“What?” I asked, head still spinning. I sucked in deep breaths, my stomach threatening to upheave again. “That’s absurd. That can’t be.”
“Multiple people in the village verified it. She wasn’t providing escorts for them, Aurelia. She wasn’t providing protection. She was monitoring them and keeping a hostage in case they tried to run.”
“In case they tried to run?” I asked, my knees suddenly weak, remembering the things the patrol had said to me when they’d thought I was trying to escape.
“You trying to run, little girl? You stupid enough to think you’d get past us?”
“The drug trade is dangerous,” Weston went on, though he didn’t venture any closer. “But not in the way you’re talking. I’ve never heard of a drug maker being abducted. Or killed, even. They might’ve tried to poach you—tried to offer you gold and a better living situation to entice you away from Granny, but I’ve never heard of them outright abducting someone. They certainly wouldn’t takeyou, not with your royal backing. She was manipulating you, Aurelia. She saw your predicament, knew your limits, and was using you.”
“No!” I squeezed my eyes shut, my heart aching. “No. She took me in when no one else would. When I didn’t have a penny to my name. She hadn’t known what sorts of abilities I might have. It was only later she learned how good I was at making product. She wouldn’t have done that if she didn’t care. She wouldn’t have helped me set up a new life if she hadn’t cared!”
But she’d beaten me to within an inch of my life. She’d starved me. She’d tried to force my hand once she learned what I was good at. Her caring clearly had limits, limits my mother never, ever in her life, would’ve had.
Tears threatened to fall and I sank to my knees.
“Please,” I begged, the memories coming faster now. A black hole inside me stretched wide. “Please,” I whispered. “She’s the only family I had left. You’ve already taken her from me, please don’t tarnish her memory as well.”
Chapter 16
Weston
Iwatched Aurelia’s perception of her life crumble around her.
“Go to her,” my wolf said on a whine.“She is a product of her environment, you must see that. She’s crying out for help—can’t you feel it?”
Of course I could feel it. Her agony pulsed through the air, pounding at me, begging for mercy. For help. The sheer power of it almost brought me to my knees. No magic, my ass. Even without the help of her animal, she was able to affect those around her. Maybe her mother hadn’t been totally honest about her history. There had to be some other sort of creature mixed up in Aurelia’s genes, because no shifter I’d ever encountered could do something like this.
Was this why Granny had taken her in? Had she felt this magic and either succumbed to it—hard to believe—or realized its uniqueness and wanted to see how it developed?
Unlike her mother, though, Aurelia’s animalhadbudded. It just hadn’t risen to the surface. Was that by Granny’s design—she had demon connections and could use their magic to ensure Aurelia’s beast stayed hidden—or because Aurelia believed it didn’t exist at all? Either way, the lack of appearance by ananimal had helped Granny manipulate this woman. When sheer force hadn’t worked, Granny switched tactics until she’d found something that had.
I took a step forward, my whole body taut. My true mate huddled at the base of the tree, hugging herself. The bond that united us yanked at my middle, demanding I look after her. Demanding I make this right.
Duty was a hard master.
Wrestling for control, I stepped backward again. We couldn’t waste any more time fucking in the trees and staying entwined for half the night. The best I could do would be to give her a minute and stop tormenting her with the reality of who Granny really was.
Shouts and yells echoed through the trees. Wood clanged and horses whinnied. Donkeys sounded what I’d come to recognize as an alarm.
A thrill of adrenaline went through me.
“Alpha!” Tanix shouted. “We’ve got a problem.”
“Aurelia, hurry.” I ran at her as she turned around, her brow pinched and confusion evident. Her eyes were haunted.
I grabbed her under the arms and hoisted her up like a child.
“What’s happening?” she asked in a small voice, her fingers digging into my shoulders.
I held her tightly so that she didn’t jostle as I reached Tanix, who was visibly coiled for action.
“They escaped,” he said as we jogged out of the tree line. Horses danced and stomped their hooves, sensing commotion and ready for battle. They’d been bred for warfare.
“All of them?”
Hadriel was still on his horse and his attention was directed our way. I didn’t dare leave her with him in case this was the enemy’s first attempt at coming for Aurelia.
“Hadriel, with me,” I called out, just as Tanix said, “Yes.”
