A Wolf's Duty (35 page)

He groaned, “I guess that
means you’re still against simply executing your father
then?”

Cupping his face in her
hands, she stared into his eyes, watching as they darkened beneath
her gaze. “I don’t need all that family Tobias, as long as I’ve got
you then I’ll be alright. Having my only family member go from Fred
to you is a drastic improvement.” She smiled before muttering,
“Plus one day, maybe you and I can increase the size of my family,
I hear that it’s expected of the Queen anyway.”

His arms wrapped
themselves around her enjoying the sensation of her body pressed
closely against his. “Yes it is, but I wouldn’t worry about that.
It’ll be completely up to you, I won’t let my council pressure you
like they did to my mother. But it’s nice to know that you’re
putting so much thought into our future, I like it.”

“Don’t let it go to your
head.”

“Alexandria, I hate to
bring us back down to earth but what do you want to do about your
father? He’s not just going to disappear, we have to deal with
this.”

“What does my opinion
matter, he’s going to die regardless of what I say.”

“That might be the case,
but don’t you want to have a say in what happens to him before he
does?”

She sighed, not relishing
the idea of deciding her father’s fate. “I want to see him Tobias.
I want to see him and then I’ll decide what to do with him.” He
gulped, remembering the sorry state he had left Fred in after he
had taken out the worst of his anger on the man’s body. “Will you
take me to him?”

“Of course I
will dearest, but not tonight. It’s been a long day, one that’s
been really stressful for you. I don’t want to have you any more
stressed than necessary after what you’ve been through. Tomorrow,
I’ll take you to him.”
And hopefully by
tomorrow he won’t look like he was run over by a truck.

“Promise?”

“Of course dearest, have I
ever broken my word when I’ve given it to you?” She shook her head.
“Then believe me when I say that I’ll take you to see him tomorrow,
but I don’t want you to get to upset about where I’ve put
him.”

“Where’ve you put
him?”

“He’s in the dungeons,
like any criminal should be, but they’re not the nicest places in
the world and you seem to be showing an almost unreasonable level
of sympathy towards the man.”

“I don’t care about how
horrible the place he has to stay is. He deserves it. I just didn’t
want you to kill him Tobias, you’re not a killer.” She smiled, the
trust that she had placed in him clearly visible on her
face.

He pulled her close again,
nuzzling into her thick curls and breathing deeply. “You have no
idea what I’m capable of when it comes to you,” he whispered, his
voice so low that she couldn’t hear his words.

Chapter Thirty
Three

Standing at the entrance
to the lower levels of the estate, Tobias cast a sidelong glance at
his mate, immediately becoming concerned at the small tremors that
wracked her frame. Her petite hands were clenched into tight fists
and she eyed the large mahogany door with a curious mixture of
sadness and anger.

“Are you sure about this
dearest? No one is going to say anything if you don’t do this. I
can decide the punishment by myself if this is too much for
you.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t
you sweetheart?” His heart clenched at the endearment. “If it was
up to you, he’d be dead by now. Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you
wanted to do to him yesterday. No, I can do this. Just lead the
way.” She held out her hand, gripping his tightly within her own
for reassurance.

He nodded at the guards
that stood by the door and they opened it, granting them entrance.
“Just remember, I’m here with you. If he tries anything then he’ll
have to deal with me.”

“Thank you Tobias, but I’m
sure it’ll be fine, let’s just do this.”

Leading her down the many
flights of stairs Tobias was surprised to see Ryan waiting outside
of Fred’s cell and his brows creased in confusion. “What are you
doing here?”

“I heard that you and Alex
were coming down to see Fred so I thought I should be here for
moral support.”

“Thanks Ryan,” Alex
beamed, “but you really didn’t have to. Tobias is here.”

That’s exactly
why you need me down here, in case Fred does something stupid to
you and Tobias goes feral on his ass.
“I’ve
made sure he’s presentable and the guards didn’t do anything stupid
over night,” he whispered, his voice so low that only Tobias and
the guards with their superior hearing were able to hear
him.

“Can I see him now?” Alex
questioned, her body filled with nervous energy as she prepared
herself to see her father and ask him questions she had been
desperate to know the answers to for what seemed like
forever.

“Come with me,” Tobias
stated, leading her into Fred’s dark and dank cell.

The room was small; the
stone walls that she had come to associate as being a warm
terracotta on the inside of the estate were instead a muddy brown.
The floor was covered in what looked like straw and sitting in a
corner was her father.

“Fred?” He was
unresponsive to her call and so she tried again, raising the volume
of her voice. “Fred?”

He turned to look at her,
his eyes blinking rapidly as he tried to bring her into focus. When
he realised who was calling him, his face contorted into a mask of
hatred, his eyes blazing with anger while he sneered at her. “Look
who it is, the little whore come to visit.”

Stepping out from Alex’s
shadow, Tobias snarled at the man, pleased to see the extent of his
injuries. His face was a deep purple in places, with his cheeks and
lower jaw swollen. “Call her that again and I’ll tear out your
throat before ripping your beating heart from your chest.” His eyes
flashed amber and Fred trembled in response, remembering the brutal
beating he had received at the hands of Tobias when his eyes had
shifted from grey to amber. “She saved your life once and you
should be grateful for it. Now she wants to talk to you and ask you
some questions. You will answer her honestly or the consequences
won’t be good for you and I’ll know if you lie. Ask him what you
want, I’ll be here to make sure that he doesn’t try and lie to
you.”

“Thank you Tobias, but you
don’t have to.”

She looked over Fred’s
frame, taking stock of the injuries he had acquired since the last
time she saw him. After all that Sebastian had told her, she was
amazed that he wasn’t in a worse state. A sense of disappointment
rose within her at his relatively good state of well being. Just
because she didn’t want Tobias to kill him, didn’t mean that she
was opposed to the idea of the man suffering.

“Yes dearest, I
do.”
Someone has to make sure he doesn’t
try to do anything stupid, something that will force me to kill
him.
He turned to the guards at the door.
“Get her a chair please, we might be here a while.”

“Yes your highness,” The
guard replied, quickly leaving the room to comply with Tobias’
orders.

“You can start to ask your
questions dearest, he’ll be back soon enough.”

She moved forward,
kneeling on the ground beside her father. “Fred?” He turned to face
her and his hatred of her blazed from his eyes, almost causing her
to stumble back in habitual fear. Tobias growled, the low sound
filling the room and Fred’s eyes left hers, staring intently at the
ground.

“Your highness?” The guard
returned, with a well padded chair in hand.

“Put it there.” Tobias
indicated the middle of the room, close enough to Fred that she
could hear him but far enough away that he wouldn’t be able to
reach her.

She took the offered seat,
more relieved than she would have thought possible to be away from
her father. “Thanks Tobias.”

“Ask your questions
dearest.”

“Right. Fred?” She ignored
the low snarl he emitted at the name. “Why are you here? You could
have just left me; you’ve never seemed to care about what happened
to me. Why put in all the effort it must have taken to find me? It
wasn’t like Tobias left a note telling you where he’d taken me. Why
are you here?”

His eyes lifted from the
ground, fixing her with the full intensity of his hate-filled
stare. “Why else would I be here? The money, Alexandria, the money.
I’m owed and I came to collect. If it weren’t all in your name then
I wouldn’t have spared more than a passing second wondering where
you were. I want what I’m owed, I took care of you all those years,
and I deserve that money.”

“Is that the only reason
that you came?”

“Why else would I be
here?”

“I don’t know, maybe
because you decided to finally start acting like a real father, a
father that cares about what happens to his daughter! But then
again, why, after all this time of beating me day after day for no
reason, would you care about what happens to me?”

“You’re right, why would I
care?”

Well that hurt
more than I thought it would. It’s not like I shouldn’t have seen
it coming, but still…
“Have you ever cared
about me? Ever?”

“Parents are meant to love
their children; it’s a biological imperative so I guess I must have
cared about you once.”

“Then what happened?” she
screamed, her nails biting into the arm rests of the chair, tears
welling in her eyes. “Why did you turn against me, why did you hurt
me?”

“You remind me too much of
her.”

“Her?” she questioned
confused.

“Natasha, your mother.
Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten her.”

“I could never forget mum,
she loved me and I loved her more than anything. She was my world
and you took her from me and then turned against me.”

“Look, I don’t see why
you’re even getting so upset about this. She loved her stupid
plants and that fucking garden more than she loved either of us. I
did us a favour.”

“What are you talking
about? Mum loved you! She took all the shit you gave her and wasn’t
even fazed by it. You were her life!” she hissed, becoming
increasingly angry with her father.

“No I wasn’t. Natasha was
a freak, just like you. She could hear voices in her head, plants
she told me. She said they whispered to her, called them her
family,” he scoffed, reliving bitter memories. “I didn’t believe
her at first, but then I noticed that the plants she filled the
house with did strange things whenever she was around. It was very
subtle, if I hadn’t been looking out for it I doubt I would have
even noticed, but they moved. The plants would move, following her
around in the vases, craning towards her like she was the sun or
something. And that damn garden of hers? The slut loved that place,
spent practically every waking minute in there with the damn
plants, so like I said, she didn’t love you as much as you seem to
think she did.”

Alex was silent for a
minute, digesting the information her father had just given her,
trying to remember if any of what he said was true. “You’re right,
she did spend a lot of time in that garden, I remember her being
there.”

“I told you, she didn’t
love you.”

“But,” she interrupted;
cutting him off before he could begin another rant. “It wasn’t like
she spent all that time there alone. She took me with her when she
was tending to it and she asked you to so we could spend time
together as a family.”

“Why would I want to
encourage her freakish behaviour?”

“Why wouldn’t you want to
spend time with your family?” she retorted.

“Why should I have spent
time with a slut who happened to be a freak as well? And you, I
hear that you’re even more of a freak than she was. I saw what
happened to that building on your university campus, that was you,
wasn’t it?”

“It was an accident. I was
scared and angry and it just happened. I didn’t know I was
different until then. Mum never said anything to me about it so I
was prepared for it.”

“You’re an even bigger
freak than she was. I mean she only heard the plants talk in her
head but you, you can control them, can’t you?”

“And what if I can? It’s
not like you care one way or the other. I’m just a freak, aren’t
I?”

“Yes you are and if it
weren’t for the money that Natasha left you, I wouldn’t even be
here. But as though it weren’t bad enough to simply be a freak you
had to go and shack up with that animal over there.”

Her temper exhausted, she
stood up abruptly, the chair clattering to the floor. “Don’t you
dare speak badly of Tobias, you don’t know what he’s done for
me.”

His eyes trailed the
length of her frame slowly and she could practically feel her skin
crawling. “Seeing as you’re following in your slutty mother’s
footsteps, I can imagine exactly what he’s doing to
you.”

“Tobias has kept me sane
all those years that I had to live with you and I didn’t even know
it. He took me away from that hell to keep me safe and only wants
what’s best for me. I love him.”