Dad, what did you say? Part 2

Cooper's POV

I watched as my father stood at the office door with his shoulders slumped just taking a minute to breathe. I can't believe we had an aunt who was mated to a hybrid and was kidnapped. The only thing that doesn't make sense is where Klaus and Rachel are. Marcus, did you know there were still lycans around? I questioned my noisy wolf, hoping he had some past knowledge of lycans.

Be patient, we will find out more by just listening. This is obviously hard for him. I can feel his wolf's sadness. Now shush, I need to hear the rest of this story. Marcus said, hushing me.

Rolling my eyes, I leaned back in the chair waiting for dad to finish his story. Maybe I do need to have another drink before he tells me any more secrets. "Hey, you gonna share the food, cause I burned a lot of calories holding back so I didnt crack that old back of yours." I said, trying to bring the mood up a bit. Which seemed to work because dad started cracking up laughing and brought the tray of breakfast food to the coffee table.

"You wish you could have cracked my old back. You're still wet behind the ears." he chuckled. Grabbing a piece of bacon, popping it into his mouth and sitting down on the chair.

"What is that supposed to mean, old man?" I asked, grabbing a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits and gravy to eat.

"You're still a pup essentially. But we are getting off topic. You eat and let me finish so you can understand everything." He said, sitting back in the and sipping on his black coffee.

"Okay, I'm still not sure how Lyra is related to everything. Or where Aunt Rachel is now-"I said, getting cut off.

"Let me continue and all your questions will be answered." He said, shaking his head. "You were always impatient. Where was I….um…okay yeah. I still don't know how Rachel hid her so well or how she kept her quiet. Hell I am surprised they were both alive. I just didn't realize how bad off she really was. But anyway, I gathered up all her dirty towels and rags. Rachel was bathing in her clothes. When I reached to grab her pallet, Rachel screamed, causing me to jump. I hit my head on the sink, dropped all the clothes and slipped, hitting the ground. Then the tiniest, quietest cry was heard. Honestly, if I wasn't a werewolf I probably wouldn't have heard it all over Rachel's scream. Before I could figure out what I had done wrong, Rachel was scrambling out of the tub to grab the small bundle and hightailing it out of the bathroom.

"It took me a minute to grasp that my sister was hiding a living child. I went looking for Rachel and found her in the corner of the room hiding under the table with the chair between the rest of the room and her. I mindlink the guys outside of the room standing guard about how far out was our pack doctor. I tried to get Rachel to see I was not trying to harm her. I was just trying to help. It took her to agree to see the doctor, but no one could know about the child, to come out of her makeshift fort. Not even the doctor. She allowed the doctor to come into the room as long as I sat in the chair in front of the new pallet. Gamma Olivia came to check on Rachel. She did the usual doctor stuff. She tried to do a female exam thingy, but Rachel declined adamantly. Seeing all the bruises on top of the bruising, it was an odd thing to see. Her stomach and back were littered with purple and red bruises, several cuts and scars. Her arms and neck had handprints. You could almost see every detail of the perp's hand on some of the marks. Olivia was careful, she drew blood for labs. She gave Rachel some pain medication, some antibiotics for any possible infections and a sedative to help her sleep, hopefully, without flashbacks. Olivia told me Rachel's wolf was no longer able to heal her. She wasn't entirely sure if Rachel even still had her wolf. Hours later, we found out how badly she was really doing.

"The thing is, Rachel was surviving off pure instinct to protect her child. There was nothing those horrible people could do to her that would make a difference as long as her child survived. By the time we found Rachel, they had done too much damage. She was already in heart failure. Rachel had become septic as her body tried to fight a gastrointestinal bacterial infection, but without medical attention and being malnutrition, her body couldn't keep up with all the abuse. Dr. Olivia said it was best to get her mate by her if we had any hope that Rachel would pull through the week, let alone the night. Olivia left and I talked with Rachel before she fell asleep. She asked me not to tell anyone about the baby, until Klaus knew. She wanted to tell him. She never got to.

"No one could find Klaus. I sent every available wolf to track him down. But Klaus had lost it. He didn't have control of his lycan and went on a rampage. You gotta understand Klaus felt every beating. Every violation. To feel your mate's every pain and not being able to do anything would drive any mate crazy. When we found the satellite base, smelling the blood, he lost it. When lycan's get lost in the emotions, especially when it comes to their mates, it can cause a state of psychosis that not everyone comes back from. It took 3 days and 50 of the best trackers to finally find Klaus. Rachel held on for as long as she could.

"That night after Rachel took the sedative, she slept for 32 hours straight. Olivia kept checking on her and occasionally got blood work, but each time it was worse than the last. The antibiotics weren't working and her body was shutting down. When Rachel finally woke up, I thought it was a great sign. Later on I found out about terminal lucidity, it's a second wind or surge of energy. It's a cruel joke, because you don't realize this is the last chance you get to speak to them before they pass. She was awake long enough to tell me the name of her baby and asked me to take care of Klaus and the baby. She wrote Klaus a letter and I promised to give it to him. Then she told me as many details about her captors as she could remember. I still hear her voice so devoid of any emotion retelling the horrors that were her life for the last six months," Dad finished as a few silent tears fell down his cheek and landed on his shirt.

Allowing the silence to cover us like a blanket and letting everything sink in, we sat there. There were so many questions running through my mind. Not sure where to begin or if I should wait until he speaks again. Before I could decide, dad started talking again.

"Klaus made it before she passed, but she never woke up. He didn't get to hear her voice again. He didn't get to tell her how hard he looked for her. Once, Rachel took her last breath. Klaus lost it. I don't blame him, but we couldn't get him to calm down. Olivia had a wolfsbane, silver and sedative mixture ready for her to use in case Klaus was unable to get control of his lycan. His men helped us transport him safely back home. Olivia and Beta Alexi, Klaus's right-hand man, helped me with all the arrangements to transport Rachel back to their pack for the funeral.

"Once back at Crescent Falls, your mom was on bedrest and y'all couldn't come to the funeral. I hadn't been home in six months. I missed yall terribly. I cared for my sister's baby while I mourned her death. Klaus was still struggling. Alexi was taking care of all the pack business. At the funeral, Klaus kept it together as best he could and he vowed revenge for Rachel and their pack. As soon as Rachel was in the ground, Klaus transformed into his lycan and disappeared. No one could blame him. He never thought he'd have a mate and then to have her ripped from his arms, tortured and killed caused a mental break.

"Klaus was in no condition to take care of his daughter. He couldn't stomach opening the letter from Rachel. Hell, he didn't open it until a year had passed. By then, he wasn't sure if she would be safe if others knew she was alive, especially the ones behind the Rogue Wars. The alphas who had sided with the rogues abandoned their packs. Only two or three smaller pack leaders were arrested, but they were useless with information.

"I brought Lyra home with me. I never told your mother who she was, only that she was mine. And she was, she was all I had left of Rachel. I had your mom and you meet us in Chicago about an hour from Crescent Falls. She was so angry with me. I let my mate believe I cheated on her. Your mom was 7 months pregnant when we lost our pup. Tallulah blamed me and I can't blame her. I broke her heart." Dad finished. He leaned back in the chair looking exhausted.

"Where is Klaus, now? Does he know about Lyra at all? Does this mean that Lyra is a hybrid too? I am still confused on what this has to do with the rogues. Why didn't you just tell mom about Rachel?" I asked questions popping in my head one after another. "Why can't Lyra know? She is an adult. She can make her own choices and it may actually help her and mom."

"NO! No one can know outside of me and you. The less people know the safer Lyra stays. The council of Elders do not trust hybrids. Let alone Lycans. Lycans are stronger, faster, and live longer than we do. The council a long time ago tried to rid the world of all the Lycans. So Lycans went into hiding. Parents hid their children. Children learned in basements in human cities how to change and control their Lycans." Dad explained, standing up pacing once again. "Klaus knows about Lyra, but he had to go into hiding. Only Alexi knows where he is. Alexi doesn't even know about Lyra. Klaus came back a year later after reading Rachel's letter, looking for Lyra. Lyra was a mix of the both of them. She has Rachel's blue eyes, her crooked smile and button nose with Klaus' dark brown hair and his personality. She is a fighter. Klaus saw you and Lyra playing at the park. Lyra started crying and you came running yelling "sissy, don't cry bubba is here." Klaus watched you kiss her hand where she fell and how well you cared for her."

"I don't remember meeting Klaus." I said, trying to think back. He sounded like a memorable person. A 6 foot 3 dark brown hair with bluish green eyes, a strong jaw and a thick russian accent.

"You wouldn't. He stayed out of sight. He has visited from a distance several times, but after he lost control of his lycan the council was watching him closer. Once a lycan loses control over their lycan it can be very difficult to get it back into control. That's why the council tried to whip them out. Only a few hybrids exist, they tend to stay with smaller packs under the council's radar. After Rachel died, the council hunted Klaus down, but had no grounds to imprison him. As far as the council knows he gave his pack to Beta Alexi's rule, and very few know that Klaus is still incharge. Alexi is just the face of the pack. This allows Klaus to still investigate Rachel's kidnapping and follow leads to the end, and keep Lyra safe. We still don't know the motive or who took Rachel. So the less people know about Lyra the better. Do you understand now?" dad inquired, sitting back down on the chair and grabbing his coffee.

"So wouldn't it stand to reason to allow Lyra not to come home for the Yule Ball?" I asked. If Lyra needed to be protected at all cost then her coming home to be around multiple council members and alphas would not be wise would it."

"Well, no. Quite the opposite. Everyone is expecting the beta family to be standing next to the Alpha family. If she is not there it will cause more suspicion because why would a high ranking single female not want the chance to find her mate?" Pointed out dad. He definitely had a point. If she was a part of the hosting pack's high ranking members, her absences would be noted especially by the council.

"Why do you think Lyra and rogues are connected?" I inquired as I got up from the couch and headed back to my desk to gather up my reports for our meeting soon.

"One year after the lycan turns 21, they can find their mate. Lyra should be exhibiting heightened senses, faster, more agility, and easily angered. Lyra needs to come back home so we can prepare her. She needs to train before the first full moon of her birthday month." he answered. "I need your help to convince your sister to come back and stay a few weeks so we can get some training in. After the Yule Ball, we need to convince her to go to Crescent Falls somehow."

"Crap wouldn't it be easier to just tell Lyra the truth?" I asked, rubbing the back of my neck. What a mess this is? How am I going to convince Lyra to come home and not hate me? Oh hell mom thinks dad cheated. Now it makes sense why mom and Lyra don't get along. Looking for all the documents we need for the meeting in a few minutes, how are we going to keep this a secret? The questions were piling up without answers.

"Not yet. Klaus wants to be the one to tell her. He was hoping to have found the ones who killed Rachel, but all his leads have led to dead ends. So we have to tell her before April 16th. Now that you know we can both work to prepare Lyra." Dad concluded, looking at his watch. "It's a quarter til. We need to get everything together and meet Alpha Judson before we head in. Come on, we can talk about this more later."

I watched as my father walked to the door and across the hall to Alpha Judson's office like nothing happened. WTF! I sat back down in my chair trying to comprehend everything my dad said. So much needless pain by keeping these secrets, and yet so much makes sense. Like how dad always gets in between Lyra and mom's arguments. Why he allowed Josie and I more freedom. Shaking my head, I grab my reports and get up to leave my office. This is only the beginning of this conversation. There will be many more until all my questions are answered. I need all the facts to keep this a secret properly.