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“Believe it because it’s true. The council separated us and refused us contact for our safety. It’s your fault I haven’t seen my sister since she was a baby!” Fury rose and my wolf tried to soothe me subtly. We couldn’t afford for Rincoln to take notice of my wolf. Settle, I urged them. Please, hide from him.
“Well, this is a little distressing because I need you to get your Papa here.”
“I don’t know how!” I wailed. Longing for Papa shattered my heart, and I began to sob. Rincoln rose from his chair as if to comfort me and I pushed back on the small bed to avoid his touch. His eyes hardened, but his phone ringing distracted him.
“Yeah, I’ll be right up.”
He left me there without a backwards glance while I tried to get myself together.
After just a few minutes, he came back down the stairs with a figure from my past in tow. Someone I thought I’d never see again. As if it wasn’t already shattered, my heart throbbed. I couldn’t believe that he was here to betray me again.
“Roan, no,” I cried, unable to keep it in. Tears ran freely down my face and my wolf curled up into a ball, making themselves as small as possible.
“That’s no way to greet your betrothed, my son.” Rincoln frowned. “Roan has agreed to take you back and help you find your place in my new pack.”
“New pack?” I echoed.
“Yes. After you and Roan bond, we are taking over Sweetwater. Then Jasper can come to his new home and we can be a family again.”
Roan stayed silent, slightly behind Rincoln. His expression flickered at the mention of us bonding. Was he having second thoughts?
“What if I refuse to bond with Roan?” I countered. They needed consent for a bond.
“If you deny the bonding, I’ll start harming your friends. The little witch at The Spell Shop, for starters. Arrogant bitch.” He sneered. I wondered what she had done to him. “Then there are the people at your workplace. It’d be terrible if we delivered something that was unstable there.”
My blood ran cold. My tears stopped as horror filled me. All the innocent people that he would kill just to get his own way filtered through my mind. I saw flashes of their faces and wanted to cry out in panic. Roan twitched, and I flicked my eyes his way, unwilling to take my eyes off the madman who used to be my dad for long.
“Roan has been looking for you for so long. He’s missed you, haven’t you, Roan?” He continued as if he hadn’t threatened people I held dear.
“Yes, Sir.” Roan gave no real emotion like he had toward the end of our relationship. Before he’d abandoned me.
“I’ll give you a few moments to catch up. We’ll need to clear the house for when you go into heat, Kade. They’ll stay close, but be outside until Roan deems it safe.”
“I can’t have kids!” I blurted out. Roan didn’t even twitch, like he already knew. He’d always loved pups, so there was no way he wouldn’t react to that news.
Rincoln didn’t seem bothered waving a dismissive hand. “I heard about your hospital visit. A temporary blip.”
”Especially if you give me another shot of that fertility boosting potion you gave to me before,” Roan said, looking directly at me instead of Rincoln.
“Ah, yes, you know about that?” Rincoln had the audacity to look sheepish.
“The taste was quite different from the usual contraceptive, so it wasn’t hard to figure out.”
What?When had this happened? Had Rincoln hooked Roan up with another omega while I was gone? Why did the idea of that hurt so much? I had a mate. One that I really wanted to fully bond with and Roan was my past. So why did it matter that there was an omega that they’d tried to replace me with?
My emotions must have played across my face. “Don’t you worry, son. Roan hasn’t found another omega to replace you. Not like you’ve tried to do with that Sweetwater alpha.”
“Then what does he mean?” I asked, my voice trembling.
“He gave me a fertility boosting potion instead of my usual contraceptive that last time you went into heat.” Roan explained, and it all slotted into place. No wonder he ran off! With my heat there, he’d have gone into a rut and I’d have likely ended up pregnant. He’d been unwilling to do that to me.
Warmth filled his gaze as he read my expression. I couldn’t bond with him. There was too much in our past, but the part of me that was Ryder still loved Roan.
“All water under the bridge now, eh?” Rincoln said to Roan, ignoring me altogether. He clapped the younger man on the back and left.
Roan moved closer, and I froze. He held a finger to his lips, and we both listened as the house began to clear out. We waited until all sounds of movement had stopped, but still Roan didn’t raise his voice above a whisper. “I need you to trust me. Blake and the others are on their way. You need to shift. We can’t bond with you shifted and we need to buy some time.”
“What?” I couldn’t get my mind around what he was saying. I kept my voice as quiet as I could.
