That only tightened Momma’s features to the breaking point. Fallon’s single-mindedness was a curse at times. I should have better explained how the pack worked. She wasn’t a shifter, or a wolf of Old Magic. She didn’t understand the dynamics and that was my fault.
“You nearly had to kill your father to get him to withdraw and he didn’t even really think we should be mates. I know my son would never put us in that position again.”
Disappointment swamped me–Momma’s, mine. I hadn’t won my mate to my side and her wanting to leave would break the Old Magic in their eyes. Her slip-up at the dinner table snapped back on us.
Fallon froze. Everyone froze. That tone brought back our toughest lessons as children, when Momma was at the end of her rope. My stomach clenched.
“Oh,” Fallon breathed as she finally understood the ruse was over.
“I have nothing to say when my own mate didn’t live up to the title. I’m grateful my son found someone who loves him, even if you’re not mates.”
My heart rose into my throat as I searched the bondwith Fallon. Would she confirm that she loved me? I watched Fallon’s every twitch. She looked at me as if a noose had just landed around her neck. My heart crashed back into my feet. Not if that expression was any indication. And now we were out of time. I gritted my teeth for what had to be said next.
Fallon placed a hand on Momma’s tight grip. “We didn’t want to deceive you. I genuinely needed your help and I couldn’t have asked for more than this. You’ve changed my life, Anise. But we need to return to our lives. That was always the plan.”
Momma looked sharply at me. To plot something so against our nature was unconscionable. Mates weren’t a game. The separate bedrooms were already a stretch of the imagination. Momma really had forgotten what lengths a mate would go to serve their fated.
“My son was correct that we do not give up our secrets easily. I hope you know that means we consider you family, no matter how this all started.”
“I will be! Declan and I will always come and visit. I wouldn’t pass up a sledding hill like yours.” The humor fell flat in the room. She tried again with a different tack. “I would never dishonor what you taught me. Evie’s kitchen will be the best in the Harrowlands.”
Momma snorted and eyed me with dismay. She all but rolled up her mental sleeves. With the certainty of prophetic vision, I knew what she was going to say next. If I could have reached out in time andfrozen this moment when I was still Fallon’s hero, her lover, her best friend, I would have.
I cleared my throat, realizing I was stuck underneath Ned, who didn’t seem inclined to move in the slightest. “I can't leave, Fallon.”
Her brow scrunched. A quick squeeze and I had to set Ned down. She deserved no less than my full attention. I stood and faced her, ready for the end of us.
“I know it’s a tough time, but they don’t really need you, right? We would be out of the way.” She trailed off, reading the tension in the room. “I’m not saying I don’t care. Ward and Evie would help us search if you wanted.”
“If I leave, the Old Magic leaves. It’s already happened once when my parents broke their bond. It returned with me so it’s tied to me. The wolves here will become part of the wood again, as we were at the beginning of time. The snap of cold, the claws of branches against the moonlight would overtake our fairly young forms. Or worse, some of us would turn Ajak.”
Her bewildered expression didn’t make me feel any better.
“That’s not how magic works in the Harrowlands. You’re just a shifter.”
There wasn’t any other way to say it. I should have just blurted it out. “We are Old Magic, Honey. And as their King–”
“KING!” She looked around the kitchen as if someone else would produce a different answer.
When none was forthcoming, she slowly sank toward the floor in slow motion. I hauled her into a chair before she hit the red tile. I kneeled before her, willing her to understand. The bitterness of her reaction was all I tasted.
“Why would you keep this from her?” Momma all but shouted.
My growl silenced her. “You will help or leave.” I told her in my most deadly quiet voice.
Her anger vibrated only slightly lower than Fallon’s.
“You’re not a King. Your head’s not even big enough for a crown.” The joke fell flat in the room and Fallon snapped her mouth closed.
I flinched. It was only an echo of what I also feared. Fallon looked at every wolf in the room and the disapproval on their faces gained weight. The pack closed ranks behind me, shifting into wolfie sentinels at my back.
“Sorry. That’s not what I meant. You’re just so sweet, Dec. And someone would have known. How could you be a King and keep it from us?” Her eyes roved back and forth like she replayed every moment of the last few years between us. Tears shimmered in Fallon’s eyes. “Was any of it real? Were you even our friend? Or were you just passing time with us commoners?”
Noth would have her skin for calling him a commoner, but I took her point. My answers came controlled, soft. I might be on my knees but I wouldn’t plead withher.
“The crown had to be set aside when I left. I wanted to be more than a King of the Harrowlands as I searched. What I said was true. I needed to find myself in the wider world and I wasn’t ready for the crown.”
“Why would y-” Her sentence choked off. Her gaze went to her lap. The answer made her blush. “For me, Dec?”
