Chapter 9
We stopped before a large whith wooden door, its paint perhaps a little too bright, and my heart thudded so hard I could feel it in
my throat.
He pushed the door open, and I stepped inside, freezing at the sight before me.
“Father…” The word escaped my lips in a shocked whisper.
Henry stood there, somehow looking significantly older than the last time I’d seen him, though it had only been two weeks.
His once–bright hair seemed duller, almost muted, and the gray at h temples seemed to have spread. There was a slump to his shoulders, a quiet manifestation of a weariness I didn’t recognize.
“Rachel…” he replied, his eyes not quite meeting mine.
For a brief, foolish moment, hope flared in my chest. Had he come to take me home? Had he realized his mistake in selling me?
That tope was crushed with his next words.
I got word that you are unsure about being a breeder…”
My heart sank. He wasnt here to rescue me. He was here to ensure 12
my part of his bargain.
| clenched my fists at my sides, struggling to keep my voice steady. Father… You told me I was to be a maid, was that true?”
His face reddened instantly. “You are to be what he wants you to be he shouted, making me flinch instinctively.
Tyler moved closer to me, threatening.
and I noticed my father’s demeanor change immediately. His voice softened, his posture became less.
“Look, Rachel… If you don’t do this. Then our family will be ruined Alpha Nathan wants
wants a breeder, and I must have got things
Tyler cleared his throat meaningfully, and my father’s facade crumbled completely.
“Okay–I lied, okay……..but only because I knew you wouldn’t agree,” he admitted, shoulders sagging. “…I’m sorry.”
I stared at him, this man who had once been my hero. After my mother Marie died, I’d done everything to care for him to be the perfect daughter. I’d worked long hours at the diner, endured Isabel’s abuse, tried so hard to earn his love back.
And here he stood, having sold me like property, still lying to my face.
“I don’t want to be… just a breeder,” I whispered, the word feeling vile on my tongue. Tears welted, hot and stinging, blurring my
To my utter disbeliet, my father didn’t argue, didn’t rage.
Instead, his legs seemed to buckle, and he dropped heavily to his knees before me, the sound muffled on the floor. His eyes, wide and desperate, lockpnto mine.
“Rachel… Please,” he begged, the single word laden with a weight I’d never heard in his voice before.
The Alpha of the Pine Ridge Pack was kneeling, begging his daughter to sacrifice herself. For the first time in years, I didn’t feel afraid of him. I felt nothing but a profound disappointment and sadness.
1/2
Chapter 9
“What happens if I don’t do lijfis?” I asked, turning to Tyler Instead
my father,
Tyler’s expression remained neutral, but his voice hold a note of respect I hadn’t heard before. “If you don’t, your father doesn’t receive the rest of the payment and the debt doesn’t go away. Most kely, your father will he killed, and the pack taken over by someone else.
I closed my eyes, thinking of my mother’s words on her deathbed. “Your true mate will find you one day, my love you for all that you are,”
Would my mate, if he existed, understand this sacrifice? Would he forgive me for giving another man a child?
little fark. And he will
1 opened my eyes, decision made. “If I do this, father, were even. Mbl to you is paid in full, and this will be my last repayment of family affection.”
“Rachel…” be began, but I cut him off.
“You’ll no longer have a daughter.” My voice didn’t waver, even as tears slid down my checks.
He nodded slowly. “I understand. Will you do it?”
I looked around the room, at the luxury bought with my future, with my body. “I wish you hadn’t come today. That way, I at least… 1 trailed off, then squared my shoulders. “I will do it. I will be the Alpha’s Breeder.”
As I watched my father’s face light up with relief–no doubt already mentally spending the rest of Nathan’s money–something inside me hardened.
I realized with painful clarity that he had never truly loved me, not since my mother died. Perhaps not even before.
“May I please go
back to my room?” I asked Tyler, unable to bear my father’s presence any longer.
“Yes, of course, Miss Rachel,‘ he replied, his tone gentler than I’d ever heard it.
As Tyler led me away, I didn’t look back. I was truly alone now, with ho family to return to. But strangely, as the door closed behind us, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders.
I’d made my choice–not for my father, but for the Sullivan’s mistakes.
innocent members of my former pack who didn’t deserve to suffer for Henry
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