Escaping Rogue

eighteen

Theo dragged me back inside his hellhole of a mansion. Instead of going back to the red room however, he dragged me further down, descending back to the cells that I had left earlier. We walked right past the one I stayed in and stopped a few doors down.

"Oh Lucas." The mutt called, and instantly my heart dropped.

There was no way he had my brother. No way he could manage to kidnap a Beta and keep him locked down here without anyone knowing.

Although he did manage to steal Mario and I away. Maybe he was capable of more things than I could ever imagine.

He opened the door and lit a lantern on the wall. The fire roared to life, revealing an exhausted body propped against the furthest wall. My eyes took a second to adjust, but once they did, I could feel an actual hole where my heart used to be.

"Lucas!" I exclaimed, rushing to my brother. Theo snatched my hand, yanking me back to his side. I groaned from the pain but kept my eyes glued to my brother. His eyes watched me carefully, terror filled within them.

"Careful, don't wanna hurt the precious cargo, Alena."

I glared but relaxed. Any stress I felt would be carried onto the baby, and I wasn't about to risk him after all that I've went through for him.

"Shut up." I muttered, snatching my arm away. I kept my feet planted, watching my brother as he pushed himself to his feet. The clothes he wore were ragged and torn, and bruises lined his face. How they remained unhealed, I had no idea, but it scared me to death.

"Why don't you give your sister a little history lesson, hmm?" He told my brother, who only glared back.

Despite how much I hated this, the curiosity was too much. Whatever he meant by heir, the history, why my brothers didn't tell me, it was all killing me. I had to know, had to understand what the hell was going on so I could tell Christian.

"I don't know—"

"Save it, kid. Either you tell her or I will. I just thought she'd wanna hear it from you."

I groaned, glaring at Theo. "Tell me what!"

He only smirked and shoved me further inside. Quickly the door shut behind him, leaving just us alone in the room. The fire lit up my brothers face, and quickly I rushed to his side.

"What did they do to you?" I whispered, reaching gently for his face. He winced as soon as my fingertips grazed his cheek, and I quickly retreated.

"You're pregnant?" He whispered. There was a faint smile dancing across his lips, the flames only making it seem more haunting. My eyebrows fell together as I fell to my knees, tearing off a piece of the dress and using it to clean up some of the blood and dirt on his face.

"Yeah. Christian was real happy when he found out." There was sarcasm in every bit of that sentence. Lucas frowned but decided not to press further. I was beyond grateful for that much. "What does he mean, tell me the history? What's going on?"

He sighed, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I saw Lucas break down. Tears suddenly pooled in his eyes, and he let his head fall into his hands.

"I'm so sorry, Lena. I never wanted any of this to happen. I wanted all of us to just live happily, to be happy."

I grabbed his cheeks, pulling his head up so that we were staring right at each other. Seeing my brother like this was excruciating, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could stand if.

"Lucas, it's alright. Chris is coming. We're gonna get out of here."

He shook his head, gulping in more tears. "No, I meant me, you and Gabe. We're supposed to be the Parker siblings, sticking together. We made that promise, and we broke it."

We never broke the promise. I'm still their sister, I'm still here for them. Just because I am part of a different pack doesn't mean I don't love them any less.

"We never broke our promise." I whispered. Whatever he was saying, it was beyond confusing and even more terrifying. I couldn't begin to imagine what he meant by all this, but I had a feeling it was going to hurt a lot.

"Lena, we found something in dad's safe. There were old documents, and one of those documents was an adoption certificate."

There were no right words for what I felt at that moment. My hands dropped from his face, falling blankly into my lap.

He didn't give me a chance to ask any questions however, and continued. "It was your name on that certificate, Lena. They adopted you when you were barely a day old, and she had just lost her baby. They took you in its place and they kept that fact hidden from the entire pack."

I fell back against the cold stone. Suddenly I couldn't bear to touch him anymore, let alone look at him. All I could see was the guilt and betrayal I felt, the same feeling I'd been feeling for so long now.

"But then we found who your birth parents were."

At this point I could care less about who my birth parents were. I wasn't the least bit interested in diving into the lie my parents placed me into. I didn't want to understand that my world was just an illusion, and I wasn't technically supposed to exist in it either.

"Your birth mother is dead, but your father is alive."

Okay, I could still care less right now. My parents—or who I thought were my parents—have kept a whole life hidden away from me. They buried the truth underneath a million layers of glass and Lucas just shattered it with one blow. I couldn't process any of this information right now, or just hurt too much.

"Your real father is Theo, Lena. That's why he's after you. That's why you're here. You're the next in line to rule the rogues."