Chapter 112

Dane

My lips hovered over hers, but she didn’t melt into me. She didn’t relax. I had a feeling if I kissed her, she would let me. But I didn’t know if she would kiss me back. The uncertainty felt like a wall between us when there hadn’t been one before. Holden stole her from me.

I let my lips hover over hers a moment longer, hoping she would complete the kiss. She didn’t. So, I pulled back.

Aurora wouldn’t say what Holden had done. But she was wrong about what she’d said. I didn’t have to know what he’d done to know I was going to kill him. Pack war or not, the next time I saw him would be his death.

“Danc?” Aurora asked. There was something hesitant in her voice. Something that expected me to lash out. Something that expected pain.

Chapter 112

“Your body is yours, Aurora. Do you think rejection is so rare for me that I can’t tell when a woman doesn’t want to kiss me?”

Rejection was extremely rare for me, if I was being honest. In fact, I don’t know if I had ever been rejected in my life. That didn’t mean I was an idiot.

Aurora lowered her gaze. “I just…” Her breath caught. “It’s better we don’t.”

Anger seared through me as I watched her with this new carefulness, this new fear, and I thought of Holden again. I wanted to kill something, but I had nothing to kill. Only a woman in front of me I would burn the world for, and nowhere to put my rage.

Violence beat through me with every pounding heartbeat, but I had to contain it. Wrap it tightly. Store it away. Maybe if I showed how the events of the last weeks made my blood boil, she would comfort me. Soften my own feelings for me.

But my emotions were my own to control. My own to channel into something I could actually use. In this moment, she didn’t need my violence. She needed another kind of strength. One I rarely used. But since she’d come back into my life and brought the twins, it was one I needed to master more and more.

Gentleness.

This woman had been through hell, and now she was frozen around me. I could believe it was because she had suddenly decided, while in Holden’s company, that she didn’t want me anymore when she so clearly had before. Or I could believe what made more sense: that she was traumatized and terrified and just needed space.

I moved my hand from her chin to her cheek, ruffling her hair as I pressed my palm there, then settled my forehead against hers.

I’ll start with this: I want you. I am fucking desperate for you. But you’re right. It’s better if we don’t.

Chapter 112

“It is?” She looked up at me. Her lilac eyes were already lined with red, and now tears threatened to spill again. “I mean… of course it is. I didn’t think you would agree this easily. I thought you’d be upset.”

“I’m not upset. How could you not want space after what he did?”

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she swallowed involuntarily. “It’s not because he… because he…”

She coughed a little and pressed her lips together tightly. “Dane… you aren’t making this any easier.”

Her words struck me. “That’s all I want to do. Make this easier for you.”

She looked away. “I know. That’s the problem. But I can’t… I can’t explain. Please, take me home. I want to hear what’s been done to find Seraphina and Tristan.”

Chapter 112

Aurora

Dane Montague had changed. Once upon a time, even rejecting his kiss would have made him cold toward me. How could I push him away if he was so determined to be understanding?

I pressed my head into his back as he once again carried me toward home. I think he’d meant to make love to me next to the river, under the moonlight. I think he had wanted to reconnect.

I desperately wanted that, as well. But now every kiss, every touch was tainted by Holden’s commands. Even if Dane was the best man in the world—no, because he was the best man in the world—I still had to find a way to get him to end this.

I wasn’t giving up.

Evelyn

I made my way back toward the pack house. Dane told me to wait where Archer was going to meet me. I didn’t care. I forged ahead toward Blue Ridge on my own, knowing Dane was probably fucking Aurora’s brains out behind me.

Chapter 112

Good for him, I guess. But who was I without Dane Montague? In the moment I’d almost drowned, I wasn’t sure.

Could I find out? I had this new power. The goddess favored me. Maybe there was more for me out there than the life I always sought. Maybe I could change. Maybe I could make a new life for me, and for this child. Not because an Alpha loved me, but because of myself.

Just as I had the thought, darkness washed over me. A voice whispered through my mind. One I knew. My mother.

Evie, dear, now that Dane’s children are out of the way, I have a proposition for you. One that will bind him to you forever. You’ll have to get your hands dirty, but it’s guaranteed to work. All your dreams will come true forever. Are you interested?

All the thoughts I’d had wavered in an instant, and without thinking I answered, Yes. Tell me what I have to do.