Page 136 of The Silver Ones


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"You can seriously sense loyalty changes?" Rem quietly asked Nia.

Nia nodded, her agitation remaining. "There's been a break in trust somewhere. We usually can't feel it until right at the moment that it's been broken, but over time, it will accumulate," Nia mumbled, and she was breathing heavily, too, double glancing at Rem whose face remained confused. "Okay, think of it like this. When Jemma started relations with Marcus, Ronan felt that before he knew it. We can feel the same thing going on here. Something isverydishonest."

Rem heard the doors to the home open from the backside, and Rem kept swiping her tongue on her teeth as her fingers fidgeted. She heard boots walking on the wooden floor before she saw faces emerge from around the corner.

She recognized three of them.

One of them was Deacon, his shoulders hunched as he massaged his raw wrists.

The middle was Lothar, on his knees, an eye gouged out and his body so bloodied that he reminded Rem of the dead hunters in the woods, save for his glaring one good left eye.

The other standing there was Beta Caden.

I M A R I

Deepin the woods away from the mayhem of Scarlet, Imari was brought before Enola Scarlet in the courtyard of the Elders.

Leaves swept over the stone floor as she approached, kneeling on the cold rock before the shifter queen, the two of them alone. The day was bright, like a welcomed false sense of security.

"Rise, Imari," the queen said, her voice steady.

Imari rose and faced Enola, her warm, honey-colored skin radiant against her lips that were painted black, Enola’s pale brown eyes shrewd, her sleek black hair bound in a bun. She was a stunning, formidable female, and one that Imari had so far been proud to serve.

"Tell me how the collecting of the Silvers is going,” Enola asked, the sun moving in waves through the trees.

"Most are gathered. Beta Caden is fetching Rem and also bringing Deacon, as planned. They are the last ones to be secured," Imari said. "All the other Alphas have been obtained except for Ronan. Do we have his location?"

"He is still in Warden, last I heard, which will be a problem at some point, I assume. I am still displeased with Fiona’s failure, and one of the Callons will need to pay for it. Let Ronan handle that, and when he comes for Rem, we can deal with him then… Which, I suppose, suggests the initial plan succeeded, even if not as I intended,” she mused, looking at her nails as she spoke. “We just needed Rem to pull on Ronan’s heart strings enough since he was the only Alpha that I was truly worried about. He is easier to manipulate when his heart is on the line… It’s why he guards it so closely.”

The queen spoke as if an expert on an undiscovered species, reminiscing on her success.

“Marcus is extra feisty whenever I bring up Ronan,” Enola added with a pleased grin. “Perhaps I will let him weaken Ronan before handling him myself, let him get a bit of revenge.”

Enola walked around the fountain, the sound of water gently pouring into the pool. It contrasted the intensity that Imari felt for what they were doing. The queen added, "I brought you here, Imari, as I wanted to see if you were ready to journey south with the Silvers?" she asked, her gaze moving to Imari.

"We arecertainwe want to give them up?" Imari asked, not entirely sold on the plan.

"We are going to war with humanity once more, Imari. That is unavoidable. I don’t plan to die, and I have family to see in the south…” her voice trailed off as she looked into the woods.

Imari knew of the queen’s origins. She had been raised as a human, taken by Calder, and forced into this life. It was one reasons he had to die, along with Tania.

Imari didn’t like that they hadn’t found her body, but the Elder had tumbled off a cliff with grievous, existing injuries. It was only a matter of time before a trace of her corpse was discovered.

No wolf that age could survive that fall.

"And the hunters won’t harm Elders such as myself?” Imari asked, trying to imagine herself at the gates of the hunters.

Enola shook her head, her earrings gently clinking. “No, they will not.”

“Are we still poisoning the Silvers?”

Enola gave a single, deadly nod. “Yes.”

As much as Imari wanted another way around this, she knew their new information changed everything—they had found more babes born with silver hair, the witches hiding those secrets from the shifters.

That meant that the thirteen Silvers were not alone, and Queen Enola was already uncertain of their loyalties. It was like finding the pups of a warg, rather than trying to tame an adult. One obviously inspired deeper, more lasting loyalty than the other.

"I know you struggle, Imari, with killing the women," Enola said, speaking sternly as she continued to watch the water. "I know we planned this all with the intention they live, but this decision is final. We will raise a new generation of Silvers that are with us from the start,raisedas shifters, not turned once in adulthood. This is a sacrifice we have to take to ensure their allegiance is ours. We will take the Silvers south and poison them just before entering the city of Crowley, as Osmond has commanded… He’s actually quite pleased with this turn of events. They will use their blood to their gain, as they have witches that could benefit from it. I hear they even think if they use all of the Silver’s blood, they can turn their own humans into Silvers, which will be used against the remaining packs. But that is a plan none of the other hunters are aware of, only those privy to ourmaster, which Osmond knows of… Take Jola with you, as she is unwittingly taking the fall for poisoning them."