JAMES’S POV“Just come with me,” I say, hoping she’ll follow me without too many questions. This decision has already taken a lot out of me. It’s already difficult to even think about doing this. I don’t have the strength now to answer questions. It’s too draining. “Why?” she asks, because of course she does. “Where are we going?”“Just trust me,” I say. “We don’t have time to go into it right now. And if I’m being honest, I still have to fully think this through. I still need to come up with the perfect words to say because it is a pretty big risk.”“A big risk?” she asks. “What we’re doing is risky?”“Of course, it is,” I reply. “Saving Ben’s life is going to come with a risk. But I know how much you love your brother. I know you’re willing to take risks to save him.”“More than willing,” she agrees, just as I knew she would.“Exactly,” I reply. “So, let’s go. We don’t have much time.”She follows me out of the house and into the woods. Then, we shift into wolf form an
“Excuse me?” the Alpha asks.For the first time ever, Ryan and I agree. I can’t even fathom it.James has just threatened to leave the pack if Ryan doesn’t release Ben and let us be. And I can’t quite wrap my mind around that. This is what I’ve wanted, but it can’t be happening. I never thought it’d actually happen.“It’s the way things have to be,” James says. “I love Isabel and I refuse to hide that for any longer. I refuse to lie to you. I refuse to deny my mate.“And since I love her, I very well can’t be the Beta to a pack that executes her brother. She would never forgive me for that and I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t forgive myself either.“Ben was only there because of Isabel and me. If anyone is going to be punished, it should be us. This is all unfair and I won’t stand for it.”Silence follows as Ryan noticeably tries to grapple with all of this. I can understand why it’s a lot for him. It’s a lot for me too, but it’s so extreme that it has to work.It has to work. I ca
“I don’t want you to leave the pack,” Ryan says. “I want to avoid that at all costs. So, I’m going to let Ben go.”The relief I feel at those words is incredible. My body sags. The adrenaline leaves me.He’s going to let Ben go. He’s going to be safe. That’s what I care about most right now. My brother isn’t going to be executed due to my actions.“Isabel can’t live here,” Ryan continues. “She can’t stay here because it’s against some very important rules. She may be your mate, but she is also a rogue and you have to recognize that some difficulties come along with that. It’s just how things are.“However, I know that you’ll let this pack go before you’ll let her go, so I’m not going to even ask you to consider such a thing. I’m not going to pit this pack against Isabel.“Rather, I’ll let you two live in peace. And we can work out ways that you can see each other without breaking pack rules. I don’t want to keep having these discussions. I don’t want to have to keep dealing with t
“Just be careful,” Ben says, before I leave the house the next day. “I’m really happy for you, I truly am. But be careful, okay? I’d hate to see anything bad happen to you.”“I will be,” I promise him. “I already know how awful it feels to even think about anything bad happening to you. I don’t want to have to give you that same feeling towards me. I’m going to be super careful about it.”“And you’ll remember what I said?” he asks.“Of course,” I reply. “I can’t forget it.”That part is a little too true. I can’t forget what Ben said to me about Ryan. It follows me as I get in my car to drive to the pack’s territory.Ryan is predisposition to hate me and it makes so much sense because he did jump to the worst possible punishment when Ben was captured. He wants us dead because his father hated our family. His father killed my father.Yet I also think of the fact that I’m only able to go to see James now because Ryan is allowing it. He’s allowing me onto pack territory which is unh
“It really has been wonderful meeting you,” Helen says as she gives me a hug. “I’m so impressed by your strength, your willingness to work hard and never give up, and you dedication to your family.“I’ll be honest when I say we’ve all heard some things about your family that haven’t been fully great. They may have colored our perception of you, though we’ve tried to cast that aside to get to know you.“I’m glad we have. I’m glad we didn’t stick to old bias because I can tell you’re a wonderful young lady.”“Even more importantly,” Garrett says, worrying me. He’s certainly the toughest one of the bunch, “you make our son happy. That much was apparent right away.“We’re incredibly proud of him anyway for becoming Beta of the pack. That’s a high honor and we’re grateful that our son achieved it. “But we want him to be happy more than anything else. So, if you make him happy, and it seems like you do, we’re more than happy to welcome you into our lives.”“And maybe even someday into
“I wish I could stay here forever,” I say, as I lay my head on his chest. “I wish you could too,” he laments as he kisses the top of my head. “Someday you’ll be able to, I promise. Someday we’ll find a way to make it so we can stay together.“We’ll figure out a way so we can share a bed every night. We will become a bigger part of each other’s lives. But for now…”“I know,” I say. It’s horrible to even think about leaving, but I know I must.“We have to be careful,” I continue. “I understand that. It’s surprisingly great that Ryan is letting me spend the night here once a week, but we shouldn’t push our luck.”“Exactly,” James says. “Though I want to. I really want to. We have a lot to prove to him and the pack. Which isn’t fair. None of this is fair. We shouldn’t have to prove anything to them.”“But we do,” I acknowledge the hard truth. “We do have a lot to prove so we have to play their games for now.”“Only for now though,” he promises me. “Only for now, and then we’ll be a
“Ben, this isn’t fair!” I say, knowing how much like a child I sound. But no matter how much I press him, he won’t elaborate on what he said. He won’t give me the answers I deserve. The answers I need to make sense of everything.“What’s not fair is the fact that you don’t respect me even after all I do for you,” Ben says. “It’s not fair that you still won’t trust me. It’s not fair that you’re jumping down my throat right now.“I love you Bel, but this is getting ridiculous. I’m not going to fight with you. I’m going to bed and I’m going to sleep soundly knowing that I’m doing my best to protect you.”With that, he goes upstairs before I can say anything else, leaving me more confused than ever.Is he right? Maybe a little. I do believe he is doing his best to protect me. I always trust him like that. He would never do anything to knowingly put me in harm’s way.But I still can’t imagine what that has to do with the rogues. And I still want him to tell me what’s going on.It se
“We found another rogue on our territory,” Ryan says, fixing a glare at me. Though he has accepted Isabel as my mate, he still hasn’t fully warmed up to the idea yet. And that shows in moments like these. Little jabs that suggest he blames me for the problems we’re having with intruders.“I’ll take care of it,” I say with a sigh. “We haven’t caught him yet,” Ryan says. “I’ll have the guards grab him and then you can do the interrogation. You can figure out what to do about him and how to keep rogues off of our territory.”“Don’t worry about it,” I say, eager to prove myself to him. The more useful he thinks I am, the more leverage I’ll have when it comes to negotiating Isabel’s presence here.“I’ll find him and catch him myself,” I say. “I’ll figure out why he’s here and try to figure out what we can do to rectify this problem.”Ryan nods as he looks at me apprehensively. “Okay,” he says. “I’m trusting you with this because you haven’t let me down before. But I swear if it’s Be