Unknown.

I didn’t want to believe it but that explains it. That explains why I survived Zach’s and Malakai’s deadly schemes. That explains why I was forced to disappear. Why I was forced to retreat into the darkness and take on a new name completely different from the one I always knew.

From the one I always loved.

The one which was capable of instilling fear in the hearts of men and women way before I even stepped into a room.

Ragnar Valemont, son of Morningstar.

It was because someone else had died in my stead. Someone who could pass up as me. Someone whom no one knew. Whom no one could suspect... and someone who was extremely close to my heart:

My twin, Theon.

The news hit me like a freight train, slamming into me with a force strong enough to knock me to my knees. My hands balled into tight fists by my sides and my body trembled violently; But no matter how hurt I was... how close to tears that I felt I was... it wouldn’t drop.

It couldn’t.

Hell, I cannot even remember the last time I cried. Maybe it could even have been the day I was born.

In that moment, it felt as though my heart had slowly hardened, filling itself with voices... thoughts... images of scenarios that I couldn’t bring myself to think about. Not now. Not like this...

"Theon was murdered?" The words left my mouth before I could stop them and as soon as it did, a kind of silence so thick settled between us. "They killed him, thinking he was me?" I hissed again, and when he wouldn’t respond right away, I added; "How?"

At the sound of my voice, he lowered his head and I couldn’t help but notice how he suddenly found everything around us worth his attention. Well, besides my face (which he couldn’t look at)

I cleared my throat, making him flinch and then he turned away slowly, his voice soft as he muttered;

"Yes,"

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, he was murdered in your stead. He tried many different means to get you out of Alpha Stormborn’s dungeons but failed, and his last resort... after realizing that there was no other way out and that you were being framed wrongfully, he then decided to take your place."

’Take your place’ he said, like he was talking about some sport.

’Take your place’ like that didn’t mean he literally had to sacrifice his life for mine.

The thoughts... the realization made my chest so heavy and so tight, I could barely breathe. And in desperation, I clutched at the front of my shirt and began to drag in greedy amounts of air into my lungs. But no matter how hard I tried... and how desperately I struggled, I couldn’t.

I was failing.

Woefully.

My breaths were coming in short desperate pants, forcing its way out of my nostrils and through my open mouth.

"But that is wrong. He should’ve... he should’ve told me about it. He should have been more—" I began to say but stopped when my PA began to speak. He drawled;

"He didn’t want us to tell you anything and made us promise him not to until the time was right. He didn’t inform you about it because he knew you would never have agreed to it..."

"I wouldn’t—"

"Even though he was already dying at the time." He finished, interrupting me and as soon as I heard those words, I stopped.

I felt like one who had just been doused in ice cold water.

Like one who had just learned of a very fat, very deep lie.

My entire world stopped in its axis for a moment, and goddess, at that time, I felt dumb. I felt stupid. I felt like one who had suddenly forgotten the meaning of words because come to think of it, what the hell does he mean by: "he was already dying?"

Who the fuck puts Theon and ’already dying’ in the same sentence?

And as if reading through my thoughts, my PA straightened his back, looked me in the eyes for the first time in the past few minutes, and drawled;

"He had cancer."

"Lycans do not have cancer." I argued blindly, and in response, he shook his head vehemently.

"That is the lie we were fed with for centuries non stop. But we do. We do have cancer. Alpha Theon died of prostate cancer, and my father died of brain cancer."

I froze.

I didn’t even know that.

I never did.

I simply thought he had died naturally. To natural causes.

"Goddess." I cried,

Just as the realization dawned on me, pain like no other lanced through me. My body convulsed, sending painful spasms running through my veins.

Tears brimmed at the corners of my eyes but they still did not fall. They couldn’t.

I lowered my head, hating myself for being so clueless. So pathetic. Hell, I didn’t even know that my brother... my twin had been dead for so long. I used to think that he had simply walked away from my life. That he had finally left without turning back because he stopped to care; not knowing that he had sacrificed himself for me.

FOR ME!

And it was all my fault.

It was my fault for loving Maurice, a werewolf. A woman whom I should never have loved in the first place. A woman who was never mine to begin with, and a woman who ruined me for other women.

I turned to my PA one more time. But this time, I felt different. I was filled with new information, with a new kind of rage, and a new reason to take vengeance into my own hands.

My hands skimmed over the open folder one more time, my voice thin as I asked;

"You’re sure that that woman, Ms Leilani Sinclair is my daughter?"

He looked taken aback by my question but slowly nodded with his eyes lowered slightly.

"Yes. Yes, I am sure. You have seen her features as well, so... you should be sure by now."

His words made me slightly irritated but shoving down my annoyance, especially since it was not his fault that I was like this, I slammed the folder shut and hissed;

"Then there is no way a daughter of mine would be associated with those boys. Those sons of a murderer. In fact, they are murderers themselves."

"They are—"

"They killed Theon! Whether they were made to do it or not is none of my business! My decision still stands!"