<h4>Chapter 214: Broken trust II</h4>


    <strong>Charis</strong>


    The rooftop ess was through a small door at the end of the top-floor hallway. I climbed the narrow stairs and pushed open the door.


    Alpha Raymond stood at the edge of the roof, staring out at the horizon. The sun was getting low in the sky, painting everything in shades of gold and orange. It would have been beautiful if I weren’t so scared of what he was about to say.


    He turned when he heard me. "Come here."


    I walked over slowly, maintaining a careful distance between us. Close enough to talk, far enough to run if I needed to.


    "There’s a reason," he said, still looking at the horizon, "why I was against your bond with ter from the beginning."


    My stomach twisted. "What reason?"


    "Because I don’t think you love my son."


    The words hit like a p. "That’s not true—"


    "It’s the truth," he said. "You distracted him, Charis and made him reckless. Before you, ter was a young, promising, disciplined boy. Then you had to drag him into your mess."


    "My mess?" I scoffed. "We were fated mates? Am I to tell the Moon Goddess what to do?"


    "You could have rejected him as I begged you back then. And now, look at you, you’ve managed to string two innocent boys up again. You reunited with my son, disguised yourself as a boy and deceived those two boys. You let them develop feelings for someone who didn’t exist."


    I wanted to retort, but when has that ever helped?


    "Alpha Terry, with all due respect, aren’t you overstepping your boundaries. If you have nothing better to say to me."


    "When will you take responsibility for the chaos you cause?" he turned to me fully now, holding my gaze. "When will you admit to yourself that you’re a mess, Charis. You do not deserve to be with our kind. You’re a walking mess..."


    Tears welled up in my eyes. I sniffed them back and looked up.


    "Well, I didn’t mean to—"


    "Intent doesn’t matter," Raymond said harshly. "What matters is what you did. You misled the boys. You made them fall for a fantasy. And when the truth came out, you didn’t even give them time to process it. You just expected them to ept the mate bond and move on."


    My eyes were blurring from the tears I was desperately trying to hold back.


    "ter changed because of you," Raymond continued. "He became closed off, secretive. He stopped confiding in his family. He became someone I barely recognised." His voice hardened. "And it’s all because of you. Because you confused him, manipted him—"


    "I never manipted him!" The words burst out of me. "I was trying to survive! I disguised myself to escape an abusive home. Falling for ter again or any of the boys wasn’t part of the n. Neither was discovering we were mates. But I never lied about my feelings for him. Never."


    Raymond’s jaw clenched. "Regardless of your intentions, the result is the same. My son is different now. He’s pulled away from his family, from his pack. And I can’t help but think that if you weren’t in his life, he’d be better off."


    The words cut deep. Deeper than I wanted to admit.


    "You ask why I’ve always been cold toward you. It’s because I saw the damage before you did. ter loved you blindly. You turned his world upside down, and he hasn’t recovered since."


    I clenched my fists, staring at the horizon. "You think I don’t know that?" My voice cracked. "You think I haven’t hated myself every day for what I did to him?"


    "Then prove it."


    I looked up sharply.


    "When we rescue ter," Raymond said, his voice bing colder, "I want you to break up with him."


    I stared at him. "What?"


    "End the rtionship. Tell him you don’t want the mate bond. Let him move on with his life." He met my eyes. "I would appreciate it very much if you would do that much for me and for me."


    The tears wereing now, rolling down my face no matter how hard I tried to stop them. But something else was building inside me, too.


    My heart twisted painfully. "You’re asking me to hurt him again."


    "I’m asking you to free him."


    I shook my head, a bitterugh escaping. "You’ve hated me since the day you met me. I was sixteen, and you couldn’t even look at me without judgment. You didn’t care that I tried, that I followed every rule, that I loved your son."


    "I don’t—"


    "Don’t lie." I stepped closer. "When ter and I were still figuring things out, back when it was just him and me, you didn’t like me then either. I could feel it every time I was around you. Every look, every word. You made it clear I wasn’t good enough for your son."


    "That’s not—"


    "I didn’t understand the hatred back then," I continued, unfazed. "I thought maybe it was because of my wolf, or because I came from a troubled background. But now I realise—you don’t want anyone with your son. Anyone you can’t control."


    Raymond’s face flushed. "You’re being ridiculous—"


    "Am I?" I challenged. "You say I manipted ter, but what are you doing right now? Trying to manipte me into breaking his heart. Trying to control his rtionships because you can’t stand the idea of him loving someone more than he loves you."


    "That’s not what this is about—"


    "Then what is it about?" I demanded. "Because from where I’m standing, this looks like a father who can’t let go. Who can’t ept that his son is an adult, old enough to make his own decisions about his love life?"


    I took another step closer, and this time Raymond was the one who stepped back.


    "ter has the right to choose who he wants to be with," I said firmly. "Not you or me. Him. And if he decides he doesn’t want the mate bond, if he decides I’m not right for him, I’ll ept that. I’ll walk away. But it will be his choice. Not yours."


    "Charis—"


    "I always knew you hated me," I said, and my voice broke slightly. "But I didn’t think you’d have the guts to disy it so openly. To my face. To ask me to break your son’s heart again because you disapprove of me."


    "I’m trying to protect him," Raymond said, but his voice was weaker now, defensive.


    "No, you’re trying to control him. There’s a difference. That night in the garden, you deliberately allowed me to go there, knowing that ter and I had just had a quarrel and that our rtionship was going through the toughest time. And you had fed that assumption."


    "When you have children, you can allow them to run around with people and families like yours," he retorted with a smirk. "I am ter’s father, and I will do everything in my power to make sure he does the right thing."


    Iughed, infuriating him more. "It seems you don’t realise that I have more power than you. You can’t win me, Alpha Raymond. A man who has fucked the same woman twice... really?"


    "You..."


    I turned to leave, interrupting him.


    "Get used to seeing me around, Alpha Raymond, because I’m not going anywhere. Not unless ter tells me to. And even then, I’ll fight for him and for us. Because that’s what you do when you love someone."


    I was at the door when his voice stopped me.


    "And the child?" he asked quietly. "Does he know about the child?"


    I froze. My hand was on the door handle, but I couldn’t move.


    Slowly, I turned back around. "What?"


    "The child," Raymond repeated, his eyes fixed on me. "Does ter know his child is still alive?"