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His smile was bitter. “The O’Connors are a wealthy pack, thanks to our situation here. Any divorce settlement would have seen her well looked after.”
And unless there’d been some sort of prenuptial agreement, she wouldn’t have had to stay with him for long to gain a benefit.
“It’s still hard to believe a wolf would let his mate—”
“Fuck another man?” he finished for me. “As an omega, he mightn’t have had the choice.”
“That suggests you think the pack gave its approval to the whole mess.”
“Not so much approval, but forced a blind eye? Yeah, I suspect they did. Mia wasn’t the only wolf who’d been placed in interstate packs to hook the unwary.”
“But how—” I hesitated. “You used your ranger connections to find information out about her and the others?”
“I did indeed.”
“So the ultimatum you gave her was either divorce him or break it off with you?”
“Yes. She obviously chose him, because she never came back.”
I reached across and touched his thigh. He briefly wrapped his fingers around mine and squeezed them gently, but the thick sense of hurt and anger in him didn’t ease. No surprise there—aside from the fact he’d loved her deeply, he was an alpha, and they never liked losing.
“I know it doesn’t help much, but she’s an utter fool.” One who had no idea just what she’d thrown away, despite the fact she’d been with him for over a year.
“Thanks, Liz.”
I gently extracted my hand and returned my gaze to the road. And tried not to think about the hurt that lay in my future.
Silence fell. We eventually stopped at the side of the road that ran along one of the compound’s boundaries and climbed out of the truck. Mrs. O’Connor pulled up behind us and then wound down
her window and said, “What happens now?”
“It might be best if you wait in the car, out of the drizzle,” I said. “I’ll attempt to create a protection circle and then connect to the wild magic.”
Karleen nodded and wound the window back up. Aiden went to the back of his truck and hauled out a bright yellow raincoat. He held it up so I could slip my arms into it and then turned me around to zip it up.
“I know it’s not exactly a fashion statement, but it will at least keep part of you dry.”
“Thanks.” I kissed him, well aware his mother watched and not really caring. “You’d better go join your mom.”
“I’d rather stay right where I am. I’m not feeling overly happy with my mother right now.”
I frowned. “I can’t produce a protection circle large enough to encase us and her vehicle.”
“Then don’t. Just make it large enough for the three of us to stand within it. She and I are werewolves—a little rain isn’t going to hurt us.”
I had a feeling his mother wouldn’t agree with that statement—at least not when she wore her Sunday best. But I kept my mouth closed and stepped into the gap between the two vehicles. While there was no protection from the rain, it did at least offer a little respite from the cool breeze.
I didn’t immediately start spelling, though. Instead, I studied the trees opposite, looking for luminous, gossamer wisps. There were none evident, but I could nevertheless feel the distant pulse of power that was the main wellspring.
I just had to hope I could connect to either its threads or Katie’s. To do anything else would not improve Karleen’s opinion of me—though I personally doubted it could get much lower.
After a deep breath to center my energy, I began raising Ashworth’s incorporeal protection circle, watching the spell strings closely, trying to keep them exactly as he’d structured them. But as the spell rose in the air around me, so too did the wild magic that was now a part of me. Or rather, had always been a part of me, but had simply lain dormant until I’d come into contact with the unrestrained magic here.
I ignored the fear-based shiver and continued with the spell. While the end result wasn’t exactly the same as Ashworth’s, it was close enough.
I tied off the ends but didn’t immediately activate the spell, and glanced at Aiden. “Right, let’s do this.”
I might have said it softly, but his mother immediately left her car. There was certainly nothing wrong with her damn hearing.
