Chapter 101

It was a bit funny, the way Francia sneered at Candido and how offended he looked. I didn’t think there were very many people who would chance getting on his bad side, but Francia didn’t seem to care. To be fair, I got the sense that Francia was far older than anyone else in the room. I bet we all looked pretty childish to her no matter how mature we might be.

Still, I would never want to be on the other side of Candido’s glare. I looked up at him as his expression turned angry. He bared his teeth at her and his eyes flashed.

“You don’t know—”

“He can be,” Vanessa said, cutting in. Candido’s mouth clicked shut. His nostrils flared like he wanted to speak, but he was holding back. It was kind of amazing that someone could make him be quiet like that. “As his father and so many other men in the family have been, but what he lacks in maturity, he makes up in fortitude and a good heart.”

Candido’s eye twitched as he looked at Vanessa, but he said nothing.

Francia’s lips twitched into a wry smile. “Oh, that is precious… A good heart? Really?”

Vanessa grimaced at Francia’s sweet and biting tone. It felt as condescending as it sounded, and there was no one in the room who didn’t hear it. Francium didn’t look surprised at all, but watchful as if he was trying to puzzle something out.

“Look, we want information about the vampire princes,” Vanessa said bluntly. “And the king, if possible. You have that, don’t you?”

“Information?” Francia asked, staring at her. “What sort of information?”

“Everything you have.”

“Well, that’s just short of telling me that you know nothing,” Francia said and narrowed her eyes. “Are you telling me that you know nothing? Aren’t you running a spy organization full of awakened werewolves?”

Vanessa set her jaw. “I’m saying that we need information.”

Francia shook her head. “Clearly. How interesting that even Blue Moon has fallen so far… I suppose the vengeance of the sired is not to be trifled with, and werewolves did tend to be too arrogant for their own good.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked. “You sound like… everything we know now about the war is… wrong?”

She looked at me. Her eyes scanned me as if she was trying to figure out whether or not she should answer me. Then, her eyes softened. Something warm and maternal surfaced.

“Someday, little Hedy, an apology will come to you,” Francia said. “I can only hope that being with your alpha king and this little vigilante enterprise won’t stop you from accepting it.”

I blinked at her, not sure what to say or what to think about that. Francium looked at her as if he didn’t understand either. I also realized that she hadn’t answered my question.

Or maybe… in some roundabout way, she had. I knew that there were discrepancies between the two histories, but how many were there? Did anyone know the truth?

“What does that mean by that?” Candido asked. “What sort of apology?”

“Is it really your business? I was speaking to Hedy,” Francia said sharply. “You were prepared to marry that cow Sibyl, for the sake of a nonsense deal you knew was pure usury for your hollow sense of honor.”

“I—”

She waved her hand. “Yes. Yes. Protection of the Goddess’ precious scion of the sun. It wasn’t going to go through. Conviction, and whatever else you want to say, but how would you have ever known that? How do you think Hedy felt about it watching from the outside?”

She chuckled. “Well, I suppose the entire werewolf world knows now how she felt. Again, Hedy. Truly a brilliant showing.”

My face heated, and Candido shut his mouth with a click.

“You may have years of religious conviction behind you, Candido, as I should expect as a child of Blue Moon, but you prove yourself to be too selfish to understand the gift of a mate when you didn’t even stop to think why you spared her of all people? You can’t say she was the first young werewolf seeking your protection.”

I looked at him and Candido’s jaw twitched.

“We’re not discussing me, Hedy, or my choices.”

“Of course not, too hard I suppose,” Francia said and shrugged. “Though I suppose it hardly matters. Hedy won’t be burdened with your childishness for long.”

“Was that a threat?” Candido hissed.

“It’s a fact,” Francia said, staring at him pointedly.

Something passed between them that I didn’t understand. Did Francia know something that I should know? Something that Candido was hiding from me.

“What are you talking about?” Vanessa asked.

Francia glanced at me briefly before shaking her head. “War is upon us all. Do you not expect there to be casualties?”

“That doesn’t mean it has to be Candido,” I said. “If you know something, you should tell me.”

Francia chuckled. “You’re adorable.”

She pat Francium’s shoulder. “You poor thing.”

Francium turned bright red as Francia turned her gaze on me.

“The late alpha king, Candido’s father, had more in common with your Candido than you realize… Borderline rejecting his mate and all for immaterial deals that didn’t serve him or his purposes.”

My heart lurched and I looked at Candido. He narrowed his eyes.

“Without Norton, I—”

“Would have been fine,” Francia rolled her eyes. “Did you expect Vanessa to let someone else take your throne? Who really benefitted from your little deal in the end? Or rather, who stood to benefit the most? Near sighted, short-sighted—just like your father.”

She sighed. “Your father launched an attack against the vampires.”

“During—”

“After a ceasefire had been agreed and the war was over,” Francia cut in. My heart lurched. “Underhanded, devious, childish, he used the cave systems to send werewolves into the vampire territory after the cease-fire was made and the war was over all over a woman he couldn’t have. A princess in her own right.”

“You’re lying,” Candido said stiffly.

She smiled. “Am I? Or would that make it easier for you?”

I swallowed. “Who was this woman?”

She gestured vaguely. “Right now, it doesn’t matter. The point is that he killed the vampire king. The princes, his children in all but blood, attacked the Full Moon Pack in retaliation.”

She laughed. “You think you survived because you managed to escape them, but you were never the focus of the attack. It was always your father, his wife, and their child.”

Vanessa’s eyes turned cold. “And my sister?”

“Can one mate, so devoted in her love, live without the other?” Francia asked. “Come now. You may call us those who straddle the line, but you should know that we all do in some ways or another… And if you don’t believe me, why not ask Candido. He was there.”

I looked up at him. His face seemed haunted. He stared out into nothing.

“Believe what you wish, it was for the best,” Francia said.

“You’re talking about the death of the alpha king,” Vanessa hissed. “How could that be for the best?”

“A king with a full plan to replicate the powers of a vampire in werewolves through a breeding program?” Francia chuckled. “In which he kidnapped, held hostage, and enslaved vampires and werewolves alike?”

My stomach turned. I shook my head. “But… But that’s what…”

“Yes, yes, the princes have seemingly attempted to pick it up, but that isn’t the full truth either,” she shrugged. “To be fair, both sides had the same agenda. Vampires just happened to have been trying a bit harder and succeeding for longer. Your mother would have lived if she had seen her mate for what he truly was and rejected him. But, what can anyone say to a woman in love?”

I glanced at Candido. He didn’t seem to be all present, but haunted. I reached out to him, but he didn’t seem to register my hand on his.

“On the bright side, your father loved you above all of his other children.”

“… other?” He gasped out, his eyes fluttering closed. “I… only had a brother.”

She laughed. “Childish.”

“Francia,” Vanessa said with a terse tone. “Perhaps now is not—”

“Then, when?” She asked, her eyes turning cold. “You have coddled and protected him, letting him grow up with all the fanciful ideas about who his father was and the true face of this war. Should he die with that foolish belief or knowing the truth?”

“Candido isn’t going to die in this war,” I said stiffly.

She gave me a pleasant smiled, but she didn’t say anything further.

“You were the son he always wanted. Powerful beyond imagining, a true blessed child of the Goddess, but he was only going to turn you into a weapon against vampires to continue his plans.”

Candido shook his head.

“Like it or not, his death was a blessing to the world.”