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Chapter Nineteen

L ina

The first notes of the bridal march echoed from the piano, announcing my arrival. Before me, elegantly dressed packmates filled the rows of Blackthorn Hall, their faces turned to me in expectation, smiles painted on their lips as I walked up the aisle.

Disorientation swept through me. It was as if I’d traveled back in time. For a terrible moment, I had the sense that the last five years of my life had never happened. But differences abounded, thankful tell-tales that time had, in fact, passed. And I grasped at each one of these to ground me.

With the edges of my pinkies beneath the bouquet of gardenias, I stroked the fabric of my gown.

Gone was the beautiful gown adorned with the intricate lace and tulle my mother had chosen with loving intent.

Instead, the modest white dress I wore was off the rack from a boutique in Manhattan, the fabric thin and unremarkable.

The familiar faces peering at me from both sides of the rows were a painful mix of wistfulness, like Mira and Eileen, who I had once been so close to in high school and who I’d first shifted with as a teen in the grounds of Silvermoon Villa.

They didn’t look pitying like the last time I walked this path, more… resigned .

The newer faces like Ella and Brynn, both Blackthorn packmates who had offered me camaraderie and warmth in the past few weeks, smiled at me with more joy.

They felt lucky that I was going to be their luna.

Ella had, while she’d helped me dress earlier, thanked me for the part I’d played in persuading Magnus about the Omega Concord Program.

She had omega friends in the pack, whose lives I’d directly altered.

The genuine warmth toward me from many of the Blackthorns caused a bout of uncertainty to move through me as the charade I was caught up in confused me all the more.

As the pianist continued playing and I continued my walk up the aisle, my heart pounded with a mix of nerves and anxiety. Each step felt like a weight dragging me down.

As I neared the front of the room—and Magnus—all the warmth I’d garnered from my packmates dispersed. Magnus looked like he was attending a funeral, or perhaps a business deal had already gone south. The chill in his demeanor caused the panic already thrumming through me to balloon.

He suspects.

My gut churned.

The notes of the piano fell deathly silent as I stopped beside Magnus. As I faced him, that prickle of foreboding swelled.

He knows.

The same officiant as the last time we’d attempted this, Cyrus, a Blackthorn elder, began our ceremony. His voice rang with authority yet lacked any warmth. “Please be seated, packmates.”

Both packs’ elders sat in the front rows while other packmates filled six other rows.

Just beyond the windows, the perfectly manicured lawns were edged with the first buds of spring, a misleading reflection of new beginnings.

But then I caught sight of Stephen, standing tall and utterly gorgeous in his tailored suit and tie, his dark hair slicked back perfectly. I caught his emerald eyes for a fleeting moment, as vibrant as the spring shoots beyond, and my chest filled with warmth.

And for a moment, it felt again as if I was right back where I’d been years ago, my heart twisting achingly, my wolf howling with want at his presence.

After all, I was once more standing beside Magnus while the mate bond squeezed tighter, threatening to choke the breath from my lungs, begging me not to go through with this.

With each passing moment, doubt threatened to overtake my resolve, but I pushed it back.

I pushed back the treacherous doubt nagging at me.

My own plan was finally coming to fruition.

I kept smiling, a shield against the storm brewing within, reminding myself to play the part of the blushing bride and be what the Silvermoons and Blackthorn wanted, a dignified luna they could be proud of.

Elder Cyrus’s voice began the ceremony. “We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of Alpha Magnus Blackthorn and Lina Silvermoon.”

Magnus had opted for the most perfunctory ceremony, and Elder Cyrus barely paused for breath before he launched into the vows, “Do you, Magnus Blackthorn, take Lina Silvermoon to be your mate? To have and to hold in sickness and in health, to honor and protect until death should part you?”

“I do,” Magnus intoned.

Dread prickled along my skin as I prayed that the plan was underway and would prevent this ceremony from coming to a close in time.

“And do you, Lina Silvermoon, take Magnus Blackthorn to be your mate? To have and to hold…”

My thoughts scattered as a loud ring from a cell phone pierced the air, shattering the quiet.

For a moment, my right hand fell from my bouquet, going to the hidden pocket in my gown, one of the few things I liked about this dress. But I quickly returned my hand to my flowers. Emily and Matthew wouldn’t call until Magnus had been alerted by his men to what was happening at his warehouse.

“In sickness and in health—”

One of Magnus’s men, Carson, slunk out of the room, leaving the door ajar.

Carson’s voice competed with the Elder Cyrus’s, “What? How many?”

“To honor and protect— ”

My heart hammered as I caught Carson’s raised voice echoing through the hall, “Fuck!”

Packmates began to murmur, causing Elder Cyrus’s words to trail off. My heart hammered in response, a rapid beat echoing in my ears.

In a moment, Carson reached Magnus, speaking urgently, “One of our warehouses has been attacked. It’s Boden again.”

I watched, feeling an unpleasant twist in my stomach as Magnus’s countenance hardened.

Magnus turned toward me, his eyes cold and sending a jolt of dread through me.

He suspects me.

Terror pounded through me. Was my chance over? Was he going to bid me to come with him?

“I’m sorry, but this is urgent,” he said simply. “We’ll finish this when I return.”

I nodded. “Of course.” I tried to arrange my expression so that I looked suitably worried.

I wished Mira hadn’t used so much blusher. I was sure that beneath I was looking as pale as a ghost, which might add to the look of worried bride.

But Magnus barely looked at me. Instead he commanded his men. “I want everyone with me.”

A good half of the male Blackthorns left their seats, including Carson and Finn, who usually patrolled the lower floors of the villa.

I congratulated Emily, Matthew, and myself for planning to use as many of our shifter contacts as possible in this attack.

We’d sent in all the firepower we had—some twenty shifters—to attack Magnus’s warehouse under the ruse of being after one of the ingredients he used in the production of one of Blackthorn’s drugs, Lenidex.

Seemingly, we had attempted to sabotage Magnus’s new deal he’d brokered with Haldon, the client we’d previously poached.

Only Stephen hung back at the front of the room with me, and for the first time, as my nerves climbed, I was pleased he remained with me.

But as if Magnus had heard my thought, he turned back around and ordered, “Everyone with me, Stephen! ”

Stephen went with his father, and my stomach bottomed out as I watched him stride out the hall.

But I told myself that this was for the best. I didn’t need him. He was Magnus’s right-hand man. I was self-reliant.

Everything was going as planned. Taking advantage of the distraction, I went to Ella, drawing her to the door.

“Could you organize some refreshments for everyone while we wait for the alpha’s return?

” I looked out into the hallway as if thinking of him, worrying my lip.

“I need to take a minute. Are you okay to sort things?”

“Go,” Ella said. “Of course, take as long as you need, Lina.”

I nodded, feeling time flying by, even though it had only been a few minutes since Magnus and his men had gone. But I knew I couldn’t count on having any longer than an hour to find the entrance to the secret room, find my mother, and run.

Suddenly, I was at Magnus’s study door and entering the room.

The cacophony of the guests’ chatter was smothered by the heavy door.

A prickling sense of foreboding came over me as I breathed in the stale air.

The study itself seemed to reprimand me, its mahogany wood desk, looming bookcases, and dark red leather sofas exuding that same territorial masculinity that had unnerved me the first time I was in here.

I hadn’t been in here since that first evening when I’d sat with Magnus, and he’d interrogated me.

We’d had all our meals together in the dining room and sat in one of the smaller lounges to discuss our mate ceremony plans this week.

Carson and Finn’s relentless patrolling of the villa had made it impossible for me to search this room until now.

I went straight to the towering bookcases, remembering how the middle one had shown a doorway in the footage Emily had shown me. My hands trailed over the spines of the books and the few paperweights that rested there. I looked for any signs of dust trails that would highlight recent movement.

One of the books had a slight dust track, and my heart pounded. I pulled out the book. The entire bookcase swung forward, revealing the darkened passage that had plagued my dreams all this week.

I drew my phone from my pocket, turned on the torch, and hurried down the corridor.

My heels echoed on the stone floor, and my steps quickened, my veins filling with adrenaline and my chest with hope.

The bodice of my dress suddenly felt too tight, the usual fear of the small space threatening to steal my breath.

But I forced a deep breath, slowing my heart rate and the deafening pounding of blood in my ears.

As I turned left, the room opened up into a small chamber, and my gaze landed on a bed. “Mom?” I called out. It was the same small space I’d seen in the footage—the frame of the bed and the small washbasin on the other side of the room telling me she had been in here.

My gaze flew around the room, once, twice, as if more space might materialize. But, searching the small space, dread trickled through me.

It’s empty.

Intuition bristled along my skin, and I couldn’t help remembering Magnus’s ominous expression as soon as I reached him.

He knows.

Panic thumped through me as I just stood there, staring at the emptiness.

I rebuked myself and made myself move. I needed to get out of here. Matthew, Emily, and I could regroup, but I had to get out.

Going back through the narrow passageway was even worse, and it was actually a relief to stumble out into Magnus’s study.

I was still clutching my phone, taking it off of torch mode, when it started to buzz with an incoming call.

I took a sip of air, relieved to see Matthew’s name on the screen. I had planned to call them once I had found the room and my mother or if I had trouble getting into the chamber. They must be getting anxious that I hadn’t called yet.

Answering, “Matt,” I said. “It’s empty,” I blurted out, not really knowing what to do, feeling the threatening panic swelling my chest and needing my friends’ advice more than ever.

But Matt’s voice was frantic through the speaker, “Emily’s home was attacked.” I could hear the terror in the way Matt’s gruff tone.

“Is she okay?” I gasped, dread pooling through me.

“I’m on the way to the hospital. She’s wounded and unconscious,” he trailed off, then added, “but her pulse is strong.”

Pain clawed through my chest, and tears pricked my eyes .

No, no, no, this isn’t happening. This isn’t meant to happen.

“What about Betty?” I asked in another hurried gasp.

I couldn’t hold back the panicked question.

After Stephen had come to see me mid-week and explained that Magnus seemed edgy, we’d all agreed that having Emily take Betty to her place in Philadelphia, where Stephen had never been and that had even fewer links to me, would be safer for her.

But somehow, Magnus knew where they were.

My heart felt like it would explode as Matt confirmed my worst fears. “Magnus’s men took her before I could get there, Lina.”

Panic made my knees weak and my legs quiver. I wobbled toward the sofa.

Not only did Magnus have my mother, he had my daughter.