Chapter 57: Sloane’s Anguish
Samara
When we got to the Alpha floor after leaving the pack hospital, we saw that Sawyer and Althea’s bedroom door was ajar When we stepped in, we quietly gestured for Luna Devi to step out into the hall
w with us
“Sloane?” Roman asked when she was in the hall with the door partly closed again.
“Yes. She was afraid that someone might take her parents‘ things and destroy them before she could get what she wanted. She’s struggling, the poor dear, but she’s trying hard to hold herself together.”
“Thanks for being here with her, Luna. I know that can’t be easy,” I say
“Easier than it is for her, I’m sure,” she says, looking over her shoulder.
“While we have you alone, Mom, Samara and I wanted to tell you something. We haven’t seen dad yet, but I’m not sure when we can all be alone together at once, so while we have you,” he says, looking at me and wrapping an arm around me.
Luna Devi gasps. “You’re pregnant?” she whispers excitedly.
“I’m pregnant!” I whisper back, the tears from earlier coming back
She squeals softly, pulling me into her arms and holding me tightly. “Oh, my sweet daughter–in–law, I could not be happier for the two of you,” she says, pulling back to smile at me before looking at Roman,
“You and dad are going to have to stick around now. You have grandbabies that will want and need their grandparents love and attention,” Roman says as she moves over to hug him
“We’re not going anywhere. Well, we will most likely end up staying right here until you get things figured out, but that’s an hour away. I could come see my grandbabies every day if I wanted to,” she says excitedly. “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl
yet?” she asks
“Not yet, but Ayla says she can’t shift… I don’t get any further before Luna Devi squeals again in delight
I laugh as she pulls me into a hug again. “Oh, sweetheart, your mother would be so happy too. I promise, Fll make sure your children grow up knowing what wonderful people their grandparents and their uncle were,” she says.
“Because we weren’t going to tell them anything about Samara’s parents and brother?” Roman asks dryly.
“Oh, foo. I knew her parents better than you did, and so did Sterling. You can tell your pups about Theo,” she says, her face
falling “I’m sure they’ll learn about Althea at some point too,” she says, her voice turning cold.
with their
“We’ll have to make sure that it doesn’t taint our pups‘ relationship with their cousins,” Roman says firmly. “I will not tolerate anyone hurting the pups because of what their parents did ”
“You should talk to your father about I guards then,” she tells him.
“I was already planning on it. I’m not going to announce Samara’s pregnancy until we get home. I don’t know yet who I can trust in this pack. But she and the pups will have guards on them at all times once we return home,” he tells her. “So what is Sloane doing?”
“She was looking through her mother’s jewelry. I’m not positive, but I think she set aside some pieces that she thought you night want, Samara. Maybe your mother’s jewelry. Then she found another, smaller locked jewelry box. She’s sitting in the closet looking through it now
“We can take it from here, Mom,” Roman tells her
“Til go check on the others. Slade should be waking up
We step into the room and quietly walk to the closet. Sloane is reading letters, one of which looks like it’s got blood on it
“Sloane, what have you got there?” I ask her.
She jolts, like she was caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. The look in her eyes is devastated.
I step into the closet and drop to my knees beside her
“Sweetheart, what is it?”
Her lips begin to tremble and she hands me the letter. I can see that it has slash marks through it, like someone stabbed it with their claws. I take the letter and quickly read through it, gasping then looking at the second letter behind. I sniff the
blood
“That’s not Althea’s blood,” I say, feeling Roman’s hand on my shoulder. I hand the letters up to him and turn back to Sloane
killed him? He loved her. He just wanted to be with her,” she says,
“It’s all in here. Everything about him. You said she k
beginning to cry
I pull her into my arms and hold her while she sobs.
“Why?” she sobs against my shoulder.
“She wanted to be a Luna,” I say.
“But that says she would have been!” she yells, pointing to the letter
er that Roman is holding. He reaches around us and picks
up the box with the other letters skimming through them quickly
“I don’t know, sweetheart. I don’t have an answer for you,” I say.
sitting
“I might,” Roman says, sitting down beside us. He reaches out and runs a hand over Sloane’s hair. “Do you want to hear my
theory?”
She nods, still leaning against me. I shift so I can get more comfortable, wrapping my arms around her. Ayla begins purting
softly at her, helping to calm her.
Roman holds un
up
the papers. “We know your mother killed her måte. Gillian told us as much. We know it happened on the night that Aunt Samara’s parents and brother were killed. Gillian told us that your mother stabbed her mate, this Derrick. 1 think that when she stabbed him, he had this letter on him. I don’t think he ever had a chance to give it to her. It’s possible that after she stabbed him, he pulled the papers out to show her or maybe she saw them and took them after she stabbed
him Gillian said she left him bleeding out”
Even with Ayla’s purring, Sloane begins crying hard again. Roman looks around before hopping up to get a box of tissues to give her. He hands her a tissue but takes another and begins wiping the tears off her cheeks.
“Do you want me to continue?” he asks her gently when she settles again
She nods, pressing herself into me. I kiss the top of her head and begin gently rocking her.
“I think when your mother finally read this letter, she realized that she’d made a mistake. That would explain the tear stains
on the letter. Your mother didn’t trust the Moon Goddess, but if she had, she would have had her fated mate, an Alpha, and
she would have been a Luna of her own pack. Instead, she caused all this pain for nothing”
She begins crying quietly as I rock her and Roman looks at me.
‘I think I know whose bones are in that corridor,‘ he says in the mind link
Ined but continue to rock Sloane. Eventually, she cries herself to sleep
“Read this,” Roman says softly, handing me one of the letters.
+25 BONUS
the later ones. In it,
I read through the letter. It’s not dated but based on the number of letters in the pile, rd say Derrick talks about how wonderful his night with Althea was, how it had been better than he ever imagined it could be, how
he wished that the bite he’d given her had been in her marking spot and permanent
I get a sinking feeling in my gut, and I look up at Roman. I can see in his eyes that he already knows what I’m going to ask It’s got to be the same question he’s asking himself
How far into her eighth year is Sloane?‘ I ask him in the mind link.
1 was just doing the math. If they had sex near the time of the b
fated mate, Sloane could Derrick’s”
battle, if Althea decided to take h
her one shot to be with her
‘Sawyer would have had to know,” I say, still speaking in the mind link just in case Sloane isn’t totally asleep.
“Which may be why it took them three years to have Slade,” he says.
I close my eyes, pressing my lips to the top of Sloane’s head. As if everything else wasn’t bad enough, now this poor girl may
some day find out that the man she thought was her father wasn’t and the man who was her father was murdered by her
mother.
“When do the betrayals end?” I ask Roman
‘I don’t know. If those aren’t Derrick’s bones in the corridor, then there will be at least one more. But I’m pretty sure they’re
his
‘You think she went back to get him, after she read the letter?”
‘Yes. Her scent would have been on him. He was a warrior in her pack. She would have had no reason to kill him. And once
she realized he was an Alpha heir, she would have wanted to hide the body in case his father ever came looking for him. It’s
possible that she did it to appease Gillian …‘
‘I doubt it. She obviously didn’t love her wolf any more than she loved her family,” I growl. The only person Althea ever truly
loved was herself”
‘Unfortunately, I agree with you,‘ he says. “Here, let me take Sloane. I’ll put her in her room. She’s cried herself out.”
the last part out loud.
He carefully lifts
Its her into his arms. Pierce begins purring to keep her asleep.
says
“Let’s go put her to bed and then I need to speak to my father,” he says. “Well we need d to speak to him and t
then I need to.”
He gives me his hand and helps me off the floor, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“One day at a time, we’ll get through this together, Samara,” he says, keeping his voice soft
I nod, leaning into him. Unlike my sister who never appreciated the gifts that were given to her, I’m so thankful to have
Roman in my life and at my side.
Cooper
