DYLAN ||

Liam is our father...

I heard the words, I promise I heard them, but they weren't sinking in.

Liam is our father....

I slowly backed away from the men in this room, until my back hit the wall on the other side of the room. I stared into the eyes of the man I now know as Liam.

This man can't be my dad, it's just not possible. My dad's name is Dean, he's the man that's raised me for as long as I could remember, he's the man who taught me everything I know, he's the man who helped me with my first steps, my first words, the one who sang to me on my birthday, the one who taught me how to ride a bike and helped me through my first shift.

"But he's also the man who tried to kill your brother."

I gasp when I hear Maddox's voice flood my mind. He's back, my wolf's back! The only one in this room that I know definitively, I can trust, well besides my brother, why would he lie about this?

I look back at my brother and see the pain behind his eyes.

Damn it..

What if he's not lying, what if everything he said was true, it has to be true. Why would he lie about this, but why would my dad lie about his death? Fuck...

"Dylan." My eyes snap to the man named Liam.

"I know this is a lot to take in..."

"A lot to take in?" I scoff. "This is extreme! My bestfriend has been keeping this huge secret from me, I find out he's helping a random feline, then my brother who I believed was dead for 7 fucking years, shows up and he doesn't even look the same, then I hear the two men that's raised me are the reasons for his disappearance, they tried to kill him, and now.... Now I hear that the man I thought was my father, isn't my father..." I shake my head.

"No, this isn't alot to take in.... This is too much." I tell him, putting my hands out to keep anyone at bay, who even thought to approach me right now.

I was spiraling, legit spiraling. This is way too fucking much for my overwhelmed brain to process. I just accepted the fact that I might be gay, but now everyone wants me to just accept that everything in my life up until this point was a lie.

Accept that everything they told me is true?

Shit.. even if it is, I can't just accept this man as my dad, I don't know him and what about my mom? Did she know about this? Why did she leave this Liam guy and raise us around Dean?

"Ask him, Dylan. Every single question you have, ask him. Hear him out and then make a decision after you have all of the information."

"I don't want all of the information Maddox! I'm confused, I just want my mate. He's the only person that makes sense."

"I want our mate too Dylan, but right now, we're in a different packs territory and they are loyal to their alpha, so don't go acting all dylan on everyone. Think things through and listen for a change... you know Raiden would tell you the same thing."

I hate it when my wolf makes sense, although I've grown oddly attached to the beast ever since he helped me save Raiden that night.

Groaning because I knew my stupid, lovable wolf was right. I rolled my eyes before looking at Liam again, agreeing this is what my mate would tell me to do. Think before reacting, so I do.

"I'm listening."

He nods.

"What I tell you will probably set you off or further confuse you, but I'm going to try my best to explain everything the best I can, son."

Son...

I turned away slightly at his affection towards me, I didn't want to accept this, it was all just too weird.

"I guess I should start with Gabe's involvement in all of this." Liam says, smiling at my beta before looking back at me.

"Gabe's father, Emilio used to be my beta when I was the alpha of your pack, Wolf's Claw." Liam says turning back to Gabe. "But that's not all he was to me, Emilio was my fated mate, we found out when we both turned 18."

My jaw dropped.

How in the fuck??

"So Gabe is my... my..." I trail off because I just couldn't bring myself to say the word.

"No, he's not your brother." Liam answers for me, knowing exactly what I was trying to say.

"Emilio and I knew the laws back then, how strict they were when it came to same sex bonds, so we rejected each other after one year and then we took chosen mates. Emilio took Gabe's mother and I took yours." Liam tells me.

I nod for him to continue.

"Jade, your mother, she was the next love of my life. My love for Emilio never died out, neither did his for me, but we knew we couldn't be together, so I made him my beta and we both started our lives with our chosen mates. When I first met Jade, she was amazing. Sweet, polite, caring, loving, beautiful smile." Liam smiles, I'm sure at the memory of meeting my mom.

"Eventually, we fell in love and had Bennett a few months later. I was 20 at the time, super young to be an alpha and a father, but I loved everything about it, so I made it work."

Liam turns to my brother.

"Bennett was everything and more to me, he was the one thing I didn't know I needed until the day in the pack hospital when he was born and he grabbed my finger for the first time, staring at me with those big blue eyes and I knew from that moment on, I would do anything for my family, anything to keep him safe, anything to love him and your mother."

Liam turns to me then.

"And then you came along 3 years later. Literally the smallest, craziest, loudest, chaotic little bundle of joy I've ever seen. You kept the pack mothers on their toes and even your mother couldn't keep you in line, you were so damn rambunctious and silly." Liam laughed, shaking his head.

"I loved you and Bennett and Jade more than anything in the world and I would have done whatever needed to be done to protect you all."

Liam visibly started to shake as he bounced on the balls of his feet. Gabe rubbed his back and nods for him to continue.

"I'll never forget the day that it all happened." Tears fell down his cheeks. "The day Jade met Dean."

I push off the wall just enough to stand upright at the mention of my parents, well my mom and whoever Dean was to me.

"The day your mother met Dean was the worst day of my life.." He took a deep breath. "Dean was her fated mate and with me only being her chosen, their bond was a lot stronger than ours, even though they just met and we had been together for 3 years at that point."

"I knew she tainted our bond the day she met him because I felt the pain of it all, I had the taint marks, I could feel her betrayal."

My eyes brim with tears as I watched the man in front of me try to escape his own emotions.

"So why did you leave? Why did Dean become alpha?" I ask, wanting the truth behind it all.

"Do you know why the silver river is such an important place Dylan?" Liam asks, I shake my head.

"It's the place where challenges were held back in the day. It symbolized strength within its rapids, the beauty of a new beginning with its steady onward flow and the tranquility needed to become all that is an alpha wolf."

I didn't know that, I've never heard of the silver river before I sent Hunter and Gabe on that scouting trip, now that I think about it, they probably were checking out the shadow pack and Hunter didn't even know.

On the beauty and tranquility side of the silver river is where they found Roman stuck in one of the human traps, it's where Taj found and saved my brother, then on the strength side is where Dean and Jake tried to kill my brother....

That's a crazy amount of symbolism if you ask me. Maybe that river is special to wolves.

"Well, that's the place where Dean and his rogue wolves challenged me for my title of Alpha of the Wolf's Claw pack." Liam says.

My eyes widen at the mention of Dean being a rogue. What the fuck, like when did, how?

"Dad, I mean Dean, was a rogue?" I ask in disbelief, Liam nods.

"Yes, he was a rogue, so was Jake and majority of the Wolf's Claw pack that exists now."

I let out a shaky breath.

"When Dean challenged me for my title, he won, but not because of strength, he poisoned me. Weakening me, causing my wolf to go dormant."

"It was the only way he knew he could win, but because I didn't have proof, I couldn't report him to the council and he was able to take over my pack." Liam clenched his jaw. "He could have locked me away, I wished he had a heart and allowed me to stay in the pack with a rank demotion, but he forced me to go rogue, completely kicking me out of the pack I was born and raised into, the pack I loved, the pack I protected with everything I had, the pack that's been in my family for centuries."

What the fuck....

"After he forced me to go rogue, you would think he would have given the same option to the rest of my pack, but he didn't..."

I watched as he closed his eyes and shook his head before sniffling. His emotions felt all over the place as he tried to continue with the story that I could see, damaged him so much.

"Dean and his rogue wolves slaughtered my entire pack.... everyone I knew, everyone I loved was gone. My parents, my siblings, women and men. The only ones that survived my old pack were Emilio and the pups."

"They killed everyone and kept Emilio because Jade told him who he was to me. Dean knew that Emilio was my beta and my fated mate that I rejected because I had to, he wanted to further humiliate me, he wanted to hurt me, so he kept Emilio and killed Gabe's mother.... Dean demoted Emilio to omega rank and forced him into working in the packhouse as one of their servants..... But that wasn't the worst part, son."

His eyes met mine once again.

"When he forced me to go rogue, I begged your mother to come with me. I didn't want to lose absolutely everyone I loved, I couldn't lose her and I couldn't lose you and Bennett, but she refused to come with me..." His tears fell freely.

"She refused to come with me and she kept you and your brother. She said she couldn't sacrifice being with me while she had security with Dean.... so they made me leave and you both were raised under her care as well as Dean's."

He smiled softly before wiping his tears away and taking a deep breath.

"I watched you both from the borders for years, your mom kept you from me since Bennett was 5 and you were 2."

Fuck.. he's watched me for 21 years?!

"I've watched how strong you both were, how determined, how much you looked just like me with your brown hair and blue eyes, your personalities were that of mine, your skills, your power, all that of true alphas... I was so proud of you both."

Liam leans over and hugs Bennett before wiping my brothers tears away.

"Your alpha took everything from me and when I was able to build my own pack of nothing but the rogues he used to be, I found the courage to come for what's mine."

I gasped as my breath caught in my throat. His words, they were so much like that first message.

Liam kissed Bennett's forehead then turned to look at me.

"I never stopped loving you."

The second message...

My heart started pounding even harder as he started to walk towards me. Slowly taking his time crossing the room, I was scared, I swallowed nervously as he stopped in front of me. His hands reach out and cup my face, I couldn't do much but freeze under his gaze that mirrored that of love and familiarity.

"I watched you from afar, I never strayed, I was always a river away, you weren't the reason I left, you were the reason I couldn't stay."

The last message..

They were for me..

Not because he wanted to hurt me, but because he loved me, he loved the man he thought was his son....

"Liam was the last piece to your puzzle my child, enjoy your blessing, enjoy your picture."

I stared into his eyes as more and more tears filled my own. The moment the words of a certain woman flooded my mind, I swear I felt it.

The familial bond

It was like this intense burning feeling that only my family could relieve, the more I looked into his eyes, the more the burning seized to exist, until it was just a simmer of what once was.

His emotions were melting into mine, I could feel Liam, my brother, my mom, everything was so intense. All of their emotions creating a beautiful mixture of what is my familial bond.

I could feel Liam's despair and his pain when he lost us, his jealousy as he watched us being raised by another man, how close he was, yet so far away. I could feel how happy he was now to have his sons back, the state of bliss he and his wolf felt just holding onto me like this.

How depressed he's been for the last 21 years, but how unbelievably happy he was now.

His eyes showed such grace and passion and love and fear.. I seen myself in them, I felt the tether to Bennett, to my mom, to Garrett...

To Liam...

All I had to do was stare into his eyes. I've never heard of a familial bond before, I've never felt it, but then again I've never stared into someone's eyes the way I was staring into his right now....

It was like his aura, his energy, his being was pulling all that is my own and forcing it to link to his power.

I could feel it...

My family...

And then I seen it, the similarity.

As if feeling our bond wasn't enough, the Goddess blessed me to see the one thing that everyone else lacked.

The one thing that could link my life with Liam's even more.

His hearing aids....

"Are you deaf?" I breathe out, my lip trembling as I continued to take in the beautiful feeling that our bond clutched around me.

"Yes son, I'm partially deaf." He takes my hands and brings them up to his ears. My tears now flood my entire sight as everything becomes blurry. My fingertips trace over his devices as his hands help me stay afloat in my river of emotion.

He's deaf too... someone who could understand me..

"I'm deaf too." I tell him, he chuckles at my rushed words. "Does it scare you?" I ask.

"No son, your hearing is apart of who you are and you're beautiful, your beauty should never scare you because it doesn't scare me."

______________________________