Chapter 4

The walk to the office was confusing as they left her quarters and descended a set of spiral stairs. Once at the bottom, she looked around trying to get a handle on the layout. The castle was huge, to say the least. Once she was out of her room, she realized that that was exactly what it was.

A castle.

At the bottom of the staircase was Beta Matthew.

"Princess Luna."

He bowed to her and then straightened as he greeted her politely and with respect, then he led the way. Maya was on her left and Beta Matthew was on her right. She realized that she was being guarded and inwardly groaned.

Her wolf groaned in protest. They were warriors. They didn't need protection. They needed freedom.

After going down numerous halls and turning quite a few corners, they entered another long hallway. This one was wider and more majestic as they proceeded down the hall to the large double doors at the end.

Once they reached them, the sound of a male with authority called out to them.

"You may enter."

The guard on the right opened the door and both guards bowed as they entered the room.

She gazed around the room. It was large and stately. A male sat behind a mahogany desk that was clear of anything but a landline and a cell phone. The only other items on it were a notepad and a pen. Nothing of consequence to Cora and she looked up into the eyes of the man seated behind the desk.

Her eyes widened. Those were her eyes. The same golden brown.

The man was quiet, calm, and collected. It was then that she saw a flash of pain enter them before he hid it once more behind the calm mask he wore. She knew that he was controlling his wolf.

Her own wolf let out a small whimper and she tried to calm her.

"Not now, Ava. Hold it together."

She felt her wolf lay down in her mind, clearly upset about being restrained.

"Easy for you to say...."

"Have a seat Alyssa. Maya, you may go, for now, we will let you know when she needs to be escorted back. "

He nodded at her and she bowed and nodded back.

"Yes, Alpha King. Thank you."

She exited the room and Beta Matthew led her to her seat. She gazed at the man in front of her and noticed that he looked young. In his early to mid-thirties.

Suddenly, there was a rush of wind and she felt herself being pulled out of the chair and into a pair of warm arms.

"Alyssa. My, Alyssa. I have missed you so much."

When she pulled back a moment later, she gasped.

Was she looking into a mirror?

The woman in front of her had the same red hair and golden eyes as her. Her wolf whined in the back of her mind once more and she bit her bottom lip as her wolf laid her head down on her paws and looked sadly out of her eyes.

What was going on?

When she sat back down, the man behind the chair spoke once more.

"Alyssa, do you remember who we are?"

She looked from one to the other. They must be the people that the Beta was referring to as her parents. Only...She had no memories of them.  She shook her head.

The man sighed and stood up, coming around the desk he knelt down in front of her as she heard the woman start to cry.

"I am your father and this is your mother. You were kidnapped when you were six years old. We have been hunting for you ever since."

Cora's mouth dropped her eyes held a look of disbelief in them.

"No...it can't be. I am a Paglione. My parents are Anthony and Rebekah..."

A low growl rumbled in his throat and she closed her eyes, afraid of what he might do to her. She had sounded so desperate to believe the words that she spoke. Though, sadly, she knew that they were not true.

She was deceiving herself. The resemblance was strong and she could not deny it. Like it or not, these people were her parents. Next to her mother was a man that she didn't know, but like her parents, and hers, they were golden brown. She looked back at the man kneeling in front of her and she sighed, lowering her head.

"I don't remember. I am sorry..."

Her voice was a whisper as she spoke. She had no idea what was going on and she knew that she may never remember. Her life with the Pagliones was great up until her sixteenth birthday. Even now she was loyal to them.

The man placed his hand on her cheek and he smiled softly.

"You are the spitting image of your mother. So beautiful."

He went to hug her and then pulled back once he had finished, his eyes shifting to the birthmark under her arm. She noticed his gaze but said nothing. She knew what he was doing and she pushed it out of her mind.

He was making sure that they had the right she-wolf.

He stood and went back to his seat behind the desk and she was moved to the other side of the room. Now she was sitting by her 'mother' who immediately took her hand in hers and looked at her father expectantly.

"Bring in the prisoners."

His gaze had gone back to Beta Matthew and new nodded and opened the door. A moment later her parents entered the room. Both were shackled with silver chains and collared.

She sucked in her breath as they gazed around the room and their eyes landed on her.

Her father growled and her mother hissed at the group.

"Give us our daughter and our grandson and we will leave. You will never have to hear from us again."

Her father had spoken those words as if he still believed they had a chance of leaving with their family.

"The princess is not your daughter and you knew that when you kidnapped her fifteen years ago. Her mother went crazy without her and we almost lost her in the beginning. You took the pup of a king and queen. Then you raised the princess as a rogue. Who knows what else you have done? This is treason no matter how you look at it. You will pay for your crimes. All of them. Our only hope is that we get our daughter back fully. But even now, this is better than we hoped for in the beginning."

Alpha Anthony glared at the king. His eyes went black.

"You have your daughter back physically. But we have her loyalty and her love. So you truly have lost her."

An evil laugh escaped him as Cora pulled her hand away from the woman beside her. Her father was right. She was loyal to him and even though she hated him, she loved him as well. At least she thought she did.

The king began to growl and he stood and began to speak.

Cora's mind wandered back to that day. The day she walked in on her father, excited to thank him for the car he got her for her birthday.

"Daddy?"

Her father's face held a look of horror as he lowered the gun. At the time, she had wondered why she had not heard it go off. She had no idea that the walls and door to this room were soundproof. No one would have heard it.

He kept his eyes on her and spoke to one of the men in the room.

"Get the body out of here now and clean this up."

His voice was cold and cruel as he spoke. A far cry different from what she was used to. She had never heard him talk this way.

Neither one of them moved as the body was cleared out and the blood was cleaned off the tile floor.  The smell of the harsh chemicals burned her nose, but she had seen everything.

"Everyone out! NOW!"

Everyone shuffled out of the office and she heard the door close behind her, followed by the sound of the lock clicking into place. She was trapped.

"Sit down, Coraline. We need to talk."

She knew by the tone of his voice that he was no longer in father mode. He was in business mode and she was in trouble. She had a sense of foreboding danger seize her heart as she gazed up at him, before breaking eye contact and looking down at her hands.

"Look at me, Coraline."

His voice was icy and seething, as his dark eyes burned into hers.

"What you witnessed tonight was not for your eyes. Why did you disobey me and come into my office without knocking? You know better than that. I raised you to know better. Why did you disobey me?"

He came around the desk and stood in front of her. His hands were clenched into fists as he tried to keep his wolf at bay.

Cora knew all about Alpha's and their wolves surfacing when they were quick to anger. This was no different and she whimpered quietly.

"I am sorry, daddy. I...I was just so excited...."

"Don't call me daddy. Right now you are just another member of my pack. Someone who has disregarded the rules and acted on impulse. Do you know what this means?"

His words came out through gritted teeth as he hissed at her.

She knew the pack rules for disrespecting her father, but she had never been held accountable for them before. Until now. She nodded.

"I can be subjected to being put in the cells, shackled with silver, or even collared for misbehavior. Even as your pup."

She saw a look of regret in his eyes momentarily before he covered it up.

"For the pack laws? Yes, that is true. Word for word true, but I am talking about something far more dangerous and the consequences of crossing into a world that you cannot go back from. No one is to ever know what you saw. I have a choice to make now. You have a choice."

He paused for a moment, appearing to gather his thoughts. Then he took a deep breath and continued.

"Coraline Paglione, you have two choices. So choose wisely. There is no going back. Choice number one......"

He lifted the gun off the desk and held it to her temple.

"You die for disobeying your father and entering a room without permission. Or...two..."

She heard the sound of him cocking the gun setting him up to pull the trigger.

"Two, you pledge your allegiance to me as your boss and you join me in my extracurricular activities. If you make the pledge, there is no going back. It is for life."

Cora closed her eyes trembling. She knew right then and there that her father was into some bad shit and she would have to join or die. She had no choice but to give him her answer. One that she was already regretting. One that in the future made her wish she had chosen the other option.

"I...will pledge my life to you as my boss and join you in your extracurricular activities."

The sound of the trigger hammer being put back in position and the feel of its ice-cold barrel being removed from her temple caused her to let out a breath that she had not realized that she was holding as she sunk back into the chair. The realization of what everything meant hit her hard.

She kept her eyes closed as tears slid down her cheeks. She was weak back then. Weaker than she should be. That was the last time she ever cried out of fear. That was also the last moment of her innocent childhood. That was the day she chose to live.

"That's daddy's good girl."

The words rang in her mind still to this day as she pulled herself out of her reverie and looked up at the man she had known as her father all these years. Their eyes connected. The color in both of their eyes had turned black.

"I Coraline Paglione, pledge my life and my soul to you, Alpha Anthony Paglione."

Three gasps sounded in the room as she stared at the man who had raised her.

"That's daddy's good girl," he whispered back.