Chapter 85

Xavier

Valerie was right.

I had chosen her from the beginning, not only because of her birthmark, but because she was from Westshield. I knew of my father’s sins in Westshield. How he destroyed everything the night of the raid. I remembered that night clearly, because it was the night mother died.

But I did not know that her family was caught in the crossfire. That it was Caeser’s plight on Westshield that had turned her into a slave. That had put her in that damned shop. That had stolen away her innocence.

I knew only that she was a Westshield survivor. I knew how rare survivors were. And when I saw Valerie in the shop, I just…couldn’t leave her behind. She represented everything that was wrong with this world, and all my father had done. And freeing her from that place felt like…redemption.

It was not as though I left my father’s sins overlooked. When the time came that I took my throne as Alpha, I used my power to look into what happened the night of the raid. To understand wh