“I need your help,” I stated, unsure of what response I was going to get.

Tristan nodded. “Sure. What do you need?”

“Can I trust you?” The last thing I needed was him saying something to Maverick. He couldn’t know anything about what I was about to do.

“Of course. You’re family.”

Family. It was still strange to think of him as that. I had to wonder if it was something I would ever get used to.

“You have to promise you won’t tell anyone.” I needed complete secrecy because if Maverick even got a whiff of what I was planning, he would put a stop to it.

The last two days I had spent every waking moment going over every possible scenario. It was difficult to determine what would work, but I knew I couldn’t do nothing.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked, confirming his help and secrecy.

“I need you to take me to my family.” I watched knowing this wasn’t going to go down well.

He frowned. “You want me to take you to your family?” he asked, as if he hadn’t quite heard me right.

I nodded. “Yes, that’s what I want.”

“Why?” he asked incredulous, already shaking his head.

I crossed my arms. “You aren’t going to help me, are you?” I could just sense the change in him.

He raked his hand through his hair before lifting his eyes to mine. There I saw real distress.

“First, you need to tell me what you think this will accomplish because I can guarantee whatever it is you’re expecting it won’t go down that way. These aren’t protective, loving relatives who want a reunion with their long lost daughter. All they care about is using you to unify the packs. It’s all about power Alexandria. They are not good people.”

“I know the risk.” I wasn’t sure at this point I could talk him around but I had to try. Without him, I wouldn’t be able to see my plan through and I would have no way to stop Maverick. He had to help me, there was no other way.

“You have no idea what you would be walking in to.” The disbelief was clear in his tight features. “This isn’t the type of family reunion you think it will be.”

“I know it’s dangerous and I know there is no guarantee that my plan will work but I can’t do nothing Tristan.” I pleaded with him. I reached out to touch his arm, to connect with him to be able to sway him. Without him, my plan was dead in the water.

He pressed his mouth into a tight line. He was still resistant to helping me with my plan.

“You know what Maverick is planning.”

He inclined his head.

“You know how dangerous that is.”

He stilled, his expression still disproving but I felt like he was actually considering my request. This was my last chance. If I didn’t convince him to help me, there would be nothing I could do to stop Maverick.

“Have you found your mate yet?” I asked, needing him to understand the bond I shared with Maverick and what was at stake.

He shook his head.

My heart sank a little. It would be much harder to convince him if he didn’t completely understand the link that was shared between mates.

“I can’t lose him…” Unexpected emotion made it unable to say anymore as my eyes stung. I was being vulnerable, it was a foreign but desperate feeling.

Tristan’s features softened. “I wouldn’t let him go into a fight if he didn’t have a chance of winning,” my cousin argued but I shook my head.

“I can’t do nothing, hoping and praying he will come out of this alive.” The fear was like a grip on my insides, constant. “I can’t.”

Tristan took me by the shoulders and leveled his gaze with mine. “He is taking the only option there is.” His eyes softened. “This is the only way Alexandria. There is nothing else he can do and it wasn’t an easy choice for him either. In his shoes I would make the same decision.”

I closed my eyes, fighting back the urge to release my despair and cry but it would do nothing to change what was unfolding. I nearly laughed out loud, almost hysterically. For the first time I waned to cry to release emotion, not to manipulate a situation or person.

In the short time of being with him, he had changed me. I wasn’t as cynical as before. The hardness in me that had built up over a lifetime had started to ease. All because of Maverick. I couldn’t lose him. If anything happened to him, I didn’t know if I could survive.

“So you’re not going to help me?” I asked softly, barely keeping the hysteria that no matter what I tried to do, nothing would change the outcome.

I had never had control over my life and now that I had finally free from the control of the orphanage I was still not free. My past was still controlling me. I was not free and would never be free until this was resolved.

He sighed, and dropped his hands from me. “I want to…but I can’t lead you straight into the danger my mother spent her whole life trying to hide you from. I can’t Alexandria.”

All the hope I had gathered sank like stone to the pit of my stomach.

“Tristan…” I tried one last time to try reach him. There was too much at stake.

“If you had asked me anything else I would have done it without question but I won’t be a party to this. I won’t be responsible for putting you in danger. Besides if I did and something happened to you, Maverick would kill me.”

Nothing was going the way I planned and I had no idea what I was going to do now.

“Fine.” I took a shaky breath forcing myself to pull myself together.

He studied me while I swallowed my disappointment.

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell Maverick about this.”

The last thing I needed was Maverick finding out what I was trying to do. I had no idea how he would react, all I knew is that it wouldn’t be good.

“There’s no need for me to say.” He shrugged.

I was still struggling to contain my disappointment as I watched him turn and walk away. But a few feet from me he stopped to look back.

“You are fearless Alexandria,” he said, almost prideful but then his features turned serious with a furrow in his brow. “Sometimes it’s good to brave but there are times it’s wiser to heed the fear.”

I frowned, not liking what he said but I wasn’t going to argue. He had made up his mind already and there was no changing it. I couldn’t waste valuable time trying to persuade him. He was not going to help me. I would need to find someone else to help me.

His eyes rested on me and I held his gaze, hoping he would not see the determination in me. I was going to do this with or without him. It was the independent trait that I had nurtured through the years in the orphanage that had got me this far, even if I had no idea how I was going to execute my plan without him.

Our eye contact broke and I watched him with a mixture of emotions as he walked away.

I would not allow his refusal to keep me from doing what I believed was the only way to save Maverick.

While I had not completely figured out exactly what I would do when I was faced my family, I knew I had to do something.

They needed to know I was not weak and that I would not allow them to dictate to me. I didn’t completely know where that feeling in me came from, perhaps it was the Alpha in me that refused to bow to others. I would trust that instinct to get us out of the mess my existence had created.

No more hiding, no more living under different identities. I was Alexander Mason, and I would not cower away from a fight. It wasn’t who I was.

And it was time I met my family.