AN: I'm hoping to upload every other week on Monday's from now on. I am planning to post every Monday for the next little while to 'catch-up' with where I should be by now in posted chapters.

Thank you all for the patience with my recent break, it was necessary for family reasons; although I knew that there was a medical intervention planned, I didn't fully realize the length of nor the full intensity of the impact.

It may take me a few weeks to get back into the normal routine, but I don't think there will be any further implications for posting.

Again, thank you for your patience and I hope that everyone enjoys the chapter.

Disclosure: I do not own anything associated with The Mortal Instruments, I just can't let go of Cassie's wonderful characters. :)

Chapter 7:

Luke knew there was no way to sugar coat the next part of this conversation and he dreaded having to tell Clary the truth of her parentage. It wasn't something he had ever wanted to share with her, but he knew he had to, she needed to know about the threat her father posed. She also needed to know the things he had already proven capable of doing to those he would call family. It sickened him and he knew Clary would feel the same, he just hoped she knew that none of that changed who she really was, his daughter and a light in this world of darkness.

"Clary there is so much more to tell you, and unfortunately it only gets more unbelievable and more horrid as we delve deeper, but I know you are strong enough to handle it. You are after all Jocelyn's daughter." He met her eyes and willed her to understand that she was his daughter to, no matter what this next secret may say, she would always be his and he would never abandon that belief.

"As you know from Magnus' secret your biological father was not a good man, he had been at one time. When we were younger he was a truly good person, or he at least appeared to be. He was the best shadow hunter of his age, he excelled in every subject in school with ease, and he was the uncontested best fighter in every form of combat. A leader in every sense of the word, but unlike most who are gifted with all of these attributes he didn't shun or ridicule those who would have been seen as lesser. He invited them in to his group of friends and offered any help he could to allow them to excel. Everyone was swept up in his charisma, even your mother and I." He couldn't help the bitter smile and sorrowful eyes that always seemed to appear when talking about this part of his past. He never stopped wishing that things could have been different; regret is the sharpest of emotions that always seems to bleed into your very soul.

"Wait, if you really did grow up with my mom then are you human or are you like us?" Clary couldn't help the interruption, she always said what she thought and she didn't see how it was possible for him to grow up with her mom and know all of this and still be human if her mom wasn't.

"I'm not human Clary, but you're kind of getting ahead of the story here." Luke smiled at her and tried to encourage her patience by giving her the quick answer he knew she needed at the moment. He could see that it helped her to feel a little less isolated, knowing that he wasn't human. Although he didn't know how glad she would be once she found out that he was no longer a shadowhunter, but was in fact a werewolf.

"We were honestly best friends from birth, and we had always been an odd pair. Your mother comes from a long line of very powerful shadowhunters; they were all exceptionally fair minded people and leaders amongst our kind. It was quite the reputation to live up to. Then there was me, I came from a largely invisible family of shadowhunters, except for when my dad abandoned us, then we became the talk of the town. So as you can imagine we were not from the same types of families or backgrounds. I did fairly well in school, but struggled with some parts of the combat training in our final years at school." Taking a deep breath Luke steeled himself for the rest of his tale, the hardest part in some ways.

"Then Valentine Morgenstern came along, he changed everything, and for a while it seemed he changed things for the better. He helped me train, and soon I was good enough to hold my own against him, not beat him but at least hold him off. We developed a friendship that I thought ran soul deep. Your mother and I spent a lot of time with him, and they started spending time together alone. It wasn't long before they developed a relationship that led to them exchanging family rings. In shadowhunter culture that is basically an engagement. I was happy for them, Jocelyn deserved someone who could be her equal intellectually and protect her if necessary. Valentine seemed to be all of those things."

"He and I became so close that he actually asked me to be his parabatai, I was so honored by his request that I agreed immediately. A parabatai is your fighting partner, you are joined by your very soul in the ceremony and you are intended to be linked to each other for life. You cannot be separated from them, and if they die a part of your soul dies with them. We held our ceremony before graduation, and shortly after graduation your mother and Valentine had another ceremony of their own, a wedding." Luke paused at Clary's gasp, he knew Jocelyn had given her a fake name for her father years ago when she wouldn't stop asking questions about him. He also knew that Clary was quickly assimilating the facts disclosed by Magnus and himself.

"I'm sorry Clary, I know that you were misled about your father; but your mother had very good reasons for not wanting to share her history with him. It wasn't a happy history. Shortly after they married your mother became pregnant." He saw Clary's hand fly to her chest and her mouth dropped open. He knew she thought he was talking about her, but unfortunately it was going to be another devastating revelation about the family she never knew she had.

"She wasn't pregnant with you Clary, not yet. It was your older brother, Jonathan." He waited for her to process that information, she had to be getting close to the limit of her ability to cope and he was worried about the toll all of this was taking on her.

She couldn't breathe, the anger she had been suppressing throughout this whole 'history lesson', learning that everyone in her life had betrayed her trust on such a level couldn't compare with what she was feeling now. The emotions tumbling through her seemed to be crashing through her mind and she felt like she was drowning in them. "I-I have a brother? How-How could no one tell me that I have a brother, Luke how could you not tell me?!"

She looked like she was coming apart, like she was going to literally break apart, and all Luke could think was that he wanted to try to hold her together. He knew though, that she wouldn't want him near her right now, but he couldn't help the way he lurched forward instinctually. He guessed it was every parent's instinct to hold your child when they were hurting. "Clary you'll never know how sorry I am that I didn't tell you immediately, that I couldn't tell you. I couldn't lose you and your mother! I had already lost you once before, and I know without a doubt that if I had tried to tell you all of this before now you would have been taken away from me. Possibly to another country, where I would never find you again." He could hear the waver in his voice in the last part of his speech and knew she could too. He barely was able to speak past the lump that had formed in his throat, and the panic in his chest that was making it hard to breath. Even the thought of Clary being taken away was too much to bear, he had failed Jocelyn he couldn't fail Clary.

Clary was so confused right now, she was still so angry with him, but she also felt remorse for lashing out at Luke. She knew how her mother was; at times she was as immovable as a mountain and as fierce as a raging lioness. If her mother said she would leave and never let Luke see them again, she would have meant it, and if tested she would have done exactly what she said. She was feeling so lost right now, and one look at Luke and she could tell he was feeling the same. It wasn't his fault, she had to remind herself of that over and over.

Luke watched Clary abruptly stand up, and his heart stuttered at the thought that she was about to run. He couldn't really blame her. They had dumped a lot of strange information on a young girl who had grown up a mundane and just lost her mother. He was truly stunned when she rounded the coffee table and hugged him with tears running down her cheeks. It was the second time in twenty-four hours that he had witnessed his little girl breaking under the emotional strain forced on her at such a young age. It made him angry that he couldn't seem to shield her from anything right now, but grateful that she trusted him enough still to seek comfort in him.