Page 5

CHAPTER FIVE

C assi stiffened, her throat working like she was trying to swallow her words before they ever left her lips.

I inhaled deeply, steeling myself for something else that would make us all question reality.

“Dammit, Cassi.” Reid’s nostrils flared. “Just tell us everything. You withholding information is only going to worsen things between us.”

She flinched and closed her eyes. “I can… feel true fated-mate bonds.”

“What exactly does that mean?” Gage asked, moving to the other side of Briar so that the four of us stood between the door, Reid, and Sun.

“When two people who are meant for each other are in close proximity, it’s like electricity under my skin. I can see it. Like golden threads stitching the air around them.”

My breath caught. That sounded very similar to what I felt when Ryker and I touched.

“I knew Ember and Reid weren’t truly fated.” Cassi’s gaze flicked toward the bed. “Not in that way. That bond didn’t spark. Not until I forced it and, even then, it didn’t really hum.”

Reid’s chest heaved, his bandages stretching with the movement. “So you knew it wasn’t real.”

She nodded. “I thought I could strengthen it if I moved fast enough. If I got you two to complete the mating ceremony, the mate bond would take effect once you claimed each other, and you wouldn’t ever know you had a fated mate.”

“So you knew,” he snarled. “You knew it was falling apart the moment I met Sun, and you still tried to get me to complete the fake bond with Ember?”

“You believed you could beat Fate to the finish line?” Sun asked and shivered.

Glancing at the wooden floor, Cassi’s face scrunched. “I just wanted to give back to the Blackwood—”

“ No ,” Reid interjected, his chest heaving and his face straining from what had to be pain. “Even though I would be proud to lead the wolf shifters, I would never ever be willing to give up Sun for that. Having her by my side is the most important thing to me.”

“But if you didn’t know she existed, and you completed the bond with Ember, you would never have known, and you’d feel differently.” Cassi clasped her hands together. “You’d have a woman you loved and the throne.”

Ryker snarled, taking my hand and edging in front of me. “Unbelievable.”

“No, what’s unbelievable,” I snapped, my voice trembling with fury, “is that you let me stand on that cliff to be rejected in front of everyone there. You even knew what was going on, and you still tried to push it!”

“I didn’t want it to end like that—”

“Bullshit,” Ryker growled, stepping toward her. “You didn’t care how it ended as long as it served your plan. You used Ember and didn’t even try to intervene and make things right, despite knowing what was going on.”

Reid slammed his palm against the bed and winced. The white cloth on his neck became stained pink and then a deep crimson, proving this conversation was taking too much out of him. “You humiliated her. You humiliated all of us.”

Sun's eyes burned as she stood and came to my other side. For once, her hatred wasn’t directed at me. She pointed at Cassi and said, “You knew I was his fated mate and that we’d finally met, and you still messed with our bond?”

Cassi flinched like Sun’s words were claws raking across her skin. “I didn’t mean for any of it to happen this way.”

“But it did happen this way.” Ryker’s voice was low, vibrating through my core. “You played Fate with all our lives and caused problems that shouldn’t ever have been there in the first place.”

“I was trying to help—”

“You were trying to control us,” Sun cut in, her voice like steel. “You wanted a perfect story. A leader. A queen. You decided who should be with whom, and to hell with the consequences.”

Behind me, Briar’s breathing picked up, her body humming with restrained emotion.

“You didn’t just lie. You changed the course of our lives.” Gage smacked his lips like he tasted something bad. “Ember’s. Reid’s. Ryker’s. Sun’s. And everyone who counts on them.”

My breath caught. Gage was right. Maybe if the bonding ceremony hadn’t happened, my pack would still be alive and wouldn’t have been targeted by the vampires. And if I hadn’t been influenced during those few weeks between the slaughter of the royals and Ryker’s packs, maybe I would’ve met Ryker earlier, before he’d had that spell cast on himself.

“I thought things would fall into place....” Cassi’s shoulders sagged.

“They fell into place all right.” Xander snorted without any humor.

Kendric muttered, “What the hell is wrong with people?”

Valid question.

In fact, it was more than valid. The question snapped whatever reticence I’d had. “ It fell apart. You may believe you understand the impact, but you didn’t experience or even see the repercussions on my side. You’ll never know what it felt like or truly understand what I experienced watching the man I thought was my mate look at me like I was nothing and tell everyone something was wrong with me.”

Ryker’s body shook with rage. Any second, he might unleash his wolf.

Grimacing, Reid placed a hand on his wound. “You were right about one thing, Cassi. I never would’ve wanted a forced bond with someone. Period. Even if the option would’ve placed me on a throne.”

Sun ran back to his side and tried to get him to lie back down, but he refused.

“A throne I didn’t want, on top of that,” I said, my voice caught between a growl and a human tone. My wolf inched forward, just as angry as me, hating this witch for all the damage she’d caused. Especially me holding back from Ryker, believing it wasn’t possible that the connection we had could truly mean what it did.

“This is why I asked you to come here, Ember.” Reid’s face paled even more, but his eyes glistened. “I’m sorry for how I treated you that night. I couldn’t explain it then, but the connection with you... it started to feel wrong. Like my instincts were trying to break free, and every time I tried to push past it, my wolf became more agitated. I wanted to go after you to explain, but chaos erupted. I never meant to make you feel shame or anger, or to embarrass you.”

A lump formed in my throat and my eyes burned with tears. All this time, I’d condemned him and his pack when they were just as much victims as I was. “It clearly wasn’t your fault. I’m sorry that I blamed you.” I turned to face Cassi again.

She frowned. “None of this would’ve been a problem if both of your fated mates hadn’t shown up at the ceremony.”

My stomach twisted, nausea crawling up my throat. “You mean... if Fate hadn’t gotten in the way.”

“You were racing Fate,” Reid muttered, voice filled with contempt. “You actually believed you could outpace her?”

“I just wanted…” Cassi whispered.

“Don’t you fucking say you wanted to give back to the Blackwoods again.” A muscle in Ryker’s back twitched. “If you say that again, I won’t hold myself back.”

I had to agree with him there. She’d done so much damage. My wolf was trying to take control, but my newer warm magic pulsed once more, holding her back. “You made me doubt myself. My instincts. My heart.”

“And me,” Reid added bitterly. “You made me doubt everything I felt for Sun. Like maybe I was betraying some higher plan by choosing her over Ember.”

Cassi folded in on herself, shrinking under the weight of every word. “I know.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

Even though I wanted to dwell and release more anger, we couldn’t keep circling the same pain. Not with the dead still unburied and the vampires hiding in the shadows.

I sucked in a shaky breath. “Why were you in our territory that night, Reid?” My voice cut through the quiet, rough and raw.

Reid blinked like I’d yanked him back to the present. “I was coming to apologize.”

My chest hollowed, and Ryker took my hand once again. As soon as his skin touched mine, some of the anger eased.

“After the way everything happened, I couldn’t explain anything to you that night,” he continued, his words slower now, like his injury was catching up to him again. “My parents were horrified by what I’d done, and I couldn’t ignore the pull of Sun. I felt guilty about all of it.”

“Because of that bitch ,” Sun bared her teeth and glared at Cassi.

“Dad—” Reid’s voice faltered. His chest shook with a sob he had to be holding in. “We were coming to talk with you and your father. It was late, but we agreed, the longer we waited, the worse the situation would be. When we crossed the edge of our property near yours, we caught a scent—faint, but definitely wolf shifter. Not ours or yours. Dad and I called for more of our pack because something didn’t sit right with me, and that’s when we heard the howl.”

My spine stiffened. I didn’t need to hear anything else. My throat tightened, and my breathing turned ragged.

“That’s enough.” Ryker pulled me to his side and placed an arm around my waist. “She doesn’t need to relive it.”

“Yes.” I lifted my chin, knowing we had to have this discussion. We needed to know everything we could. “I do.”

I bit my lip. Briar’s emotions intensified, adding to my own, breaking through and reminding me that I was being selfish. I’d been so focused on my own trauma that I hadn’t been paying attention to her well-being. What a shitty sister and alpha I was turning out to be. “If Briar is okay with it.” This conversation would be just as hard on her.

“I’ll be okay.” Briar moved to my side, taking my other hand. “Please continue.”

My chest squeezed more, but this time from comfort. I had the two people I loved most holding my hands and standing at my side.

Reid’s fingers curled over the sheets. “Like I said, we heard a howl. Long, agonized, and laced with warning. It was meant to alert anyone within range that something was wrong.”

Inhaling sharply, Briar squeezed my hand harder as her pain merged with mine.

“We raced toward the sound and onto your pack lands.”

My mouth parted, but no sound came out. I hadn’t expected this. Everything I’d thought I understood unraveled, making me question all of it. “But I saw you lunge at Rosa.”

“Ember, we didn’t attack your pack.” Reid’s jaw clenched, guilt flashing behind his darkening eyes. “We couldn’t see the attackers—it was wild and scary. The only way we could help was to wait for someone to be attacked and try to defend the area where it seemed the attacker would have to be.”

I wanted to fall apart and curl up on the ground, but I couldn’t do that. Not now.

“Like we had to do when we were shooting guns during the last attack.” Kendric pursed his lips.

“Exactly.” Sweat beaded on Reid’s forehead. “That was the problem. The vampires were only targeting your pack. I didn’t realize why until tonight. I rejected you, claimed something was wrong with you, and our pack scent was all over the place where the Sinclairs all lay murdered. They wanted people to think we were responsible. But we only engaged when we had no other option.”

Just like that, everything made sense.

I thought back to every snap of teeth, every scream, every body that hit the ground. My grief had warped my vision. My rage had turned Reid into the villain, like the vampires wanted.

But he’d been trying to help.

“I saw you two run toward the river,” Reid said, voice hoarse. “I tried to get to you. But it was like… they were using us against each other.”

Sun placed a gentle hand on his arm. Her jaw was tight. “I think enough has been said tonight. We can meet again in the morning after Reid gets more rest. He needs to heal. His wound is already oozing again.”

“Here.” Cassi moved past Ryker when Sun lifted her hand.

“Do not come any closer.” Sun scowled. “You’ve done enough.”

Cassi flinched and stopped.

I couldn’t blame Sun. I wasn’t thrilled to be near Cassi either. Not after what she’d tried to pull.

“I’m sorry—” Cassi started.

“Cassi, go,” Reid said groggily. “You said you wanted to help? Then go spell the perimeter. If the vampires try to come back, I want to know the moment they get within fifty yards of anyone.”

She hung her head. “Okay. I’ll go reinforce the wards now.” She turned and slipped out the door without another word, her shoulders hunched like she might fold into herself entirely.

The moment she was gone, the air seemed to lift just a little. Still heavy, but breathable again.

Sun looked at me, her expression unreadable but no longer hostile. “I’m not trying to be rude, but he needs rest. I’ve asked Jaren to meet you outside and take you to a house where you can stay. It’s just a couple doors down from us.”

“Of course. Thank you for that.” I forced a smile, but I knew it didn’t reach my eyes. This whole night had been a disaster.

“Come on.” Ryker’s voice was soft but firm as he tugged me toward the door.

We filed out quietly, the others falling in behind us. No one spoke as we walked down the hallway again, past the navy blankets and blood-soaked air.

Outside, the night hit me like a wave along with the stronger stench of blood.

Cold. Heavy. Death.

Jaren was waiting by the stairs. He gave us a single nod before leading us to a two-story house in the middle of the neighborhood. No one spoke. No words were needed. Not on a night like this.

We reached the white house with a porch light on and a woodsy scent that hinted of cedar and pine. “There are three bedrooms and a couple couches.”

Gage patted Jaren’s arm. “Thanks, man.”

The six of us climbed the wooden steps to the front porch and went inside. The front room was empty but clean with two mismatched couches and a chair.

Another door opened into a hallway with multiple bedrooms.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been in a place that feels like a home.” Xander sauntered over to the mustard yellow couch and flopped onto it.

“True, but don’t get too comfortable,” Kendric added.

“Well, I will tonight,” Gage slumped onto the burnt orange couch like he might fall asleep right there.

Ryker’s hand tightened around mine again.

“We’re taking the master.” His voice left no room for debate as he led me in the direction where the large bedroom had been in Reid’s house.

Are you okay? I linked with Briar, knowing Ryker probably had a lot of stuff he wanted to talk through about what we’d just discovered.

Yeah, I’m going to take a shower and go to bed. I’ll stay in the other room down the hall.

Ryker and I entered the primary bedroom, and the door clicked shut. He didn’t hesitate to lock it.

His chest rose and fell like he’d been holding his breath for hours.

He turned toward me, his eyes dark with anger, then released my hand and took a step back.

My heart dropped. I didn’t know what I’d expected to happen once we were alone, but it definitely wasn’t this . “What’s wrong?”

He tilted his head back and grimaced. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m going to tell you. In fact, I have a lot to say.”