And I selfishly claimed her.
I didn’t believe her when she told me she loved me. I wanted to. I wanted to so much it had taken everything inside me to shake me out of this impossible delusion.
But the moment I bit her, I could feel it. I had felt the connection between her soul and me, the connection I had felt since I had first laid eyes on her, sever, the tether gone.
And I was terrified all over again. Because what if she opened her eyes and realized it had all truly been mind control? That she had transformed into a werewolf only to find out everything was a lie?
It had made me sick to my stomach, thinking that after telling me she loved me, she would take her words back.
But what she said instead was that she loved me all the same.
She loved me.
Not as an Eteria. As a woman.
Mywoman.
And for the first time, I allowed myself to trust her completely. To believe her.
To truly, fully love her.
Watching her beautiful face now as she rested, eyes closed, her wavy chestnut brown hair spread all over my pillow, a sense of possessiveness filled me.She’s mine,I thought, tracing my knuckle over her face.Mine. Mine. Mine.
I was following the trail my knuckle made down to her throat when I stopped, hovering over the dark bite mark I had left there a few hours ago. The Transference that had turned her into a werewolf.
My own wolf couldn’t wait to meet the one who’d been born inside her.
Sweet, kind, beautiful Drew,I thought, pressing a kiss against her forehead, wishing I could stay in bed with her until she awoke.
But she wouldn’t awaken for another day at the very least, and I was an Alpha with duties I couldn’t postpone, and so reluctantly, I got off the bed and exited the room.
Thayer, Drew’s older brother, was in the living room. He’d spent most of his time in the Concordian Ward, but when I sent word about Drew, he had rushed back. He seemed distraught, as though he hadn’tslept in days. He was obviously haunted by Anais’s condition, and now by Drew’s decision.
My heart felt heavy when he looked up and stared at me in that suspicious, distrustful manner of his, which I tried not to take personally. He was protective of his sister, and like any protective older brother, he didn’t like me. Not yet, at least.
Which was why I was a little wary when I said, “I’m heading out. Keep an eye on Drew and call me immediately if she wakes up.”
Unsurprisingly, Thayer’s eyes narrowed. “Is she all right?” he asked through gritted teeth.
My phone vibrated in the pocket of my jeans, and I knew I didn’t have more time, so I walked toward Thayer, put a hand on his shoulder, and said, “She will be all right. I promise. So try not to worry, and call me when she wakes up if I haven’t come back yet.”
Before Thayer could reply, I left the cabin and headed to the pack’s Heart.
Zairos, the Syndicate Fae, had made his choice as to who would be part of the liaison team along with Teya.
His choices, though, were extremely odd.
Teya and Oz had told me they would take him through all pack facilities so he could find someone of a suitable circumstance and age to choose. Of course, one of those facilities was the Penitentiary, but I hadn’t thought they would want a criminal.
The Syndicate might be made of Fae assassins and similar criminal-type personnel, but with the Syndarch also being a Proctor—one of the twelve high-profile people who made up the Council for Regulation of Arcane Phenomena, the global organization that oversaw all the world’s Otherborne—the Syndicate didn’t associate withactualcriminals.
But the contract with the Syndicate said they could choose whoever they wanted, like I could choose whoever I wanted from their ranks. Whether she was a criminal or not didn’t matter.
So they chose two wolves from the Penitentiary. A young werewolf woman called Rowenna Ashtros, who’d been incarcerated and awaiting trial for the murder of another pack member, and, somewhat unsurprisingly, Dianna Rook. I was sure Zairos had chosen her under orders from the Syndarch, seeing as she had been one of Mack Page’s assistants.
What they would gain from taking Dianna, however, I didn’t know. And that made my Alpha instincts tingle in suspicion.
“Are you sure about your choice?” I asked Zairos now.
