Chapter 545 : A FAILED FATHER
XADEN’S POV
Xaden very slowly walked out of the tent.
The very moment he rose his head up, he saw that everyone who had come along with him on the journey standing in front of the tent.
He froze and came to an abrupt stop once he saw them standing.
They were all looking at him.
He knew that they had come because they had heard what had happened.
He just stood there unsure of what to do.
Then as if on cue, when they saw that no one was hurt or anything bad was happening they began to disperse.
Anna pushed through the crowd and came to see him.
“Are you okay?” Anna asked as she held his arm.
“I’m fine.” He said.
She curved her almond shaped eyes to look at the tent.
“How dare she talk to you like that?” She demanded. “I told you she was a little slut. I’ll deal with her.”
And then it hit him.
They had all heard their arguments.
No wonder they had come straight to the door to over hear it.
“You heard everything inside?” He asked.
“Not everything.” She shrugged. “Just that I hated the fact that she made you beg!”
Xaden winced.
They had heard that part?
“Who the devil does she think she is? Making my own brother beg! While she even yelled back at you!” Anna demanded flaring her nostrils in fury. “I’ll teach that little whore a lesson.”
And then she started to march towards the inside of the tent and then Xaden very quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the room.
“What do you think you’re about to do?” He asked.
“Teach her a lesson!” Anna hissed.
“No you’re not going to do that.” He said holding her hostage.
“Why?” Anna demanded frustrated.
He began to lead her away from the tent while she wrestled in disapproval.
“She keeps on getting away with these things.” She argued. “She needs to be disciplined!”
And in anger Xaden whirled his sister to face him.
He was getting tired of Anna’s bickering.
“To be disciplined?” He demanded in irritation. “Anna she lost her child!”
“She was rude to you!” She countered back and that took Xaden aback.
Her words shocked him.
She was equating the fact that Jasmine had lost her baby to validate to her snapping back at him.
And it baffled him.
Even though he didn’t have a heart.
He was appalled by her statement.
And then she continued. “It doesn’t change the fact that she spoke to you disrespectfully. You have no idea how long she has been getting away with so much!”
“She lost my child!” Xaden barked at her shutting her up.
His wolf was breathing in anger. “Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Doesn’t that affect you in any way? She lost my own pup!”
Anna seemed very well taken aback.
And then she began to gather her words together.
“I mean yes…. Uhmm…. Err… of course. I’m sorry that you lost your baby.” Anna apologized. “It hurts me that I lost my little nephew or niece too. And it’s all her fault. If she hadn’t put herself in such danger, none of this would have happened.”
And Xaden was terrified of her.
She hadn’t said she was sorry that Jasmine had lost her baby.
Rather she was only apologetic because *he* had said that he had lost his child.
She didn’t even care.
She had zero sympathy for Jasmine and that baffled him to the core.
He then recollected jasmine’s words.
When she had mentioned that Anna had told lies.
He held Anna’s arm.
“Anna is it true that you have been lying about who you are?” He asked his eyes closely watching at her.
Anna dropped her lips in shock.
He looked into her eyes searching for something.
The only thing he could read was surprise.
“Lying about myself?” She asked confused.
“Anna. You told me that you were raised to suffer in the pack.” He said.
“Yes?” She nodded.
“But Jasmine tells me that never happened.” He said. “That she was the one who was raised as a slave. You were raised as a princess and you never had to suffer. Anna is this true?”
She looked at him, her eyes widened.
“Xaden you’re hurting me.” She cried.
And then he looked at her arm where he was holding unto and realized he was actually hurting her.
He withdrew his fingers from the tight grip and he saw that his wolf claws had dug deep inside her arms.
The blood came out and her skin slowly began to heal.
“I’m sorry.” He apologized.
She said nothing for a minute as she rubbed her arm.
“Are you fine?” He asked reaching out to her.
She withdrew and kept on rubbing her arm where she had been hurt.
But she mumbled a barely audible. “Fine.”
Then he straightened up and asked her. “So did you?”
“Did I?” She asked seemingly confused.
He took in a very deep breath. “Did you lie about everything that has happened to you?”
“Of course not.” She said bewildered. “I can’t believe you would believe me over Jasmine.”
She was glaring at him her eyes blazing in fury.
“All Jasmine ever does is lie. I have never told you a lie. I have a very hard life and it breaks my heart to see that my brother would believe the daughter of the man who murdered our parents and separated us over his own blood! Over me.” She said tears gathering in her eyes.
She began to sniff but for some reason or the other Xaden barely paid her any attention.
He wasn’t moved by her tears.
“Well Anna if you remember, you told me that Jasmine’s baby wasn’t mine.” He stated.
She blinked at him in disbelief.
Her lips seemed to begin to quiver.
She wasn’t all so well kept together anymore.
“But somehow the baby turned out to be mine.”
She dropped her mouth open.
“You also told me that she had an affair with hunter. But Jasmine wasn’t a virgin when I lay with her.” He pointed out staring her right down.
Anna became red.
Her face a right blush of pink.
“So now what I want to know is where you heard all these things.” He said.
“I… uh…er…. I wasn’t so sure….” She began to stutter.
He groaned and set his hands around his waist as he seemingly began to pace the area they stood.
“You aren’t sure?” He asked once he came to a stop.
“I don’t know. I think?” She said seeming unsure.
“But when you told me. When I asked you.”
He resumed. “You said you were. You said you knew what you were talking about. You told me you understood the consequences of what happened if you were wrong.”
She went numb.
“And yet now.” He resumed. “You aren’t sure?”
Anna began to rub her arms. “Brother I just… it was what had happened. It was what everyone had said. And it was what I knew. He did come to the pack.”
*Brother*
she never called him brother.
Only Xaden.
He saw this as a subtle act to manipulate and cajole him and it annoyed him.
“But you said she was fucking him! They had an affair so scandalous that the entire pack was disgusted. That was what you told me.”
“Yes.” She nodded. “That happened you have to believe me.”
“So why was she a virgin?” He asked.
“Www….. uh… I don’t know…” she stuttered.
She was now in a disoriented state, her usually perfect blonde hair was now a mess with her hands brushing through it time and time again.
She seemed to be biting her nails in anxiety.
Or was there more to it?
“I mean…. If you knew she was a virgin when I told you why didn’t you say something?” Anna asked him.
Xaden stared at his sister in disbelief.
Was she now indirectly blaming him for everything?
All because he had been so blinded by the anger and rage that he had barely remembered the fact she was a virgin?
“I didn’t mean that.” Anna said quickly her eyes red when she realized what she had said.
“Xaden you have to believe me I didn’t mean that.” She said
She reached out to him but he instinctively withdrew.
But she was right.
It was his fault.
If he had sat down to think only for a second.
Then he would have realized it.
Anna was right it was all his fault.
And here he was receiving the blunt of it all.
Anna had just said ’Xaden *believe* me’
Believe her?
He didn’t think he believed anything she said.
He had been so certain of her but now he realized that he most likely had been dead wrong.
He had failed as an Alpha.
Most of all, he had failed as a father.
And as the realization hit him, it dawned on him that he would never forgive himself.