Claimed by the scarred Alpha

ÉTIENNE

"I know what you asked," she snapped, pushing herself back up out of the chair, some of her composure returning now that the worst of the secret was finally out in the open. "You want to know why your family burned. I am telling you it started because I could not let anyone find out what I just told you."

"How is that an answer?"

"Because your family found out," she said. "Or close enough to it that it didn’t matter. Somehow, some way, someone in the Archambault line got close to the truth about Vivianne and me. About the switch. I do not know exactly what they uncovered or how, only that word reached my brother, and my brother has never once in his life handled a threat with restraint."

Hearing her make excuses only did it’s best to make me mad. And Goddess was I fuming. I wanted to strangle her. I craved it. The only thing that remotely held me back from following through was the promise I had made to Margaux. But some things did not make sense. Like her claiming that Margaux was her daughter.

"So your brother and yourself committed a crime and my own family had to suffer for it? You made Margaux and I suffer for so many years... You annalihated my family! Just because you wanted to keep your peace!?"

She shook her head. "Not once have I had peace. Every day the Archambaults house was mentioned, it brought me pain."

I scoffed at that. "Not enough to tell the truth though. You held on to that for so many years. You still would have if I did not find out the truth. You are nothing but a vile monster."

Tears brimmed around the corner of her eyes and she quickly swiped at them to prevent them from falling. But I did not care. I did not care one bit.

"What happened to Margaux?" She asked.

"Deflecting already?" I mocked, the disgust in my heart burning over diplomacy.

She looked up at me and took a shaky sigh. "You know the truth already. You know why your parents had to go. What else is there for me to deflect? Your family is already dead and talking to them will not bring them back. So—"

When she said those words, I swear, I saw red. It did not register until my palms slammed hard into her face, causing her face to swerve to the other side and she stayed there.

"Do not fucking there tell me what is important! It’s because of you that Margaux is now bound to that demon."

When she hears that, Vivianne... No... It was Isabelle turned. "What.... What are you saying?"

"Exactly what you heard me say. She probably thought she had no choice and to save herself, she took the demon’s hand."

Isabelle’s knees buckled, and she dropped to the floor in front of me, her whole body folding into itself.

"No," she said. "No, no, no. This is all Lucian’s fault. My poor girl."

"Why do you keep saying that?" I said. "Why do you keep calling her that? She is not your daughter. And you are not Vivianne."

She looked up at me, her face wrecked, mascara tracking dark lines down both cheeks.

"My sister made a deal with the demon years back," she said. "She willed her husband to win a war. And he did win, thanks to the demon’s help, and for that, it wanted a boon. It wanted her next child." Her voice cracked. "It didn’t help that to celebrate his victory, her husband wanted a child to herald it. So I helped her."

Something in my stomach turned over.

"What?" I said.

"You cannot understand the connection I had with my sister," she said, "and you’re allowed to judge it however you’d like. But I loved her. At the time, all she told me was that she needed a break from carrying her Luna duties. All this demon business, I am only just learning the full shape of it recently, same as you." She took a shuddering breath. " So I carried Margaux. I was the one who birthed her. My sister thought her little trick would be enough to keep the demon at bay. She was so wrong."

I felt my jaw tighten. Then she looked up at me.

"Margaux is part of why I helped my brother with his vile crimes, too," she continued. "If your family had ever revealed their hand, Margaux would have suffered the most for it. As her mother, I needed to protect her." She sighed, the sound scraped raw. "Back to what I was saying. It didn’t matter to the demon in the end, because Vivianne and I were twins. We shared something spiritual, something it could still track and use to get what it was apparently owed. So its eyes stayed fixed on Margaux regardless of which of us physically carried her, and Vivianne did everything she could to protect my daughter." Her voice broke fully now. "Especially once she realized Margaux was just like her. Seeing ghosts. Hearing things nobody else could."

"How did she protect Margaux? She is anything but protected."

"She sealed Margaux’s gift," Isabelle said, nodding, tears streaming freely now. "And then she took her own life." She pressed her hands against her face. "I cannot believe all of it was for nothing. All of it. I want to see my daughter."

"No," I said.

"Étienne—"

"Go back to Beaumont," I said, "and thank the heavens above that I did not kill you tonight, because I very much want to." I turned to leave.

I made it two steps.

Her hand closed around my leg, gripping hard enough that I could feel her nails digging through my bare leg.

"I do not care if I have to pay for my crimes," she said. "It’s been a long time coming, and I know it. But I need to see my daughter."

I stopped.

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