Chapter 40
AURORA
I stared at her, a sinking feeling deep in my chest.
I could lose everything. My money. My home. My status as Luna–heir.
But I could not lose my children.
“Piper,” I whispered. “What have you done?”
Her cheeks reddened. “I don’t know, Aurora. Luna–heir. Whoever you are. But I do know if those are Dane’s children, he deserves to know them, and they deserve to know him.
My mind went back to the one time Dane had touched me–the one time any man had touched me. The way he’d thrown the Plan B at me.
“Do you know what Dane used to say to me?” I asked Piper.
She shifted, then shook her head.
Without emotion, I said, “He’d rather drink molten silver than mix his blood with the Reeds‘. Does that sound like a man who wants to know any children I gave birth to, whether they’re his
or not?”
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Piper’s eyes widened. “Dane wouldn’t-
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“Your brother is kind to you,” I cut her off. “He always has been. I know sides of Dane Montague you don’t. Sides you never will.”
I rose. “I think it’s best you leave.”
Piper rose, too. She looked shaken by what I’d said but determined. “My Alpha commanded me to be here and protect you. He marked you with his blood.”
“I am the Luna–heir of High Alpine,” I snarled. “He does not rule anyone in this house. I reject his protection. You and all the other Blue Ridge wolves need to leave.”
Inside, I was panicking. Did he already know? I had to get the twins on a plane. I’d send Evander back with them. Hopefully Mary wouldn’t mind living in Europe.
Maybe this time I’d go back, too. At least until Dane had time to calm down.
Or… whispered a voice in the back of my mind, You just tell him, like she said. Tell him before he gets the results himself, and this will be easier to fix.
I bit my lip. Maybe it would. But I’d get the children far away from him first.
Once he knew, the protection of a pack as powerful as High Alpine would be the only thing that could stop him.
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Even then, they were his heirs. If he went to the Council, they might force me to send them to him.
I remembered the life I’d had with Dane Montague. The sadness. The heartbreak of simply wanting him to love me.
He hated me. I wouldn’t let him hate my children. I wouldn’t let them wish and wish and wish to be loved by him, only to be crushed every single time.
I rushed to the door. “Trajan! Pack the children’s things. They have to return to Europe.”
Trajan nodded and strode away without question. Goddess, he was perfect. I had no idea what I’d do without him.
When I turned around, Piper was behind me. She looked horrified. “So they are yours? His?”
I went to my desk and started gathering papers. “I never said that.”
She let out a humorless laugh. “No, you’re just hustling them out of the country because you know he’ll come for them when he finds out.” She shook her head. “I never wanted to think he was right. All the things he said about you. But maybe he was.”
Piper could believe what she wanted about me. She wasn’t a mother. Dane had never hated her.
I found what I wanted on my desk and was just about to move to the door when a strange shiver ran through the house. I froze
Chapter 40
and put my hand on the wall.
“What the-?” Piper said. She also looked confused.
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Then the shiver turned to a rumble, which turned to a teeth–clattering shaking. It felt like the earth beneath us was giving way and the whole house was about to be swallowed by the red Georgia dirt.
The walls creaked. Things crashed. Piper grabbed me. “Come on!” she cried. “We have to get out!”
We ran into the hall.
It was filled with shadows.
DANE
I was sparring with the pack warriors in my lycan form when the earth started to shake.
I shrunk back down into my human form right away as the shaking strengthened. Equipment in the huge gymnasium that made up almost an entire wing of the pack house clattered to the ground.
“Gel to cover!” I shouted.
A faint call
Aurora’s mansion.
in my mind. My sister, twenty miles away at
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Dane…!
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Her voice was faint. Normal wolves couldn’t even speak through pack bonds at that distance. But Piper and I shared blood, and we were both powerful wolves.
Piper, what is it? Do you feel the earthquake?
Her response was broken and hard to understand. She was just barely within range to speak to me at all. …house is falling…. shadows. You need to know-
Wolves scrambled. The shaking stopped.
So did Piper’s voice.
Piper!
No answer.
“Get every wolf you can,” I shouted out loud and through the pack bond. “The wolves protecting the Luna–heir of High Alpine
need help!”
