Chapter 66 AURORA

Exhaling a shaking breath as his tongue stroked between my fingers again, I let my head fall back and said, “Yes.”

Nothing could stop us from being together now.

Except… myself.

EVELYN

I paced my room, fuming.

Dane thought he could end things with me so easily? When I’d spent years of my life ensuring he was mine? That the life I wanted would be mine and stay mine?

When I was the chosen of the goddess?

Archer had even told Dane that he saw Aurora deep in conversation with Holden Coleridge, and it was no secret that Aurora’s Luna grandmother preferred Fall Line to Blue Ridge. The only reason she deigned to speak to such a “young” pack was because the relic was supposedly hidden on territory Dane controlled.

He was a fool. I was going to prove to him that he was a fool.

A quiet knock sounded on my door. I gritted my teeth, then forced a smile onto my face, smoothed my skirt, and tossed back my hair.

Never let anyone see you off balance. Never let anyone see you uncertain.

Lessons my mother taught me. Horrible as she was, they served me well as an actress, and would serve me well now.

I opened the door.

Archer stood there. He looked so serious. It was usually one of the things I loved about him. He wasn’t arrogant like the Alphas that buzzed around me, and had since I was a girl. He wasn’t fake like people in LA.

He was the kind of man who listened, then quietly got things done. A rare kind of man. One I loved, in my own way.

But I had certain needs, and they were needs only a rich man – an Alpha – could supply.

Money. Influence. Power.

I’d spent my childhood without any of those things, and I was never going back.

“I know I shouldn’t be here—” he started.

“Come in.” I glanced around the hall to make sure no one was watching, then I let him inside.

As soon as the door was closed, I threw myself at him and started to cry. He held me in his arms, gently rocking me back and forth.

“Evie,” he whispered. Only Archer and my mother ever called me that.

“I worked so hard,” I sobbed. “I spent so long making sure he had what he wanted while I denied myself everything. All he had to give me was a permanent place at his side. Why does he hate me, Archer?”

The man holding me sighed deeply. “He doesn’t hate you.”

“Doesn’t he remember what he owes me?” I pulled back and put my fingers over the crescent moon shape on my arm.

A shape that wasn’t a birthmark… but a tattoo. One designed to look exactly like the birthmark on the girl who had saved Dane’s life as a child.

I was not that girl.

But even Archer didn’t know that.

Hell, the woman who’d been that girl didn’t even know it.

The only people who did were me and my mother.

“Maybe this is for the best.” Archer’s voice rumbled through his chest.

I shoved back from him and glared. “What could you possibly be talking about? Dane is my meal ticket – our meal ticket!”

Archer bared his teeth, and I stepped back.

He let me get away with anything…

Except badmouthing his Alpha. Even when Dane was being insufferable.

“Sorry,” I muttered, even though I wasn’t. I forced more tears into my eyes and made my voice waver. “I’m just so upset. What about this could be a good thing?”

Archer folded his arms across his chest and gave me a stern look. “Turn off the fake waterworks. You know they don’t work on me.”

I gave a little huff of a sigh and folded my own arms, but I stopped fake crying. Archer might indulge me, but one thing I liked about him was that he could also see through me. That was what made him stand out above the other men.

If only he was an Alpha… and a billionaire. Then he’d be perfect.

Archer walked to my window and looked out over the pack lands. “You know why this is for the best. It’s not even his child, Evie. It’s mine. You’ve already got everything you need from him and more. Fame. Wealth. Status. Even the protection of the pack. Take it as a win and let him go. Be with me.”

“Everything I need?” I snapped, striding over to stand next to him. I smacked him on the shoulder so he would turn and look at me. “And what happens when this child is born? What happens if he ever finds out it isn’t his? Worse, what if he finds out it’s yours? He’ll kill us for the betrayal.”

Archer’s face turned morose. “He’ll kill me. Not you.”

My heart seized at the thought of Archer dying. I couldn’t handle it, so I pushed it out of my mind. “What about me? I’ll be exiled. Alone with his child…”

Just like Aurora had been. But I was no secret Old World princess. I knew exactly who my family was: no one. Not in any way that mattered.

Archer growled and grabbed my shoulders. “Stop it. You’re better than this. I know there’s more to you than some shallow bitch who craves power and the attention of men like Dane.”

At the look on his face, the need in his eyes – need for me – guilt bit into my heart with sharp teeth. Once upon a time, I’d been like he said. A good person. I tried to do what was right. I was kind, giving, selfless.

Then my mother had shoved me into Dane’s path, and I’d discovered how much better life could be than starving in squalor. I couldn’t lose it.

I was no one if I wasn’t with Dane, and that terrified me.

I shook Archer off. I couldn’t bear for him to look at me with those sad, serious eyes anymore. I strode to the door.

“Where are you going?” he demanded. “Dane wants the important members of the pack to gather for a meeting.”

“Then he won’t want me,” I retorted. “I’m going to talk to someone who can fix this.” Softening, I gave him a small smile over my shoulder. “Come back after the meeting. It’s been a while…I want you to hold me. I want to be with you.”

Archer closed his eyes, looking tortured, but he nodded.

I opened the door and marched into the hallway.

If there was anyone who could remove Aurora from Dane’s life, it was my mother.

It looked like she was going to get the money she wanted from me, after all.