Chapter 9 - The Father Who Sold Her TwiceRichard Hayes opened the door wearing sweatpants and an expression of profound irritation.
Then he saw Kane.
The irritation disappeared.
Harper stood beside him.
Lucian and Gideon remained several steps back.
It was six forty in the morning.
Rain fell over Olympia.
Richard looked older than he had at Croft Estate.
Losing the Alpha position had taken something from him.
Or perhaps it had simply removed the authority that once disguised how tired and weak he had always been.
“Harper.”
She did not answer.
His gaze moved to Kane.
“This is unnecessary.”
Kane’s expression became cold.
“You don’t know why we’re here.”
Richard swallowed.
That was answer enough.
Harper felt something inside her collapse.
Not dramatically.
No tears.
No rage.
Just one final piece of hope.
“You knew.”
Richard looked toward the neighbors.
“Come inside.”
“No.”
“Harper.”
“Say it here.”
His face tightened.
“This is family business.”
Kane’s power stirred.
Harper touched his hand without looking at him.
Richard noticed.
Fear crossed his face.
Good.
Harper had spent too many years afraid of disappointing him.
He could experience the other side.
“The Cascade medical center,” she said. “What was under it?”
Richard’s shoulders sank.
“Not here.”
“What was under it?”
“Your mother.”
Harper stopped.
Everything became silent.
Even the rain seemed far away.
“What did you say?”
Richard closed his eyes.
“Your mother knew.”
Harper’s hands went cold.
Her mother, Marianne Hayes, had died when Harper was seventeen.
Officially from a sudden aneurysm.
Harper remembered the hospital.
Chloe crying.
Richard disappearing for two days afterward.
Harper arranging the funeral because nobody else could.
“What did she know?”
Richard stepped backward.
“Please come inside.”
This time Harper did.
Not because he asked.
Because she needed walls around what was coming.
The living room looked smaller than she remembered.
Richard sat.
Harper remained standing.
Kane stood near her shoulder.
Lucian closed the door.
Gideon positioned himself beside it.
Richard rubbed both hands over his face.
“Malcolm Croft approached Cascade almost twenty years ago.”
Kane’s expression hardened.
“Why?”
“Marianne’s family.”
Harper frowned.
“My mother came from a minor Oregon pack.”
“No.”
Richard looked at her.
“That’s what we told you.”
Harper felt sick.
“Who was she?”
“Her mother belonged to the Hawthorne line.”
Lucian reacted.
Kane looked at him.
“You know it?”
Lucian nodded slowly.
“Old Luna bloodline.”
Richard continued.
“The Hawthorne women were known for unusually strong stabilizing bonds with dominant Alphas.”
Harper’s stomach tightened.
She thought of Kane.
The first night.
His wolf becoming quiet.
Her touch drawing him back.
The way her presence changed his pressure.
“No.”
Her voice came quietly.
Richard looked ashamed.
“Your mother had it.”
“What?”
“The calming effect.”
Kane became completely still.
Richard looked toward him.
“Malcolm wanted to breed stronger Alphas without creating unstable ones.”
Kane’s voice was almost inaudible.
“He wanted women from her line.”
“Yes.”
Harper thought she might be sick.
Richard rushed on.
“Marianne refused. She hated the entire idea.”
“So he stopped?”
Richard said nothing.
Harper laughed once.
Empty.
“Of course not.”
“Malcolm funded research through Northstar. They wanted samples.”
“From my mother?”
“Yes.”
“And from me?”
Richard looked away.
That was the moment Harper understood.
Not intellectual understanding.
Not theory.
Certainty.
Her father had sold her before the debt agreement.
Long before he sent her to Kane’s estate for one night.
“From when?”
Richard’s silence stretched.
Harper’s voice cracked.
“From when?”
“You were twelve.”
Kane moved.
The room shook.
Lucian stepped forward.
“Kane.”
Harper did not stop him this time.
She could not.
Richard pushed himself against the couch.
“I didn’t understand what they were doing.”
“You gave them her blood,” Kane said.
His eyes burned gold.
Richard trembled.
“They paid the pack.”
“How much?”
Richard said nothing.
Harper looked at him.
“How much was I worth at twelve?”
His face crumpled.
“Harper.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
The number hurt more than it should have.
Maybe because numbers were Harper’s language.
Numbers were honest.
Numbers did not pretend.
Two hundred thousand dollars.
That was the price her father accepted for medical access to his daughter.
“What did they do?”
“Blood draws. Neurological scans. Nothing invasive.”
Kane crossed the room.
Richard nearly fell backward.
“Nothing invasive?”
Harper stepped between them.
Not to protect Richard.
To protect Kane from becoming part of this memory forever.
“Kane.”
“He sold you.”
“I know.”
“At twelve.”
“I know.”
His eyes looked almost wild.
Harper touched his chest.
“Not for him.”
Kane’s breathing shook.
“Please.”
Slowly, he stepped back.
Richard stared at Harper.
“You see? This is why we were afraid.”
She turned.
Something inside her became very calm.
“No.”
Richard swallowed.
“You don’t get to do that.”
“What?”
“You do not get to use Kane’s anger about what you did to me as evidence that you were right to do it.”
Richard lowered his eyes.
Harper sat across from him.
“My mother died five years later.”
“Yes.”
“Was it an aneurysm?”
Silence.
“Dad.”
His face folded.
“We don’t know.”
“You told me you knew.”
“The doctors said aneurysm.”
“But?”
“Two weeks before she died, Marianne found the laboratory.”
Harper stopped breathing.
“She confronted me.”
“About the research?”
“Yes.”
“She was furious.”
Richard began crying.
Harper felt nothing yet.
Perhaps the feeling would come later.
“She said she was taking you and Chloe away. She said she had saved evidence.”
“What happened to it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened to her?”
“I swear, Harper, I don’t know.”
Kane spoke.
“Did Malcolm?”
Richard looked at him.
“Your father died years later.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Richard shook his head.
“Marianne believed Northstar was continuing experiments without his direct involvement.”
“Who ran it?”
“I never knew the real name.”
Harper leaned forward.
“You knew enough to take their money.”
Richard flinched.
“Yes.”
“Who ran it?”
“They called him Doctor Grey.”
Gideon moved.
Kane looked at him.
“You recognize it?”
“Maybe.”
Gideon took out his phone.
“Malcolm had a physician named Adrian Gray.”
Kane’s face changed.
“My childhood doctor.”
Harper’s blood chilled.
“The man who prescribed suppressants?”
“Yes.”
Lucian swore softly.
Gideon searched old personnel records.
“Dr. Adrian Gray disappeared from corporate records nine years ago.”
“Northstar dissolved nine years ago,” Harper said.
Lucian’s expression hardened.
“Same time.”
Richard looked confused.
Harper stood.
“Where is the entrance to the laboratory?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were Alpha.”
“It was sealed.”
“Where?”
“The old medical center basement.”
They left within five minutes.
Richard tried to follow.
Harper stopped at the door.
“No.”
“Harper, I can help.”
“You’ve helped enough.”
Pain crossed his face.
For years, that expression would have destroyed her.
It would have triggered apologies.
Problem solving.
Responsibility.
Not anymore.
Richard whispered, “I’m still your father.”
Harper looked at him.
“Yes.”
She understood now that truth could exist without obligation.
“You are.”
Then she left.
The abandoned Cascade medical center sat thirty minutes away.
Chloe was waiting outside.
Harper stopped when she saw her.
“What are you doing here?”
Chloe crossed her arms.
“Dad called.”
“Of course he did.”
“He told me about Mom.”
Harper’s anger softened.
Chloe’s eyes were red.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Neither did I.”
For a moment, they were seventeen and fifteen again.
Two daughters standing beside a coffin while their father disappeared into grief and debt.
Chloe hugged her.
Harper held on.
“I’m coming with you.”
“No.”
“Harper.”
“It’s dangerous.”
Chloe pulled back.
“You told me I didn’t have to become you.”
Harper remembered.
“Meaning?”
“You’ve spent your whole life going into dangerous rooms so I wouldn’t have to.”
Her sister wiped her eyes.
“You don’t get to decide I’m too weak to walk into one with you.”
Harper stared.
Then she smiled faintly.
“That was annoyingly mature.”
“I bought another table.”
“What?”
“It’s less ugly.”
Harper laughed.
It came out half sob.
She hugged Chloe again.
“All right.”
Kane looked unhappy.
Harper pointed at him.
“Don’t.”
“I said nothing.”
“Your face did.”
The basement entrance was hidden behind a wall that appeared solid.
Gideon found the old electrical release.
The door opened into darkness.
Air moved upward.
Cold.
Sterile.
The laboratory was still active.
Lights turned on automatically as they descended.
Harper saw medical stations.
Glass rooms.
Computers.
Then photographs.
Hundreds.
Wolves.
Children.
Women.
Family trees.
At the center of one wall were two large portraits.
Kane.
Lucian.
Between them was a third.
Harper.
Beneath her photograph were two words.
STABILIZATION KEY.
Chloe whispered, “Oh my God.”
A slow clap came from behind them.
Everyone turned.
An elderly man stood on the upper walkway.
White hair.
Medical coat.
Thin smile.
Kane’s entire body locked.
“Dr. Gray.”
The physician who had spent years telling Kane he was broken smiled down at him.
“My finest subject.”
Kane’s claws extended.
Gray looked toward Harper.
“And finally, the missing component.”
Harper’s skin crawled.
“You killed my mother.”
Gray’s smile disappeared.
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Harper studied him.
He seemed sincere.
That terrified her.
“Then who did?”
Gray looked almost amused.
“Marianne is not dead.”
Chloe made a sound behind Harper.
Harper could not move.
Gray turned toward a secured door at the far end of the laboratory.
“She has been waiting a very long time to see her daughters.”
The door opened.
A woman stepped into the light.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar along one temple.
But Harper knew her before her mind could accept what her eyes were seeing.
Her mother looked directly at her.
May you like
“Harper?”
For the first time in her life, Harper Hayes fainted.
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