Rem recanted everything, despite how much her throat hurt. “When I arrived, I had actually been cursed by Fiona with the Callons knowing about it. They were there when it happened. They wanted me to gain your favor” –something rotten spread through her gut as she looked into Ronan’s pale blue eyes, realizing how all of this would make her look, but she pressed on— “and they told me to do everything I could to get you, Ronan, to choose me as your mate. They wouldn’t tell me why. They just said that it was a secret, and then Fiona cursed me. They usedOliver, my brother, as collateral. If I didn’t win the Alpha over, then Oliver would suffer. I got the mark on my back because Jackson was mad that you walked away in our first encounter.
“Then, they took me to Murphy’s Orphanage to show me Oliver. I went because I thought I could show someone how to get there, but then Fiona cursed meagain, so I couldn’t lead anyone there. If I did, I’d lose my voiceandvision. And… I don’t know. I didn’t know what to do—” she paused, her emotions almost spilling out of her as she relived that desperation “—so… I just, I just went with it. Always looking for a chance to tell you.” Rem filled in more details, finishing with, “And Deacon came to monitor me, and I don’t see himanywhere.”
Suna moved forward, having listened in while Nia translated, and spat something harsh in Icelandic at Nia, then looked at Rem. The late morning sun cast soft shadows on all of them, like a war party hearing their briefing on enemy movements before the day began.
The silent Alpha stared at the burning carnage, his back straightened, and his jaw remained clenched. His nostrils flared, his fingers forming into a fist.
His eyes said everything that Rem needed to know.
He was fuming on the inside.
Ronan finally, and slowly, moved his head to face Rem, and when he spoke, she felt small beneath his words, his tone more dire than anything Fiona could have conjured.
"He asks if you are serious, as this is a grave claim to make,” Nia said.
Rem replied, “I am, or else I wouldn’t have a scar on my back.”
After Nia translated, his eyes turned amber, revealing his quiet rage. His face remained stolid, discipline preventing him from lashing out. Suna watched her brother as Nia looked on with unblinking, apprehensive eyes.
He looked at Suna, Ronan’s severe gaze burning with a fever as he issued commands.
Suna listened to her brother with bated breath. Then she smiled, an almost sinister grin appearing on her face, replying to her brother. The beige wolf then took over the human, Suna digging her paws into the dirt as it kicked up behind her when she broke into a full sprint.
Ronan directed his attention back at Rem, his fingers gyrating, contrasting the rest of his body that displayed his constraint. She wished she could speak directly to him, as he seemed to want to say many things at once.
But the Alpha finally settled on, “Tími til að finna Deacon.”[Time to find Deacon]
20
STORIES FROM BEFORE
R O N A N
Twelve hours passedsince the burning of the witch, and Ronan still struggled with the revelation of it all. The news was far more dangerous than anyone could have prepared him for; what was he supposed to do as a leader?
He knew, regardless, that he had to send Suna home, to run day and night until she reached Erik with the damning news.
"What will you do?" his mother asked, interrupting his thoughts as he stared out the window of the library.
"I will go back to Warden for a month, then return," he replied. “Rem has to stay here. The Elders are more prepared than we are in Warden for whatever might come, and I can’t argue that. The Arch is someone I trust to see Rem through that.”
“You trust Enola?”
“No,” he said, staring at the moon through the trees. He exhaled, biting his breath as it left him. “I don’t trust her at all, but I cannot remove Rem from here. And I also can’tnotgo home.”
His mother didn’t respond right away and instead crossed her legs and looked down at the floor from the chair she sat in, her pale dress covering her from head to toe. “And what of Jackson? What will be done with him? And Owen?"
He gave a sardonic snicker. “Time to add to our collection of pelts. The rest of his family will be cast aside.”
“Their heads are full of wolf shit for doing this,” his mother chided.
Ronan narrowed his eyes at the thought, the chill from the window’s glass diffusing onto his skin. "No, they are not," he finally said.
There was a pause. "What?"
He faced her. “Somethingcalculatedis going on, and I want to know what. When we told the queen about Fiona, she didn’t bother to attend, despite the Elder Witch betraying a pack within her alliance. I cannot stop considering the goal of manipulating me to choose Rem… The long game doesn’t make sense, no matter how I look at it. I would have eventually found out, and they would have known that. Which means I would have killed them. Jackson is harsh, but Owen is not reckless. They’re planning something. They didn’t intend for this to become a long game. They intended for this to end before it began… Which makes me wonder if that’s why Fiona was summoned here," Ronan mused, his instincts clawing at his mind and heart to leave. He needed his pack, his brethren, standing beside him.
Enola summoned Fiona here…
