I froze where I stood, anger flashing through me before I even fully registered their words. It hit me that they were talking about my mate.
I stepped forward, keeping to the shadows just long enough to hear the second whisper.
“If he does, the alpha will have no choice but?—”
“That’s enough.”
My voice cracked across the space before I even decided to speak. Both males jerked around, their eyes widening when they saw me standing there, no longer willing to pretend I hadn’t heard every poisonous word.
Their mouths opened, but I didn’t give them the chance to explain or apologize. “Booker isn’t here to hurt anyone. So unless either of you saw something you haven’t reported, stop spreading lies as though they’re facts.”
They murmured quick apologies and scattered down the path, but the damage was already done. My chest felt tight, and fury coursed through my veins.
I exhaled, trying to steady myself, but that extra little sense of mine stirred before the air even left my lungs. A faint distortion rippled across the settlement, like someone dragging a cold finger along the back of my mind. Not from the gossipers—they’d been anxious, not deceitful. This was more like a shadow slithering at the edge of my awareness.
The sensation faded before I could fully grasp it, leaving me cold enough to wrap my arms tighter around myself. My lynx paced inside me, unsettled.
Something wasn’t right within our borders. And if Caelan thought locking Booker away would keep us safe, he was wrong. The threat wasn’t the wolf in the guest chamber. It was whatever I had just sensed.
Jaw tight, I turned toward the main building. I wasn’t letting another hour go by without answers. It was time to confront my brother.
I didn’t slow down once as I crossed the courtyard and climbed the steps to the main hall. My pulse hammered in my ears, and my lynx prowled so close to the surface that my vision heightened with every furious stride.
Caelan’s office door was half open. I shoved it the rest of the way.
He looked up sharply from where he stood with two elders reviewing territory maps. The moment he saw my expression, his eyes turned wary.
“Out,” he commanded the elders without looking at them.
They obeyed instantly.
The click of the closing door barely faded before the words practically ripped from my chest. “I want to be with Booker.”
Caelan’s jaw locked. “Alara?—”
“You can’t deny fate just because he’s a wolf.” My voice shook from how hard it was to hold all this inside.
He exhaled hard, bracing both hands on the edge of his desk. “You’ve known him for hours, Alara. You can’t honestly tell me you understand the consequences of binding yourself to an outsider.”
“It shouldn’t matter that he’s a stranger,” I countered. “Fate is supposed to be sacred. You’ve told me that since I was old enough to shift. But the moment it chooses someone beyond our borders for me, it’s suddenly dangerous?”
“That’s not what I said.”
Eyes narrowing, I crossed my arms over my chest. “But it’s what you meant.”
“This isn’t about the wolf, Alara. This is about what we’ve lived through. What you lived through, even if you don’t remember all of it.” Before I could respond, his temper finally cracked open, and something raw slipped out with it. “Our parents died because of an outsider’s betrayal.”
My breath stuttered. “What?”
Caelan’s shoulders sagged as though he’d been carrying that truth for years and finally lost the strength to hold it up. “It wasn’t a lynx who betrayed them. It wasn’t even someone from aneighboring territory.” His gaze lifted and caught mine. “It was a wolf.”
The floor might as well have tilted under my feet. “You never told me that.”
“You were only a teenager, still so young.” Dropping onto his chair, he heaved a deep sigh. “You’d just lost them only weeks before I found out, and you were still struggling with everything. You didn’t need the emotional upheaval that came from knowing their deaths weren’t just an accident.”
“So you hid it?” I stared at him, stunned that I’d never sensed what he’d done. “Just kept the whole thing shrouded in mystery so I never knew what happened to them?”
He nodded. “We all did. The elders, Riven, and me. You were fragile, Alara. You felt everything around you at a deeper level than anyone else. I didn’t want to add more grief. Or fear.”
