Caelan waved his hand. “But I will. And you do. Even if we walked away from each other, you would still need to have a succession plan for whoever comes next.”
“Unlike you, I don’t think the same. If I had a child, I’d want him or her to be healthy first. Then I’d want them to be loved. I’d want them to grow up in a happy home, and I’d want them to wake up every single day and know that their father and I will be there when they walk out of their room. I’d take my crown off and melt it in a fire if it ever came between me and my child.”
My fists clenched at my sides. It took everything I had not to scoop her up in my arms and show her all the ways I agreed with her. But she had to do this. She had to get through this and figure out what she wanted for herself. Evie had tochooseme.
We’d never work out otherwise, no matter what sort of possibilities might be shimmering between us.
“That’s an idealist’s response,” Caelan said, his hands stretched toward her.
I winced.
“Power roars through your veins, Evie. All the power in the world. You owe a responsibility to your people to ensure your line runs true.”
Evie tilted her head and studied Caelan, but the bond between us flared with white hot furious power. She waspissed. “What if we had a child who didn’t meet your standards?”
Caelan blinked.
“What if we had a child who was neither Chimera, nor shifter, nor fully fae? What would you do?”
“I—” Caelan fumbled for words. “I think it depends.”
“Depends on what?” Evie’s voice was soft and deadly. “Would you sneak into the nursery and slit our baby’s throat? Or, better yet, would you call someone like Garrett and have him do your dirty work for you?”
Caelan’s jaw tightened. His non-response was response enough.
“Oh, Caelan. You long for perfection, but there is nothing perfect in this world. I am not perfect and yet you still want me because of what I represent, not for what I am.”
“That is not true.”
“You thought Rachel was perfect even after she almost destroyed you.”
He shook his head. “No. That was Lugh’s influence.”
Evie took a step forward. “I know you…touched her.” I heard her throat click in a dry swallow. “You did things with her. Things an engaged man should never—” Her voice thickened with tears, and she cut herself off.
I sucked in a shocked gasp. What Evie had alluded to earlier, that painful tug I’d felt in my chest. She’d smiled and laughed her way through it, but I’d known something was wrong and had wrongly assumed it had to do with Caelan’s impending visit. I wouldkillhim. Infidelity in shifter relationships was not uncommon, but it was normally reserved for casual relationships, not this. Not what they were to each other. For him to have done that dishonored him, but more importantly, he had dishonored and debased her in the worst of ways.
“You sonofabitch,” I hissed, stepping forward.
Evie held up her hand. “No,” she said softly. “This has nothing to do with you.”
She hadn’t yet realized this had everything to do with me.
Caelan went bone white. “Evie.” He stepped so close to the ward, it shimmered scarlet, a final warning to stay away.
“Simone told me,” Evie said. “She walked in on you accidentally, and you were so…” Her voice breaks, taking my heart with it. “Distracted, you didn’t even see her. If you wonder why your most loyal person abandoned you, I hope you think of that moment. But even after that betrayal, Simone hesitated to tell me because she knew it would destroy everything. Even then, there was still a thin thread of loyalty to you.” Her voice shook. “I never thought you would do something so heinous, not after everything we went through. Maybe you were under Lugh’s influence, but that—” She shook her head. “Not even Lugh could have made you do that if you hadn’t wanted to. And here you stand, hoping to come back to me. You weren’t even going to tell me.”
A harsh laugh escaped her. “I know now I can never meet your needs.”
Her form outlined itself in a crimson shimmer, her features morphing into a woman, smaller and curvier than Evie. Long amber hair tumbled over her shoulders in a shiny waterfall.
I froze. Rachel stood before Caelan fluffing her hair. The Lord stumbled back, swearing viciously.
Evie ran her hands over her new curves and swayed side to side. “Is this what you wish I was?” She turned her head to the side, cat-like green eyes batting her eyelashes at him. “A full shifter. A full blood. Someone who can give you lots of little pure wolf babies?”
“Don’t,” Caelan snarled. “This is beneath you!”
Evie snorted. “Changing into the woman you tore this all apart for is beneath me? And what about you?”
