Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Something wasn’t right within our borders. And if Caelan thought locking Booker away would keep us safe, he was wrong. The threat wasn’t the wolf in the guest chamber. It was whatever I had just sensed.
Jaw tight, I turned toward the main building. I wasn’t letting another hour go by without answers. It was time to confront my brother.
I didn’t slow down once as I crossed the courtyard and climbed the steps to the main hall. My pulse hammered in my ears, and my lynx prowled so close to the surface that my vision heightened with every furious stride.
Caelan’s office door was half open. I shoved it the rest of the way.
He looked up sharply from where he stood with two elders reviewing territory maps. The moment he saw my expression, his eyes turned wary.
“Out,” he commanded the elders without looking at them.
They obeyed instantly.
The click of the closing door barely faded before the words practically ripped from my chest. “I want to be with Booker.”
Caelan’s jaw locked. “Alara—”
“You can’t deny fate just because he’s a wolf.” My voice shook from how hard it was to hold all this inside.
He exhaled hard, bracing both hands on the edge of his desk. “You’ve known him for hours, Alara. You can’t honestly tell me you understand the consequences of binding yourself to an outsider.”
“It shouldn’t matter that he’s a stranger,” I countered. “Fate is supposed to be sacred. You’ve told me that since I was old enough to shift. But the moment it chooses someone beyond our borders for me, it’s suddenly dangerous?”
“That’s not what I said.”
Eyes narrowing, I crossed my arms over my chest. “But it’s what you meant.”
“This isn’t about the wolf, Alara. This is about what we’ve lived through. What you lived through, even if you don’t remember all of it.” Before I could respond, his temper finally cracked open, and something raw slipped out with it. “Our parents died because of an outsider’s betrayal.”
My breath stuttered. “What?”
Caelan’s shoulders sagged as though he’d been carrying that truth for years and finally lost the strength to hold it up. “It wasn’t a lynx who betrayed them. It wasn’t even someone from a neighboring territory.” His gaze lifted and caught mine. “It was a wolf.”
The floor might as well have tilted under my feet. “You never told me that.”
“You were only a teenager, still so young.” Dropping onto his chair, he heaved a deep sigh. “You’d just lost them only weeks before I found out, and you were still struggling with everything. You didn’t need the emotional upheaval that came from knowing their deaths weren’t just an accident.”
“So you hid it?” I stared at him, stunned that I’d never sensed what he’d done. “Just kept the whole thing shrouded in mystery so I never knew what happened to them?”
He nodded. “We all did. The elders, Riven, and me. You were fragile, Alara. You felt everything around you at a deeper level than anyone else. I didn’t want to add more grief. Or fear.”
My intuition stirred, brushing against the edges of his emotions like fingertips trailing water. He felt a bone-deep fear for me wrapped in the memory of loss he’d carried alone for years. I couldn’t help but wish that I’d delved deeper before now, instead of only skimming the surface of his emotions out of respect for his privacy.
My anger softened, but it didn’t vanish. “I’m sorry you suffered with that alone, but Booker isn’t the wolf who betrayed our parents.”
His breath shuddered out, something breaking open behind his eyes.
I held his gaze. “Fate wouldn’t bind me to a shifter who meant to hurt us. So while I understand your fear, it doesn’t change that I want to be with him.”
My brother finally looked away, but I still felt the full weight of the truth settling between us. He was afraid of losing me, but I was determined not to let fear decide my future.
“I’m sorry you carried this without my help for so long.” The words were soft, but they didn’t waver. “But Booker shouldn’t pay for someone else’s mistake. And neither should I.”
Caelan’s hands gripped the arms of his chair, his knuckles turning white. He looked less like my alpha and more like my brother. “I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“I know.” I stepped toward him, breathing past the ache in my chest. “But safety isn’t the same thing as isolation. I’m asking you to trust me. Give me a chance to get to know him. Supervised, on your terms.”
My brother stood slowly, as if the choice in front of him weighed down every inch of his powerful body. “This isn’t like when Isadora mated with a human a few towns over. If this ends badly…”
“It won’t,” I whispered.
He flinched at the absolute certainty in my voice. After a long stretch of silence, he finally heaved a heavy sigh and nodded. “One meeting.”