Chapter 150

Lindy POV

No one asked me if I wanted to betray the man who'd raised me as his own.

Richard Campbell was The Enemy in this new world I'd been inducted into. He was some evil monster who had stolen away a pack's beloved Luna, two children's mother, and the hope of an Alpha House for the future.

No one thought about the fact he'd also been my whole world as I grew to adulthood.

Every major milestone in my life had been met with my father at my side. He'd been there for my first words, first steps, and first of everything else.

I had never had cause to wonder if my father loved me because his pride in me was apparent every time I walked into a room.

But.

I'd always known I was an object to him.

"Are you okay?" Rachel asked, rubbing her hand up and down my arm as I shivered beside her on the sofa.

We had been forced to lower the temperature in the house due to Rachel's hormones causing hot flashes.

Wolves already ran hot, but Rachel was nearly feverish. I was freezing in comparison because I couldn't seem to find any warmth inside me anywhere.

I thought maybe some deep part of me had frozen in fear at the idea of betraying my father.

"I don't know," I said honestly, "I don't know what I am. A parent's worst nightmare?"

I laughed. A rusty, damaged sound which wasn't close to laughter at all once it'd left my mouth. I just wanted to go back in time to before this woman had come into my life. Why couldn't I just turn back the hands of time? Could Art do that too?

Art could do so much I almost believed he was capable of anything. Wasn't he capable of anything? He could travel through space with a thought, read minds as if thoughts were spoken words, and had what seemed to be unlimited strength. What couldn't he do?

Apparently he couldn't read my father's mind without my help.

"You are doing the right thing," Rachel urged.

She wrapped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed me against her side. The heat from her skin almost burned me; I worried she was actually getting ill from the stress being put onto her body.

I thought of Rachel as my sister even though I knew we shared no blood. I couldn't imagine her dying. She couldn't die, could she? Alpha she-wolves didn't die from pregnancy.

Except I had heard different many times in my life. I just wanted to scream and scream until it was all over.

"You are doing the right thing," Rachel repeated, leaning her head over onto my shoulder, "Don't think about the choices that man made. He chose his path. You're just trying to do the right thing."

"It doesn't feel like the right thing," I admitted.

I could feel my shoulder growing damp with sweat where Rachel's hot forehead rested against my skin. She was blisteringly hot. I had no idea what to do for her, but I knew I had to do something.

Standing up, I said, "I'm going to get you some ice water. You're burning up. Do you feel okay? Are you hurting?"

I didn't want to ask if she had cramps. The idea of Rachel going into early labor made me want to die even more than the idea of betraying my father.

I knew Richard Campbell had made terrible decisions, done terrible things, but Rachel? She'd done nothing to anyone from what I could tell. Her baby needed to be born healthy. She just had to be.

"No, no, I feel fine. Tired. Hot. Fine though," Rachel said, chuckling a little as she rubbed a hand over the mound of her belly, "I think I get bigger with every breath. Do you think I look bigger?"

"Yes," I said, not having the heart to lie to her.

I brought her ice water to her only for Art and Tyler to appear together; I knew they were rarely on the same page so seeing them together made my blood freeze in my veins.

I had thought I couldn't get any colder.

"It's time to go," Art said.

I could practically taste the apology on the tip of his tongue. My teeth chattered as I leaned down to hug Rachel, hoping to steal some of her heat for myself. I needed to thaw out a little if I was going to be of any use to them at all.

Rachel took her water from me and I left her in the care of Magda and Tyler. I was surprised Art had managed to get the Alpha to stay behind, but I supposed he was going to do whatever was necessary to protect his mate and child.

Art handed me a cell phone as we climbed stepped outside Wright House. I couldn't stop my fingers shaking as I took the phone from him. I didn't need him to tell me what to do next.

I'd already been told over and over how best to betray my father.

"Daddy!" I cried, my tears very real as they leaked from my eyes, streamed down my face, soaked into my shirt, "Tyler Wright says you and Peter stole me! They said Peter took me from a family you knew. An Alpha family from the pack. They say they're going to make me meet these strangers, Daddy! What do I do? I don't want to meet any strangers! I know you're my daddy. Help me, please. Meet me? Bring me home?"

My father stammered through protests before finally clearing his throat, "I'm going to meet you. Did they say where they got their information?"

"They got Peter! Or they say he came to them. To the Alpha Inspector. He doesn't want to go to the supernatural prison and he says he won't have to go if he tells them what you did. You didn't do anything, did you, Daddy?" I said, choking on my tears.

I didn't have to fake being unable to speak as my father told me where to meet him. I couldn't have spoken if I'd been able to come up with the words to use in the situation.

~*~

"We have to make him believe you're here with only Adam," Art said, explaining as if I hadn't heard him the first dozen times he'd instructed me.

Nodding, I scrunched down further into the front seat of the big sedan. I felt strange sitting beside Tyler's Beta in the front when I was accustomed to riding in the back of the sedan with the other Alpha occupants.

I wasn't to sit in the back now though. Art was going to hide back there behind the darkened windows; he had explained he had some skills to hide himself with as well though I wasn't sure what kind of magic he intended to use this time.

Art lay down in the back while I remained slumped in the front beside Adam. I was grateful the big Beta kept his mouth shut. I wasn't able to talk even if I had wanted to make conversation.

My father arrived in a car he drove himself, leaving me stunned as I saw him get out and approach the sedan, saying, "Lindy? Come on out, my darling girl."

I closed my eyes and prayed to the Moon Goddess to protect me during this exchange before getting out of the car.

"Daddy!" I cried, running toward him to wrap my arms around him as if he were still the same man who'd raised me all my life.

I enjoyed embracing him for a moment before I began to speak. I knew I had to ramble quickly to catch him off-guard. Art had been very specific about what he'd wanted me to say.

"Peter says locking Elena up was your idea! You stole me! He said you didn't even pay the people you took me from and you'd promised them money. Did you promise them money? It's a lie, isn't it, Daddy? You didn't lock up Elena. You never would have done that to your Luna, would you?" I said, practically breathless from rambling out all I was supposed to say.

A gun was thrust into my chest as Daddy said, "I'm so sorry, my girl. You were meant to be my sun. I never intended to hurt you. I didn't pay for you either. You were a gift. A very precious gift to me and to our House and now you're---"

"Hands up!" Art yelled, leaping from the back of the sedan with a gun of his own, "If you don't put your hands up, Richard Estes, I will shoot you where you stand."

"You wouldn't dare!" Daddy snarled, twirling me in his arms to hold my back against his chest as he leveled his gun against my temple making me scream in fright.

"Why not?" Art challenged, "You think I still need you? Elena is in a maximum security asylum. Peter knows the location precisely. I don't need you. You're going to the Alpha Council for judgement and that's the end for you, Estes."

"My name is Campbell," Daddy said as he cocked the hammer back on his revolver, lifting the gun then I heard the click of the trigger just before I lost consciousness.