FIA
And just like that the trauma was put on pause again and I was outside of the elder circle building.
I stood still for a minute. Drinking it all in. I had been so close. So fucking close.
When I looked back at the circle building again, I saw a sentinel approach me. He held out his hand without a word. It was as professional and as detached as he could manage.
I pulled the phone from my pocket again. The screen was still warm from my grip. I unlocked it and navigated back to the audio file. My thumb hovered over the share button for a second before I tapped it.
"I’ll send it to the council’s secure server," the sentinel said.
I nodded as I watched the file transfer. The loading bar crept across the screen with agonizing slowness. When it finished, the sentinel pocketed his own device and turned without another word. His footsteps echoed as he walked back toward the elders’ chambers.
The weight lifted from my hand but settled somewhere deeper. In my chest. In the space between my ribs where my heart had been hammering since I stood up and said those first defiant words.
I turned toward the lounge. The same one they’d put me in before the trial started.
That was when father stepped into my path.
I stopped. My body went rigid. Every muscle tensed like I was preparing for a blow.
He didn’t say anything at first.
He simply looked at me with those eyes that used to make me shrink. I still remembered how they made me apologize for existing.
I pushed past him. My shoulder brushed his. The contact sent a jolt through me but I kept walking.
"This is interference with due process," I said. My voice came out level. I attempted to make it controlled but it was so damn hard. "Whatever you’re about to say or do will be seen that way."
"Is your goal to kill your sister?"
The question stopped me. Not because it shocked me. Not because it hurt. But because of the audacity. The sheer nerve it took to ask me that after everything.
I turned slowly and faced him head on.
"What if it is?"
His face twisted. I saw disgust mixed with something that might have been disappointment if I cared enough to parse it.
"It would make you a monster," he said. "A person with no scruples."
The laugh that came out of me was bitter. Sharp edged and ugly.
"You didn’t fight this hard for me." The words tasted like ash. "When I was accused by Hazel of stealing her place at the altar. When she painted me as the villain who destroyed her happiness."
He opened his mouth but I kept going.
"You were silent mostly. You stood there and let it happen. Let them tear me apart." I stepped closer. Close enough to see the lines around his eyes. The new greys in his hair. "But you seem to be here fighting tooth and nail for Hazel. Why is that? Ask yourself that."
"I thought you did it."
The admission came out quiet. Like he thought saying it softly would make it hurt less.
"What about me screamed I did it?"
He didn’t answer.
"Despite everything," I continued. My voice rose. Not shouting but firm. Unyielding. "Despite the little I was raised on in this pack, I was more than content. Yes, I was unimportant. But at the time I was deluded enough to believe I had love even if my mother wasn’t present."
The memories crashed over me. Sitting at dinner tables where conversation flowed around me but never to me. Watching Hazel open gifts on her birthday while I got a card. Being told to be quiet. To not draw attention. To remember my place.
"I had a mate," I said. "Everything was rosy."
My father’s jaw tightened.
"But I see it all now." I gestured vaguely at the space between us. At the building behind him. At everything this place represented. "So maybe this hell you now face is me being vindictive. But nothing that has happened has been buttons pushed by me. These are actual crimes that your legitimate daughter committed."
I spat the word legitimate like it was poison.
"Crimes that you are still somehow willing to let her get away with."
A scoff escaped me. The sound was harsh in the quiet hallway.
"All I allegedly did was knock Hazel out and steal her place as a bride." I held up one finger. Then another. "But Hazel actually killed someone. She even tried to kill me. And she was the one who actually put this pack in danger."
I paused. Let the words sink in. Let him hear them. Really hear them. Not that it would matter. I had clocked out of this head save for a while now. It was hard but it had to be done.
"Somehow though she still has your support." My voice dropped. Went cold. "How is that even possible? Does that not make you see the sort of man that you are?"
"Fia."
He raised his hand. The movement was quick. Instinctive. Like all those times before when I’d spoken out of turn or said something that displeased him.
The sound of metal against leather cut through the air.
It was unmistakable.
Garrett had drawn his gun. The barrel pointed directly at my father’s chest. His stance was solid. But his eyes blazed with barely contained fury.
"Take your hand away from my Luna."
My father froze. His hand still raised. His face had gone pale. The color draining from his cheeks as he stared down the barrel of Garrett’s weapon.
I looked into his eyes. Saw the horror there. The fear. The realization that things had changed in ways he couldn’t comprehend.
"But I am no longer that small and insignificant girl," I said quietly.
He lowered his hand slowly. Like any sudden movement might trigger something irreversible.
"I am no longer just your omega daughter you can push to the sidelines and silence either." My voice stayed steady and calm. "That time is dead."
I held his gaze for another moment. Let him see what he’d created. What his negligence and favoritism had turned me into.
"At this point too, you might be dead to me as well."