Page 79

Why would Roran send men to silence the witch?

Why gag her? Beat her?

Why guard her?

I stared at the bodies littered across the floor. This wasn’t a rescue.This was a cover-up. My breath hissed between clenched teeth. Something inside me shifted—not rage this time. Something darker.

Roran.

He was hiding something. And he’d just sent wolves to kill the one creature who might save Lexa’s life. I turned back to the witch, my voice low, trembling with wrath.

“Start talking. Now.”

The witch coughed, blood flecking her lips, and winced as she tried to sit upright. I knelt beside her and caught her by the arm—not gently, but not cruelly either.

“Talk,” I growled, voice shaking from the restraint it took not to destroy the walls around us. “Tell me what happened.Everything.”

She looked up at me, her one good eye wide and sunken with fear, her body still trembling.

“About half a week ago,” she rasped, “they came, unannounced. Four armed wolves. Big. Trained. Led by a woman. An Omega, but not like the others.” Her jaw clenched. “Brown hair. Honey eyes. Beautiful, in that perfect, polished way.”

My blood ran cold. “Tanya.”

She nodded slowly. “They didn’t speak. Not much. Just dragged me out, beat me until I couldn’t stand. The wolves held me down. She watched. Told them where to hit.” Her voice cracked, raw with fury and shame. “I had no quarrel with the wolf girl—”

“Lexa,” I snapped. “Her name is Lexa.”

The witch flinched but gave a shaky nod. “Lexa. I liked her. One of my best customers. Regular. Polite. I didn’t agree with what she was doing to herself, but a paying customer is a paying customer. I never forced her into the runes. She came of her own will.”

She glanced down, swallowing hard.

“But these wolves… they made me do a spell. One I didn’t want to cast. Something dark. Subtle. It wouldn’t show. They wanted it to kill her. Not all at once, no, it had to look natural. Like the runes breaking was what did it.”

My breath caught.

“The runes?” I whispered.

“They were only meant to bind her wolf. Suppress it. Breaking them would hurt, yes, violently, but they wouldn’t kill her.” She looked up at me, her face now hardening, the fear beginning to burn into anger. “The spell they forced meto do… it tainted the release. Corrupted it. Made it look like the transformation was killing her when it was reallythis. That Omega’s spell. Their plan.”

The room tilted. My vision blurred red. Tanya’s scent on the last visit. Her words. Her poison.

She was going to beLuna. She thought she was destined for it. But she never cared who the Alpha was—only the power that came with the title. And Roran… that swine, that scheming fuck, had always lingered just behind me. Always smiling, always waiting for weakness.

If Lexa died… if the bond shattered and took me with it… I’d lose my claim. I’d lose my mind. He could rise.

They didn’t just want her dead. They wanted me destroyed. I rose slowly, eyes burning with a fury I didn’t bother to hide. The witch flinched again.

“Can you undo it?” I asked, voice low, deadly calm.

She hesitated, then gave a slow nod. “Yes. But I’ll need ingredients. Time. Strength. And I want retribution for what your wolves did to me. My hut. My body.”

I knelt before her again, meeting her gaze with something colder than rage.

“I’ll build you a new fucking house with my own hands if I have to. Just save her.”

The witch looked into my eyes, and whatever she saw there—it made her believe me.

She reached for my hand. “Yes.”