Chapter 39
Kiana
“Release me,” I said coldly, eyes locked on the witch. “Now.”
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It was a gamble-I didn’t know what kind of spell she’d wrapped around me. If I’d had more time to study it, maybe I could’ve made an educated guess. But instinct told me this wasn’t meant to harm. Not directly. No, it felt like curiosity, not malice. If it were anything darker, Claudine and her
witch would’ve been facing accusations already.
Still, it crossed a line.
Troy let out a low snarl, and the magic snapped off me like a leash being torn apart. Claudine’s eyes narrowed at the witch, but Cam’s expression remained composed. She gave a slow, practiced bow. “My sincerest apologies,” she murmured. “Sometimes my magic… slips. It reacts before I can
restrain it.”
Claudine turned to Troy. “She warned me there might be surges. I didn’t think it would… reach for
someone.”
“Not an attack,” Cam added quickly, her voice smooth. “It was drawn to her energy. That’s all.”
Troy’s eyes were still gold, his voice dangerous. “Then apologize to her, not me-and control it. There won’t be a second warning.”
Cam bowed again, this time to me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to frighten you. I’m… uneasy. It won’t happen again.”
I could definitely understand her anxiety, but the fact that her magic immediately targeted me was suspicious. Did she now know that I was a null?
“Once you’re shown to your room, I can take you to see Irene,” Troy said. There wasn’t a trace of suspicion in his voice. I wasn’t dumb enough to think he didn’t care. Instead, I was in awe of how easily his political mask slipped back into place.
“Surely, you do not need to take her,” Claudine said with a frown. “Let your mate. We have things to
discuss.”
Troy hesitated, and I cleared my throat. The fastest way to get a target painting on your back was to appear weak. “Amelia and Bridget can accompany us,” I told Troy.
“Fine. They should already be on their way. Follow me.”
Normally I was more than happy to trail Troy and whoever he was walking with, but today, I walked
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next to Troy. That put me ahead of Claudine and my back to the witch. A bold move. To my surprise, Troy slipped his hand around my waist and pulled me against him as we walked.
Great. He wanted us to be that kind of couple in front of the other mates. I tried not to stiffen.
Claudine would miss something. She hadn’t been in power for so long that she would miss much.
“Suites were assigned at random. It should be plenty of room for you, your witch, your third, and
two guards,” Troy said as he stopped at the door. I don’t think you’ve been here since we’ve made
some changes. If you have any security concerns, please let me know.”
“This is adequate,” Claudine said as she walked around and wrinkled her nose. I didn’t know what
her home was like, but I had a good feeling that Claudine was all about living the high life.
“The beds don’t have any sheets.”
“You are a day early,” Troy pointed out. “The rooms will be finished shortly.”
“Fine. Since we must wait, I suggest we all go visit this witch of yours. I’m curious as to how she
survived the attack when Boa did not.” There was a light crack in her voice, and Cam lowered her
head. It was obvious that the daughter mourned her father, but just how close was Claudine with
her witch?
Hell, Troy left his pack to hunt down whoever had taken Irene. Maybe the relationship between
witch and alpha was more intimate than I realized.
In the car, with Bridget and Amelia, Claudine finally turned her full attention on me. “So you’re the daughter of the rogue who would murder to be an alpha.”
“Strange way of putting it considering that most alphas have to kill to get the position,” I said as I met her gaze head-on. My wolf trembled but didn’t back down. Not when Troy was in the car with
- She had so much more faith in our mate than I did.
“True,” Claudine said with a small smile. “Do you think he would have made a good alpha?”
I snorted. “No.” He couldn’t even treat his own daughter with compassion. How would he treat a
pack?
Then again, it was starting to look more and more like Ragor Thane wasn’t trying to amass a pack.
“It’s a shame he’s not still alive to see you in the position he wanted for all this time. There is
nothing more satisfying than watching a man go insane when he learns a woman can do a job better than he can,” she said with a cold smile. “No offense, Troy.”
“I regret Thane’s swift kill every day,” he responded. “He certainly deserved something far crueler.”
“Tell me, Kiana, how did it feel when you realized you were mated to the man whose hands still
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dripped with your father’s blood?” Claudine asked, a wild intensity in her eyes.
“I doubt she felt anything,” Cam murmured.
My stomach twisted. Did the strange witch know that I was a null?
‘What do you mean by that?” Troy growled.
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Cam cleared her throat. “Only that she was so sheltered. Did she even know what a mating bond is? Is it instinctual or did someone have to explain it to her?”
She wasn’t wrong. “I knew what a mating bond was when Troy arrived.” My voice was soft as I sifted through my memories. “Although I don’t know who told me or how I knew, but there was no mistaking what I felt when I looked at him.”
“Relief that your mate was so powerful?” Claudine pressed.
After a second of debate, I decided there was nothing wrong with the truth. “Not relief. Powerful wolves terrified me, but Troy had just killed a nightmare. My nightmare. In that moment, he was a hero. I succumbed to this girlish notion that I was facing a happily-ever-after and he was my knight in shining armor.”
Rolling her eyes, Claudine turned back around. “Ridiculously.”
“It was,” I admitted. “I realized that fairly quickly. I didn’t have the luxury of feeling like a girl, and there are no easy happily-ever-afters for wolves like me.”
My voice turned bitter and I stared out the window. Luckily, we were just pulling into Irene’s driveway.
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