bChapter /bb186 /b

    Eryx POV

    She’s awake, alive and awake and that’s all I wanted. I didn’t need anything else but for her to wake up. Her wolf is bback /bnow that the drugs are out of her system, which means she’s healing fast once again.

    The thought of if we had waited lingers in my mind. Where would be now? Would we be finding her, dead? That bthought /bsettles and makes my stomach twist.

    I don’t understand how anyone’s parents could do anything as horrendous as this, they knew who they were bgiving /bher away to but didn’t seem to care about it.

    She’s not said anything in a while, justid there. The more she heals though, the less I feel the bond, because his bim /bis healing and taking over. I hate that, I hate that she’s not longer bound to me, and instead him.

    It means he knows she’s alive, which isn’t good, he shouldn’t know a thing about her.

    “What did he say?” I ask. Needing to know, needing to hear.

    “Just that he was sure you would be dead when you rushed my parents pack. Then that he knew my father didn’t kill by /b

    I you

    so he was going to be ready. I was the bait, Eryx, he wants you dead.”

    Me? “Not my family?”

    “He told me that my father wants you dead, because you’re making this pack protected, it makes it harder for him to attack. Rnd, he said you’re the only person who is on his level.”

    “I’m not on his level.” I would never hurt someone like he did.

    “Magic, Eryx, he has magic and I don’t know how.”

    Neither do, some wolves have magic but it’s so small simple, it’s almost too weak to do anything big. But Rnd? He had magic like mine, and that’s not possible. So how?

    My mother walks in with my father, and she tenses.

    “I’m sorry,” she whispers.

    “April you don’t need to apologise but we should speak,” my father says as he takes a seat.

    “You don’t trust me,” she whispers.

    “It’s not about trust, and believe me, I don’t think that you’re here to help your father but that bdoesn’t /bmean bhe /bbhasn’t /bbgot /ba n for while you’re here.”

    She wouldn’t tell him anything, she wouldn’t have before, and certainly not now.

    April’s eyes lower at my father’s words, but I see the flicker of pain behind them. Not because bshe /bbthinks /bbhe’s /bbwrong/bb, /bbbut /bbecause a part of her still wants to believe she hasn’t be some piece in her father’s bgame/bb. /bbI /bbwant /bbto /btell bher /bbthat /bbshe’s /bnot, that she’s never been anything close to that, but I don’t interrupt. I need to hear what bmy /bbfather’s /bbthinking/bb, /bbeven /bbif /b

    b1/4 /b

    every word feels like a de being driven between us.

    April wouldn’t help her father, her mother or her pack. My father will realise that, and maybe learn she is just a bvictim /blike my mother was when she was forced to be mated and sold to him

    at

    the start.

    My mother moves to sit beside April on the edge of the bed, her touch light against April’s arm. She doesn’t speakb, /bbbut /bi see the guilt in her eyes, the ache that lingers there because she didn’t reach her sooner. None of us did. And now we’re left picking up the pieces and hoping it’s not toote. I get it though, for my mother it’s deeper than that, more bpainful/b.

    She could have helped prevent it if she had agreed to let April stay or maybe not kept quiet for so long to bmy /bfather babout /bit? The fact is though nothing my mother did could have prevented this.

    My father leans forward in his chair, elbows on his knees, his voice calm but tight. “We need to consider the possibility bthat /bWesley didn’t let you go as easily as it seemed. You being here might be part of somethingrger.”

    “I didn’t know anything,” April says quietly. “I wasn’t told where I was going or what he had nned. I thought… I bthought /bI was going to be buried. That they were just done with me. I’m not sure why he didn’t have Rnd kill me.”

    The silence that follows stretches, thick and suffocating. Her words weigh heavier than anything else in the room.

    “I believe you,” my father says after a moment, nodding slowly. April rxes like she needed to hear that, needed my father to believe her. “But that doesn’t change the fact that Wesley is ying a longer game. He’s not stupid. He’s cruel, calcting. He doesn’t waste moves. Which means your return to this pack could be a move, even if you didn’t choose bit/bb./b”

    April’s eyes fill again, but she doesn’t cry. She just blinks and nods, swallowing hard. “Then tell me what you want me to do. If you want me to leave, I’ll go. I won’t be used to hurt you.”

    I step forward before my father can speak. “No. You’re not going anywhere.”

    My voicees out sharper than I intended, and everyone’s attention turns to me, but I don’t care. She’s not leaving, if they make her leave, I leave with her. i won’t leave her unprotected and alone. I crouch beside the bed, my hand finding hers again. “You’re not the problem, April. You’re not the weapon. You’re the target. That’s what he wants people to forget.”

    She blinks again, this time slower, her fingers curling around mine with the faintest trace of strength. I wish I could transfer something into her, power, energy, whatever it would take to make her believe me fully.

    “Rnd said something else before he vanished,” I say, ncing at my father. “He said he’d see me again soon. He’s not just running. He’s circling and waiting.” He’s going toe back, he had his n and the only reason he ran is because my parents wereing otherwise he would have kept fighting and trying to destroy me.

    My father nods grimly. “He will. He won’t stop until he’s either imed her again, or until you’re dead. Maybe bothb./b”

    April shudders at the word imed, and I immediately regret saying it aloud. But the truth has ne not the time to pretend we’re safe just because the walls haven’t fallen yet.

    een bsoft/b, and now’s

    “He has magic,” I say again. “Magic that shouldn’t exist in a rogue like him. Not that kind. Not bthat /bbstrength/b. bIt /bwas like mine, but twisted. Controlled through rage, not instinct.”

    My mother’s eyes sharpen. “Magic like iyours /idoesn’t appear out of nowhere. If he’s using bit/b, bsomeone /bbtaught /bbhim/b.

    Someone gave it to him. That’s a fact that we need to ept.”

    “But who?” my father asks, and it’s not rhetorical.

    “Witches?” I suggest, but even I can hear the uncertainty in my own voice. “Or someone who’s figured out how to unlock it in wolves that shouldn’t have it.”

    April’s gaze shifts slowly toward me. “He said something about that once. Something about a mark, that someone called to a witch or something to bring back power. He found the source. Not like a mating im, something older. He said he paid a price and got what he needed in return.”

    The pieces don’t fit neatly, but the edges are starting to sharpen. Magic, bonds, blood. And a man with a purpose that isn’t just about dominance, it’s about revenge.

    My father leans back in his chair, exhaling slowly. “Then we need to find out where he got it. Because if he can do this… if he can be given power this way, then others can too. And if your father made a deal with someone to give him an army of magically–augmented rogues…”

    He doesn’t finish the sentence. He doesn’t have to. We all know the truth about it, we’d never survive it now really.

    “We need more information,” my mother says, finally breaking her silence. “And not just about Rnd. We need to know what your father is nning now that you’re not in his hands.”

    “He’ll retaliate,i” /imy father mutters. “He’ll use this as a reason to escte. And the second April’s strong enough to move, we’ll need to be ready to relocate her somewhere they can’t reach.”

    April shakes her head. “No. I’m not running again. I’ve spent my whole life hiding. If you think I’m going to disappear while he and my father burn down everything I care about, then you don’t know me.”

    The strength in her voice catches me off guard, and pride surges through me, quick and fierce. I’m d, because running is a sign of weakness and says that you don’t believe in those around you to protect you. We will protect her. She’s barely holding herself together, and yet here she is, refusing to bend. Refusing to be used or pushed away.

    “You’re not running,” I say, before anyone else can open their mouths. “But we will protect you. That’s not up for debate.”

    “Then tet me help,” she says, her hand tightening around mine. “Let me give you something. Anything. If I can remember more, I will. If I can lure him, I will. I’m not afraid of him anymore.”

    My father studies her for a long, quiet moment before he nods once. “Then we’ll take it one step at a time.”

    My mother brushes a hand gently through April’s hair. “You rest now. Your body is still healing. And whether you like it or not, we’ll keep watch.”

    April closes her eyes for a moment, exhaustion settling into her bones again, but her gripy hand doesn’t loosen.

    I sit beside her, and make a silent vow that even if Rndes back with every ounce of dark power he’s managed to steal, I will meet him there. I will face him. Not just for revenge, but for her.

    And this time, I won’t hesitate.