My eyes widened at the large scar. They’d known each other for only a few days—in a prison—and Jane was already marked. I gazed at Roman. I’d known Roman all my life, and my neck was still bare.
“Come see me before you leave, babe,” Jane said to him. With a lustful glint in her eyes, she smiled and turned away.Come see me before you leave, really meant,come fuck me before you leave.And if those six little words didn’t describe my entire existence, I didn’t know what did.
A part of me was jealous of her and of them. I wished I could’ve taken Roman up to his bedroom and spent just a moment of peace with him, but Ryker was plaguing my mind and haunting me.
When Vanessa and Jane started toward the hospital, I walked to the packhouse. “What’s this plan?” Raj asked. “Contact Ryker and tell him we killed the rogues?”
“Ryker ordered the rogues to take you,” I said.
He stifled a laugh. “No, he didn’t,” he said. I stayed quiet, and he furrowed his brows. “You’re being serious?”
“I followed him from the Lycans last night. He ran right to Rogue Territory and was talking about business with the rogues. I think he’s been giving them money to kill people.”
Raj stiffened. “Why would he do that? He’s our leader.”
“Maybe he wanted power. A few years back, the Lycans nearly wiped out all rogues, didn’t they?” Roman said. Raj nodded. “No rogues. No Lycans. No power for him.”
His motivations didn’t make sense before, but they were starting to all become clearer. I clutched Dad’s Moonflower in my palm. “Maybe he felt powerless after Michelle decided to leave. Maybe he thought his masculinity and his alpha-like qualities were being threatened. He wanted to prove himself.”
Raj shook his head and stared at the packhouse which had warriors hurrying in and out of it. “You know, I thought it was too easy for the rogues to find us. When you left the Night Raider’s Café, I killed all the rogues there. No one from their hideout would’ve known anything about me being there unless they had an inside contact. I found out that Jane was my mate right after Roman left and we walked to the lake.”
“What happened while you and Jane were locked up?” Roman asked, opening the packhouse door for me.
“They treated us like prisoners but didn’t torture us.” He chuckled lifelessly. “At least, Ryker cared so much as to not to hurt us.” Raj walked into Roman’s office, which was scattered with sketches of me, and crossed his arms. “We need to warn the Lycans. If he’s there, he’ll tell everyone that this was your fault, Isabella. He’ll tell them you’re the one who betrayed the pack. And he’ll spread lies about me too since I know now.”
Roman clenched his jaw, his muscles tense. “Let’s go.”
I shook my head and handed him the Moonflower. “No, you’re staying here.” I brushed my hand against his cheek. “You’re hurt and your pack needs you right now.”
Roman paused for a long moment, staring down at me with so much pride and… happiness. “You’re not doing this alone.”
Though I wanted to protect him from Ryker, I nodded my head. We were a team. We needed to start acting like one.
Chapter 53
Isabella
“Ryker won’t hurt me,” Raj said softly to Jane as we waited in the woods for everyone to gather. But neither he nor I believed that. Ryker had killed hundreds of his own people, and both Raj and I were next on his kill list. Another flower to add to his ever-growing tattoo garden of them. He brushed his knuckles against Jane’s jaw and smiled.
Roman grasped my hand, drawing my attention toward him and leading me deeper into the woods for privacy. “You knew about him all along, didn’t you?”
I smiled up at him, curling my bloodied fingers into his shirt collar. “When did you figure that one out?”
He chuckled and pushed me against a tree, placing his hands on my hips. “So, tell me, how’d you do it?”
My fingers danced up his abdomen to his neck. “None of it added up.”
The midnight moonlight bounced off of Roman’s face, and I got butterflies. Even with his hair matted with mud and blood soaking through his shirt and those tired eyes, he was the most handsome man I had met.
“What didn’t add up?” he asked.
“Since the moment I met him, he wanted to hide me from you. He always hid things, kept his office door locked, kept his desk locked, kept his bedroom locked.” I pulled Roman closer to me, inhaling his scent that I had missed so much. “I didn’t go to the Lycans without suspicion. I hope you know that. I was watching him the whole time, but… the pain of your heartbreak blinded me for a bit to be honest.”
“He was trying to take you away from me.” He sucked in a breath and closed his eyes, inhaling. “He couldn’t resist trying to get someone like you to be his mate and lead the Lycans with him. You’re strong and powerful. A perfect woman to lead.”
I rested my head on his chin. “He was trying to replace Michelle with me.” I squeezed his hands in mine, feeling his callouses against my knuckles. “She looks just like me,” I said, remembering Roman carrying her at the rogues’ hideout. “And her stats… he had them hidden away in his desk, but when I saw them, they were nearly identical to mine.”
After letting out a low growl, I clenched my jaw. Ryker would regret adding me to the Lycans. He would regret ever marking Michelle during her heat. He would regret lying to every one of the Lycans because I would destroy him. He trained me to be strong; he just didn’t know that I was stronger than him.
