Blood Recognizes Blood – 1
Thea’s POV
They stood outside my door, and I froze, as if someone had cast a spell on me. “Thea, they’re not going to disappear,” Iris whispered behind me, snapping me back to reality.
I finally regained my composure and stepped aside, letting the three visitors into my temporary home. My brain struggled to process the absurdity: the top Alpha family of the Northwestern region, the Kincaids, were in my living room, and I might be their long-lost daughter. This was even more shocking than discovering I was wolfless years ago.
Once we were seated, I looked directly into Kane’s eyes. “Hawthorne let you out?” My voice was cold.
“Bail,” he answered briefly, his gaze wandering, avoiding eye contact.
I bit my lip. Yesterday, Sheriff Hawthorne had asked if I wanted to press formal charges against Kane—attempted murder, impersonating a police officer, fraud, and more. I couldn’t answer him. Yes, what he did was terrible, and I didn’t know if I could forgive or forget any of it. Despite everything, during our time together, he had helped me regain my confidence and taught me much about myself and life. I just didn’t know if I had the courage to press charges. Roman was pressing charges as Alpha of the Sterling Pack, as were the police.
“I am deeply sorry for my son’s actions, Thea,” Seraphina said, her voice breaking the tense atmosphere.
I stared at her, seeing shadows of my own eyes in hers. Yet she still called Kane her “son,” and the love in her voice when she said it sent a sharp pain through my chest. Was she really accepting everything he’d done to me? If she could accept that, I wasn’t sure I wanted her in my life, even if she was my mother.
“You apologize for his actions, yet you paid an astronomical bail to get him out,” I pointed out sharply. “If what he says is true, how can you accept that your adopted son tried to murder your biological daughter you’ve been looking for all these years? It doesn’t make sense.”
“There’s no justification for what he’s done,” Maximus glared at Kane, his deep voice obviously controlled. But I could still see that he loved Kane too. It was written all over both his and Seraphina’s faces.
“Then why bail him out?” Iris spoke up, voicing my unspoken question. “If Thea really is your daughter, Kane should pay for what he’s done. He betrayed her trust, played with her feelings, and planned to kill her!”
Each word felt like salt in my wounds. A familiar pain spread from my heart—that empty feeling of not belonging. I thought Kane had filled that void, but the reality was he’d made it deeper.
“We’re not avoiding accountability,” Seraphina said softly, tears glistening in her eyes. “But he’s our child, whom we’ve raised for fifteen years. Even if he’s made unforgivable mistakes, we can’t completely push him away. That’s what ‘Pack’ means—no matter how painful, family is always family.”
Family is always family. Those words hit me like a slap. The Sterlings never treated me like family, even when I thought we were connected by blood. Yet the Kincaids were willing to do everything for someone who wasn’t even their blood relative.
Maximus looked at Kane with obvious disappointment. “Being able to love a child while condemning their actions is the hardest test for us as parents.” I felt a sudden understanding of the Kincaid couple’s position. I thought of my Leo—if Leo had done something wrong, I would support him while still holding him accountable.
I turned to Kane, whose face remained as cold as stone, just as it had been yesterday. I moved my gaze from him to Seraphina and Maximus, avoiding any further influence from him.
“What makes you so sure I’m your daughter?” I asked, using coldness to mask my inner turmoil. “Kane might be wrong. I don’t look anything like either of you.” They were inhumanly beautiful, while I was just ordinary. Kane moved, taking a thick envelope from his pocket and holding it out to me. I hesitantly took it and saw it contained a DNA test report.