Ditched Cheating Alpha, I Led My Daughter to Life's Peak novel Chapter 63

He gives me a hard look. "Mia." He looks around. The few people left on the top level are staring really hard. He narrows their eyes and they look away.

"What, they don't know?" I ask.

He frowns. "There's a difference between telling people something and freaking them out."

Translation: This entire pack is built on a pack of lies. I can't take it. "I need to know the truth for my family. For myself."

He sighs, looking away from me.

I cross my arms, reluctantly adding. "For us too."

He pauses. He looks at me, eyebrow raised. "Us?"

"Yes," I say. "We need to trust each other, and that can't happen if we're keeping secrets and withholding information, which in my book is lying." I check his expression to see how he's taking it.

I can't read him. He's just listening, that's all I can tell.

I continue. "I get it. You wanted to protect me, but you can't lie to do that, because if my family is in danger in any shape, form, or fashion from another pack, or this one, I'll-"

"They're not," he puts his hands up. "We protect your family just the same way we protect all the members of this pack. I won't lie and say that your presence around them doesn't put them at risk, but the only people that specifically target humans are starving rogues."

I raise an eyebrow. "Starving ones? Why?"

He looks like he doesn't want to say it. "Human targets are... easier to get than wild animals. More trusting."

I widen my eyes. I can see my Dad asking if someone on the side of the street was alright. The image of that wolf pops into my head. I put my hand over my mouth.

He takes my free hand, rubbing the back of it soothingly. "It's fine Mia, really. Rogues don't get past our guards. Aiden was right... it was an ally, but that's just a side effect of us not really being on anyone's side. Opportunities to take you down should be expected when you try to play Switzerland," he says solemnly, even though I really don't know what he means. "The fact that they used such a weak wolf makes it even easier for them to defend themselves, harder to accuse them. They used someone expendable, someone you wouldn't expect to be sent in the first place." He looks frustrated.

The translation in my head: they're trying to kill me, which I already knew. I tighten my grip on Axel's hand. What have the gotten me into?

His eyes fly to where our hands meet.

"I need to know what to do," I say. I wait for his response for what seems like an eternity.

"...Huh?" he looks up from our hands.

I yank my hand away. "Axel, pay attention."