Cai's voice was cold to the point that it made me almost shiver. My wolf lifted her nose, her exhaustion was heavy but even she had to react to the coldness that Cai had used. I looked over my shoulder and his dark eyes were hard as they looked at me.

"Its true." I spoke the truth and I wouldn't back away from that.

"It takes more than blood to make a father, Sorrel." He made his way down the stairs and his form seemed almost larger as he looked down at me. I didn't like him looming over me, he knew that.

"It takes more than a male who watched a mother get abused to make a father." I spat the words out, glowering at the vampire. My anger rolled through me as I looked at him. He had been a big supporter in my search for vengeance and now he was defending the male who had stood by when Maggie had suffered so horribly?

"Sorrel, enough." His form flickered around the edges and I pulled my shoulders back, turning towards him.

"Do you think I had a choice?" The words were growled as they came from the male behind me and I whirled around, pointing at him.

"There is always a choice and you chose to let her suffer!" My breath hitched in my chest at the thought of what Maggie had suffered right before my head throbbed harshly.

"There was no choice for me!" He thumped his chest with a closed fist, his teeth bared. "Malak was my Alpha and an Alpha's Command is absolute." A deep growl rolled from his chest and I matched it with one of my own.

"That is a fucking cop-out." He was removing the blame he had, bowing out of it all. I refused to allow him to do that, to remove himself from blame. He had been there. He could have stopped it and he didn't. He let it happen, let it continue.

"That is enough." Cai's voice came out on a hissing rumble and he grabbed my arm before reaching into the sunlight, his skin burning as he grabbed Arlo's aem and yanked us both through the shadows and into the coven without warning.

The moment we stumbled out of the shadows I whirled around at Cai as he let me go. My head throbbed at the suddenness of the change in environment as well as the shadow walking. "What the hell, Mordecai?!" I did not appreciate being drug through the shadows without warning.

He pointed at me, his form flickering. "You are going to listen to reason and you are going to be quiet." His tone was low and cold and I glowered at him. I didn't like being ordered around, it grated on me and my wolf, despite the fact she was down and out I knew it grated on her.

I ground my teeth together in agitation. "You honestly-"

"Shut. Up." The clipped words that came from him stunned me for a moment. Cai had never spoken to me like that before. "That male is Madeline's father. He raised her from an infanr. You will allow him to have contact with her." He gestured to Arlo and I blinked in disbelief. First he was speaking to me like he had never spoken to me before and now he was on the male's team?

"I can't believe that-"

Mordecai loomed over me once more, his dark eyes glinting like obsidian. "He will have her every second day until such a point where he can assimilate into the pack to be closer to her, then he will be allowed to see her daily." Each words came out calm and with a heavy order that I bristled against. I glanced between the two of them, making note of how at ease Arlo seemed to be with the coven, with the surroundings. I could even smell faint hints of his scent in the air.

My eyes widened with shock as I put it together. "Has he... Has he been staying here?" A tightness encased my chest as I stared between Cai and the male. My heart hurt at the knowledge.

"You will speak to him about her progress, allow him to attend her therapy, and will speak no ill about him or Tenebris around Madeline." His words barely registered as a sharp feeling of betrayal lanced through me.

"You took him in?" Cai had taken him in, the male who stood by and watched Maggie's brutalization, her torment. He took him into the family, into the coven. He had brought him into my home.

"You do not have to become friends with him but you will be civil." He continued to speak, ignoring everything that I was saying. It was like I hadn't been speaking at all.

Anger rolled into the betrayal, crashing together inside of me. "After everything you decided to pull this shit?" I couldn't help how the pitch of my voice rose as the anger surged through my veins. It was a comfort to me now, so many years of it rolling through me, of me falling into it to hide from hurt made it a security blanket for me.

"There will be no more blaming him for Maggie's situation-"

"No!" I hated how I shouted it, how petulant it sounded but I was getting a bit frantic at him not listening to me, of feeling my support team leave me high and dry. Mordecai had been with me every step of the way since Maggie had died and now he was throwing me into the fray with no support. "No. This is bullshit!" My breathing was coming out in frantic pants as I stared at him in hurt, angry, disbelief.

"Sorrel." His hissed my name, his dark eyes flickering red as his outline blurred with his own anger.

I shook my head frantically. "No! I spent over three years feeling Maggie die again and again." My head hurt and it grew worse as tears pricked at my eyes. I had lived her death again and again and again. There was no respite, not relief from what I experienced in her memories. Night after night I was filled with fragmented shards, feelings of events, emotions and hardships. "I feel her fear, her pain, her hurt, her hopelessness. I feel everything she suffered at the hands of that pack and you are telling me to play nice?" I couldn't believe him.

"You cannot judge a culture you have not experienced for yourself." He pointed at me, his expression hard. "The Old Ways are much more complex and there is innocent people among them. Arlo is one of them." His jaw tensed and relaxed repeatedly.

"That's bullshit!" To watch that happen and to not do anything meant there was no innocence. "I have years of sleepless nights. Years of waking up sobbing over what they did to her. Years of anger and hatred and despair of the fact I couldn't save her, that I couldn't bring her home." I clenched my fists, my claws digging into my palms. My wolf was exhausted but even she was angry with Cai. "And you want me to play nice with a male who had a chance at saving her but didn't?" It tore at me that he would ask that of me, That he would forget why I had been seeking out Tenebris to begin with.

His eyes narrowed as he gestured to the male. "He isn't-"

I snapped my teeth together in agitation. "He is just as guilty as the male who hurt her! He stood back and let it happened, turned a blind eye, pretended it didn't exist! He ignored it and Maggie was killed." I angrily wiped at my face, I wanted the burning in my eyes to go away. I hated that he was making me think about it, making me bring it all up again. "How is that okay, Cai? How are you okay with looking at him, helping him, knowing that?" He knew how much it devastated me that Maggie had no help, he knew how I lived through it again and again. He knew, yet he did it anyway.

"Enough, Sorrel." His voice was clipped and I felt my chin tremble. I didn't want to cry. I didn't want to feel upset by this. "Without Arlo, Madeline would have died. You have her because of him. He turned his back on all he knew to make sure she was safe. Listen to reason." Reason? He called ignoring what the male did, ignoring how he refused to help Maggie, reasonable?

"Why are you defending him?" I didn't understand it. For so long he spent advocating for me to take my revenge and now he was protecting those who deserved to be punished. "You spent years helping me track them down, helping me push through the sadness with hate and now you are defending him?" I couldn't believe it. The anger rose up sharply in my chest and I stepped towards him. "Three years, Mordecai! And you are defending them?" That thought pissed me off.

"I am listening to reason." Cai puffed himself up in response to my sudden aggressive stance. I knew a fight with him wouldn't end well but what he was doing hurt me more than anything physical.

Arlo stepped towards us, holding out his hands in a gesture of peace. "Hey, let's calm down."

I gave a heavy growl as I locked my eyes onto him. "Calm down?" He had no right to tell me to calm down, no right to get in between us, to insert himself into this argument.

"Arlo, just back away." Mordecai kept his gaze on me and I stepped towards Arlo, the deep growl rattling my chest.

"Calm down?" I would show him calm when I tore him to pieces.

Cai grabbed my arm, yanking me so I faced him. "Sorrel, you have to understand that Arlo would have helped Maggie if he could. He loved her, like you did." He pointed at me, speaking low and to my face as he did so.

I slapped his hand away from me. "Its not called love when you let your supposed loved one die in front of you and you don't say a word." I spat the words out, narrowing my eyes at the male. I liked how he flinched, he needed to be reminded that he had a hand in extinguishing one of the most beautiful souls in our world.

"That is not fair." Cai grasped my chin in a tight grip, yanking my face so I was forced to look at him and not the male.

"Its the truth!" I tried to pull my face from his grip but it was unrelenting, on the touch of painful. "His love is not like mine. I would have fought day and night to make sure she was safe. I would have crossed oceans, moved mountains, and changed the course of rivers to make sure she was safe. He stood back and did nothing." I hated the angry tears that filled my eyes but I had loved Maggie so much. I would have traded my path for hers. If I had the chance I would have switched places with her in an instant. "That isn't love." My love for Maggie was all encompassing, for Cai, of all people, to say Arlo's love for Maggie matched mine was inherently wrong.

"Don't you think I wanted to help her?" Arlo puffed up and I snapped my teeth, managing to get my chin free from Cai's grip.

I glowered at the male darkly. "I don't care what you wanted to do. Your actions speak more clearly than you ever could." He had let her suffer, let her die. "How are you going to look Madeline in the eyes and tell her that her daddy did nothing while her mummy was killed?" How would Madeline react to such a thing? I didn't want her to endure the pain that I felt. I didn't want it to lance through her, drag her down, like it did me.

"Enough!" A hissing rumble escaped Cai's chest. "He will be allowed to see Madeline. He will be a part of her life and you will be done with this." He said each word carefully and forcefully and I wanted to laugh at the hypocrisy he was showing.

"You spent years building up this anger and my need for vengeance and you want it to simply be done with?" He had helped create the beast and he couldn't say a few words and make it go away. I didn't like the anger and the rage and the need for justice. I didn't like how it consumed me but it was there and I had to deal. "Oh no. That is not how this works, Mordecai." I shook my head as I stared at him. That was not how it worked and he knew that.

"You will figure this shit out, Sorrel, and you will leave him alone about it." He pointed to me and then to Arlo.

"Will I? Is that what I am going to do?" I crossed my arms over my chest, throwing him a look as I narrowed my eyes. "Because from my position there is a lot more I can do. Protecting Madeline from the influence of those that let Maggie die is just one part of it." I would protect her from everything that could hurt her. I had failed Maggie, I wouldn't fail Madeline.

A heavy snarl escaped Arlo. "She is my daughter!"

I returned the sound. "She was my twin!" I thumped my chest with my fist. "My rock, my port in the storm and you helped take her away from me. If I have to take Madeline away from you to make sure she is safe, so be it." I would do anything to make sure she was safe.

"You are a fucking bitch." The cold words came from Cai and I quickly turned to look at him.

"Excuse me?" I wasn't quite sure I had heard him right.

"I will not associate with you while you continue this cruel and unnecessary behaviour." His tone dropped in temperature to the point it was nearly frigid. His words registered and I felt the colour drain from my face.

"What are you saying, Cai?" He wouldn't associate with me? As in he wouldn't come around anymore? Panic at the thought gripped me tightly.

"Until such a time when you are going to act like an adult and not a spoiled and petulant child and when you can control your fucking temper and change your behaviour. You are barred from the Coven." At the words I felt like I was dizzy as my heart pounded hard in my chest.

"What?" He wouldn't bar me from the coven. It was my family, the coven was my home away from the pack. If he took that away I would no longer have any family left.

"You will have no contact, you will have no help, you will have no support from any vampire." Each of the words that came clipped from his mouth made the panic compound within me. I felt my breathing increase rapidly in response to the panic. "From this moment on, you aren't my Zoi, you are just a bitch who looks like her." The words were a heavy punch to the chest. I was no longer his Zoi? I felt like I was wheezing, like I couldn't get air into my lungs. "Penelope, take her back to Veritas." The female vampire appeared immediately, looking between us.

"Cai? What the hell does that mean?" I moved towards him, my heart in my throat. He couldn't just bar me from the coven. It was my home. They were my family. They were all I had left. I couldn't let him push me out, without them I would no longer had a feeling of home.

I reached for him and he whirled around, slapping my hand away so hard I yelped at the pain it caused. He ignored it as foreign curses rolled from his mouth as his form flickered, going more shadowy. His eyes reddened and I cradled my throbbing hand to my chest as I watched him change. I glanced at Penelope and she looked stricken as she looked between the two of us. I didn't know what he was saying, what his words meant. I was his Zoi, he had told me nothing could ever change that.

The shift completed and I stared at Cai's shadowy form with wide eyes before he stormed forward. I took several steps backwards before his shadowy hands reached out and shoved me hard. I inhaled deeply as I was sent flying through the shadows. Panic gripped me as they clung to me, holding me tightly as if they never wanted to let me go. I couldn't breathe as they wrapped around me, snake like tendrils wrapped around me, again and again. My mind slowly began to feel fuzzy and numb, as if everything was very far away.

Without warning something hard slammed into me and I was yanked free from the shadows that enclosed me. I coughed violently as I hit the floor of my office, my lungs took in the air greedily. Penelope was clinging to me, her form shaking and her face pale. "Holy shit. He's going to flip when he realized what he just did." She stared at me with wide eyes before covering her mouth. "I- I don't... fuck..." She swallowed convulsively as she looked at me, her eyes scanned my face and my heart pounded harshly in my chest at the look she had given me.

"Am I really no longer his Zoi?" The words twisted and cracked as they came out. Sobs stuck in my chest, it felt empty and hollow as panic and hysteria filled up the hollow space that Cai's words had created.

"Zoi is eternal. He cannot take that from you." Her eyes slowly hardened before she reached for me and pulled me close into a loving hug that I sank into. "When... when he comes back to his senses... when he comes back to you. Deny him like he just denied you." It was an order but I didn't acknowledge it as she pulled back from the embrace.

She cupped my face in her hands. "Those shadows showed me much and there is not a lot I can say but when you bleed as your mind crumbles, seek the white striped witch who lives in a castle in the middle of it all." She searched my gaze, her eyes silently begging me to listen to her words. The stricken and pale look on her face grew worse as she looked at me. "Death clings to you, Sorrel. He wants what you have." The words cracked and I could see tears gathered in her eyes. She looked like seen something horrid that involved me.

My heart lurched in my chest. "What do I have?" I didn't know what I had that he could possibly want.

"A soul that once begged for death." Th words slammed into me and I felt like I was going to throw up. Death wanted my soul and I swallowed convulsively to keep the bile down. Penelope turned her head, looking at the shadows. "I have to go and I can't come back. When he lifts the ban I will come straight to you but I can't stay." she hugged me again, holding me tightly before she released me.

Her entire form shook as she looked at me. "I'm scared for you, Sorrel, because death will come and he won't leave without what he wants." She wiped at her eyes, looking like she wanted to reach out and pull me close again. I wanted her to as well but she slowly moved backwards towards the shadows, her eyes never leaving my form. I let out a small whimper as she disappeared.

Death was coming for me and I was cut off from my chosen family. I rubbed at my chest, tears falling from behind my closed eye lids. For the first time in a long time I was scared and I was scared because I knew I was now alone. I pulled my knees up to my chest, holding them tightly to attempt to bring calm to my rolling brain. I could hear everyone laughing and playing downstairs and I sniffled. I pressed my forehead to my knees, holding back the sobs that wanted to escape.

What was the one thing one could truly do against death when he wanted their soul? It was a question I knew the painfully terrifying answer to.

They could die.