Two days later, she was found dead. Car overturned on a rural road. Her throat ripped open, heart torn from her chest like a trophy.
“Rogue attack,” the council said. A tragedy. Nothing to investigate.
But I knew better.
And when no one listened, I walked away from it all. From the pack I was meant to lead, from the people I’d promised to protect, from any hope of a future worth fighting for.
The front door of the manor creaks as it opens, then closes quietly, but enough to distract me. I tense, gaze flicking toward Rowan’s window. Still dark and no movement inside. My focus shifts to the left, where the soft crunch of grass signals someone approaching.
Liz.
She walks with practiced elegance, hips swaying, eyes already locked on me with the confidence of someone who knows she’s not prey.
The musty tang of vampire hits me like mildew in the lungs—cloying, stale, a stench that never sits right with my wolf. I straighten from my crouch.
“What do you want?” I growl.
Liz smirks. Her hazel eyes glint under the silver wash of moonlight. “Funny. I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“You know why I’m here,” I say, voice edged with warning. “You’ve been around long enough to understand how this works.”
She lifts a perfectly manicured finger and waggles it at me like I’m a disobedient dog. “No, I know why you showed up and why you’re staying, but I don’t know what youwant. Rowan is special, and I’m not going to let her get hurt by you.”
I bare my teeth. “I would never hurt her.”
“Maybe not on purpose.” Liz crosses her arms. “But pain doesn’t always come from intent, Cade. It comes from carelessness. From dragging your baggage into someone else’s war. You’ve got blood on your hands, and she’s already going to be drowning in her own mess by the time she wraps her mind around all this.”
My snarl reverberates through the trees, curling between branches like smoke. I want to snap back, to shut her up, and remind her that I’m not the one who drank her way through a century of politics and power-brokering.
But then my wolf speaks, low and steady.She’s right.
My fingers twitch, claws itching to extend, but I hold them back as he adds,We can’t keep doing things how we have been this past decade. Our mate needs us to be better.
Liz tilts her head, her tone softening. “You said you’d protect her. Start by giving her a reason to trust you. Killing Iris in front of Rowan? Not exactly a meet-cute.”
I grunt. “I didn’t kill her.”
“Semantics.” Her smile is grim. “You still crushed her windpipe, snapped her spine, and dropped her like a sack of potatoes.”
A long silence stretches between us as crickets hum. Something tight coils inside my chest, but I keep my darker thoughts to myself.
“I’ll be whatever Rowan needs,” I admit, voice rough. “But even you have to admit that Iris is a problem.”
She shrugs. “Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, you’re going to need to learn to play nice if you want Rowan to consider accepting you. Something tells me the bond won’t be enough for her. She’s her mother’s daughter, after all.”
There’s a longing in her gaze that reminds me that Liz was friends with Rowan’s mom, Jocelyn. I don’t know how close, but by the looks of it, likely more so than most knew.
Still, those are details that don’t make much difference to me. Rowan is my mate. I don’t need the advice of some bloodsucker to know how best to make this work.
I’ll remind you of that later when that Hollowborn is making you question your sanity, my wolf adds, his dark humor unappreciated.
Liz sighs heavily. “Your silence tells me all I need to know. We can have this conversation another night, when you realize that just because fate tied you to Rowan doesn’t mean you’ll be able to have your way with her, on your terms. This is going to be her way or nothing. The sooner you accept that, the easier it will be on all of us.”
The vampire doesn’t wait for a response. She turns on a heel and walks back toward the manor, her scent trailing like rot in the breeze.
I briefly entertain the idea of ripping a branch from above and hurling it through her cold, unbeating heart. But I don’t. I watch her go, my jaw locked, hands fisting at my sides, acknowledging that Liz might be the lesser of two evils.
Iris won’t let me near Rowan, but the bloodsucker? She’s already shown she has no issue putting that self-righteous fossil in her place. That could work in my favor.
