A Wolf's Duty (33 page)

“Why are you doing this?
Please let me go.”

“She’s my mate, that’s
reason enough for me to kill you.”

“Mate? I don’t
understand.”

“There’s no need for you
to understand, you’ll be dead soon enough.”

“Dead?” Fred gulped as
fear began to overwhelm him.

“You’d be dead already if
things were up to me but I promised Xandria that I wouldn’t hurt
you when we left England. Now, however, things are different. You
walked into this, you couldn’t just accept that she was gone and
now her attempt to save you has been wasted because you’re not
getting out of here alive.”

The door opened and Thomas
and Yvonne walked into the room. Yvonne’s eyes widened in shock as
she observed the wild look on her son’s face and she moved
tentatively towards him. “Tobias dearest, what’s going
on?”

“We have a
guest.”

“I can see that, it
doesn’t explain why you look like you want to kill the
man.”

Turning his head as much
as he was able in Yvonne’s direction, Fred began to beg. “Please
help me, I haven’t done anything. He’s crazy, you can’t let him
kill me.”

“Don’t even speak to her,”
Tobias snarled, shaking his captive. “And I thought we had already
gone over this, you aren’t innocent, you’re guilty of the worst
possible crime. Intentionally harming another’s mate is a criminal
offence and doing it repeatedly for two years is equal to a capital
punishment in my eyes.”

“This is Alexandria’s
father?” Thomas inquired, his eyes wandering sceptically over the
man’s large frame.

“Yes.”

“Then this is exactly the
right course of action son, death is the only way for him to pay
for his crimes. Do you want some help?”

Fred squeaked at Thomas’
offhanded offer of assistance, drawing Tobias’ attention back to
him. “I told you not to expect any sympathy here.”

The trembling of her body
began to slow and Alex became increasingly aware of the
conversation that was floating around her, her head turning to look
at Tobias and Fred. She gulped at the predatory look that had
overcome Tobias, unused to seeing him angry. Her eyes locked with
Fred’s and he turned to her for help.

“Alex, you can’t let them
do this to me. I’m your father! Help me!”

“If you couldn’t talk to
my mother what exactly makes you think you have any right to
address my mate?” His head tilted to the side as though he were
examining an odd specimen of insect. “If I rip out your throat then
I doubt you’d be able to do any more talking. I think I might just
do that.” The nails on his free hand lengthened into sharp claws
and he dragged then slowly up Fred’s exposed throat, barely
touching the skin in some places but still touching him enough that
he knew the threat his claws possessed.

Alex watched as
her father’s face paled beneath Tobias’ grip increasingly shocked
by the level of violence her usually calm Tobias was capable
of.
This isn’t my Tobias.
Her body began to tremble with renewed vigour as
fear of her father transformed itself into a fear of Tobias’
actions.
My Tobias is gentle, a little
intense sometimes but he’s not like this. My Tobias isn’t a
killer.
“Tobias?” Alex called. He turned at
the sound of his name, unnerved by the scent of fear that was
rolling off of her. “Don’t,” she implored, her voice barely
audible. “Don’t do this.”
Don’t become a
killer; I don’t want to be afraid of you.

He discarded Fred, tossing
the man aside sure that the guards at the door and his father
wouldn’t allow him to escape. “Why dearest? He hurt you for years,
this is the least I can do.”

“Please Tobias, I don’t
want you to kill him.”

He groaned, dismayed by
her decision. “Is it because of that promise I made in
England?”

“No Tobias, I don’t want
you to become a killer, he’s not worth it.”

“Then what do
you expect me to do with him? I’m not letting him go this time
Alex, he doesn’t deserve it.”
Just like he
doesn’t deserve your sympathy.

How can she
not want him dead after all he’s done to her?
his wolf demanded, perplexed by her actions.

She’s too kind
for her own good. She’d let him walk, go free even though he’s the
cause of all her nightmares.

She’s our
mate; I don’t want to change her.

I know, I love
her exactly how she is, kind heart and all, but this…
Tobias groaned, his eyes flickering to Fred’s
fallen form, as he lay sprawled across the floor.
I’m not sure I can just accept her compassion in
a case like this.

We love her,
that means we’ll accept her as she is,
his
wolf counselled,
you and I on the other
hand, will need to be twice as vicious if necessary so that we can
protect her from the weaknesses of a kind heart.

If the
situation calls for it, then yes that’s what we’ll do,
Tobias agreed before turning his attention back to
his mate. “Alexandria, I can’t just let him go free, even in the
human world he would be punished for what he did to you and the
same applies here. What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know Tobias, I
don’t know.”

“He has to pay for what he
did to you Xandria. If you won’t let me kill him then you choose
what should happen to him. He’s your father and all his crimes have
been committed against you, so you decide what will be done with
him dearest, but absolute freedom isn’t an option, he has to pay
somehow. Sebastian?”

“Yes Tobias.”

“Take her back to our
rooms so she has time to think about it.”

Ryan lowered
her to the ground. Although her legs were still a little unsteady,
she managed to remain upright. While her natural impulse was to run
and embrace him, she noted that the knuckles of his fisted hands
were white from strain. His entire body seemed tense and on the
verge of snapping because of what she had said and so she chose to
keep her distance.
It’s not like I’m
afraid he’ll do anything to hurt me, I’m sure he wouldn’t even when
angry. I just want to give him some time to calm down. I know he’s
mad and it’s my fault, but I don’t want Tobias to become a killer.
I don’t want him to have anything in common with Fred at
all.

“What about you Tobias?”
she questioned.

“I’m going to take care of
him.” He jerked his head in the direction of where he had thrown
Fred, his lips curling in anger revealing increasingly prominent
fangs.

“You’re not going to kill
him?”

“No dearest, I
won’t kill him.”
But I’m going to make him
wish I could.
His eyes locked with Ryan’s a
silent agreement made.

“Thank you Tobias.”
Holding tightly onto Sebastian’s arm for support she stumbled out
of the room, glad beyond belief when she was sitting once more at
the edge of Tobias’ bed. She gazed unseeing into space trying to
gather her thoughts and failing before turning to
Sebastian.

“Why is he
here?”

“Your father?” She nodded.
“He came looking for you.”

“Why?” She turned to face
him, disbelief written all over her face. “He never seemed to care
if I lived or died. Why would he come looking for me? How did he
find me?”

“I can’t answer that Alex.
I’m not your father and I wouldn’t want to be given his
circumstances,” he responded, his voice monotone.

“What
circumstances?”

“Alex, you’re getting your
first true glimpse into the inner workings of a wolf’s mind and I’m
not sure you’re going to like what comes of it.”

“I don’t understand what
you mean.”

“Alex, we’re not human,
yes we may seem similar enough but that’s only on the surface. Our
rules and laws aren’t the same as the ones you’re used
to.”

“I know that,” she
snorted. “I had to do that Challenge thing remember?”

“And you didn’t think it
was the least bit strange that almost no one batted an eye at the
idea that you might die?”

“I wasn’t really thinking
about it at the time,” she confessed. “I was more worried about
winning and Ryan distracted me from any thoughts that weren’t
centred around on training.”

“The laws about mates can
have horrid consequences for those who break them. We take the
bonds that form between mates very seriously.” He began, his voice
rising in pitch as he became increasingly agitated. “I can’t
explain just what it feels like, I mean you’re human for one thing,
which means you don’t really know what being mated means.” Alex’s
jaw tightened at Sebastian's human comment but she let him
continue, allowing him to get whatever was really bothering him out
in the open. “And for another you’re female,” he scoffed. “Women
have it lucky, they don’t feel this growing emptiness inside of
them if they don’t have a mate. No, they’re quite content to live
life however they want,” he ranted. “They aren’t driven to find
their mate and even if they come across them, they can choose to be
stubborn about it, they can reject their mate.”

“Sebastian?” she
whispered, hesitant to interrupt him.

“What?” he
snapped.

Her eyes widened at his
sharp response, unaccustomed to him being sharp with her.
“Sebastian, has something happened? You seem a little upset,
especially when you started talking about mates. Are you mad
because you haven’t found her yet? I’m sure you’ll find her soon
enough, just have a little faith.” His jaw tightened and when he
made no move to respond to her questions, she began to look at his
agitation in a different light. Her mind flashed back to the
previous night and she remembered the brunette he had followed from
the hall. “Or is it the opposite? You found your mate but things
aren’t going how you want them to?”

A vein began to tick at
the side of his forehead, increasingly frustrated with his
situation. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he spat through gritted
teeth.

“I’m right then? You found
your mate?”

“Like I said, I don’t want
to talk about this.”

“Fine,” she pouted. “Have
it your way. Let’s not talk about that anymore. You were giving me
an in-depth tour through the mind a wolf,” she prompted.

“Yes, let’s get back to
the point. Because we only ever get one mate, there are very strict
laws about the harming of another’s mate. They don’t all result in
death, but the punishments are very harsh. Your father’s case is
made worse by what you are.”

“What I am?”

“Yes. You’re Tobias’ mate,
the Princess of our people and one day you’ll be Queen. Even if we
put your position aside, everyone in all the clans knows how long
Tobias has had to wait for you. No one in our entire history has
had to wait so long. Two hundred years? It’s a wonder he’s still
sane after all that time alone. But then he found you, so it’s
reasonable that he would be protective. But others are going to
want to protect you not just because of your title but because they
would see it as a responsibility to a fellow clansman. Throw in
your title and it just becomes a thousand times worse for your
father. Alex, the honest truth is that no matter what you do to try
and save him, your father is going to die.” She gasped at this
revelation but he continued.

“You’ve lived here long
enough to know how fast news travels around the estate, by now
everyone here knows who your father is and exactly what he’s done
and they won’t be as merciful as you. Even if he manages to get out
of the estate, which is doubtful, news spreads almost as quickly
through the clans and they’ll want blood. Even if you made Tobias
promise not to kill him, I’ve made no such promise, neither has
Ryan or anyone else within the clans. And Alex, even if you asked
them all individually, they wouldn’t agree to it. Your father is
the walking dead, it’s only a matter of time before someone kills
him. Here or out there and I suggest you get used to the
idea.”

“There’s nothing I can
do?”

“No Alex, there isn’t, and
to be quite honest I can’t see why you would even want to protect
him.”

“I don’t want Tobias to
kill him; I don’t want him to become a murderer.”

“Fine, then let someone
else do it! Ryan and I saw what he did to you when we were in
England. We didn’t even see the full extent of what he did, which
just makes it worse so I’m sure you could get Ryan to do it…hell,
even I’d be willing.”

She stood abruptly from
the bed. “I need to see Fred, could you take me to him?”

“No.”

“Please Sebastian, I just
want to talk to him.”

“I have no idea where he
is. You’ll have to wait until Tobias gets back and then you can ask
him.” He stood, moving towards the door before opening it he turned
to her. “Alex, I know Tobias said you should choose what will
happen to him, but I advise you to sentence him to death. If you
do, then you can at least say you want it to be quick. If you don’t
and you say he can go free, the ones that find and capture him
won’t be so merciful.” He opened the door, heading out and closing
it behind him to leave Alex alone with her thoughts about her
father’s fate.