Page 85 of Binding His Fated Mates

Then Micah turned pages. “Ah. Here’s the good part. Dated just yesterday.” He cleared his throat performatively. “‘I’ve found the catalyst and the reversal spell is now complete. Two years of research and I’m now certain that if I cast this, Hunter and Lee will merge back into one person and Hunter Lee Jameson will exist in their place. And because he was never bitten by a werewolf, he’d probably be an ordinary mundane man again. He could then have the life he’d always deserved. But I’m afraid of telling them the truth. I’m not sure I can trust what will happen if I do.’”

I felt Hunter’s betrayal slice through the bond. But I couldn’t even move to look at him. Beside me, Lee was perfectly still, as if he’d been frozen in place as well.

Then a blast of green magic hit Micah square in the back and he went sprawling to the ground.

The instant he was distracted, the spell on Hunter and me broke. I could move again. In theory. But any movement at all felt like it was capable of shattering me. Hunter finally put his foot on the ground, breathing hard. His back was to me, so I couldn’t see his face.

But I could imagine his face well enough. This couldn’t be happening.

Rowan stood in the doorway, her black hair blowing in a spectral wind from the spell she’d just cast, her dark eyes blazing. She took in the scene, and her expression went from anger to total outrage in a single heartbeat.

“Micah!” she shouted. “What are you doing here?”

“Telling these nice people the truth,” Micah said coolly, pushing himself off the ground, tucking the journal safely under his arm. “That’s something our brother seems constitutionally incapable of.”

“This wasn’t the plan! We agreed—”

“You all agreed,” Micah said with a sneer. “But I thought Daniel’s little friends had a right to know who he really is, before he leaves for good.”

“Get out,” Lee said, speaking for the first time. His voice held more rage than I’d ever heard from him.

Micah cocked his head to the side, looking first at Lee, then at Hunter, and finally at me. His eyes were sparkling with glee when they met mine. “I was done anyway. We leave at sundown. I’d start packing, if I were you.”

With that, he turned and walked out of the mess hall, leaving a shocked silence in his wake. I felt a numb sort of surprise. I would’ve thought he’d want to gloat. But he probably didn’t like his odds against the entire pack and Rowan, who was staring at him with absolute murder in her expression. Micah had always been cruel and vindictive, but he wasn’t an idiot.

I stood up and took a hesitant step toward Hunter before I even realized what I was doing. Every member of the pack was staring at me.

If I could just explain myself… If it wasn’t too late—

Hunter turned. And any hope I had of that died.

Because everything about him had changed. His face was pale and closed off, his jaw tight, his green eyes fixed on the space directly over my shoulder, as if he couldn’t bring himself to look at me. The fury I’d expected to see wasn’t there at all.

What was there was worse. It was an absolute blankness, as if he’d retreated behind a wall I couldn’t see through.

“Is it true?”

Panic surged through me. “Yes, but—”

“You promised,” he said, sounding just as numb as I felt. And then he did look at me, and that was even worse. Because I saw that his eyes were wet, filled with pain and betrayal.

“Hunter,” I said desperately, stumbling forward and reaching for him. “Please. Let me explain—”

“I—I need to think,” Hunter said, taking a step back. His expression tightened and he looked away from me sharply. Then, without another word, he turned and walked out of the mess hall.

I couldn’t breathe. The room was tilting.

I turned to Lee, desperate. “Please. Don’t leave.”

His expression was carefully neutral, but his eyes were almost as wounded as Hunter’s. Through the bond, I could feel his emotions. They were a cold weight between us, jagged around the edges.

“Give him time,” Lee said. His voice was even, but there was a tightness in it that told me what it was costing him to stay calm. “He needs to process this.”

“Lee—”

He shook his head and the words died in my throat. “Don’t.”

Then his gaze found Lacey’s across the room. “Stay with him.”