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Chapter 15
Dove
Oh, shit.
I’m sure my body forgets how to breathe as my gaze locks with the huge vargr alpha. His frame is silhouetted in the doorway, making him seem even more menacing, and the look on his face? Cade never scared me until this moment.
I’ve become everything they suspected.
A traitor.
He thinks I’m working for the enemy, even though that couldn’t be further from the truth. I am completely on their side.
“We should never have trusted you,” he growls, stepping toward Ayden and me. “Have you been playing Jackson this entire time? Does he know the depths of your deviousness?”
Those words are like a pickaxe to my chest. Everything I have done has been to protect, not tear down. I love Jackson, and I want to protect everyone at the Sanctuary too.
Fearing for Ayden’s safety, I pull the boy behind me, shielding him with my body. Cade’s eyes flash angrily. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m protecting him or standing between him and what he wants.
“I’m not playing anyone.” My voice wobbles. “Please, just listen to me. We need to stop focusing on them and us. Ayden can help?—”
Cade crosses the room so fast and with such lethal determination that I'm unable to make a sound as I stumble back until my spine hits the wall. Ayden tries to stop him, but without his magic, he’s no match for a fully grown vargr.
Cade punches him once, and Ayden crumples to the ground, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. My hands cover my mouth, my gut churning.
“Oh, fuck. What did you do?”
My concern for Ayden scatters as I’m crushed between the wall and the huge body of a furious Cade.
My wolf growls, snapping her teeth at him, but I remain completely frozen as I flatten my palms against the concrete behind me, mostly so I don’t use my magic to defend myself. Cade already thinks I’m the enemy; if I attack him, if I raise a hand against him, it’s only going to perpetuate that belief.
It’s difficult to maintain control when he is crowding my space, though. Jackson is bulky and built, and he towers over me whenever he is close, but I have never feared he would hurt me. I am not so sure about Cade. The rage in his expression would drive most people to run for the hills.
“How long have you been playing us? Did the Order plant you here?”
Is he… Is he serious?
“Of course not.” I scoff at him. What the hell kind of game does he think I’m playing?
“Then why are you helping our enemy?” He roars the words in my face, making me flinch as if he slapped me. I know I am in danger, but I’m beginning to realize just how precarious my situation is. He could snap my neck with his bare hands.
I glance at Ayden, who is still sprawled on the ground, unconscious. No one is going to save me here, so I’ll have to do it myself.
I let my magic flare to life, the heat of it building in my chest, but I don’t unleash it yet. I won’t attack him unless I have no choice.
“He has a group of tau and wolves. They’re fighting the Order. We can help, join them.”
My pulse races, fluttering painfully against my throat. “Join them? And how do you know they aren’t out to kill us too? You just blindly took the word of the teenager you had to stop from killing the guy you claim to love.”
I can see how bad this looks, but anger brews within me at his refusal to listen to me.
“They’re not our enemy?—”
“Wrong, Dove. Everyone outside these wards is our enemy. If you want to join them, feel free, but you’re not taking Jackson down this road with you.”
Everything seems to shift with his words. The floor beneath me, the wall behind me too. There is no situation in which I will accept Jackson being taken from me.
I hit Cade with a small amount of power, just enough to make him stumble back. Asshole. He gasps in pain, clutching his side as I dart around him, dropping next to Ayden.
