“How did he get you back?”

“He commissioned several half-demons to venture to the underworld to retrieve me, but taking me from Asuran was not as difficult as they assumed it would be.” He gave a joyless smile. “She readily handed me over for a small price. Female demons are similar to their male counterparts in that aspect. She had no love for me. I was near starved when they found me.”

I didn’t know much about how demons mated or produced offspring, but the way they behaved toward their young wasn’t like humans or supernaturals. The little I did know told me they were more like reptiles. Their offspring were born and then they were left to fend for themselves. Only the strongest survived.

“How did you survive at all? She must have fed you at times.”

He nodded. “She did. We can only deduce that my werewolf blood triggered that in her, since demons don’t normally feed their children. But my birth must have stimulated it because the half-demons who rescued me said she had full breasts that dripped milk, so Asuran must have fed me some, or I wouldn’t have made it past a few days, but she didn’t take care of me. I was barely breathing when they found me.”

“So then what happened?”

“They took me back to my father, and that was when the problems started. My body wouldn’t accept milk from the pack’s wet nurse. It only made me sicker.”

“But infants born of demon fathers can feed from their supernatural mothers or wet nurses.”

“True, which means that something about coming from a female demon made me different. After days of me deteriorating further, my father sought help from the local council. One of them had heard of a sorcerer who possessed magic and knowledge that could help demon offspring. My father found him, hired him, and he was the one who ultimately saved me.”

“How?”

“He created a synthetic milk, woven through magic and spells, that was able to sustain me. I began growing again, thriving in fact, but it wasn’t until I reached toddlerhood that they discovered the side effect of creating that nutrition for me.” He smirked when he caught my curious expression. “The sorcerer’s power somehow also transferred to the synthetic milk he created. By accident or on purpose, I don’t know, but his magically infused milk also gave me his power, and when he died, all of his magic transferred to me.”

My lips parted. “Seriously? I’ve literally never heard of anything like this.”

Amusement glinted in his eyes. “Seriously.”

“He must have been very powerful.”

“He was. One of the most powerful sorcerers in the world.”

“Do you remember him?”

He cocked his head. “I have a couple memories of him, but he was old when my father found him and died when I was five. My father thinks he saw me as the son he’d never had and believes he purposefully gave all of his magic to me. That I was his only chance at leaving a lasting impression on the world.”

“His legacy.”

“Exactly.”

And what a legacy he turned out to be. “So that’s where your magic comes from? This sorcerer who your father commissioned to save you?”

“It does.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t even know sorcerers could transfer their power.”

“I don’t think many can. Actually, it’s possible no others can. He might have been unique in that aspect.”

I studied him for a moment, trying to imagine what growing up with his genetics had felt like. “You must have felt very alone here in this pack since you weren’t a pure-blooded werewolf like everyone else.”

His expression clouded. “It created some challenges, mainly the discord with my brothers.”

“So they hate you because you’re a werewolf with sorcerer magic?”

“No, they hate me because I’m a constant reminder of their mother being killed and our father’s betrayal to her memory. They’re old enough to remember her. Ocean isn’t. And they see me as the outcome of their father’s fall from grace. No mated wolf male would ever sleep with another female as quickly as our father did. It’s disrespectful to their mother’s memory and what Paxton should have felt for her.”

“But your father only slept with Asuran because she looked like his mate. It was his deep grief that drove him to do it.”

“Try telling them that.” He shook his head, a hint of bitterness curling his lip. “It didn’t help that I grew up to be what I am. I’m stronger than them, more powerful, and they hate me for it.”

I made a sour face. “That’s ridiculous. You were an innocent child, even if you came from a female demon, and even if your father dishonored their mother by sleeping with that demon.”

He shrugged. “They’ll never listen to reason. I accepted that long ago.”

“But what about the rest of your pack? Ocean said they all dislike you.” From what I’d seen and heard yesterday, I believed her.

“They do. I’m an outsider. I always have been. To them, I’m the freak child of the alpha that they were forced to put up with, and of course”—his wicked smile returned—“it didn’t help that I wasn’t exactly a well-behaved child or teenager. Once I realized that it didn’t matter how much I tried to fit in or how much I tried to please them, I stopped trying. But not only that, I went in the opposite direction. I made it a point to inflict as much pain as I could on all of them.”

“By doing what?”

“Fighting. Stealing. Arson. You name it, I did it.”

“You were rebelling because no one would accept you. How could they not see that?”

“Maybe they didn’t want to.”

“But a lot of kids do stuff like that before they outgrow it. Why would your pack hold that kind of behavior against you?”

He shrugged. “You have to remember that I’m the youngest of my father’s children. Cameron was always in line to be the next alpha, and if he backed out, there was Gavin. There was never any doubt that one of them would rise to the top. So not only was I different from everybody else, but I was inconsequential. With no hope of me ever leading this pack, the pack followed my brothers’ lead. Since Cameron and Gavin hated me, everybody else did too, as you saw firsthand yesterday.”

“But how could they possibly think you’re inconsequential? You’re stronger than all of them. I saw that much in the fight. You weren’t even using half of what you’re capable of, not even at the end when you erupted into flames.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Perhaps.”

“So that means that you could challenge your father one day to be alpha of this pack. Surely, the others would have recognized that.”

“They did, eventually, but I didn’t come into my full powers until I was a teenager, and since I left when I was eighteen, there were only a few years where that fear came to light. But by then, the pack’s mind had already been made up. I wasn’t one of them. And since I showed no desire to lead them, my strength or power didn’t matter because I wanted nothing to do with this place. The second I hit eighteen, I left and never looked back.”

I sat silent for a moment, studying him again. He held eye contact, but his expression gave away nothing. It was tragic, really. He was the outcast of his pack, a unique supernatural that couldn’t identify with anybody, and then to ostracize himself from his family on top of it . . .

“You must feel so alone.” The declaration left my lips before I could stop it.

A small smile tilted his lips. “Don’t tell me this is going to turn into a therapy session.”

I chuckled, shaking myself out of my thoughts. “Hardly, it was just an observation. Do you though? Feel alone?”

His expression turned pensive, as though he were considering my words, almost as if he’d never truly thought about it. “If I was a full-blooded werewolf, I probably would, but I’m not, so no, I’m fine. I like leading my own life and not having the worry of turning rogue. And I’ve never felt the pull to this pack, or any pack. I am my own master. Nobody controls me.”