Page 240 of Knot Their Soldier: Part Three

"You don’t get to call me that."

My father flinches as if I slapped him.

"I’m glad to see you alive and well," he adds quickly.

My laugh comes out quiet and empty. "Are you?"

He looks at each of my mates in turn, but when he reaches Blaze, he blanches. I don't have to look at my Alpha to know he must look terrifying as his darker impulses rise to the surface, driven by his hunger for vengeance.

"I—I heard things," he says, looking back at me with a growing desperation. "About what you did here… about the battle. I came after, a few weeks ago, but I didn’t want to disturb you."

"So, you've lived in my fortress for weeks," I say slowly, swallowing back all of the insults and curses churning in my belly.

His mouth tightens. "I didn’t know if you’d want to see me."

"You were right."

Pain flickers across his face, but it feels practiced. A useful expression. One he probably wore for neighbors, family members, anyone he needed to bend toward him. He probably wore it as he cried about his daughter who ran away to join the military.

"Halley, things were complicated back then," he says, his voice mellowing, summoning the old inflection that used to ensure my obedience when I was younger, adorning it with traces of regret. "Those officials came and they said you couldn’t stay and that they’d take care of you. It was the law and I'm just a Beta, there was nothing I could do."

"Don't sell yourself short, father," I say the term with restrained venom. He's no father. He never was. "You planned for years to sell me off to the highest bidder."

"Surely you understand. You know how poor our family was, and you were going to be mated to a lovely Alpha who would take care of you, just like I was trying to take care of our family."

"I was your family."

"They were taking you somewhere you'd be cherished."

"That's a lie, and you know it."

"How was I supposed to know any better?"

"Because they called me defective."

His eyes drop.

"You heard them," I say. "You knew I wasn't going somewhere safe."

His silence answers for him.

He stands in front of me, terrified of my mates, my power, and the consequences he always thought he'd escape.

My father’s gaze flicks toward the survivor line, searching for sympathy.

"Halley," he says, voice low as he realizes he won't find any allies. "Please. This doesn’t need to happen here."

"Why not?"

His mouth tightens.

The faces around us have changed. Soldiers who were checking straps now stare at him with open disgust. Survivors clutch their packs closer, their fear of the mountain replaced by anger aimed directly at him.

"You were happy to let strangers discuss my body on the porch," I say. "You stood there while they decided where I belonged."

He holds unnaturally still.

"You had my life in your hands," I say. "And you chose to benefit yourself."