Chapter 18: Kingston
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Chapter 18: Kingston
Shifting Ayla’s legs slightly, I carefully pulled two photos from my back pocket. I didn’t know how she would respond to the information I was about to give her. But I hoped it would
convince her to stay. At least stay with my pack. But I was still
nervous.
“Ayla, there was a reason I was so intent on helping you. Not just because it was the right thing to do,” I said. “It’s one of the reasons I want you to stay here.”
“Okay…” she said slowly.
I handed her one of the photos.
“That’s mine,” she said, taking it and holding it delicately. “I was worried I’d lost it in the crash.”
“I found it the next morning. Pierce and I had gone back when it was light out. I wasn’t sure at first, but when you woke up, I saw you had his eyes.” I smiled.
“You weren’t sure about what?”
“Ayla, I knew your father,” I said, handing her the second picture.
She snatched the photo from my fingers, confusion all over her face. It was a picture of me and her father. I was about ten at the time, but I’m sure she could tell it was me.
“How?”
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Chapter 18: Kingston
288 Vouchers
“What do you know about your dad? Do you know where he was from?”
“He was a Greytooth. Both him and my aunt.”
“Lacy was with him?” I asked, glad to hear they had managed to stay together. “How is she?”
Ayla looked at me, confusion and sadness in her eyes. “She died. Her and my uncle. In the same explosion that killed my dad.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling my own sadness.
“How do you know them?” Ayla asked.
“It’s complicated,” I teased.
Taking the queue, Ayla snuggled back into the couch, crossing her arms and waiting for me to start.
I chuckled. “Well, to start, they weren’t born in Greytooth territory. Have you ever heard of the Onyxcrown Pack?”
Her brow furrowed. “It sounds familiar. Isn’t that the territory out to the west that’s mostly abandoned now?”
I nodded. “That was your father’s pack. Your grandfather was the Alpha. They were from one of the oldest bloodlines of wolf shifters in this part of the world. It made them very powerful, which in turn, made them targets of other packs and a few other organizations.
“A few years before you were born, a coup was executed by some secret society who believed the Dominis family had too much power and were a threat to all the packs. They weren’t, but it didn’t matter. They took over the capital. It was a
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Chapter 18. Kingston
massacre.”
It was hard for me to talk about that part of my past. I still had nightmares sometimes. But I wasn’t about to plague Ayla with any of that.
“My mother had gotten out with us originally but went back. for my father,” I said solemnly. “They didn’t make it.”
She leaned forward, grabbing my hand with both of hers. “I’m so sorry, Kingston.”
“Your dad managed to get us here, to the Sablemane Pack. The Alpha and Luna allowed us passage through their lands. But they took a shine to me. They had lost their only child a few years prior. They asked if they could adopt me,” I said, smiling at the memory. “Both your aunt and your dad thought it would be safer than staying with them. So, I stayed here and became the Alpha of the Sablemanes. I’m grateful for it. They were good to me and really loved me. And I loved them.”
“I’m glad you had that, Kingston,” Ayla said, rubbing her thumb along the back of my hand, sending chills through me.
“I never forgot your father and aunt and everything they did
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Chapter 18 Kingston
for me,” I said. “I never knew where they ended up, but it makes me happy that they stayed so close.”
“Did you ever see them again?”
I didn’t know if that information helped or hurt Ayla. Her face wasn’t giving away much of what she was thinking. But it was a lot to take in. She just found out her father was a completely different person that she never knew about.
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The readers' comments on the novel: The Luna’s Choice (Theo and Ayla) by Kat Silver
This book is missing 20 chapters. It goes from 151 to 171. You miss a whole bunch on what has happened....