Handling John was more difficult than I thought it would be. Deep down inside, I still blamed him for leaving my mother behind, and Kai wanted to tear him apart for what he had done to Riley's wolf.

Aiden was right though- it was Riley's call how to handle him and she had spared his life, even if his fate could be considered worse than death. So, I dropped him off at the train station and told him to never come back.

The drive back to the packhouse put me on an edge like never before. I knew that the confrontation that I was going to have with my father was going to be one that would impact our family and the pack because I was going to get answers and I was going to make him pay for what he had done. But first I needed to check on Nat.

I walked into her room and I found her sitting by the window, emptily staring outside. I hated that she had to go through what she did. It was the kind of thing that never leaves you even as you continue to live your life. Natalia was still so young, so pure- I feared the effect that the whole ordeal could have on her.

The moment saw me she jumped up and ran towards me, throwing herself on my neck.

"Rafe, you are okay! I am so happy to see you." Tears streamed down her face.

"Hey, kiddo. Shhhh, don't cry. I'm here. I hugged her tightly to try and soothe her. "Nat, it's okay. You are safe now, we all are. I will never let anything happen to you again, I promise."

"I thought I was never going to see you again, Rafe. Not you, not father, not Riley or Aiden. I don't remember much as I was unconscious for most of it but the moments when I was awake, I felt so lonely and the memories of all of you were what kept me going." She was still sobbing quietly in my arms.

"Don't be silly, Nat, you can never get rid of a stubborn prick like me so easily." My words made her laugh despite her tears which I wiped away from her beautiful face. "We will always be a team, kiddo, no matter what." I kissed her softly on the forehand and wrapped my arms around her once again.

She was clearly feeling better as she looked at me and smiled brightly. "I think I overheard that you are part of another team now," she said, raising an eyebrow at me.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh come on, I heard the others mention that you, Aiden and Riley are mates," I growled at the fact that the three idiots that brought her back to Scotland have ended up sharing this with my sister. "Calm down, Rafe- they didn't know that I was awake. But I am so happy for you- Riley is amazing and now I understand why she felt like an older sister."

She was looking at me with such excitement and happiness that I didn't really want to ruin the moment for her, not after everything she had been through. "We are....erm...still figuring it out."

"You are figuring it out? Rafe Macalister, if you do anything to drive her away, I swear I will make you suffer. You don't understand how happy it makes me that my favourite three people in the whole world are mates. You are perfect for each other."

She looked out of the window once again, something clearly on her mind. "I've always wanted to meet my mate. I...I hope he wants me and doesn't reject me. What if I am not good enough for him?"

Seeing her doubt herself like that broke my heart. She was beautiful, kind and an all-around amazing person- any man would be lucky to have her and should be honoured to have been chosen as her mate. "Don't be silly, Nat- you are unique and wonderful. Your mate will worship you when the day comes. And I am sure that he will be as lovely as you are."

She lifted herself on her toes and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Rafe- you are the best big brother a girl could ask for," she smiled at me.

"Listen, kiddo, mates and everything aside, there is something that I need to tell you."

I pulled her to sit on the bed together with me and I told her what we had found out from John. I tried to spare her some of the details where I could, as I wanted her to know the truth but not what a monster our father was exactly.

"I am going to confront him now, Nat, and if he admits to everything, I will ask him to stand down as Alpha and to leave the pack forever," I told her as I finished explaining.

"I understand. I want to come with you though- what he has done has affected me just as much, so I want to be there to hear what he will say."

We slowly made our way downstairs but our father was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, someone told us that we could find him in the garden but I was more than surprised to find him at the last place that I would have ever expected to be - my mother's memorial plaque.

We had picked a wonderful, secluded space in the garden for it, as her body was never recovered but the pack and our family needed a place where we could mourn and remember her. My mother loved flowers so we planted some of her favourite ones around the plaque. It's what made it one of my favourite places on the pack's grounds- it always felt like she was around whenever I went to spend time there.

Natalia and I visited regularly, even though Nat barely remembered mother as she was still a toddler when we lost her. But my father was never seen there, not even when the plaque was first put in place. Everyone thought that it was because the Alpha struggled with losing his Luna but now I wondered if it was because of guilt.

Yet, there he was- standing right in front of the plaque, with a glass of whisky in hand. Was he perhaps feeling remorseful because of Nat's kidnapping?

"Father," I spoke first, making him turn to look at us.

"Ah, well isn't this a family reunion?" It could have nearly been a touching moment if it wasn't for the bitterness and sarcasm in his tone.

"I found John. At the mansion. Scott and Travis are dead, and John lost his wolf."

"Fools." That was my father, alright.

Anything aside from victory and success was a failure. He also believed that an Alpha should show no feelings, no remorse, no regret because that made an Alpha weak. Hell, in his opinion it made any wolf shifter weak. Wolf shifters were meant to be fearless, savage, strong, merciless. That is also why he couldn't accept that my sister was born as an Omega. Omegas were feelers- they sensed the feelings of others and helped them heal or find their path. My father made Nat suppress her Omega side so much since she was a child, that she struggled to use her Omega powers by now. It was perhaps a blessing though as I would have hated her to have been able to feel all the pain of the shifters at that dungeon.

"He told me...about you and Markolf, about the Moreaus. About mother."

My father looked at me surprised but not like he had any regret. "He knows nothing, that fool."

"Tell us then. Were you so weak that you had to make a deal with a demon offspring?" My father's pride was the one thing that I knew I could count on to get him to speak. "Let me guess- you were scared by Margot Moreau and you went to the cambion, begging him to help you?"

Before I even finished what I was saying, his face had already reddened and his nostrils were flaring with anger. "You little fucker, I am not weakling and I didn't need that fucking demon to solve my problems. I could have handled Moreau on my own," he snapped at me.

"So why did you go running to him for help then?"

"Running to him for help?" he laughed, "He came to me. He said that he knew that the Moreaus were a thorn in my life and they were - Margot Moreau was causing chaos with her stupid ideas of unity and working together. Did she not know that wolves are the greatest of all shifters? We don't need to mingle with some lesser kinds, let alone work with them. But she was dead set on ruining it for all of us... and to think that she came from a great shifter family. Shame for her ancestors- bet they were turning in their graves because of her."

He was now pacing angrily across the garden as he continued. "When he offered to help out in return for something that would have made it impossible for the whole thing to get back to me, I would have been a fool to say no. Do you think that this pack is one of the greatest because of foolish decisions, boy?"

"I didn't use to think that but I am starting to change my mind. You killed some of your own kind to do a favour for a cambion and to advance your own stupid ambitions."

"Their deaths were.....unfortunate. It wasn't intended- John and Scott were simply meant to extract their wolves with the device that they were given and I had been assured that they would have continued living after. But who would have followed the Moreaus if they were no longer shifters? It was a win-win situation. Until they fucked it up and the Moreaus died. It's the girl that he wanted most of all but those halfwits couldn't even do that."

"He wanted Riley's wolf? Why? Why did he want any of them?"

"Do you think I gave a toss why? When an opportunity presents itself, you either make the most of it or you fail. That's what makes a great Alpha."

"A great Alpha?" I was seeing red by now and Kai was equally angry inside my head. "You, great Alpha, left your Luna, your mate- my mother- to die. What kind of a shitty Alpha does that? What kind of a failure of an Alpha allows for any harm to come to his mate?" I grabbed him by the collar, shaking him violently as I was barely still keeping my cool. I heard Nat call my name but even she couldn't stop me right now. "Answer me, you fucking bastard?"

My father broke away from my grip, sneaking in a punch to my stomach that I had not expected in my anger. "You little shit- that's what you are. How dare you talk to me like that? I am your Alpha before being your father." I found myself on the ground from his punch and the satisfied bastard started walking away, as Nat ran over to me. "You are nothing- I have made you everything that you are today. And I see that you are not fit to lead this pack."

As he moved away from us, suddenly he stopped and turned to look back at me. "I did care for your mother and letting her go was not easy for me. But having a mate makes you weak and vulnerable, and weak Alphas are Alphas bound to fail."

His words made me flinch in disgust as I recognised similar thinking in myself since I found out that Riley was my mate. Was I really a scumbag like my dad for thinking that my mate was my weakness? I didn't have time to ponder about it as he continued.

"I even had to get warlocks to help me sever my mate bond with her so that losing her didn't kill me. I did what I had to do to protect our lineage and our pack, and your mother would have agreed with me, even if for a different reason. Shame that I had to sacrifice her for a worthless son like you. Hell, neither of my children deserves to carry the Macalister family name. You are both an embarrassment."

I felt the anger wash over me. Anger for the Moreaus, for my mother, for what he had done to my sister and me, for the shitty father that he was. It was like a dam burst inside me and all the resentment and pain that had been amassing over the years were now ready to break out. Before I knew it, I had already shifted and I charged toward him. The coppery taste of blood filled my muzzle as I bit into his leg, making him scream in agony.

"You ungrateful little shit," he cried out and elbowed Kai in the snout, making us stumble backwards for a second. That was long enough for him to shift though. My father's brown wolf was now in front of me, his lips puckered and his fur all bristled. Good, so we both meant this.

Are you really daring to challenge your Alpha, Rafe? There is no going back from this, my father said as he mind-linked.

I don't want to go back- this ends now, father.

He snapped at me before he lunged forward, but his injured leg had not healed yet so his slower speed was no match. I moved in time for him to miss me, which only seemed to frustrate him more. He made the mistake of turning his back to me though, even if briefly, which was enough time for Kai to attack him and sink his razor-sharp teeth into his shoulder. The brown wolf howled in pain but Kai was not letting go, throwing him around while Kai was still latched onto his shoulder. Eventually, he threw him over to one side, causing my father's wolf to crash into a tree.

He lay there semi-conscious on the ground as I contemplated whether to finish him on until I saw Natalia's scared face. Tears were once again rolling down her cheeks and I didn't want her to live with these images of her father and her brother tearing each other apart. My father must have known by now that his time had come to an end anyway.

Effective as of now, you are no longer the Alpha of the Windcrest pack. You will leave immediately and you will never return- not to Scotland, not to the UK or Europe. I don't care what you do or where you go. As far as Nat and I are concerned, our father is dead, I told him through our mind link and made my way to Natalia.

I had nearly reached her when I heard his voice in my head.

You think you can dethrone me? Angus Macalister? Think again, boy.

"Rafe, behind you," I heard Natalia scream but before I could turn around, I felt a big ball of fur crash into Kai, sending both wolves tumbling to the ground.

Kai didn't even get a chance to get up before the other wolf attacked and I felt a stabbing pain in the stomach, as Kai got bitten. He howled in pain before he clawed at my father's wolf, making him back out. Despite our injury though, my father stood no chance- Kai was bigger, faster and stronger than his wolf. So when the two wolves charged toward each other, both snapping at one another as they collided, it didn't take long for Kai to push my father's wolf to the ground. Kai then jumped on top of him, immobilising him, before he ripped his throat out, putting an end to the life of Angus Macalister.

I shifted back to my human form, placing my hand over the bleeding puncture wounds on my stomach as Nat came over with a torn piece of her jumper to stop the bleeding. As I stood there looking at the dead body of my father, all I could smell was the sweet scent of the rose bushes around my mother's plaque, her favourite flowers. For a second I felt like I could smell her presence, her arms wrapping around me, telling me that it was all going to be okay. It was my sister's embrace that brought me back to the present moment though.

When I looked around I saw that the garden had now filled up with several pack members, many of them looking stunned at the demise of their Alpha. I couldn't care less though- I did what had to be done and I did not plan to give anyone an explanation. I ignored the crown as Nat grabbed one of my arms and put it around her shoulders to help me walk back to the packhouse. Yet, while we slowly made our way through the garden, I saw all the present pack members bow their heads and howl in respect.

As we reached the door of the mansion, one of the younger wolves opened the door to let us in, bowing his head as well before he spoke to me, "Alpha."