Chapter 0215

“He stopped you to protect you. I still don’t get why she came.” Isabella frowned deeply. “She showed up alone. Claimed she hadn’t seen my brother in months.”

“Alexander doesn’t believe her?”

She raised an eyebrow. “He doesn’t?”

I shook my head and sighed. I hadn’t meant to tell her that. “He’s sure he could smell him on her.” Once again, I’d been too consumed by the creeping darkness to notice anything except my supposed half-sister.

The whole world could have been collapsing around me and I wouldn’t have noticed.

She paused, letting my words sink in, then continued as if I’d never mentioned him. “Showing up just to tell you your father supposedly had an affair? That’s bullshit. Zachary saw her about six months ago. She was in the city. It wouldn’t have been hard to find us, even with my idiot brother helping her. So why wait until now?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

Charlotte was playing peek-a-boo with the boys. Their giggles erupted into hysterical laughter as she popped up from under their high chairs. She had a natural talent with them and loved making them laugh. Zachary said she needed to feel wanted. Something I understood all too well.

She never spoke about what happened to her with anyone except Zachary. If someone walked in while she was talking, she’d stop immediately. I was glad she had someone safe. Sometimes I wondered if I would have ended up like her if I’d been saved after my parents died instead of being forced into hell until I met Alexander.

“Lottie.” Zachary murmured. “Please eat your breakfast.”

“I’m just playing, Daddy.”

“You can play all you want after you’ve eaten.”

She kept making faces at the twins as she settled into a chair at the table.

“How are you?” Zachary asked while putting pancakes on Charlotte’s plate.

I nodded, afraid that if I expressed how I really felt, there would be no turning back.

After breakfast, Isabella took the kids to get cleaned up and dressed for the day.

I sat there, watching Zachary move around the kitchen cleaning up. “How did it feel?”

He paused and slowly turned back to me. “I assume you’re asking what it felt like to turn Rogue.”

My shoulders slumped as I nodded. He put down his plates and sat back at the table across from me. A crease formed between his brows.

“At first it felt right.”

I snorted. That was the last thing I expected him to say.

“I’ll be straight with you, Athena. No point in lying. You talk about the darkness—that’s exactly what happens. It creeps in, clinging to your insides like a cancer without you realizing. You’ll get little flashes of it, and it’s always there, coiling tightly around your insides until no goodness remains.”

He leaned forward to grab the juice and poured himself another glass. I was sure that with this conversation, he’d prefer something much stronger.

“Your decisions will get darker, and you won’t realize it until it’s too late. When it finally happens, you feel free. Everything becomes easier. Life makes more sense.”

“But eventually, you end up trapped. A vicious cycle, destined for one goal. That life that once felt freeing becomes the bane of your existence. You have to fight it, Athena. You have to be the Alpha you’re meant to be, and you can’t do that if you turn Rogue.”

“Do you think my past caused this?”

“Probably, yes. There’s something inside you searching for freedom, and you feel like you haven’t found it yet. Look around you, Athena. Everyone here cares about you. No one wants to harm you. You’re not beaten or starved. You have a mate who adores you. You have everything going for you. Don’t let one scorned woman destroy who you’re meant to be.”

“It doesn’t stop.”

“It never will.” He frowned. “The darkness will always be there. It won’t fade. You need to learn to channel it. But don’t let it become you.”

“You still fight it, even now?”

“I will for the rest of my life.” He smiled, his eyes lighting up. “Isabella helps, but she doesn’t know how much. She’s a beacon of light in the darkness, and when I feel the darkness slipping in, I seek her out. Brianna and I can help you as much as we can, but until you find your own light, it’ll be a battle.”

The question burned, and I should have suppressed it, but it tumbled out of my mouth as if it needed to be heard. “What if I can’t? What if… What if it’s too deeply embedded in me?”

“Do you really believe that?”