It hurt to let go of him and walk away.
An ache in my chest that wouldn’t go away, but Rys and Gabriel were waiting.
We settledon the floor outside Max’s room. Elliot and me sat propped against the wall on one side of the hall, Gabriel and Rys on the other. It was as close as I could get to Max without fear of disturbing his rest. With the door cracked open, I could hear his breathing and it gave me enough piece of mind to get through this.
I winced, trying to get into a position that didn’t aggravate my leg before giving up.
“Wait.” Rys stood and disappeared down the hall. He came back a minute later, carrying two pillows under his arm. I let him fuss with my leg until he had it elevated to his satisfaction. His behaviour was so far removed from what Xen would’ve done that I just stared at him in shock.
“What?” he huffed, sitting back down opposite me. “You’re not only a guest in my house, you’re also Max’s best friend.” His emphasis on the word friend didn’t escape my notice. “And you’re in pain.”
“Thank you,” I managed.
“So,” Gabriel said. “Can you tell us what happened? Or are you bound by alpha’s orders?”
“I’m still bound by—” I stopped, swivelling to look at Elliot as realisation dawned. “I toldyou,” I whispered, shocked.
He frowned. “Do you want me to tell them?”
I shook my head. “No, you don’t understand.” Excitement bubbled inside me as I tried to get the words out. “Xen used his alpha power to forbid me and Max from discussing that night with anyone who wasn’t present. I shouldn’t have been able to tell you anything.” It hadn’t registered at the time. “How is that possible?”
Rys’s gaze bore into mine. “If you no longer consider Xen your alpha, then his orders no longer have power over you.”
“But I thought there was a formal process to go through. I thought he had to agree to it for our release to be legally binding.” It was what we’d always been taught.
“Legally binding, yes, but those laws only came into practice in the last fifty years or so. Before that, things were much simpler.”
“Meaning?”
Max was right. Clearly Xen wasn’t the only one who knew about the old pack laws.
Rys reached for Gabriel’s hand, entwining their fingers. “If an event is traumatic enough, your wolf can, and will, sever the connection with your alpha.” He met my gaze, brown eyes ablaze with barely contained rage, and I realised he’d reached for Gabriel’s hand to ground him. “Is that what happened?”
It ran through my mind like a highlight reel of the worst things to ever happen to me. Xen’s foot snapping my leg like a twig. Max lying broken and bloody on the floor while Xen loomed over him. “Yes,” I breathed, blinking back tears. “Yes.”
Rys moved close enough to grip my wrist. “Then Xen Kelson is no longer your alpha. He has no hold over you.”
“Fuck.” I scrubbed a hand over my face, struggling to accept what he was telling me. But deep down I knew it was the truth. I’d felt something splinter inside of me the moment Xen broke my leg. Felt it crumble to nothing as his claws raked through Max’s flesh again and again.
We were free.
Well, I was, and I refused to believe Max didn’t feel the same after everything he’d just been through.
Rys gave my wrist a gentle squeeze. “Tell us everything.”
So I did.
I sat there and said the words I’d longed to tell for the past three months but had been forbidden to do so.
I left nothing out.
As Rys and Gabriel cycled through disbelief to murderous rage, I felt lighter than I had in ages. All I wanted now was to curl up beside Max and touch him. Kiss him. Because as I sat there retelling our story, I realised that I could do that now.
With Xen’s hold broken, we could finally be together.
Except…Oh fuck.
There was one thing he still held over my head.
