Chapter Thirty one

Vanessa

Several Minutes Earlier

he silver burns against my neck, but I don’t stop staring up at the man I once called father. There’s something different about him, a sense of

indifference that feels wrong. He’s looking at me like he doesn’t even recognize me.

Like he didn’t spend two decades raising me as his own. Most males leave the child-rearing to the females, but he often helped with my training as a child, ensuring I was the fastest female of my age. He pushed me, perhaps not kindly, but I am who I am today because of his influence.

Yet his expression registers absolutely nothing as he holds the knife to my throat. It’s like he’s frozen there, demanding I stay without even

requesting it.

“Good job, Gafton,” a new voice says, the source of it making my stomach churn. Alpha Kin.

He steps into view, his intimidating size immediately making me want to shrink into a corner. It’s also the look in his eyes that has me almost cringing. His fractured irises are blazing with fragments o