Page 17 of Broken

“What?”

“That’s not what they always told me,” she said softly. Was it possible that the things she’d been told weren’t true?

“Well,” Cole said, “I hate to state the obvious, but the Bright Fae Council don’t know fuck all about wolf shifters.”

That surprised a laugh out of her. Without thinking, she said, “But isn’t that just what an evil shifter would say?”

That made Cole laugh. “I guess so.” Then he frowned. “Do you think maybe you were able to Change because no one was wearing the other bracelet? To… what was it? ‘Regulate’ you?” He shook his head and muttered, “That is so fucked up.”

She hadn’t thought of that possibility. “Maybe.”

“So how did Riker end up as your Protector? Like I said, not Bright Fae. Not in a million years.”

She could hear the bitterness in his voice when he talked about Riker. He wouldn’t understand why she’d been with him.

“I… lost my last Protector.”

Cole jumped on that. “You mean, Riker killed him.”

“Not like you mean,” she said. “It was an accident.” A car accident, to be exact. When Riker was chasing them, trying to abduct her. But… Jorem had reacted badly to the Protector bond. He’d started to hurt her. Riker hadn’t meant to save her—at first—but he had.

“But he took advantage of it,” Cole said.

She shook her head. “No. Well, yes, but…” She sighed. “He and I made a deal. He wanted one of the artifacts in the sorcerer’s lair where you found us, and I wanted the other. We needed my magic to get in, so he had to wear the bracelet.”

That wasn’t exactly true either. Riker had taken the bracelet for himself, not realizing everything it meant.

“You mean he wanted one of those books.”

“You looked at them?” He was lucky the magic hadn’t smacked him across the room.

He obviously heard the tone in her voice. “Yes. I’m fine. Which one did Riker want, and what for?”

“The Dark one. And as for why, he didn’t say, and I didn’t ask.”

“Well, maybe you should have. Not wanting Dark magic let loose on the world, and all.”

She watched his face. “You really hated him, didn’t you.”

“With good reason.”

“I didn’t.” The grief she’d been pushing to the back of her mind rushed over her again. Riker. Brooding, reckless, filled with demons. But he’d been her partner, and he’d died to protect her. Her eyes filled with tears, and she brushed them away.