I knew Dad didn’t want me as a beta, he told me I was alpha material. But he never mentioned that he talked to my mother. “I don’t know what to say or think,” I admit.

“Your mother didn’t believe I had your best interests in mind,” Dad admits.

I turn to look at Mom, and she sighs. “With how he handled everything else, I didn’t trust him to know what you wanted,” she admits. “Not just when everything with Olive happened, even before that. I should have intervened much sooner. Ialways thought we were family, and things would turn out okay, because deep inside, we loved each other. But that was naïve. Family bonds need work, too, and I feel like I should have made a much stronger stand.”

“Mom, you always had my back,” I tell her. “I didn’t forget that.”

“But at that crucial moment, I didn’t listen to you. If I had, you would have left on your terms, and we would have known where you had gone. Maybe we could have remained in contact.”

There is not much I can say to that, because it’s true. “What happened after I left?” I ask.

“Chaos,” Dad says. “We had everyone look for you and turned every stone. But there was not one single trace of you.”

“Yeah, you taught us during our camping trips how to diffuse our tracks.”

“That’s how you did it?” Dad exclaims. “I thought you didn’t even pay attention.”

“Actually, I quite liked those trips,” I admit. “Plus, I am an alpha’s heir, meaning Amos knows how to cover my scent.”

“You would have been a formidable spy,” Dad says, stunned. “I had no idea. I was too biased. But Floyd always claimed you had great talents. I hate to admit that he saw it, and I was just an ignorant asshole.”

I snort. “Did you just call yourself an asshole?”

He shrugs. “Well, it’s true.”

I am not sure what to say. It’s good that he finally admits it, but it also hurts to realize that I was right all along.