Page 46 of The Fated Hunter Wolf

I hesitated, then nodded. “Yes.”

Her jaw clenched, and she looked away again. “Do you have any idea how many nights I spent wondering if the pain I felt was normal? Wondering if the visions were madness or some punishment for existing?”

“I did what I had to,” I said softly.

“You’re going to say it was to protect me?” she asked sharply.

“I wasn’t sure I could protect you among your enemies if you knew what you were. And if you had known, I wouldn’t have been able to continue protecting the other Crux. I’d have to be exclusively focused on protecting you.”

She flinched. An alpha didn’t like being a pawn. Especially not in her own prophecy.

“Keeping you at arm’s length meant you’d be shielded from anything that happened to me,” I added.

Eve rose, walked a few paces, then turned. “Why would anything happen to you, Sable?”

“Because—”

Because I’m half-vampire.I did not let her hear it through the bond. I couldn’t. My mother’s fear was still alive in my veins.

Her brows lifted, but she didn’t speak.

“My father wasn’t an ally to Crux,” I said, staring at my hands. “He was—” I broke off, the words dragging jagged acrossmy tongue, despite everything inside me wanting to share my true self with my alpha.

“I know,” Eve said, not letting me finish.

My head snapped up.

“I don’t know everything yet, Sable. I’ve seen glimpses.”

I felt dizzy. She’d seen me in a vision.

“I know you have your own secrets, and I know this bond with Rhys doesn’t fit into what you understood of the world. But as one who has lived through it, I can tell you with total certainty—this bond goes beyond your ability to undo. The connection you’re still feeling? The phantom pain? That’s the bond trying to heal itself.”

My breath caught. “That’s not possible. He rejected me.”

“Rejection can sever a normal mate bond. But what you two have…” She shook her head. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Even broken, it’s fighting to survive.”

The cold in the room intensified, and I realized it was coming from me—a physical manifestation of the chaos inside.

“Sable, I can’t undo what’s happened with Rhys. With this rejection. Only the two of you can find a way to navigate it. But I need to know about something else you’re hiding. What you saw about Rhys. About his brothers. Because I don’t believe for one second you killed the twins.”

My hand drifted to my silver ring. I cleared my throat and spoke through a clenched jaw, a weariness and deep internal pain threatening to take me over.

“Well, Eve, you’re not the only one who sees things.”

19

RHYS

The forest air changed. It was hours or days later. Even in wolf form, I couldn’t tell. I’d been in a sleep that could have rivaled death.

But I was waking up.

One moment, there was only wind and earth and the sound of my ragged breathing. The next, there was something electric, a change so subtle only a wolf would notice.

My nostrils flared when my wolf caught a scent.

Ash. Cloves. Ancient things. And beneath it all, the unmistakable smell of power.