Tasting All My Mates by Alexis Dee

372-The Act Of Sin

Author's POV:

Years Ago:

"It is okay. The Moon Goddess will heal you," a lady hugged Thiago, who had been staring at his

mother’s grave, which was empty because the body was never found anymore. They held the

funeral to finally rest her.

But Shepard wasn't planning to back down anytime soon. He had promised to get justice for his

wife.

"Thank you for coming," Shepard said to the last guest. It was only Thiago and Shepard left now.

They stood before the grave, their eyes glued to the empty place where their beloved was

supposed to rest.

"Dad!" Thiago whispered, standing still in the black suit he wore for his mother’s funeral.

"Yes, my sweet son?" Shepard said, knowing how much this had affected his son. He was

hurting, too. And somewhere, the two had to find a way to connect. Shepard was too busy

taking care of the matters that at the time he thought he was maybe not giving Thiago enough

time and attention to help him heal.

"Am I a terrible son?" Those words from Thiago's lips hit Shepard like a dagger. He had just lost

a mate; he couldn't imagine his son going into depression.

"No! you are a wonderful son," Shepard instantly got on his knees and held his son by his arms to speak to him.

"Then why am I unable to remember anything from that night? Why didn't I help mom?" he asked his father.

There was a trail of dry tears left on his cheeks. His lips were dry, and his skin was rough. His mother used to

apply too much lotion to his hands and face during the winter. She always says Thiago has very sensitive skin. His

cheeks would turn red at the very sight of a stiff wind.

He knew somewhere in his heart that he would never get to enjoy those luxuries again. The luxury of having a

mother.

"You did. You ran for hours on your little human feet and came crashing through the border. If you hadn't arrived,

we might have never even found the body," Shepard meant it. He never, for once, thought his son should have

done better to remember the happenings of that night.

He believed whatever his son saw that night has traumatized him.

"Then why don't I remember anything? I don’t know if I ran or not. I just know that we never found the body. Is

this why?" Thiago asked. Being an alpha son, he kept asking himself questions. Maybe they never found the body,

and in order for Thiago to not feel bad, maybe they lied and said they lost the body in the morgue.

"That's not true." Shepard had to pull him into his arms when he noticed how badly his son was suffering. "You are

a wonderful son. Yo~u helped us find her body. W---e just lost

her again," Shepard cried when hugging his son. Thiago's tears had gone dry.

He could no longer show many emotions. Shepard knew whatever Thiago saw that night was horrifying.

"Lets go home now," Shepard said, breaking the hug and walking him to the car.

"Can we not call it home anymore?" Thiago requested, watching his father slow down to look at him.

"Why?" Shepard asked.

"A home is a place where your parents are. There is only us there now," Thiago gave his father a weak smile,

trembling his heart in his chest.

"It will become a home again when you grow up and find a mate. You will bring her home and take care of her."

Shepard got inside the car and sneakily cleaned his tears. "Packhouse mansion," he told the driver.

"I will never marry or mark my mate," Thiago shook his head at his father, not liking the idea of finding anyone else

who he might lose.

"What? No! Don't even think about that. A mate is an important part of us. You see, Thiago! A

she-wolf is considered lesser than an alpha. However, this is not the case. The alphas might be

in great strength, but the she-wolf-or whoever their mate is —is going to be the one to help the

alphas control their powers. A mate is not a curse; a mate is a power. You'll meet your

special someone who will help you forget about your pain. You will bring her home and start a

family with her. That's when this mansion will turn into a home again." Shepard held his son

close, his arm wrapping around his son's shoulder as he watched outside the window.

A broken smile covered his lips as he recalled when he brought in his mate. He couldn't stop

himself from getting up early every morning for so many years to make her breakfast.

Everybody joked about her being the alpha and him being the omega. But he didn't mind. He felt

victory whenever his mate blushed.

But now those memories were going to be replaced by the fact that he lost her.

He should have done anything to get her justice, but he couldn' t. After reaching home,

Mackenzie told his daughter Janet to stay with Thiago while he discussed what to do next with

the Alpha.

"Maybe if we show Thiago those pictures again, he might remember?" Mackenzie asked.

"That won't do anything. He is still traumatized, and I don't want him to put more pressure on

his brain. We need to focus on the morgue case. How the hell did the morgue burn down on the

same day when it was going to bring the evidence out?" Shepard said, watching the CCTV

footage of the road from that night of horror over and over again.

"That is the alpha king’s car, right?" he asked Mackenzie, and after getting a nod from him, he

narrowed his eyes at the footage. "Just a crazy thought. What if someone powerful is behind

this? They will be able to go to crazy limits to get rid of the evidence, for example, a morgue,

right?" as Shepard suggested and raised his face, he understood Mackenzie got his hint.