Page 99 of White Raven (Nevermore Duet #2)

“Alright, children,” Foster said, rolling her eyes.

Rhaena bit her lip to hide her smile. “I have enough testosterone bullshit to deal with, having Danny around.” Danny shrugged as he leaned against the back wall, watching and listening quietly.

“As I was on the other side of that glass last time, and wasn’t privileged to bear witness to your cockfighting… could we fucking not today?”

“I’ll behave,” Athan assured them, as he and Rhaena started for the door. “Jenkins…safe word is Celtics.”

Rhaena’s turn to roll her eyes as Brandon pressed a palm to his chest at the mention of his beloved team.

Sarah and Wren took their places at the window warily, and Brent made idiot conversation with Danny at the back as they stepped out of the door and opened the next…

he let Rhaena in first, and she could practically feel his tension as Ryan’s eyes met theirs.

“I swear your group average is astronomical,” she smirked, leaning back in her seat. “It’s just unfair how pretty you all are.”

Rhaena tightened her fists at her sides. “Niceties aren’t gonna soften the blow. I don’t care if your basement’s flooded at the sight of any of us, right now. None of us feel the same about you.”

She only smiled sweetly and stared at Rhaena’s mouth. “You’re still not gonna give me any browning points? Even though me and you have more in common now than anybody else in this building? In the world? ”

“Gonna try to give me the ‘we’re family’ bullshit? Did you think that was gonna work? Did you think bringing her here was gonna do anything other than make me wanna kill you slower?”

Athan stood deadly silent with his back against the door as Rhaena pulled a chair out across from Sykes and sat down.

The bitch’s eyes trailed him up and down, and finally—a spark of an apology flashed in her eyes.

“I’m sorry. I never wanted to do it. You have to know that by now.

” Athan said absolutely nothing. She nodded in acceptance and stared at Rhaena.

“I brought her here because she wanted to see you. Something happened to all of us after—” Sykes paused, swallowing, and shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

“After I left for Seattle and had to bury half our pack.”

“And what makes you think I’d want to see her? Did our long-standing time apart not stand as a big enough hint that I could fucking care less what happens to her?”

Sykes smirked in understanding. “Do you think I care what happens to Ash? No, Rhaena. I didn’t come back here with my tail tucked between my legs to give you the family speech, though you should fucking care about these wolves.

Even if one of them did you dirty. You’re gonna find out real soon that she’s not, and never has been Mommy material.

You wanna know who is, though? Mine .” She leaned forward and planted her palms on the table.

“As hard as this might be to hear, my mom does love me. So did my dad.”

“Did?” Athan asked from behind Rhaena’s shoulder. His arms were tucked in tight over his chest, and the leather of his jacket groaned with his tension. Ryan frowned.

“The bastard has had him half-starved and locked away in a tiny coffin for years. You weren’t the only one suffering like that, and for a hell of a lot less time.

He wasn’t buried, mind you…but that’s just a taste of how crazy John was.

Assigning me to do that to you was just as much a stab in my chest as it was yours, Kane.

And Sarah’s. My father was imprisoned for trying to buck up to him on my behalf, and any questions I had regarding his antics with you and Sarah St. James were about to be a key to my coffin too. ”

Rhaena spent a great deal of her energy not turning back to look at her partner’s face. Instead, she focused on her training. The training her captain gave her. She zeroed in on every facial expression. Any betrayal of Ryan’s eyes. Her body language.

“I still tried. I couldn’t shake it off.

He found that last nail, and he drove it in deep.

Leaving you in that grave weighed so heavy on me that I dared an attempt to tell Sarah exactly where to find you.

To end this. To end him .” She shook her head.

“That got me and my family an execution order. My dad is gone. Too weak to fight them off. He didn’t have the luxury of blood as pure and powerful as Sarah’s.

There were too many vamps on John’s payroll.

That coven is loyal to him. So were a lot of the wolves.

Dear Aunt Ashina being one of them. It’s not my place to tell you her side of the story, Rhaena…

but what I will say, is that the same kind of betrayal that earned John his human death?

Is the same kind of betrayal that our alpha …

bestowed on this pack. By trading you in like a nice used car, she earned John’s trust. When he gave the order, she led our wolves to slaughter.

Now we have a fourth of what we started with.

You don’t understand all the working parts. ”

Rhaena bit back her rage. “Everything I’ve been told about you from Agent Foster suggests that you’re brilliant at covering your sly ass . Are you gonna try to tell me that you couldn’t find some slick way to try and tell me this sooner?! We were partnered up, for God’s sake!”

Sykes slapped her palms to the table. “That might have been easier if you had given two fucks about accepting me into this little circle of fools! I fucking tried! He had eyes everywhere! I even told you, Detective Kane, that the night I found you in that tunnel with Sarah while she was lost to bloodlust, that I was never there to hurt anyone!”

“Says the woman who snapped my neck and buried me alive.” There was so much death laced in Athan’s tone. She didn’t want to think about what that must have been like for him.

“I told you. I went out of my way to get you out as soon as I put you in there. I went behind his back and it cost me something precious. It cost you all something too, and I can’t tell you how sorry I am about Captain Foley.

I really liked him, and he was the only one out of all of you that welcomed me with open arms. Nobody feels worse about that than I do.

But what I did to betray John also kept my mate alive.

I’m grateful to you for keeping her safe in all this. ”

Rhaena’s eyes popped. “Your mate? ”

Sykes smiled softly, and there was no mistaking the certainty in her eyes.

“Yes.” This would undoubtedly make Wren’s hair bigger on the other side of that window.

Rhaena could practically feel her seething from the other room.

“I can tell you’re not gonna let me off easy.

I didn’t expect you to. So, I’ll wrap it up with this, and let you decide what to do from here.

Ash has been alpha for as long as I can remember.

Not long ago, her strength became a little clipped.

She still wrecked our pack. What friends we still have in the coven that went against the order once they found out John was gone…

they caught word that…you changed. She knows , Rhaena.

She knows what you are, and she knows that her place has been challenged.

Ashina thinks she’s coming here to talk you into letting her keep that crown.

The rest of that story is hers to tell. Not mine.

Like usual…I’m just the fucking messenger. ”

Rhaena was quiet for a moment, and Athan said nothing as he put everything together and tried to comb through how it made him feel.

Any other time he’d be slinging heads. But he’d changed too, and she’d known that for a while.

“You’re a messenger. An errand girl. You carry out the dirty deeds, and you expect no repercussions?

You’re trying to deceive somebody that you claim is your alpha, like you deceived John Allan, and bring her to me on a silver platter to do what…

wipe your fucking slate clean? Ryan, what do you expect me to do with this?

You realize the weight of everything that you have the audacity to ask of me? ”

Ryan scoffed. “Repercussions?” She crossed her arms and shook her head.

“I spent years… years …serving that lunatic to free my dad. I went against my better judgment and my only living morals, to do his bidding to save his life, and make this pack whole again. That all went to shit. I realize what I’ve done has hurt people, but that’s not who I am.

I like living. I like living boldly . I’ve always liked the idea of my pack being able to do the same, and so yes…

I sacrificed a lot of my humanity to be the monster everybody thinks I am.

It cost me everything, Rhaena. I could have led our pack to greater.

But unlike you do right now…I’ve never had the opportunity.

The chance to actually do something good or live a life like Dahlia’s half of the coven now lives theirs. ”

Athan sighed behind her, and Rhaena didn’t even realize she’d turned her chin over her shoulder to look at him before she caught the understanding expression slapped across his face. His arctic eyes seized hers, and she was overwhelmed. He sympathized with her. Foley’s blood on her hands and all.

“You’re buying this?” she asked. Athan nodded.

“She’s right, Rhaena. You know me. Probably better than most. It’s hard for me to admit to the state that Sarah and Tony found me in.

I died…over and over. I was forced to battle it out with the worst memories.

The demon I have to fight off every day of my eternal life.

They don’t have the luxury of being made whole by what Sarah is. Who she is.”

Rhaena turned her body in anger. “So fucking what?”