Page 182 of Carnage Island

She sighs as Volt disappears with our daughter, then she wanders over to me with a knowing look. “You want to talk about something,” she says.

I smile, but it doesn’t feel as genuine as it should. “What gave me away? Me or Volt?”

“Both,” she said. “But mostly you. It’s in your eyes.” She cups my jaw and traces my cheekbone with her thumb. “What’s going on?”

I clear my throat. “It’s about your father,” I say, not wanting to beat around the bush.

Her brow furrows. “Alpha Nick?”

I nod.

“What about him?”

I’m not sure how to politely state this, so I just voice it. “He’s dead.”

Her eyebrows shoot upward. “What? How?”

“He ingested silver nitrate.” I clear my throat. “I’m still not sure how it happened, whether someone gave it to him or if someone poisoned his food. But he’s gone.”

Clove blinks at me. “Oh.” Her brow pulls down. “I… I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

Yeah, I wasn’t sure how she would feel about it either.

That’s why I didn’t want to deliver the news. She asked for him to be imprisoned while she debated what to do with him. Then life sort of escaped us with her pregnancy, taking over the pack, and everything else. Time works differently for our kind since it’s typically more on the infinite scale.

A year doesn’t feel like that long to wait on a decision.

But apparently it was too long for Alpha Nick.

“I think I’m relieved,” she says after a beat. “He wasn’t a good shifter.”

“No, he definitely wasn’t.” Something my dad is still beating himself up about because he should have noticed the signs, yet didn’t.

It’s an oversight I’ve taken into consideration with my monitoring of the pack. Caius is helping me find ways to better look for signs of such activity. It’s not infallible, but it’s a start.

Clove presses her nose to my chest and I purr for her in response, my arms automatically wrapping around her in a hug.

We stay like that for several minutes, her body melting into mine.

I kiss the top of her head, happy to just exist for a few minutes.

Maybe it’s a moment of silence for the father she never really knew.

Or maybe it’s a moment for the mother she misses.

Regardless of the point, I’m there for her. Holding her. Giving her my strength, just like an Alpha should.

She sighs, her nose coming up to nuzzle my throat. “I love you, Tieran,” she says softly.

“I love you, too, Clove,” I reply, smiling.

We don’t often exchange the words.

But it doesn’t make them any less true.

Our clan’s love pours into Clove every day.

Because she’s our beating heart.