I stared at her.
Completely stunned.
“Without powers or proper affinity alignment, your prospects within the Coven were uncertain,” she continued briskly like this conversation was somehow reasonable. “The McFaddens offered security.”
Security.
The word hit like a slap.
Beside me, Menon’s tail tightened violently around my waist.
Lunar power rolled off him in icy waves now.
Dangerously controlled.
“Excuse me,” Gunner interrupted suddenly, sounding genuinely appalled. “No one told me any of this shit.”
Arthur rounded on him immediately.
“Your Wolf requires a proper mate to achieve balance. Especially, if you want to take the mantle of Alpha someday, pup! No bitch in the Pack would have you with your issues, and a Witch would offer you respectability. I expected you to man up and claim the Witch when I told you about her, but you failed and now I’m here to clean up your mess,” Alpha McFadden snarled.
“You thought you knew what my Wolf required? How about what I required was informed consent, old man!”
That startled me enough I actually blinked.
Gunner looked furious now too.
Not at me.
At his father.
“I thought I was chasing her because of some weird instinctive rivalry thing with Blue Boy over here. You always hated Sten for some reason ever since I first mentioned him and yeah, I don’t mind a little healthy rivalry, but what the fuck, Dad!” Gunner snapped, jerking a hand toward Menon.
“I didn’t know you psychos were arranging supernatural marriages behind my back!”
Menon made a low dangerous sound in his throat.
“Blue Boy?”
“Not important right now,” Gunner muttered quickly.
Honestly?
Fair.
“Excuse me, I don’t care who agreed to what because I won’t be traded around like property,” I said shakily.
Emotion clogged painfully in my throat.
Humiliation.
Anger.
Years of feeling lesser suddenly crashing together all at once.
My mother’s expression hardened immediately.
“Amrin, just listen to me. I did this for your own good. You’re-you’re behaving emotionally!”
