Chapter 66

*Present Day*
***Alpha Ethan***

Little Dove licks her pretty lips after telling me everything about what happened to her entire family. She goes on, keeping her voice hushed, “Those monsters came at night. Like Oliver said, we had no warning... After they attacked my parents, Ollie and Cedar, I ran. I ran like C asked me to, Ethan. Like a coward! He died so I could get a head start.” 
She wipes away her falling tears with the back of her hands, her movements trembling. She started telling me about her past while sitting on the edge of the bed, but now she’s standing, her back pressed against one of the wooden bedposts. She isn’t looking at me, but I can see the emotion in her eyes. Before I can cut in to tell her she is not a coward, her voice carries on, “So I ran away. I moved to another city with only Oliver’s backpack, and I cut my hair and dyed it black with the cheapest dye I could find,” she says, touching a lock of her natural light blonde hair. “After what I heard that monster say, it was the first thing I thought about changing. Not so long after that, I met Logan.” 
She opens a tiny smile as Kral growls in my mind at the mention of her ex-husband. ‘Calm down, wolf.’
“At the time, I thought he was the great love of my life. Pathetic, huh?” She laughs humorlessly. “We got married almost immediately. Not only because I got pregnant with Az, but also because it was a quicker and cheaper way to change my last name.”
Little Dove goes silent for a moment as if she’s reliving the memory, or maybe I just stop listening to her. Because my mind is still trying to process everything she’s just told me. I would never have imagined that someone as sweet and pure as her would have such a horrible past. The way her parents and brothers died... Fuck. I can’t even imagine my life without my parents, much less without Vi. I would probably die, just like her brothers, before I let anything happen to my sister.
‘She doesn’t know about our world, but her older brother did,’ Kral points out.
‘I noticed that, too. When she mentioned the invisible spray, that was the first thing I thought of,’ I reply. ‘Oliver was probably spraying her and Cedar with the camouflage spray so no one would find them. That can only mean one thing.’
‘The killers who attacked her parents could have been werewolves. I agree. But the spray doesn’t camouflage her aura, and after Azrael was turned into a Werewolf and an Alpha at that, I bet your ass her whole family had a glowing aura. Besides, Little Dove said she smelled a stench when the fucker in shorts came in.’
‘Rogue,’ I add. ‘How she sensed his stench is beyond me. Maybe it’s because of her aura?’
‘Perhaps. But I don’t think the other two were werewolves. From what she said, it would be much easier for their wolf to just bite her family’s neck to kill them. Probably only the fucker in shorts was a werewolf.’
‘How did her older brother know about our world? I wonder if her parents knew too?’ I ponder more to myself than asking my wolf.
‘I don’t know. And I guess we’ll never know since they’re all dead. But I think neither she nor Cedar knew. Fuck! She didn’t deserve to go through all that. She is so fucking strong.’
“I can still hear their screams.” I suddenly hear her trembling voice. “I can still feel the terror. And I’m so mad at myself because I’d rather remember just the sounds of my family’s laughter, but no. I can barely remember the sound of their voices, much less their laughter.” Little Dove says angrily as her breathing becomes more and more labored. “Instead, my memory is tainted with the wet sound of that monster’s blade as he plunged it into Mom’s throat. Or the ‘pow’ sound of the gunshot that killed Oliver. Or the agonizing sound of Cedar seeming to writhe in pain. Or—” 
I run to her when her voice rises to a near yell, and I hug her. 
I’ve been so fucking angry with everything she’s told me that it was best to stay away from her, but I can’t do it anymore. Goddess, she is killing me. Her pain is so intense that I can feel it as if it were my own. I wish there was a way for me to take this pain from her and get it all to myself so that I could suffer in her place. Little Dove is so small and fragile, so good, and has such a pure heart... I tighten the hug, tucking her into my arms. She rests her head on my chest and hugs my waist, sobbing. I want to shield her from everything.  
The rest of the puzzle clicks into place. Why I’ve had the feeling that Little Dove’s hiding something or running away from someone since I first saw her. Why she always looks for an exit regardless of where she is when she enters a new room, even though she is safe here in the packhouse. And why she told Az not to leave her when she thought he was having an anaphylactic shock, saying he couldn’t leave her too. The ‘too’ she was referring to was her family.
“I c-can remember so well how Dad’s blood had dripped down through the cracks in the floor after that monster hit his face non-stop and deformed it as he begged for mine and my brothers’ l-lives.” 
“Shh.” I run my hand through her back. 
“But my father’s begging had meant nothing, Ethan.” Little Dove looks up at me. Her meadow green eyes are shinier, glistening with tears she hasn’t shed yet. “Cedar’s sacrifice had meant nothing because now they have found me anyway.” 
I’m struggling to control how wild Kral is inside me. It’s tough for me to rein him in. Kral’s ready to shift and kill everyone who hurt her. “Over my dead body!” I say with my eyes locked with hers. She slightly shakes her head as if she doesn’t believe my promise. The disbelief I spot in her eyes is so deep that it makes my chest feel too tight. She doubts I can protect her.
Little Dove buries her face into my chest again and continues to cry. 
I hate it. 
I want to do whatever Kral and I have to in order to stop those heart-shattering tears. We’d raze packs, destroy lives. 
I close my eyes, drawing in a long breath so I can get my temper under control. Otherwise, she might believe my anger is directed at her. Then, as I exhale, I say, “Thanks for telling me.” 
She stops crying before answering me, “Sorry I didn’t sooner.” 
“It’s probably not the simplest thing to relive.” Of course, *I*’d understand why she’d keep it to herself. It’s not easy to relive the night I got my curse. 
“Yes, but I should have given you a heads-up, even without all the facts. I’m living in your house after all—” She inhales sharply, like something just clicked, as she abruptly interrupts herself. “Oh, God!” Little Dove looks up at me, then she suddenly takes her arms off my waist and rushes to the other side of the bedroom near the closed window.
I definitely don’t like it.
She starts pacing back and forth. “Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God! What was I thinking living here? Now you’re all in danger as well! Shit. This is bad. Allie, you idiot.”
Hell! No. I close the distance between us and I hold her delicate wrist so she stops walking for a bit. She turns to me, her hand splaying across my heart. “I’m so sorry, Ethan! Do you want me to leave?” she asks, almost in a whisper, before she widens her eyes. “What am I saying? Of course, you want me to leave! Oh, God, I’ll have to get another job, maybe two, to match what you’ve been paying me.” 
I move my hands to her hips, holding them tight. “You are going nowhere, and I never want to hear you say that again. I told you that if you came here, I wouldn’t kick you out. Didn’t I?”
“Yes. But,” she whispers. “I guess I thought you might have changed your mind after everything I told you.” 
“Fuck, Little Dove.” She’s killing me. How could she have possibly thought that?
“You’re really mad, huh?” She starts crying again, placing both her hands on her face. “Don’t worry... I’ll understand if you don’t want me to stay here anymore. I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me, either. But please, Ethan, let Az stay here. It’ll be safer for him. He’s all I have, and now he’s not safe by my side or his father’s. Please, at least let him stay here.” She sobs, her breath heaved in and out of her lungs by the time she finished speaking.
Sheer fury simmers at my heels, heating me from the base of my feet to the crown of my head. “Alicent. Stop. Crying.” I bit out. The command in my voice smears my bedroom walls like sticky tar. I am used to using my alpha command with my pack members, and they always obey me immediately. To my horror, Little Dove’s sobs grow louder. Her wails claw at my chest, ripping the flesh to shreds. 
‘Good fucking job, human,’ Kral growls. ‘Yell at her again, and I’ll make you regret it.’
“You don’t understand.” She falls to her knees, tilting her head down so I can’t see her face. 
“I told you that *you* are going nowhere. You *will* be safe here, and so will Az. I’ll protect you. I promise you that.” It is more than a promise, though. It is fucking a vow. 
Little Dove doesn’t seem to find her voice for a moment as she looks up at me. But then, her pale hands curl into fists. “They didn’t just kill my family, Ethan,” she says with fire in her voice. I almost smile. I’d rather she be angry than despondent. “They *slaughtered* my whole family! And they can do the same with everyone in this house!” 
“I already told you that I can protect—”
“Staying here will only bring danger to everyone. It’s not safe, and it’s not enough. They’ll find me. I need to flee. Oh my God! Logan is in danger just for being associated with me as well! I feel so guilty for being with him because of his last name without him even knowing all of this... I never told anyone this, just you.” She lowers her head. “Poor Logan!” 
Little Dove doesn’t know that I’m a werewolf, much less an Alpha. With my jaw shifting and nostrils flaring, I’m running out of patience. “I can and will protect you.”
“*You* can’t protect me from them.” She laughs. Outright laughs from deep in her chest, like what I’ve just said is the funniest thing she’s ever heard. The sound is a little raspy, which is to be expected after she cried so much. I’m a bit offended on behalf of my wolf, but she knows nothing about us.
She’s being just as stubborn as she was when I persuaded her to move here.
But this time, I’ll for sure tread deep into something that can end in utter disaster.
She stops laughing. “You can’t protect me from them, Ethan,” she repeats in a whisper. Her voice is trembling, and it tugs at my heartstrings. There is something uniquely special about Alicent Dove. 
Her heart. 
Her pure aura. 
Little Dove’s had to be tough to handle being responsible for her own safety all these years. But that ends now.
I speak with a sharp edge to my voice, “If living here isn’t safe enough for you, then fine. You’ll marry me, too.”