"Are you sure about this?" Matteo asked making me gulp. My heart was racing like crazy as I just stared at the giant pack house in front of me through the car window.

"Yes," I said confidently, but on the inside I was crumbling like a piece of stale bread.

"You're lying," he accused making my head turn to meet his handsome face abruptly. His brow was raised obviously testing me to deny him. "I can hear your heart racing." My strong façade vanished and a frown replaced my features. Matteo reached his arms out to me and pulled me to his chest.

"I'm getting to see the man who abandoned me after like five years, and for some reason I can't help but feel excited," I admitted. "Is that wrong?"

"Well, do you want the truth?" Matteo asked making me sigh. He didn't even have to say what he was thinking for me to know that he thought I was insane for wanting to see Parker, my dad.

After the phone call with my brother, I didn't know what to say. I kept asking Matteo if this was all just some sick joke that he thought would be funny. He went on to assure me that the only sick joke in my life as of now would be my father.

Matteo was really not a fan of him. I didn't blame him, though. I did tell him some pretty shitty things about my dad. I just couldn't help it. I couldn't help that I still cared. He's my dad, after all.

I was internally a mess. The little people in my head were basically running around setting fire to everything they touched in a failed attempt to fix my inevitably life-damaging issues. I was calm, cool, and collected on the outside, though.

Okay, maybe that was a lie.

I was doing good handling my emotions until I accidentally threw Jack down a flight of stairs. It was after I did that and continued screaming at him from the top of the stairs about how I was thinking about just throwing myself out of the seventh story window that Matteo took me to our room. We spent the rest of the day in there. He let me rant and punch him whenever I had random spurts of anger. He also held me and rocked me back and forth when I got to a point where I felt like I wanted to cry, but I don't do that, so I just sat there emotionlessly staring at nothing.

It wasn't until that night that I brought up actually seeing my dad. It was a hard no from Matteo. It took a while to convince him, but I eventually won as I normally do.

So, here we sit; in a car in front of Socius' pack house.

"He's not completely terrible," I mumbled into his chest.

"He still hurt you."

"You hurt me, and I still like you," I countered. I didn't even have to see his face to see his eye roll. It was practically burned into my conscious by this point.

"But that's different. At least, I try to fix my mistakes." I sighed sadly once again at his words.

"Please," I begged, pulling away from his hold to look him in the eyes, "don't make this harder on me than it's already going to be." His expression softened as he leaned down to give me a swift, apologetic kiss. He pulled back, and I could tell he wanted to apologize but getting the words out were practically an impossibility for him. I wasn't going to push him. He had already said it once this week. Instead, he just said that we should probably head inside and ushered us into the pack house.

His hand was placed against my lower back guiding me to the door. From there, we were met by Aleksei and two house guards who lead us to where they were holding my dad.

"Kaia, I've got to warn you," Aleksei warned as we stopped in front of a steel door. At this point, we were below ground level, so I knew that once I entered this door, I would be seeing the man who had abandoned me without a word, "I know you're not going to like seeing him like this." I gulped at his words trying to seem collected, but how could I be?

"I'm fine, Alek," I assured. "He's just a person to me, now. He deserves whatever he's going through." By the look on Aleksei's face, I could tell he was seeing straight through my lie. He didn't respond. He just continued searching my face for any signs of me wanting to stop. "Let's go," I pushed motioning to the door. With a heavy sigh, he opened the door.

"All that I'm saying is that I feel like silver chains really aren't necessary, so if you could keep those away from me, thanks." My heart dropped. He sounded just like he did before. Was I sure I was okay with this?

"Could I get some water? Get my son. He will get me some water." I stepped into the room taking in everything within it. I no longer felt Matteo's hand on my back. I assumed he stayed back. My stomach dropped seeing the large frame of a man chained to a wall by what I assume were steel chains inside of a temporary holding cell.

"Oh, Kaden," he said turning around expecting to see my brother step through the door. Instead, his eyes found mine. A familiarly, sadistic smile graced his face at the sight of me, his daughter. "Kaia," he breathed. My heart imploded within itself. He was the same man he had been before. The same light blue eyes, the same dark brown hair, the same muscular build, charming smile, and charismatic attitude. He was my dad, "my precious Kaia."

"Daddy," my voice cracked as well as one of the cold, hard walls that I had built around my heart because of him. My feet started moving before I had the opportunity to stop them. My hands were grasping the steel bars of the cell so tightly that my knuckles were white. "Open the door," I pleaded to a guard who had been standing in front of the cell. 

"Its not—"

"I said, open the door!" I snarled, angling my head to face him directly. The guard looked over to Aleksei, asking permission. My brother nodded, and the guard made quick work of unlocking the cell.

"My little girl," my dad murmured in a prideful whisper making a sense of accomplishment bubble within me. He was proud of me. He was still proud of me.

As soon as the door was open, my arms wound around my dad's neck. His chained arms wrapped themselves around my torso, crushing me to him. I could feel the steel cuffs on his wrists digging into my back, but I couldn't have cared less in that moment.

"Can we have a moment?" My dad spoke up after a minute of us just embracing one another.

"Like hell," Matteo snapped making anger rise within me.

"Can't I just have a minute with my dad?" I argued, releasing my dad from the hug that I didn't want to ever let go from. Matteo seemed taken back by my outburst. I could see by the look in his eyes that he was about to grab me and take the two of us home in that moment, but Aleksei diverted his attention. He said something in a low, hushed voice to Matteo so that I was unable to hear him. Matteo glanced between my father and I for a moment before nodding and exiting the room with my brother. That left my dad, two guards, and me.

"Do you not have anything better to do?" My dad asked the guards standing in front of his cell.

"Making sure you don't get out is probably the best thing we can do, Parker," the guard who unlocked my dad's cell said in a bored tone. I could only assume by the first name basis that the two had spent a bit of time together down here.

"Oh, whatever, Derek," my dad grunted. His gaze found me again, and his smile returned. "Well, you've definitely grown over the past few years, haven't you? What are you, now? Sixteen? Seventeen?"

"Um, nineteen," I corrected making his eyes grow.

"That long, huh?" He chuckled. "Didn't you look for me?" My eyes grew, and my heart rate sped up. Was I supposed to look for him? I mean, I did. I just could never find him before I ended up in Vindicta's possession.

"I couldn't find you," I admitted. A look of disappointment washed over my dad's face making me feel sick to my stomach.

"I thought you were better than that. I guess your brother always was the smart one," he chided. I lowered my head. He was right. He was always right.

"I know. I should have looked harder."  We settled into a silence before he spoke up, again.

"So, I hear you have the Alpha of Caedes wrapped around your finger, huh?" My head immediately snapped up at the mention of Matteo. Noticing the panic that had taken over my body, my dad continued his interrogation. "Never would have thought my independent, little Kaia would crave power. I'm impressed. Seducing the Alpha must not have been easy," he complimented making my mouth go dry.

"Well, actually—"

"If only your disappointment of a brother could see things our way," he interrupted me. I bit my tongue trying not to scream 'Matteo is actually my mate!' and then beg for his mercy and forgiveness. "Fighting for the role of a pack wolf, and it's not even one that can control an entire pack. Useless, is he not?"

"He's just trying to work his way up," I defended, trying to make excuses for my brother that I knew weren't true.

"Are you defending him?" I hung my head in shame at his question. He was definitely going to be angry with me about this for a while.

"No," I mumbled sheepishly feeling like the little girl he had abandoned.

"Kaia, I can't hear you when you mumble," my dad said lowly making the hair on my body stand on end. "Speak up," he snapped.

"I said, no," I said louder.

"Kaia, the mumbling," he snapped again. "Are you dumb or stupid? Do I need your brother to come in here and show you how to speak?"

"I said, no!" I snarled, staring down at the floor. A sick feeling formed in my stomach hearing my father's light chuckle.

He always did know exactly how to get to me.

"You never were a tough cookie to crack, were you?" Deciding it was best to just not say anything, I shook my head. "It's alright. At least, you're beautiful like your mother," he complimented making me smile a bit. "So, about this Alpha Nerezza. How exactly did you get him into the palm of your hand?" Not daring to look my father in the eye, I kept my eyes glued to the ground. "Kaia, what did you do?" Again, no answer. "Kaia!" He shouted making me flinch. "Answer me, dammit. Have you lost a few more brain cells since the last time I saw you?"

"If you could please refrain from shouting at my mate before I rip the vocal cords out of your throat, that would be nice," Matteo's deep voice rumbled through the room sending a shiver down my spine. My eyes snapped up to meet my father's. The rage that filled them set my insides on fire.

"Mate," he repeated making me feel like I was about to throw up.

He was never going to forgive me. He was never going to accept me. He was never going to be proud of me.

I was pulled from my thought by the familiar sensation that only Matteo's touch could give me. He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my dad's cell. Our eyes were still connected as he yelled at me.

"Kaia Parker, you better pray this is a joke," he snarled at me, violently pulling on the chains that held him to the wall. "Don't leave this room, Kaia! Don't leave this room!" His deep growl ripped through the air causing my chest the tighten. It felt like a boa constrictor had wrapped itself around my torso and was trying to squeeze the life out of me.

I wanted to yell back.

I wanted to look him dead in the eyes and say that he can't tell me what's not mine.

I wanted to be right, for once.

But, I didn't want him to be disappointed in me.

"Kaia!" And then, the cell door shut followed by the steel door of the room behind Matteo and I.

The slam of the door brought me back to reality. My eyes found the dark, Mediterranean-blue eyes of Matteo instead of the icy eyes of my father. It was as if I was given a coat in the winter cold. Heat radiated in my chest making my body feel warm. The icy feeling running through my veins no longer there.

I wanted to punch myself in the face nine times for letting him get to me, again. I wanted to throw myself down a flight of stairs for making me question myself. I wanted to shoot myself in the foot for even thinking he was a decent father.

I couldn't help it.

He got under my skin without even trying, and I let him.

He brought out a bad person—a monster that had slowly begun to go away.

"Are we going home?" I breathed trying to keep up with Matteo's pace as he drug me through Socius' pack house. His pace slowed down and came to halt before turning around to look at me.

"Is that where you want to go?"

"I want to go anywhere that's not here."

__________________

HO HO HO HO HO YALL AINT READY FOR THE TWO PART CHAPTER.

Yeah I've been working my ass of the past two days to get this done so enjoy it.

Also I definitely feel like Kaia is gonna get more than enough hate in the chapter. She's not our hardass little Kaia. Oh no. Water we gonna doooo.

Don't worry, next half you'll either really feel for her or think she's a giant baby so yea. If I get it across right then you'll understand but if not THEN SHE ANNOYING AS SHIT

Fuck off, Parker.

BUT LIKE I SAID YALL AINT READY

Hasta la pasta 10/10/17 (I know this was yesterday. I finished this chapter yesterday but decided to wait to upload it)