MATED TO FATHER, FATED TO SONS-Chapter 29: DEAD MEN DON’T WEEP

AMARIS

The whole pack had gathered in the courtyard like it was some kind of festival and I stood in the center wearing nothing but bruises and shame while my father circled me with his belt already drawn.

"Please," I choked out through split lips, my hands trying to cover myself but there were too many parts exposed and not enough hands. "I am your daughter."

Alpha Larry Storme stopped circling and looked at me like I had said something funny, his mouth twisting into something that might have been a smile on a different man. "You are a bastard," he corrected, his voice carrying across the silent crowd. "Your mother was a whore who spread her legs in my drunken moment and you are the mistake that crawled out."

The belt came down across my back and I screamed, the sound ripping out of my throat before I could swallow it. My brothers stood in the front row watching with expressions ranging from boredom to amusement and I hated them, hated all of them, hated myself for still thinking maybe this time someone would step forward and say enough.

No one ever did.

"Count them," my father commanded, and I knew if I didn’t he would start over. He always started over.

"One," I whispered.

The belt fell again, leather biting into already broken skin.

"Louder."

"Two." My voice cracked.

By the time we reached ten I was on my knees in the dirt and by fifteen I stopped feeling the individual strikes because everything was just one continuous burn. At twenty my father finally stopped and dropped the belt beside me like he was done with a chore.

"Get her out of my sight," he muttered to someone I couldn’t see through the tears, and rough hands dragged me away while the crowd dispersed like they had just watched something as ordinary as a training session.

I blinked and the memory scattered, replaced by Alpha Corvin standing in front of me in the room with his arms crossed and his face giving away absolutely nothing.

The fear was still there though, coiled in my stomach like something alive and waiting, because powerful men with cold eyes had never meant anything good for me.

"Please," I heard myself say, the word slipping out before I could stop it, and I hated how small my voice sounded, how much it reminded me of that girl in the courtyard begging for mercy that never came.

Corvin’s expression shifted slightly, something flickering behind his eyes that might have been surprise or might have been disgust. "Go on."

I opened my mouth but before I could get another word out he held up one hand and I stopped like I had been trained my whole life to stop when an Alpha made that gesture.

"Actually," he interrupted, his tone flat and businesslike. "Before you continue, you should know who is in control here, Amaris. That is one thing you should never forget."

My throat tightened and I wanted to scream at him that I already knew, that I had always known, that every man I had ever met had made sure I understood exactly where I stood in the hierarchy of things that mattered. Instead I just nodded because what else was there to do.

"Good," Corvin moved toward the door, his hand already on the handle. "You can leave."

Relief flooded through me so fast I felt dizzy with it but then he paused and turned back like he had just remembered something inconvenient.

"Tomorrow we are having the engagement party," he announced, his eyes scanning my face like he was cataloging every flaw. "Your first public appearance as my future mate, so I suggest you work on your attitude."

The relief evaporated and dread took its place, heavy and familiar. A party meant people, meant being on display, meant smiling while strangers judged whether I was worthy of being Luna to a man who could barely stand to look at me.

"Does that mean," I swallowed hard, forcing the question out. "Does that mean my father would be there?"

Corvin’s expression did something complicated and for the first time since I had met him he looked almost uncomfortable, like he was about to deliver news he would rather not be responsible for.

"No," he responded simply.

I waited for him to elaborate but he just stood there watching me and the silence stretched out between us until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

"Why not?" I pressed, my hands curling into fists at my sides. "Did he refuse to come?"

"Your father is dead."

The words landed like a physical blow and I actually took a step back, my spine hitting the wall behind me. The room tilted sideways and I had to blink several times to make it straighten out again.

"What?" The word came out strangled.

"Your brother Darius will be attending in his place," Corvin continued like he was discussing the weather. "He is Alpha now."

I stared at him trying to make sense of what he was saying because the words were in the right order but they still were not connecting to anything that made sense. My father could not be dead, he was too mean to die, too angry and violent and full of hate to just stop existing.

"What do you mean my father is dead?" I demanded, my voice rising despite knowing better than to raise my voice to an Alpha.

Corvin’s jaw tightened and he looked away from me for the first time since entering the room, his gaze landing somewhere over my shoulder. "I was going to tell you after the engagement," he admitted, and there was something in his tone that might have been regret if he were the kind of man capable of feeling regret. "But your father died yesterday, heart attack from what I was told, and Darius took over the pack immediately."

My knees gave out and I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the floor with my arms wrapped around myself.

Dead, my father was dead and I did not know what I was supposed to feel about that because relief and grief were tangled up together in my chest fighting for dominance.