Throwing the door open, I falter when I see who is standing there. My first instinct is to slam the door in his face and go upstairs with my mates. Instead, I take a deep breath, and push the door open, motioning for him to enter.
“Hey, Pumpkin,” he greets before starting to say something else but closes his mouth, and I spot Andrei coming up behind him before dropping a hand on his shoulder.
“Told you, dear old daddy was fine, though you look like you want to kill him,” Andrei chuckles before smiling at him. Andrei steps inside before bending down and pecking my cheek. “Now, where are my brother in-laws?” he says. I chuckle, shaking my head at him, hearing them walk out of the kitchen behind me.
“Andrei?” Ezra calls.
“I know, I was going to come tomorrow, but dad here wanted to see Kat,” he apologizes, making me wonder when they spoke.
“Are you coming in or just going to stand there?” I ask my father, he looks at Andrei, and I see something flash in his eyes, guilt? I wasn’t sure, but he looks ruined.
“You wanted to come, now get in, Derrick. I brought you here, didn’t I?” Andrei reminds him, my father nods, stepping inside, and I close the door.
“You missed her funeral,” I accuse.
“Kat, I am…”
“Sorry? You left me, you just up and left and to do what? Kill your son?” I demand, outraged.
“Look, I can explain, let me try,” he interrupts, reaching his hand out toward me, but I step back.
“Did either of my mothers know of Andrei? Did you tell them? How could you turn your back on your own child like that?” I demand, furious for Andrei. No child deserves to learn that their father threw them away to create a new family.
“Kat, you know yourself what it is like having mates. They become consuming, all you think about,” my father explains, but I wasn’t buying it.
“He is your son!” I scream at him, tears burning my eyes in my anger.
“Sis, I am over it. What’s done is done, you don’t need to worry about me or get angry for me,” Andrei interrupts as I glare at my father.
“It isn’t right,” I object, and Andrei shrugs.
“Won’t change anything, sis, just leave it,” he advises, and I sigh but nod, with a final glare at my father.
I stomp into the living room, plopping on the couch, Ezra sits beside me, and I can feel through the bond he wants to hurt my father. He grabs my hand when my father sits nervously next to Andrei on the couch opposite us.
He looks around the room, unable to meet my gaze before his eyes stop staring at the bookshelf above my head. I look behind me, seeing my mother’s urn, before standing up and retrieving it. I walk over to him and hand it to him, and he takes it with shaky hands, holding the cold silver between his hands.
“That’s all that’s left of her,” he whispers, and I press my lips in a line, my thoughts exactly when Mateo brought her home. I nod before sitting back down next to Ezra, who grips my knee.
He places the urn on his lap, and I see him swallow, his thumbs caress the cold hard surface. I tear my eyes away from him, looking at Andrei.
“The venom, how exactly do we extract that? You gave him back, so I suppose you want it now?” I ask him.
He shakes his head. “Whenever, Kat, I am happy to wait,” Andrei offers.
“Still doesn’t explain how I am meant to give it to you without biting you,” I point out, and he laughs.
“Will be like milking a snake,” he explains, and I raise an eyebrow at him before realizing he was being serious.
“Really, that’s it?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Can only try, I can honestly say I have never tried to extract venom from a person before, but I am assuming it could be done the same way.”
“You’re still not going to tell me what you want it for?”
He shakes his head, and my eyes dart nervously to my father. “I am not going to kill him, if that is what you are wondering. If I was, I would beat him to death, not poison him.”
I nod, but my father doesn’t seem fazed by his words. “But I am guessing it isn’t for science reasons, you intend to use it on someone, like Jackson.”
“Not Jackson either, but Jackson I will leave to you,” he offers, looking at Ezra, who nods.
“Then what for?”
“If I tell you, I know you won’t give it to me, but it won’t directly affect you,” he explains, and I sigh but nod. We had a deal, and I wouldn’t go back on it.
“What about you?” Ezra asks my father.
“What about me?” he asks.
“Are you staying or going to run again?” Ezra snarls, not hiding his irritation.
“Stay if I can, if I am allowed. I want to go home,” he says simply.
“I will allow it for Kat, I promised her, but you will pledge to me, I won’t have a rogue on my territory.”
My father stares at me, making me wonder what he will decide. “Fine, but I have one condition.”
“You are in no position to make conditions,” Mateo warns him, pushing off the door frame and stalking over to him. My father looks at me again.
“What is it?” I ask him curiously.
“When you go to kill Jackson, I am coming with you,” he vows, turning to look at Ezra, glaring at him.
“No, you can’t be trusted,” Ezra refuses in an instant.
“Then I am not pledging to you,” My father retorts, and Ezra growls at him, the sound raising goosebumps on my arms.
“I will allow it, but you do one thing wrong dad, one thing, one lie…” I pause, unable to believe what I am about to say, but he needs to know there are boundaries now. He has broken my trust too many times, kept secrets that weren’t his to keep from me. “Just one thing wrong and I won’t stop Ezra from killing you,” I promise him before getting up.
“Kat?” my father sputters, shocked.
“No, dad, I am done with the secrets and the lies, either be honest or leave and don’t come back.”
“You don’t mean that, I am your father, Kat,” he says, and I felt bad, I could see the hurt shining in his eyes.
“You are in my life because I am allowing you to be, father or not, I don’t need you or anyone else, you leave again, lie to me again, and I will have no problems shutting you out of my life. I have enough shit going on, I don’t need the added drama of wondering if I can trust my own family,” I snarl at him before walking out.