From the sounds of it though, I wasn’t going to have much time to get used to it. I suspected that whatever Evan was about to tell me wasn’t going to be good.
“Nothing good ever follows the words ‘we need to talk,’” I said. His arms were still around me, and I focused on his hold. Evan had me. He was here. He was in love with me. Whatever he was about to tell me, we’d weather it. It’d be okay. “Hit me with it, Evan. Rip the plaster off.”
“Okay.” He exhaled shakily. “Before I do, just know that wewon’tbe letting this happen. Finn, Calan, and Logan are already working on various different plans. What I’m about to tell you isn’t going to come to fruition. We won’t allow it.”
I was back on the precipice again, darkness beckoning me forward. With the fire burning inside me, it was easier not to fall. To hold on to the light and let that fuel me. “Just tell me.”
“The Clarksons have arranged a marriage for you,” Evan said. Behind his eyes, I could almost see his wolf watching me. “To the alpha of the Wilson Clan.”
I waited for the punchline. That couldn’t seriously be their plan, right?
But Evan was grimly silent.
“They can’t do that,” I said, giving a slightly hysterical laugh. “There’snofucking way I’d agree to it. And what makes them think the Wilson Clan alpha would even want a human? It’s ridiculous. You can’t be serious.”
“I wish it was a joke,” Evan said wearily. “I said as much to Logan when he told us. It seems too preposterous to be true, but apparently it is. By offering you up in marriage, the Clarksons will gain a new ally and more than double their strength in numbers.”
My ears felt numb. So did my fingers, for that matter. And my toes. I didn’t think the cold was to blame. “Why would they want to do that?”
Evan’s throat bobbed. “To expand their borders.”
My blood turned to ice. “But the only clan close by is the McCarthys’. Surely they wouldn’t attack you, not after…”
The words faded away as the reality set in. Who was I kidding? That sounded exactly like what the Clarksons would do. Danny had wiped out over half of our clan members in retaliation for the deaths of his wife and daughter. That wasn’t something they’d forget, even if the ones he’d killed had been guilty.
And I had to imagine that they’d been building theirstrength all this time, waiting for the perfect excuse to attack.
“I don’t understand,” I said slowly. “They’ve already issued a declaration of war. Why don’t they just attack now?”
“Because we’re still stronger,” Evan said grimly. “They aren’t as stupid as we’d like them to be: Neil especially. They know Danny would return to fight. That’s why they need you.”
“But I’m not going with them.” Panic filled me. “I don’t have to, right, Evan?”
“Absolutely not, sweetheart.” A few of his bones cracked, but he didn’t shift, just held me a little tighter. “We’ll be letting you go over our dead bodies. It doesn’t matter what bullshit they try to pull, you’re not leaving.”
“Over our dead bodies.”
The darkness threatened to overwhelm the blaze Evan had set alight. There was too much of it now, sweeping into every crack left by my past. “That’s what they want, isn’t it? They’re not expecting me to come quietly. They want you to fight.”
“Yes. That’s one of the things we don’t understand. As far as Logan’s aware, the Wilsons are refusing assistance until the marriage has been completed. If it came down to a battle, the Clarksons wouldn’t win.”
“One of the parts? What’s the other?”
Evan sighed. “They seem to have an ace up their sleeve. Thanks to the treaty, they can’t remove you from our lands or incite violence. We can’t figure out how they’re expecting you to leave with them without one or both of those things happening.”
I tried to swallow, but the lump in my throat was toobig. I suspected I knew exactly how they’d make that happen.
Because Evan might say it would only happen over his dead body, but there was no way I’d ever let it get to that.
Evan might have been prepared to risk it all for me, but he didn’t realise I’d do the same.
Somehow, the Clarksons did.
If Evan was in danger, if his immortality was at risk, there was nothing I wouldn’t do to save him.
Including walking away from him to marry someone I’d never met.
When it became clear I had too many questions to answer, Evan had taken me to the main house. I’d been in here multiple times over the past few weeks, and I had to admit that the tension had lessened each time.
