Page 95 of Come for Me
You can see what you would think is the entire kingdom from here. It’s quiet and mesmerizing. Pack members said she would stay perched on this tree for hours when she was pregnant with me, just enjoying the view and rubbing her belly, talking to me.
Dax watches me and listens as I retell stories other pack members have told me. Most of what I had to share was about how she often stayed to herself.
“I don’t know much else about her.”
“That makes sense, considering she was a rogue. She probably didn’t want to bring much attention to herself.”
What is he talking about? My mother was a rogue? How would he know that?
Dax registers my confusion. “As soon as I knew you existed, I had my men track down everything about you, including your parents. There wasn’t much, but the pack records indicate—”
“Pack records? You have them? How?!”
Now Dax looks confused. It’s like he doesn’t understand why I don’t know this already or why I would be looking to him to ask for information about my parents.
He lets out a hearty laugh and smiles. “I’m king, Alaina. I have access to everything.”
Duh.
“Tell me everything.”
“Your mother’s name was Emilia, and she wasn’t always a rogue. She became one after her pack was overrun by rogues and vampires. Then she met, who I assume was, your father. Shedoesn’t say much about him in her interviews, just that she had to leave when she did. This is just what she said in the written transcripts. But there’s no video or anything else. I’m sorry.”
“Was my father mentioned?”
“There wasn’t a name or anything.”
His speech softens.
I continue to stare, urging him to go on.
“In the interview, they asked about him. They wanted to prepare for whoever might come looking for her. She refused to give a name. All she said was that he was powerful but not a threat. She reassured them no one would be coming after her, not even him. That he didn’t know about you and wanted to keep it that way.”
I’m reeling. All this time, I assumed my father was dead and that’s why my mother was here. But if he’s powerful, maybe he survived.
Dax didn’t know that I didn’t know this information. Otherwise, he would’ve told me. I never thought to ask him, either.
“May I see them? The records?” I ask, even though part of me doesn’t feel like I can ask him for anything after all we’ve been through. All I’ve put him through.
“Alaina, you will never have to want for anything as long as I’m alive.” He kisses my forehead.
That familiar guilt creeps in. He’s doing everything to get to know me, yet all I’ve done is try to push him away without first getting to know him. I think back to earlier when I felt his doubt after asking him to visit my mother’s most treasured spot. He wasn’t questioning the safety of the area. Otherwise, he would have instructed pack warriors to come with us. The doubt was because he wasn’t sure if it was safe to be happy that I’d asked him to join me, that I wanted him near me, to share an intimate part of me. A part of me I haven’t shared with anyone before.
The whole reason I closed myself off to him was out of fear that I could never get close to who I was, who my mother was, and who my father might still be. My inner self climbs and peeks over the hypothetical walls I’ve built between us. And decide to do something I haven’t done since I’ve met him. Try to love him.
“What about your parents?”
Silent, he stills, and the vibe changes.
For a moment, I think I’ve overstepped. But then he looks at me.
“Do you want to knowaboutthem or whathappenedto them?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
8-year-old Dax
Standing in the doorway leading to the courtyard, my father is talking to the alpha of the Midnight pack at the conclusion of another meeting where I don’t understand anything.
