Chapter 23 DANE

Esther Reed rose from her chair. Her smirk was gone. Now, she was enraged.

“You can’t do that!”

“It’s done,” I snarled. “This woman and her land are part of my pack until our business is finished. Now, leave before I kill you.”

As much as the Reeds growled and muttered, they had to do what I said. If land was mine, or under my protection, they couldn’t set foot on it.

Same with theirs. According to the pact the Council had forced us to swear, we couldn’t spill each other’s blood except in self-defense. If wolves from either pack – especially the Alphas – trespassed, that was considered threat enough.

“You have three minutes to get off this land,” I said.

Fuming, the Broken Forest wolves made for the door. Waylon led his wife out. But before she left, Esther paused at the door. “Neither of you is as good or pure as you think you are. You’re just as dirty and wicked as you claim the Reeds to be. Watch yourselves, because one day I’ll prove it.”

Chapter 23 AURORA

The Reeds left, but I couldn’t relax. I kept staring at Dane’s blood. It spattered the backs of my hands, crimson red.

The Blue Ridge wolves helped Trajan back to his bed. Piper went out herself to find the children and Evander and tell them it was safe.

A shadow fell over me, and I looked up. Dane stood there, watching me.

I couldn’t speak. I didn’t know what to say. There were a thousand emotions tumbling through my mind.

He tied himself to me. But he hates me.

He’s protecting me.

His former mistress is pregnant with his child.

Why is he doing this? Why would he help me?

But the answer to the last one was obvious, of course. I had the journal and the necklace. Only I understood the journal well enough to read its translation.

He protected me because he needed me to strengthen his pack, just like I needed him to strengthen mine. Nothing more.

He still stood above me. I couldn’t handle him hovering, so I stood, too. The Reeds had come late, but I hadn’t changed for the night, and I was glad to still be wearing the crisp, flattering suit that made me feel powerful – even if I was also barefoot, and nearly a foot shorter than him without my high heels on.

“Thank you,” I said.

“For what?” He watched me carefully, but I knew what he wanted me to say.

“For protecting my wolves. And me."

I expected him to gloat, but he just grunted. “Once I knew who you were, I should’ve foreseen that the Reeds would be a problem. It was an oversight on both our parts.”

My jaw could have fallen to the floor. Was Dane Montague… admitting a mistake?

Well, if he was, he was saying I’d made one, too.

Maybe he was right. I just never knew the Reeds cared so much about keeping control over me.

“Why do they want you back so badly?” Dane asked suddenly. “Do they know what you have? What we’re doing?”

“They can’t,” I replied. “Only my grandmother and I know all the details. Trajan knows some, but not everything. We’ve kept it secret.”

“So have I,” Dane said. He walked to the window and looked out at the dark forest. “There’s something bigger going on here, Aurora. The Reeds, that dark power that pretended to be those vampires. Everyone is after you. Why?”

I moved to look out the window, as well, but carefully stayed several feet away. “I’m… not sure.” I tapped my lips with my fingertips, trying to decide whether or not to tell him. “My grandmother… she thinks I’m some kind of chosen one. She thinks that’s why I can read parts of the journal.”

Dane’s face was almost always under perfect control, and this moment was no exception. “That’s why you don’t think we have to do the ceremony?”

I nodded.

Dane stood in silence for a moment, then shook his head. “I want you to stay here, in this house. I want someone with you at all times.”

I jerked back. “No. You aren’t my Alpha or my husband, Dane. I don’t have to listen to you.”

“You do if you want to survive. Your life is in my hands. I’ll investigate the Reed house. I’ll figure this out.”

“You don’t know it like I do,” I protested. “I grew up there.”

“I’ll figure it out. Stay here, Aurora. Don’t make me regret this.”

That night, I dreamed.

I dreamed I was in the old pack house. Even when people lived in it, it was creepy. Huge and dusty, with what felt like hundreds of empty, haunted rooms.

I was in the dungeons – a hidden basement underneath the main basement that hardly anyone knew was there. I was standing in a large circle of wolves. The ones who could take a lycan form had, and they towered over the others.

They looked like monsters in the jumping, wavering candlelight.

In the center of the circle, a bleeding rabbit kicked. A female lycan in a hooded black robe walked up to it, took a black knife, and…

In the dream, I covered my eyes as the rabbit screamed.

I sat up with a scream of my own but clamped my hand over my mouth.

Goddess, it had been so real. Like it wasn’t a dream, but a memory.

I’d been there.

I’d taken part in it.

Was I evil? Was Esther Reed telling the truth when she said I was one of them?

Shaking, I shoved those thoughts aside and threw off my blankets.

I knew where the pages were, and I didn’t have to endanger anyone else to get them.

I’d retrieve them, myself.