Page 44 of Alpha’s Wife

“Move them,” I tell him. “All of them. Every boat, every wolf that is combat-ready, everything we’ve got left on the mainland. We’re not waiting for the season, and we’re not doing it quietly anymore. I want us on that island in force. Now.”

A pause on the line. “Ronan. That’s not the plan. What’s happened?”

“The plan changed,” I tell him. “We’ve lost any element of surprise, and so we’re doing this now before the wards break.”

“Okay, we can go now,” he says calmly, already thinking it through. “If we go loud, the island sees us coming, and they’ll…”

“I know exactly what they’ll do.” That’s the point. I want them to see us on the water. I want Callum standing on his harbor wall, watching the whole horizon fill up with everything he thought he was safe from. “Now, Cole. That’s an order.”

I hang up before he can ask me anything else.

She’s still on the edge of the bed, looking so achingly beautiful it’s almost hard to look at her, watching me. But I make myself look at her, because I’ve never been a coward about the things that hurt.

“You’re coming with me,” I tell her. “To the island. You’ll have a front row seat to all of it.”

“Ronan, please…” she starts.

“I’m not leaving you here to just find another way to warn them. I don’t trust you.” My voice doesn’t soften at all. “You wanted a hand in this war. You’ve got one now. You’re going to be standing right next to me for every minute of it.”

She says my name one more time. Soft, and wrecked, and it goes through me like nothing waiting on that island ever will.

I walk out anyway and don’t look back. I have the bond magic, and I’m ready to use it.

Chapter 21 - Selene

The crossing takes just over an hour, and Ronan doesn’t say one word to me the whole time.

I stay in the spot he put me, near the front of the boat, with two betas watching me. Not Tom, as if I don’t deserve a friendly face today. I’m not sure what he told them, but they watch me full of distrust, as though I might fling myself overboard if they look away. Maybe I will. I try to catch Ronan’s eye a few times, but he looks straight through me. Whatever he felt for me died the moment he opened that tablet, and now I’m just back to being the witch he’s using. He didn’t trust me enough to leave behind, but he can’t bear to look at me, either.

Behind us, there are more boats. A lot of them, with more on the docks ready to leave. I recognized many of the shifters boarding. I’ve met their families, I’ve even been planning the winter fair with some of their mates, and now here they are, heading off to fight. This is my fault. Ronan is rushing into this because he thinks I’ve forced his hand.

Maybe I have, but I was only trying to help. I wanted to stop this from happening, and instead, I seem to have supercharged the situation.

I keep trying to think of a way out, but I keep hitting a brick wall. The tablet is in pieces on the floor of his cabin; there was no opportunity to send an email warning Emily, anyway. Ronan won’t listen to me now; he doesn’t trust me, and I don’t think anyone could get through to him at this point. Perhaps his men will refuse to fight, but I doubt it—they’re loyal to their alpha, and they trust he’ll do the right thing for them. Because he always has; that’s the frustrating thing. He’s given them so much, and now he’s going to burn it all down chasing revenge.

As the island draws near, I can’t stand the silence anymore, and as Ronan walks by, I stand.

“Ronan,” I say, and he hesitates but doesn’t turn. “At least let me help. If you have a clinic set up, I can help out…”

“No,” he replies, turning to look at me with a completely flat expression. “You don’t touch my people. I don’t trust you, Selene.”

“But, Ronan, I…” I start, horrified that he thinks I’d hurt his pack.

“You lost the right to help them, or even talk to them,” he says, voice deathly quiet.

It shouldn’t hurt as much as it does. But it does. I think back to when I was brought to the settlement, how much I hated him, how much I wanted to escape. When did that change so much that his words now feel like pure heartbreak?

It’s heartbreak because I love him.

It’s the most stupid truth I’ve ever known, because he was always honest with me that he wanted my magic, he wanted me willing. He didn’t lie to me about that. And yet, I fell for him anyway. I was just a means to an end, and now he doesn’t even have to pretend anymore; he’s just upset that I ruined his timeline. How many bond witches have been this foolish in the past? Or am I the most ridiculous of them all?

So, I don’t say it, I just think it, because I’m not going to humiliate myself even more. He wouldn’t believe me anyway, or even care.

But I know it still means something to me, because I don’t just love Ronan; I care about his people, too. He’s about to take them into a battle he’s so sure he’ll win, and perhaps with the bond magic, he might. But at what cost? My magic has made him stronger, but he’s not a god. And my magic has harmonized his wolves, making them more effective in battle, but they’re not invincible. I can’t let him die, or his people die, without trying to do something.

I watch as the boats maneuver the cliff face and slip between the coves. This is the wild north of the island, and it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before, with lush high cliffs and rich scenery. I feel the wards as we pass through them, a familiar cold drag over my skin that is there and then gone, powerful wards that make the hairs on my arms stand up.

I knew this settlement existed because it was talked about a lot on the mainland, but I had no idea it was this big and real. The cabins are modern, there are warehouses, and what looks like a half-built schoolhouse. There’s a children’s park near the dock. He built all this for them right under his brothers’ noses on stolen ground.