Chapter 34 AURORA

He laughed my question off, like he always did. But the conversation stayed with me throughout the week.

I sent the twins with Holden to be guarded by the Fall Like Pack while I prepared. Mrs. Melville would have gone, too, but she had a sudden family emergency back in Europe, so I sent her home.

Between Evander and the Blue Ridge guards, we could make something work until she came back.

Normally, I wouldn’t trust anyone else with my kids. But Holden knew everything, and the more I talked to him, the more I realized there was more to him than the playboy Alpha he pretended to be.

Besides, his parents had met the twins in Europe, and they loved them. Grandmother Augusta wasn’t exactly affectionate, and I wanted the twins to have grandparent figures who were.

I asked my grandmother to send more High Alpine wolves. What Esther Reed had done had lost me Dane’s trust, possibly even more than running away five years ago had, and I’d feel comfortable with members of my own pack…as long as they didn’t work for my cousin Lilliana.

But Grandmother Augusta said there was no one to spare. High Alpine had its own problems, its own pack wars. What I was doing was only one of many plates my grandmother kept spinning, always making sure the pack stayed on top, stayed strong.

I understood. She’d sent me here to prove myself, after all, and I would.

“You’ll see, darling. You are the chosen of the goddess. Don’t be surprised if this is how you get your wolf back.”

I blushed, grateful I was on a voice-only call with my grandmother and she couldn’t see me. She hated shyness. She saw it as weakness. “I hope so, grandmother.”

“You will,” my grandmother’s voice was firm. “It’s the only reason I’m comfortable making you Luna-heir. I know your little book and this power you’re unlocking with it will make you whole again.”

I hated that her words made me feel shame but pushed it down. “You’re right, grandmother. I won’t disappoint you.”

I couldn’t. My life and my children’s were on the line.

DANE

With everything that had been going on with Aurora, I hadn’t visited my grandfather in days.

I went to see him in his cottage on the mountain above the pack house the night before the ceremony. I told him about it, but he only seemed to be half-listening.

“Where’s Ann?” he asked.

“Aurora, grandpa,” I said. Under the table, I gripped the arm of my chair. “She’s at the mansion she bought.”

“I thought she would come to see me again,” he said.

In truth, Aurora probably would have…if she didn’t think I’d kill her if she set foot on my pack lands.

“Aurora isn’t welcome here. She’s Broken Forest. A Reed.”

My grandfather glowered at me. “Shut your mouth, boy. You married her. She’s a Montague.”

“We’re not mated anymore. She left me.”

“You treated her like garbage,” my grandfather said.

“There was a reason for that,” I snarled. I stabbed my fork hard into a piece of meat before I could calm myself. I took a breath and let it out through my teeth. “I’m sorry. I just…haven’t been sleeping well.”

I hadn’t rested since that night, captive in that cave. I couldn’t sleep. I hated her more than ever, and I hated myself for still wanting her.

I had Esther Reed’s phone with its damning recording. I thought about throwing it away. Instead, I sent the recording to some contacts of mine.

The look in Aurora’s eyes when she’d heard it… She’d been disappointed. Resigned. Was that because it was real, and she didn’t think Esther would have it?

Or because she knew I’d jump at any chance to believe she was as conniving and manipulative as I claimed she was?

“Stay here tonight,” my grandfather said. “I always find I sleep better away from the crowd at the pack house.”

I agreed. Besides, Evelyn was still at the pack house, in my bed, waiting for me to join her. Like Aurora’s latest betrayal would suddenly make me want her again.

I bit back an irritated growl at myself. “You’re right. I could use a night here to clear my head.”

I fell asleep in my grandfather’s guest bedroom that night. It was right next to his, which was why, when he started gasping and flailing in the middle of the night, I heard.

I ran into his room. His covers were on the floor, and he was moaning and snarling like a wolf caught in a trap.

“No!” he whispered. He swiped his hand through the air, and I saw he’d partially shifted. His fingers were tipped with long claws. “I won’t sacrifice him… not my grandson… he doesn’t need it… not that kind of power…”

Frowning now, I carefully approached the bed. When I touched his shoulder, my grandfather sat bolt upright and held his claws to my throat, a snarl on his face. He was panting like he’d been running for miles.

I carefully blocked his claws. My palm bled where they’d sunk in.

“Dane,” he gasped. He pulled his claws back. They retracted into his skin, and he ran a hand through his hair. “I… Goddess.”

“You were talking in your sleep,” I said. “Something about sacrificing your grandson?”

I expected him to laugh it off, but my grandfather’s face went white as a sheet.

I sat down on the side of the old man’s bed. He looked terrified. “Grandpa? What aren’t you telling me?”