Chapter 388

Nathan

When the memory finally ended, I fell to my knees, breathless and confused. The scene around me faded back into nothingness, the visage of my father’s stony face in the rainy night dissolving into the void.

“What just happened?” I asked once I caught my breath, my voice trembling as I looked over at my wolf. “What was that? That couldn’t have been real. I… I don’t remember that.”

Steel’s voice echoed in the void, calm and steady despite the turmoil blossoming in my chest. “Those memories were real, Nathan. You repressed them for years, and now you’re finally facing the truth.”

I felt a knot tighten in my chest as I pondered my wolf’s words. If it was true that I had forgotten the events leading up to Olivia and Kamran’s eviction, then did that mean that my wolf had been hiding it from me all this time?

One look at his face told me all I needed to know.

“You knew,” I whispered.

Steel nodded, and that was when my anger began to bloom.

“Why didn’t you show me that memory before?” I asked. “I should have known the truth about that night. I could have used that information months ago when I needed to take my father down.”

Steel’s response was filled with remorse. “I couldn’t bring myself to show you that memory, Nathan. I held onto it for you, absorbing the pain and darkness so that you wouldn’t have to bear it. That was where my name came from: Steel. To represent the strength that you needed. But now, you’re strong enough to face it on your own.”

Steel’s words began to sink in, and it was then that I couldn’t contain my anger any longer. An overwhelming rage filled me, and I began to tremble with fury.

“Fuck you, Colin!” I shouted into the void, my voice strained and cracked, my nails digging into my palms. “This is all your fault!”

I wasn’t sure how long I shouted into the void. All I knew was that at some point, a voice sounded from behind me, breaking me out of my rage.

“You always were a disappointment, Nathan. A weakling who couldn’t even protect his own pack.”

I whirled around to see him there. My father. Colin. He looked just the same as he did the night that he evicted Olivia and Kamran from the pack.

“Colin?”

“Who else would it be?” he asked, taking a step forward in the darkness.

“This is your fault,” I repeated. “All of this. You started it, with Jenifer’s pack. Because of your greed.”

Colin scoffed. “I’ve been in prison for months, Nathan,” he said. “Anything that happens now is out of my hands. And soon, it’ll be out of yours, too. Because you’ll die, just as you were always meant to: pathetic, weak, and useless.”

Without a second though, I shifted into my wolf form, my instincts taking over as I lunged at the vision of my father, teeth bared and claws extended. I snarled, determined to make him pay for the pain he had caused me and for the torment he had inflicted on Olivia.

But as I looked down at him, something within me shifted. I saw his face contorted in anger and hatred, and I realized that he was nothing more than a hollow shell of a man, a coward who always resorted to dirty tricks and deceit to harm others.

“No. You’re the coward, Colin!” I growled. “You always have been. You couldn’t even be the father that I needed you to be.”

My words seemed to strike a nerve, and my father’s eyes flashed with a mix of fury and fear. He tried to push me away, to escape my grasp, but I held on, refusing to let him go.

“You thought you could control me, manipulate me into believing your lies,” I continued. “But I see straight through you now. You’re nothing but a pathetic excuse for a man.”

My father struggled beneath me, his strength waning as my resolve grew stronger. I could feel the power surging inside of me, a newfound strength that came from my determination to break free from the void that had held me captive all this time.

“You underestimate the bond between me and Olivia, just as you did back then,” I said. “I’ll make my way back to her. And you? You’ll rot in prison.”

With a final, desperate attempt to break free, my father lashed out, his nails digging into my fur. “You’re pathetic, Nathan,” he hissed. “Just like your bitch of a mother.”

His words cut deep, but I wouldn’t be swayed. I wouldn’t let him win. Not now. Not when Olivia needed me.

“You’re right. I am like my mother,” I snarled. “I’d rather die than give in to your manipulation any longer. And I know she’d be proud that I did what she couldn’t.”

As I looked down at the vision of my father, he seemed to shrink before my eyes, his once intimidating presence reduced to nothing more than a pitiful figure.

I could see the fear in his eyes, the realization that he had lost this battle.

“Nathan—” he rasped as the pressure I put on his throat began to grow, my jaws opening to bite into his neck.

But then, just as I was about to rip into his flesh, I saw her face—Olivia’s face.

Her eyes were filled with hope and love, the way she had looked at me when we first met, the way she had looked at me when she held my sprained wrist all those years ago.

And I knew that I couldn’t be the monster my father had become.

I released my grip on the vision of my father, allowing him to disappear into the void like mist. My anger had subsided, replaced by a profound sense of clarity and purpose.

I shifted back into my human form, panting and exhausted but filled with a sense of victory. I had confronted the demons of my past and come out on the other side, stronger than ever.

As I looked around the void, I could feel a connection to my physical body growing stronger. It was as if, somehow, by overcoming the vision of my father in battle, I had managed to break out of the hex. I knew that it would only be a matter of moments before I was back in my body.

“You’ve done it, Nathan,” Steel said, standing in front of me once more now that I had shifted back. “You found the memory. You broke the chains.”

“Thank you, old friend,” I said, reaching out one last time to touch his soft fur.

He nodded. “Now, go to Olivia. She needs you.”

Before I could answer, the void began to recede, its grip on me weakening, and I felt the pull of reality growing stronger with each passing moment.

I could almost see the faint light at the end of the tunnel, the promise of a world beyond this darkness. The white glow of the hospital lights began to flood my vision, and I knew that it would only be a matter of minutes.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath, and held onto the hope that I would soon wake up and find Olivia.

She was out there, waiting for me, and I would stop at nothing to bring her back to safety.