Chapter 645 – Hidden Desires of the Werewolf King Novel

Filed To Story: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel

She had a name, a full name that her parents gave her. Talia was her nickname and not a name someone made up.

Where did she hear it the first time? People at the Red Moon pack called her derogatorily as ‘roach’, ‘rat’, and ‘slave’, but she knew that her name was Talia, which confirmed that someone addressed her as such at the Red Moon pack, and that meant Talia was not randomly abandoned and found. She was given away, together with her name.

Talia forced herself to focus. She had so many questions, and the people with answers were right in front of her.

“You said, my mother was gone. Does that mean…?”, Talia couldn’t finish.

“We are not sure, but we can assume she is dead.”, Isaac responded. “That would explain Valerian’s sorry appearance. The death of his mate was killing him.”

“Did he say where he went?”, Dayson asked.

“No.”, Sophia responded. “We guessed that he went to get revenge for his mate. It didn’t appear she died of natural causes.”

Dayson frowned at Sophia. “You better tell us the details.”

“What details?”, Isaac asked while moving his body to shield Sophia in front of Dayson’s rising rage.

“Everything!”, Dayson demanded.

“We don’t know more than what I said.”, Sophia responded.

Dayson’s frown deepened. “Your brother returned, and you didn’t ask him where he was or where he was going after leaving you with a child? Did he say anything else about his mate? How did she die? Was someone chasing him?”

Sophia shook her head helplessly. “You need to understand that Val’s appearance was a shock to us. I didn’t know he will leave, and we didn’t press him with questions, thinking that he will rest, and we will have plenty of time to talk later. I was happy that my brother was back, and people wondered if he will take over as the Alpha.” She smiled bitterly. “He was gone for decades, yet people still saw him as the Alpha.”

“So, it was about your position.”, Dayson said through his teeth.

“It was about the pack!”, Sophia snapped back.

Talia’s heart tightened. In the last few minutes, she heard the story about her parents that gave her hope, and then took it away. The good thing was that her father brought her here with the intention to keep her safe. They didn’t abandon her. Her parents were protecting her. But why was her heart aching like someone was digging nails into it?

Talia had no idea at what point Dayson wrapped her in his embrace, but there he was, holding her to prevent her from falling apart.

Axel remembered one thing. “I read a document that spoke about Talia’s birth. How the stormy clouds parted, and the moon shone on her.”

“I wrote it down because that was the only thing Valerian told us about the child’s background.”, Isaac said. “We were planning to ask him about it and get more details, but he was gone.”

Axel thought that was another prophecy, but it seemed it was just a note his father made. When Axel spoke to Cassandra, she confirmed gibberish because she was in cahoots with Sophia and Isaac to keep it a secret.

“And then what?”, Axel continued probing. “How did Talia end up in the Red Moon pack if her father asked you to protect her?” Axel was back to the question that started this avalanche of information. Why did they give Talia away?

Sophia responded. “We noticed immediately that Natalia was quiet. Too quiet. She was barely able to sit without support, yet she would look at us like she understood everything. It was not normal for an infant to act like that. We took her to Cassandra, and that’s when Cassandra told us that she is the child from the prophecy, the one that will bring calamity.”

Axel’s mood worsened. “Your brother gave you his daughter, believing you will keep her safe, but you heard some nonsense from an old Oracle, and you decided to discard her.” Cassandra lied to him openly, who knows what else she lied about?

Isaac frowned in disapproval. “Don’t accuse us of such a thing. We raised you. Do you know us as people who will abandon a helpless child?”

“If you don’t want me to accuse you of such a despicable act, then tell me what happened.”, Axel’s temper was rising.

“Please, understand”, Sophia pleaded. “We had you and the things were going fine, but then Val returned and the pack was getting restless again. With Cassandra confirming how the baby is the one to bring calamity, we were facing two choices, neither was an easy one.”

“And your choice was to give her away.”, Axel said.

Sophia’s face was filled with grief. “It was to sacrifice one for the many. Valerian was the best one among us, and he went out with our strongest warriors. If enemies managed to reduce him to that state, they would have no issues destroying the pack. With enemies on the outside, we couldn’t afford the calamity from the inside.”

“Why the Red Moon pack?”, Axel asked.

Isaac shook his head. “We didn’t give her to any pack. The people we gave Natalia to were reliable. After some time, we checked on them, but we found that they were gone. We thought they moved and took Natalia with them.”

Sophia continued talking to Axel, “Until you came to us after the Summer Solstice festival with a story about how there is one of us in the Shadow Fang pack, we thought that Natalia was somewhere far away, but then you said that the girl’s name was Talia and after you described her, I suspected she was Valerian’s daughter.”

“Who were the people that took Talia?”, Dayson asked.

“It was a human family who already had three foster children.”, Isaac responded. “Their identity is not important because they were one of many points of contact where our members would check in while staying in the human realm. We told them that Natalia was a child we found and that we were searching for her parents. They didn’t know she was one of us. Unless our powers awaken, we are no different than any other werewolf and if she gave herself to a man who was not her mate, no one would ever know.”

“You planned out everything.”, Dayson spoke while eyeing them suspiciously. “Did you also count on Alpha Howard taking her?”

Alpha Isaac responded, “I know what you are thinking, Alpha Dayson, but regardless of if they were working for Alpha Howard or if they were forced to give up Natalia, the only thing they could tell him was that we asked them to take Natalia in.”

“Did you investigate where that family went?”, Dayson continued asking.

“No.”, Sophia admitted. “We had many things to deal with and…”

“Is that how you lead our people? Did you ever own your mistakes, or are you just capable of coming up with excuses?”, Axel asked irritably. He didn’t want to hear another lame justification for how things were done for the safety of the pack.

It made him wonder if he would be abandoned like that if Cassandra said that he was the child from the prophecy. And what about his unborn children? Were they in danger as well from their own grandparents?

Axel knew that Sophia and Isaac believed they were putting the safety of their pack first. The fact that they were saying this under the influence of the truth serum, confirmed it.

Axel could find justification for almost everything they did, but he couldn’t accept that they gave away Talia when she was a baby. Even if they feared that she would destroy the pack, and there was no way to assure that wouldn’t happen with her in the pack, they could have sent her to a safe place, to a place where they would visit and keep an eye on her, yet they just left her with a family of humans and didn’t check on her until it was too late.

Two decades passed, and they didn’t seek that family to see if Talia was alive? What kind of people do that?

He remembered teachings on how the pack comes first, and every pack member was important, but wasn’t Talia part of their pack? She had the same blood running through her veins! And she was a helpless baby, needing love, care, and protection, yet they left her with strangers!

Since Axel told Sophia and Isaac about a girl he met in the Shadow Fang pack (aka Talia), Axel started seeing the side of his parents he didn’t know before. It was one disappointment after another, with the latest one when Cassandra attempted to deprive Dayson of his emerging powers. That procedure could cripple him, yet his parents coldly said how they would push the blame on Talia as the effects of her marking him.

As Dayson’s Luna, if the word were spread that she was responsible for weakening their Alpha, she would be shunned by the pack. Axel realized that his parents endangered Dayson and were willing to pin on Talia a crime for which she was not responsible and leave her on her own. Again.

How could they talk in front of Talia and Dayson like they didn’t do anything wrong?

Axel guessed that Talia’s emotions were all over the place under her calm façade, so he decided to move on to the present. “Where is the necklace?”

“What necklace?”, Sophia asked Axel.

“The one that uncle Valerian left for Talia.”

Sophia hesitated for a moment. “I have it.” She obviously didn’t want to part with it, and she guessed that Axel was asking so that Talia could have it.

“Where is it?”, Axel continued pressing.

“In my room.”, she said.

Axel stood up and gestured to Sophia to stand up also. “Let’s get it.”

Sophia was still sitting. “Now?”

“Yes. Now.”, Axel responded. “You either get up, or I will make you.”

Sophia stood up abruptly and started waving her arms wildly while talking, “You are treating me like I did an unforgivable offense. Put yourself in my shoes and ask yourself if you would act differently. Instead of growing up with my family, Val took it away and left me with a mess to handle. Only after I became the Alpha I realized how much lack of training harmed me and our people. And then he came back to cause another uproar and leave a cursed child behind without an explanation. Do you have any idea how stressful it is to live with the responsibility of protecting a pack when you don’t know who is hunting you? And then there was….”

Dayson bolted to his feet. “Shut up!”

Sophia plopped back onto the sofa, and sweat immediately formed on her forehead as Dayson’s aura held her down, and the moment Isaac moved, he was pinned down also.

Dayson struggled against his urge to rip Sophia and Isaac into pieces. How dare they treat Talia’s life like it was not important? And did they call her, cursed?

Sophia and Isaac were not Alphas. They were whiny little bitches, and just the sight of them made Dayson disgusted.

Dayson knew very well what it meant to become an Alpha without the right training and with enemies lurking behind every corner. Since he became the Alpha of the Shadow Fang pack, he made many difficult decisions, but he never abandoned any of his people. If anyone needed to stay back and face dangers, it was him. That’s what Alphas do.

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