Chapter 5

That last line jolted me.

Damian had apologized to me?

That was even harder to believe than Damian lying near death.

I watched Garrick kneel there, knocking his head against the ground over and over.

Every doubt that had begun to take root vanished.

I was certain now. This was a lie, start to finish.

This was how he meant to turn me back into the caged bird he kept.

I looked at Garrick in his pitiful posture.

I said coldly, "How long are you going to keep this up? He would never say sorry to me."

In those years I came to know Damian better than anyone alive.

He wasn't hurt at all. He wanted me back under his control as his obedient toy, and he couldn't even lower himself enough to come for me in person.

I could picture him imagining the moment I saw him standing before me, completely unharmed, and the terror on my face.

What I couldn't understand was why he was trying this. He had to know I had sealed a bond of absolute loyalty, that I had a mate now, and that betrayal was impossible for me.

What made him think that telling me he was dying would send me running back?

Even from so far away, you couldn't stop scheming against me, could you, Damian?

I took a deep breath and looked at Garrick, who had stopped and was slowly getting to his feet.

"What, done pretending?" I asked, fixing him with an icy stare.

"Damian ordered me to bring you back today."

"So do you walk, or do I carry you?" His tone had changed completely, low and hard.

"You wouldn't dare! This isn't your territory," I said icily.

"That isn't up to you." Before he had even finished, he charged.

He launched himself at me, reaching out to grab me.

I struggled to twist away, but he kept closing in, reaching straight for my throat.

Just before he reached me, a thick hand shot past my shoulder and clamped around Garrick's wrist. A kick sent him crashing to the ground.

It was Rowan.

The terror had not left my face when I looked at Rowan's broad frame and felt a rush of safety.

"Don't. Don't kill him," I called out, coming back to myself.

Rowan was about to finish it. When he heard me, he dropped Garrick, limp as mud, back onto the ground.

He looked at me. "Why? He was going to take you."

I caught my breath and said slowly, "Damian sent him. If we kill him, Damian may retaliate against our pack. Let him go. Knowing Damian, a man who fails an order won't live long anyway."

"No... I'm begging you, come with me." Garrick turned his head with effort to look at me.

"Damian said you have to come today."

"If you don't, he'll come here himself once the fighting is over. Things won't be so easy then." He forced out the words, his tone pleading.

He was quiet for a moment. Then, struggling upright, he drew a gift box out of his coat and opened it slowly. Inside lay a bracelet, silver-white, set at the center with a red stone, a drifting cloud pattern worked into the band.

It was the bracelet Damian had given me when we were children, the day he asked me to become his mate.

When Damian first began drilling me in pack management, he said I had no talent and no work ethic. He belittled me constantly. One day, I held up the bracelet and asked, "Aren't I supposed to be your mate?"

The red stone caught the light and glittered.

He sneered. "Someone like you, worthy of this? Come back when you actually meet my standards." Then he snatched the bracelet away.

And now he wanted to give it back.

"Damian told me to give you this. He said everything he taught you over the past few years was meant to help you grow. He says you've misjudged him."

Garrick's voice broke, utterly sincere.

I looked at the bracelet. After losing it once, I had stopped wanting it.

Receiving it now stirred none of the old excitement.

"Take it away. It isn't mine," I said flatly.

"Selene!" Garrick moved toward me as if to keep arguing.

Rowan stepped into his path.

"What do you think you're doing?" His broad frame blocked Garrick and kept him away from me.

"Do what you think is right. I'm behind you." Rowan turned his head to me and smiled.

A smile tugged at my lips as I looked into Rowan's clear eyes. My answer came easily.

"All right."

I turned back to Garrick.

"Go. Leave us."

Garrick stopped looking at me. He looked at Rowan instead.

"Do you know what it costs to defy Damian?"

"You, your family, and your pack will live in fear for the rest of your lives." His gaze on Rowan was cold and vicious.

I looked at Rowan, worried.

He turned his head to me. There was not a flicker in those clear eyes.

"Don't be afraid. I'm here," he said gently, and then he looked back at Garrick.

"She is my mate for life. Anyone who lays a hand on her answers to me!

"You can't take her.

"Neither can Damian."