I nodded.
“You have to hold tightly onto the kind of love you share with him,” George said. His firm voice started to waver, taking on a kind of melancholy. “You have to protect each other. Better than I protected your mother…”
“Dad…” I said softly. “You didn’t know.”
“I should have,” he said. “I was so concerned with the war up north, I couldn’t see the dangers I’d welcomed into my own household. Not only did I fail in protecting Lena, I allowed myself to believe that you had also died, even without proof. Then, as if that shame wasn’t strong enough, I married your mother’s killer.”
“She deceived you.”
“I am Alpha King,” he said. “I should not be deceived.”
“You were grieving,” I told him. “Victoria knew what to say, how to act. She manipulated you, Dad. Mom… I know I didn’t know he
