“This changes nothing,” Marcus said forcefully. “You are still our father, and we love you.”
Aiden could only nod, unable to get a single word past the lump that had closed off his throat. Marcus released him, and on slightly wobbly legs, he closed the distance separating him and Ronan. His lover held up his bound hands and Aiden very carefully cut them away.
“The Black Death…that was you?” Ronan asked softly.
Aiden tried to laugh, but the sound came out ragged and choked. “God, no. But I might have thrown some temper tantrums that looked very much like the bubonic plague in my younger years.”
“For how long?”
Aiden lifted his gaze and sighed. “About two hundred years. I didn’t handle losing you too well in the beginning.”
As soon as his hands were free, Ronan touched Aiden’s jaw. “You will never lose me again.”
Aiden truly wanted to believe that, but there was something he needed to do first. To protect Ronan. To protect all of his clan.
Placing the knife in Ronan’s palm, he stepped around his lover and approached Mara, who was tugging at the door handle of one of the SUVs. Apparently the vampire who had driven the vehicle had locked it behind him, and she didn’t have the presence of mind to find the keys.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the vehicle so that she was forced to face him. She sucked in harsh, ragged breaths while tugging ineffectively at his grip.
“You’re a bastard! A monster! The Ministry is going to slaughter you!” she shouted in his face, but Aiden ignored it. Holding her hand in one of his, he used his other to pull up the sleeve of her coat and her blouse, revealing perfect pale flesh. Wrapping his fingers around her slender forearm, he called on his powers one more time. Mara screamed and begged as fear conquered impotent rage.
“Look at me!” Aiden snapped. Mara instantly quieted to nothing more than a whimper. “I’m going to let you live so you can carry back the story of what happened here. Tell the ministers that if they stay on their side of the ocean, I will stay on mine. Ronan is now a Varik. They will stay out of Varik affairs. They will stay out of the Americas. And if they doubt your word, you will show them this.” Aiden peeled his fingers away to gray and blackened flesh in the perfect outline of his fingers. Mara let out a soft, broken cry. “Every morning when you close your eyes, you will remember what happened here. You’ll hear their screams. You’ll know that your life belongs to me because I let you live. And to pay for that gift, you will become my messenger. Anyone who plots to hurt the Variks, you will warn them of the fate that awaits them on my shores. Do you understand?”
“Yes. Yes, King Aiden,” Mara whispered with a violent nod of her head.
Aiden turned away and started to walk toward his family, hating himself. He committed violence against others to protect those he loved. But this, it was more akin to torture, and it left him feeling dirty. As if the decay had seeped into his soul. He’d never wanted this, but he would do whatever he had to in order to keep his family safe.
The quick pound of shoes across the ground had Aiden’s head jerking up, but the movement was little more than a blur before a body slammed into his. He rocked back to catch himself as arms wrapped around him tightly.
“I love you, Father.”
Rafe. His heart sighed. Rafe was holding him in a grip tight enough to crack ribs.
There were three more quick impacts that rocked him as the rest of his sons hugged him tightly. Words of love and devotion rained down on his head, washing about the self-loathing and shame.
He didn’t know how long they stood there hugging and whispering words of love, but it was Fox’s voice that brought them all back to the moment.
“Guys,” Fox called out. “I don’t know about vamps and shifters, but this witch is fucking cold! Can we go home now?”
“I’m with the witch. Let’s go home,” Ronan agreed.
Several of them chuckled, and Aiden reluctantly released his boys. They kept him grounded. Kept him from getting lost in the horror of his own mind. In the pain of loss. They were his happiness. As was Ronan.
Turning, he extended his hand to the man who’d won his heart so many centuries ago. “Home?”
Ronan took his hand, threading his fingers with Aiden’s. “You have been, and always will be, my home.”
Chapter Seventeen
The drive home gave Aiden too much time to stew over what had happened—namely Ronan’s impulsive non-plan to draw out the Heller clan and destroy them by using himself as a living tracking device. He could have gotten himself killed. He could have found himself knocked out and delivered into the hands of the Ministry. They could have lost each other again.