Chapter 133

I suddenly wasn’t sure if I was holding a woman in my arms, or a time bomb.

“She was supposed to kill me?” I asked.

“You just heard me say she’s someone else’s fated mate,” Esther said. “Do you think we’d tie her to you if we weren’t certain you were going to die? But by the time it was supposed to happen, she had forgotten everything.”

“…Dane…”

I felt Aurora stir in my arms. I looked down at her. She was supposed to kill him… she was thirsty to spill your blood.

Her lilac eyes were wide.

When I assumed her abusive childhood meant she wasn’t on the Reeds’ side, was I wrong? But they’d said she lost her memory. Could she have known? Would she have let me believe she came to me as an innocent if she had known this entire time she hadn’t?

Chapter 133

“What happened to you?” I asked, my voice pitched low so that only she could hear.

“There’s a being bound to this stone. A guardian who has watched over the relic for a thousand years. The only way we can get to the relic is if we set it free.” She touched her forehead. “It’s… come to me.”

Despite everything that was raging through me, I set her carefully on her feet. “A guardian?”

“Him,” Esther said. She let out a cackling laugh. “He’s waited so long to meet you, Ann.”

Aurora saw the Broken Forest wolves waiting and straightened her spine. She took two steps and would have marched right over to Esther if I hadn’t grabbed her wrist. She tugged, but I refused to let go.

“Give me back my children, you bitch! I know you have them. We got Evander, and your little message. Just so you know, he lived.”

For some reason, Esther and Waylon exchanged a worried look. Aurora caught it, too, because she said quietly, “Oh, I see. That wasn’t in your plan, was it? Why not?”

Instead of answering, Waylon pulled back. “It’s time for the ceremony. You’re wasting time.”

Chapter 133

I tugged against Dane’s hold again. His big hand covered my wrist, and he was too strong. “There won’t be a ceremony until you return my children!”

My anger rose to a near-shriek. I prided myself on the cool, collected woman I’d become, but seeing the Reeds here without Seraphina or Tristan finally became too much. It had been weeks.

Dane tugged me back against him, holding me against his warm strength and whispering comfort in my ear. I could feel my control slipping through my fingers. I felt like my mind was about to break.

“Produce the children or we’re leaving,” Dane said.

Despite everything, including the fact that he now knew what I had been raised and sent to him to do, he didn’t let go of me. I’d half expected him to shove me back at the Reeds and walk away. Instead, it was like I could feel his will to protect me growing stronger.

Chapter 133

“You think you can leave?” Waylon growled. He was a skinny old man, now. Nothing like the strong Alpha he’d been when he was younger. But there was still something hard about him. Something with teeth that made him frightening.

“You have to know we came here with more warriors than this.” He gestured to the snarling pack behind him. When he smiled, the darkness that gathered in the hollows of his eyes and cheeks made him look like a grinning skull. “You are surrounded, Montague. You’re not going anywhere.”

“We have the mother, the father, and the pups,” Esther said. “Blue Ridge came about when your grandfather stole from us and went his own way. You were never anything more than a bastard child of Broken Forest. Tonight, we get rid of you and merge our families back together.”

“You think you can kill me?” Dane asked.

Waylon grinned. “I know I can.”

Fear curled through me like smoke. Somehow, in the middle of all this, I could somehow sense the guardian. His energy was all around. I could feel it. It was nothing like the cooling water of the healing powers the goddess had given me. Instead, it was warm and choking, like having a throat full of smoke and somehow knowing that breathing it in meant you could control the fire.

You can have him if you want. You can have everything.

The guardian’s offer. And somehow, even though I didn’t know who he was, I could sense his power. It grew from this place like a massive tree with its roots buried deep in the earth. But I didn’t want Dane to love me because I controlled him.

Would you like your enemies, too?

Yes. I wanted control over them. Could I have that without turning Dane into whatever he’d been in my vision?

Chapter 133

I can even give you your wolf back. All you have to do is choose me.

Gods, I wanted my wolf.

What do you say?

He had offered. I hadn’t answered.

Think about it, he had whispered. You have until I am free. Then you must choose.

I shivered at the thought of letting him free, with his magic like acrid smoke. But if this was what finally set us free from the Reeds…

I didn’t have time to make a choice, because Waylon raised his hands. “If they won’t do the ceremony, we’ll make them. Broken Forest, attack!”

Dane shoved me into Evelyn’s arms. His eyes were shadowed, and we both looked at him in surprise.

“You’re supposed to guard her, aren’t you?” he said to my worst enemy. “Evelyn, you asked for me to think about what you said. I thought about it. Get Aurora to safety, and I swear I will never act against you.”

I tried to break free and get back to Dane, but Broken Forest was coming, and Evelyn’s fingers were like iron on my shoulders.

She held on but didn’t try to move. “Alpha, wail. Running away is not the answer.”