Chapter 89 AURORA

Five minutes after we arrived, the whole pack was organized to search. They transformed and ran into the woods.

With no wolf, there was nothing I could do to help, nothing except stand on the porch of the mansion and pace and watch.

Dane was out searching, as were Trajan and Evander. The Blue Ridge wolves were organized, working on Dane’s commands over the pack bond.

There was nothing I could do, no way I could help.

I wasn’t going to be able to stand this very long before I took off into the woods myself.

The door to the house opened and closed. Evelyn stood there in a flowing white shirt and soft brown palazzo pants. The loose fit somehow worked to emphasize her rounded belly and make her glow with health.

I bared my teeth as a sudden thought occurred to me. “This better not have anything to do with you.”

She looked to the side, obviously startled to see me. “Aurora! I only just heard. N–no. I didn’t… this isn’t…” Flustered, she closed her mouth and shook her head. “I would never wish harm on your children. I need you to know that.”

“I don’t believe you.” I moved toward her. “You know that I suspect your child isn’t Dane’s. Of course, you’re trying to get mine out of the way.”

As I spoke, everything felt like it made more and more sense. But even if Evelyn was to blame, what could I do besides wait for Dane and tell him my suspicions? I could try to attack her, but unlike me, she had a wolf. I’d never be able to hurt her or even hold her for the other wolves to take to the pack dungeons when they came back.

If Dane would even send her there in the first place.

Evelyn sneered, her hand spreading protectively over her belly. “I might be a homewrecker, and I might go after you without question,” she snapped, “But I don’t hurt children, especially not Dane’s.”

I clenched my fists. My entire body was shaking. She hadn’t addressed my accusation about her child, but that hardly mattered.

“That’s it,” I muttered. “I can’t. I won’t just sit here, especially not with you!”

I turned and strode off the porch toward the forest.

“Where the hell are you going?” Evelyn shouted. “You’ll only be in the way out there! The entire pack is on high alert.”

“Stop me,” I spat over my shoulder. I didn’t stop walking.

“Hey!” Evelyn called again. To my shock, she started following me. “Aurora, get back in the house. You are wolfless. You don’t know what might be out there. There have been too many shadow attacks, and you’re too weak.”

“I don’t care that I’m weak!” I spun on her. “I don’t care if I’m wolfless, or how much danger I’m in. I am going out there to help look for my children, because I can’t stand to sit here worrying and doing nothing, especially if it means I have to be around you!”

I hit the tree line and kept going. I, at least, was wearing sensible enough clothes to be walking around the forest. Evelyn looked like she was getting ready to film on a movie set in the middle of a city.

But she didn’t stop, even though she was walking into the woods pregnant and in kitten heels, she barreled forward like she was wearing tennis shoes.

“Why are you following me?” I asked, exasperated. “Evelyn, we have known each other for eight years and hated each other the entire time. Do what you normally do and pretend I don’t exist!”

“No!” She’d caught up to me now. She grabbed my arm and pulled me around to face her. “I can’t.”

“Why?” I demanded.

“Because the twins need you!” She looked surprised, even as she shouted the words. In a calmer voice, she said, “I may hate you, Aurora, but I’m not completely evil. I didn’t have a kind mother. I didn’t have… a mother like you. And the twins, wherever they are, don’t deserve to lose you.”

I stared at her in complete and utter shock.

I was so shocked I didn’t hear the movement through the forest. Evelyn did, going stiff and grabbing my arm again.

“Get behind me,” she commanded.

“No!”

“Get. Behind. Me.” Her eyes scanned the trees. For the first time in all the years I’d known her, she looked afraid. “Can’t you smell it? A Broken Forest wolf is near.”

Just as she said it, I heard the popping of branches and the rustling of leaves. A lycan stepped out of the trees, one I hadn’t seen since before my house had collapsed.

“Remington,” I muttered.

Remington Reed, my foster brother, strode toward me.

Except he wasn’t striding. He was bleeding. His ear was torn, and there was blood all over his rusty, mottled fur.

In the distance, I heard a hunting howl I knew.

Dane.

He was on his way here.

“Aurora!” Remington cried. He tried to reach for me, but Evelyn blocked him. He collapsed onto his knees. “Please, you have to listen. Have mercy!”

“What are you doing here?” I was so confused. He seemed like he’d crawled through hell to get here.

“It’s your children,” he said. “The children of that bastard Dane Montague…”

As if summoned, Dane appeared out of the forest, a vengeful monster of charcoal gray who leaped on Remington. He grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against a tree.

“Coming to my land means death!” he snarled.

“Dane, wait! He knows about the children!”

At my cry, Dane bared his teeth. He slammed Remington against the tree again. “Speak. Where are my children?”

Whimpering, my former foster brother looked from Dane to me. “Mom and dad have them. They wanted Dane’s blood, but he’s too strong for them to take.”

“What does my blood have to do with it?” Dane growled.

Remington coughed and choked with Dane’s hand around his neck but said, “Dane Montague’s lifeblood will open the gates and sate the beast. If he doesn’t give his life in exchange for the children… they will die instead.”