Chapter 53: Evelyn: A Brother’s Bitter Truth
Evelyn~
There were so many questions swirling in my head about Theron and Rael’s relationship. I still didn’t fully understand their family lore, but based on their conversation, it seemed they shared the same mother but had different fathers.
At least that explained why their scents carried almost the same aroma.
Unfortunately, their brotherly bond seemed complicated and filled with countless misunderstandings.
Even so, although they looked like they despised each other and wanted nothing more than to throw punches at one another’s faces, I could still see that deep down, they still cared.
Neither of them truly wanted the other dead. Well ... maybe Theron’s wolf thought otherwise, but that seemed to be the exception.
That was why, when Rael was about to say something that would cut Theron’s heart too deep, I quickly stood up and pressed my hand over his mouth.
"Don’t say something you’ll regret later," I whispered, my eyes locked on his emerald ones. "Your brother doesn’t hate you, Rael. I can see it. I can feel it."
Those weren’t empty words, nor just an attempt to calm him down.
I could really see that Theron cared about him, even if he also felt betrayed.
Honestly, both of them believed that the other had betrayed them, and unless that misunderstanding was cleared, they would never find peace with each other.
In other words, sooner or later, I was bound to get pulled into their mess too.
Before things turned into a headache, I needed to step in and calm them down. If I really had more than one mate, then the least I could hope for was that they’d learn to live in peace with each other instead of acting like they wanted to throw punches every time they met.
"I might not have any siblings, but I’ve met plenty of people in my life." I glanced between Rael and Theron. "And I know how to tell who’s sincere and who only pretends to care."
Both of them fell silent, their eyes flickering toward each other for the briefest moment before quickly looking away. Neither wanted to admit it, but the truth was written all over their faces.
"Tell me, Rael," Theron was the first to break the silence. His voice was softer this time, stripped of the sharpness from before. "What are the things you know ... that I don’t?"
Rael’s lips curved into a bitter smile, though there was no joy in it. "Do you really want to know, brother?" he asked quietly, his emerald eyes darkening.
"The King drove me out because I wouldn’t stop digging for the truth. I wanted to know which pack destroyed ours back then. I kept asking questions, kept chasing answers he didn’t want me to find, and for that, he called me a threat."
Rael began pacing around the room, restless as memories from over a decade ago came flooding back.
"You think I left because I wanted to?" He suddenly stopped, then strode quickly up to Theron. "No. Hell no. Why would I ever leave a place filled with food like that?"
Honestly, he had a point. If it were me, I wouldn’t leave the palace either, not with meals like that every day.
My wolf snorted inside my head. "Says the one who once tried to run away and ended up burned."
I rolled my eyes inwardly. ’That was in the past.’
But now that I thought about it, could it be that Theron had purposely set up the explosive magic barriers around the palace to keep people from escaping in secret?
That barrier ... was it actually built because of Rael?
The thought left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, I was relieved they knew each other. But on the other hand, I hadn’t expected them to be that close.
Was it even legal to be in a relationship with two brothers at the same time?
Before my thoughts could wander further, Rael spoke again, his voice filled with anger. "That bastard ... the man you call Father threw me out in the middle of the night." He let out a bitter laugh. "No, not even throw me out. I wasn’t even awake when it happened. He had people drag me out while I was unconscious! One moment I was in the palace, the next I woke up in the middle of fucking dark forest!"
He spat the words with so much emotion, as if the grudge inside him had never faded even after all these years.
He was furious, so furious that instead of screaming, he slammed his foot against the table.
"But are you really sure the ones who dragged you away were the people you think they were?" I asked quietly, making Rael freeze mid-motion.
It wasn’t that I didn’t believe him, but if he was that certain, shouldn’t there have been some undeniable proof?
Rael gritted his teeth, but when he looked at me, his gaze softened just a little. "Who else could it be?" he said. "He hated me so much because I was the child of the man who stole his Luna."
Theron finally spoke, his voice low and heavy. "Rael ... did you kill my father just because of that reckless assumption?"
"No! Of course not!" Rael defended himself. "Do you think I spent those two years doing nothing but trying to survive? I didn’t just hide, I searched. I hunted down the ones who destroyed our pack ... and I finally found them."
He stopped there, breathing hard, as if the memory itself weighed him down. After a long pause, he asked quietly, "Do you know where I found them?"
Theron’s eyes narrowed. "Where?"
"The cemetery," Rael said at last. "Every last one of them was already dead. Without exception. But that wasn’t even the part that shocked me most." He lowered his voice. "They weren’t even from a single werewolf pack. They ... were mercenaries."
I found both of them falling silent for a moment. Rael seemed to be waiting for Theron to process the information, while Theron’s brows furrowed as he tried to think it through.
"Mercenaries?" I was the one who finally broke the silence. "But ... aren’t those kinds of people ridiculously expensive to hire?"