Chapter 132- Marked

Lexy

Dad had set up the private jet to fly us to Adrians pack. During the flight I kept thinking of what Tarria wrote in her notebook while also asking myself the same questions. I still don’t understand ‘why take Tarria and why ask for her to join his pack?’.

I took the flight to organize my thoughts and write down all the questions so I could begin to answer them. As I went over everything something clicked. He wouldn’t bring her into his pack. It would be too obvious and too simple.

“Please buckle your seatbelt. We will be landing in a few moments” the stewardess announced.

The moment my boots hit the ground, the wind whipping past my lose hair strands like a warning, I knew one thing for certain—this wouldn't be won with brute strength. Not this time.

Tarria wasn’t in Adrian’s pack. I’d pieced it together mid-flight, replaying every word, every shift in Adrian’s gaze, every calculated silence. He was hiding something, but it wasn’t her. Tarria was elsewhere—hidden deeper, farther, somewhere beyond the obvious. That realization changed everything.

My jaw tightened as I scanned the treeline ahead, where my scout team would be waiting. Now, more than ever, I had to be precise.

This wasn’t just about saving Tarria. It was about outmaneuvering a predator who thought he still held the upper hand. It was also about making sure the alliance happens for a better future. I couldn’t just be fierce. I had to be sharp, strategic. I had to be smarter.

Because if Adrian had already planned his next move, I would be ready with my own.
Tarria

The person that walked in was my dad. I was kidnapped as a child and that was the last time I saw the men. I thought the rogues had killed him. I remember the blood dripping down his face after they stroke him on the head with a pipe.

“Hello Darling” he spoke nonchalant.

“What are you doing here?” I gritted through my teeth.

My knees nearly buckled, but I forced myself to stand tall. My wolf was restless, snarling just beneath my skin, caught between recognition and rage.

He looked older, worn down by years I hadn’t been part of—but those eyes were the same. Cold. Calculating. Like he was already ten steps ahead, playing a game only he knew the rules to.

“I thought you were dead,” I spat. My voice was shaking, but not with fear—no, this was something deeper. Betrayal.

He smirked, that same crooked twist of his lips that used to charm everyone in the room. Not me. Not anymore.

“They wanted me dead,” he said with a shrug. “But I made them an offer. And you? Well, you were just... collateral damage.”

A chill rippled through me, colder than any rogue’s blade ever could. “You let them take me.” “I saved myself,” he said simply, like that explained everything.

I stepped forward, fists clenched, power humming at my fingertips. “You let your child believe you were murdered. You let me suffer alone!”

His eyes flashed—just for a second. Guilt? No. Something worse. Pride. “I knew you’d survive. You were always stronger than you looked.”

I could feel the shift coming, the uncontrollable burn of my wolf rising. But I didn’t care.

“You don’t get to come back and act like this is normal. You don’t get to talk to me like a father.”

He raised a brow, unbothered. “Then maybe it’s time you learn the truth about who you really are, and why they wanted you gone.”

The room spun. My breath caught. “What the hell are you talking about?” He took a step closer, voice low and deadly smooth.

“They weren’t after me, Tarria. They were after you.” My blood ran cold. Me?

I blinked hard, trying to ground myself, but his words echoed like a curse through my skull. They were after you.

“I was a child,” I whispered, more to myself than to him. “What could they have possibly wanted from me?” He chuckled. Low. Hollow. The sound of someone who'd seen too much and lost even more.

“You think it was coincidence that the rogues attacked ‘our’ house out of all the others in the territory that night?” he said, circling me like a vulture circling prey. “You think they just stumbled on us?” He leaned in. “Tarria… you were born marked.”

I froze.

“Marked?”

He nodded once. “Your mother hid it from you. She thought she could protect you by pretending you were ordinary. She scrubbed your blood from the prophecy, but it never stopped hunting you.”

I stared at him, numbness threatening to overtake me. “What prophecy?”

His eyes burned with something between awe and regret. “A child born of two bloodlines — royal and rogue — destined to destroy the hierarchy of the packs and rebuild them from ash. A child who could command both light and shadow.”

My heart thudded, a dangerous rhythm in my chest. “That’s not possible. My mother was pack-born—”

“Your mother,” he said slowly, “was the daughter of the Shadow Fang Alpha before she was exiled. And me?” He grinned, dark and unrepentant. “I was the golden son of the Silvermoon line. The match was forbidden. Dangerous. But we were fools in love. And we thought we could hide you.”

I stumbled back like his words had struck me. “You’re lying.”

“I wish I was,” he murmured. “But the truth is carved into your blood, girl. You were always more than what they told you.”

I gritted my teeth, memories racing back—how the elders always looked at me too long, how I was much stronger than my peers with my abilities, how well I adjusted in the dark, how my presence made wolves pause in their steps look at me and put their heads down even before I shifted.

“You let them take me to protect me?” I said bitterly. “Or was it to save yourself?”

He flinched. A crack in the mask. Finally.

“I tried to negotiate. Give them false leads. Buy us time. But your mother... she knew they wouldn’t stop until they had you. So, she ran, and I stayed behind to throw them off.”

“And you failed.”

He didn’t answer. The silence said enough.

I took a slow breath, steel threading into my bones. “If what you’re saying is true, if I’m really this… marked child—then why now? Why come back?”

He met my eyes. “Because the packs are shifting, Tarria. The old powers are crumbling. And whether you like it or not… they’ll come for you again. This time, not to kill you—”

He stepped closer, voice like a warning wrapped in a secret.

“—but to crown’ you.”