Chapter TWELVE
–Tréan–
“I NOW KNOW, without question, you have turned mutinous, Blaithin,”
I said loudly enough for all to hear, unsheathing my Viking blade that had, not surprisingly given the moment, returned to the full sword gifted to me by my Viking friends.
Narrowing my eyes at her, I shook my head.
“Did you not think I would find out?”
Bain had telepathically filled me in on things he didn’t share with Kaia on our walk back to the castle.
It seemed he had finally managed to track Blaithin one night onto enemy territory.
He could only go so far, but it was enough for him to take further action and investigate.
Knowing it best to wait until I was back to confront her directly, he and Callum had taken down one of Tadc’s lower-ranking rogue pack members and got the information they needed from him.
Just as I’d suspected, Blaithin had been reporting back to my enemy for over a year.
Fortunately, we weren’t mated, and I only ever let her so close, so Tadc’s information was limited.
Even so, definitive news of her betrayal hurt.
Not because I had any real feelings for her beyond what had once been a good friendship, but because it was never easy knowing I was betrayed by one of my own.
Betrayed because of their narrow-mindedness and a cruel nature I hadn’t foreseen.
Not giving Blaithin a chance to respond, I again spoke loud enough for all to hear.
“You are henceforth exiled, Blaithin.”
I kept my blade at the ready, wondering how far she would take this.
“You are guilty of treason against your pack and are no longer a Wolf of Ossary.”
I went to say more, but it seemed she had chosen battle over a graceful exit.
Her eyes flared with her inner beast, and she swung her sword.
Our blades crashed into each other, and that was it.
We fought as we had when we were younger, though our hearts were full of comradeship then rather than hatred.
Metal clanged against metal in a heated battle I could easily win if I so chose, but I decided to let her have this moment in honor of the friendship we once shared and the tender moments we had enjoyed together.
She thrust, and I dodged.
I thrust, and she evaded.
A dance we had often done together over the years.
All the while, I was acutely aware of Kaia.
The fear she had for my life and the jealousy she hated feeling.
I even felt the growing rage and sense of betrayal inside her that despite all my promises and vows, I had used her after all.
Feelings that only intensified when I’d finally had enough, tossed my blade aside, shifted into my wolf, and told Blaithen telepathically how things would be.
Spoke within the mind so all wolves in my pack heard.
I put my hackles up and bared my teeth in a snarl that made her stagger back and forced her to shift.
She would look at me beast to beast.
“Tell Tadc when you go crawling back to him on all fours that I have her because I know he locked onto her in the twenty-first century,”
I ground out.
“Tell him I ran with her during her True Moon Shift because I knew she was of his bloodline, so I now have the power to make her mine if I take it that far.”
I stalked Blaithin when she slowly backed away, fully aware my wolf could snap her neck with ease if it wanted to.
Should for her betrayal.
“Everyone knows I do not take mates, nor do I want to now, but I will if I don't get what I want in exchange for her,”
I continued.
“If Tadc returns Callum’s woman, I will turn over Kaia unmated.”
When Blaithin hesitated because she knew Callum’s woman was the only thing standing between tentative peace and a full-out pack war, I lowered my head, pulled my lips back even further, and released a deep growl that let her wolf know I was moments from pouncing.
“Go,”
I roared, and that was it.
She flew out of the courtyard, raced over the drawbridge, and vanished into the fog.
As expected, a hush had fallen over my people.
One I addressed when I shifted back.
“I know this is not easy, my pack,”
I said, meeting as many in the eyes as I could while trying to soothe them.
“But treason is not tolerated, nor will it ever be.
We are kin.
Family. And I love you all. Would die for each and every one of you.”
I kept looking from face to face.
“Would do anything to protect you.”
Blaithin might not have been favored lately, but losing a pack member was never easy.
They all felt it.
Loss was loss whether they got along with said family member or not.
A scent was gone, never to return.
“You understand this, right?”
I asked them, sensing rather than seeing that they did, but I was still glad when their faces softened in acceptance and trust in me.
“You understand the only way to protect us is to eliminate what threatens us?”
Everyone nodded, and many murmured, “Ta, alpha,”
whereas others said, “Ta, my King.”
Either title worked, and both gave me the recognition I’d earned.
“Good.”
Rather than dwell on a moment mixed with sadness and anger because they felt betrayed every bit as much as I did, I focused on reuniting.
“Then let us feast on your morning hunt and come together again as we should.”
I nodded at them with pride.
“As the Wolves of Ossary.”
Thankfully, most smiled in return, and several cheered, letting me know their faith in me hadn’t wavered.
Making a point not to look at Kaia because I felt her growing anger and confusion, I gestured at Bain and Callum to take her to my chambers, where any prisoner that might potentially become the alpha’s mate should be held.
In truth, they would bring her to my wolf den.
Although eager—no, desperate—to ease Kaia and help her understand what had happened here, I had to focus on my people first.
Had to help them grieve despite how much my inner beast longed to be with her.
It was a new, unsettling sensation, but there was no stopping it now.
My wolf wanted hers with a fierceness that made it hard to focus.
Yet I feasted and reunited with my pack over the next few hours, glad to be among them again.
Soak up their scent.
Know they were well.
Healthy and strong. Wolf pups had been born while I was gone, and new couples were mated. Some had died in skirmishes with rival packs and would be properly mourned. All had managed well enough under the watch of my second-in-command and brothers, who visited often, yet I felt the unrest that had settled over the land.
My enemy had made things more and more difficult for everyone.
Something I could only address to an extent at this juncture, promising them change was upon us, and I would see peace reign again.
After everyone rested, that point would be addressed to my most trusted pack members.
Those with dens alongside mine beneath the rocks and trees surrounding my castle.
A network of the Wolves of Ossary that had been as essential to keeping it together as I had been.
Eventually, everyone went their own way to slumber, eager for the celebrations I promised them that evening.
Whether it was their alpha returning or not, I had long insisted we’d celebrate all who had been off to battle.
They would feast, drink, run together, and reunite properly as both man and wolf.
I never stopped sensing Kaia while away from her, so I knew her emotions fluctuated.
She had gone from angry and confused to awed when she was taken to my den and then aroused by so much of my scent.
She’d cursed my brothers plenty when they had locked her in my chambers but had, at last, settled when exhaustion overtook her.
She had been through a lot between her True Moon Shift, meeting me, then traveling back in time and all that entailed, so I wasn’t surprised to find her sound asleep.
I was surprised, however, by how impactful it was to discover her not curled up on my bed but in the big pile of furs on the floor in the corner near the hearth where my wolf preferred to sleep.
More so, how well her scent in my most private space suited me.
Better than merely suited me based on my inner beast's reaction to her presence here.
I had enjoyed plenty of females in my time, but none were allowed to linger long after rutting, nor were they permitted anywhere near my wolf’s resting place.
Yet there she was, where no female had gone before, and a sense of unexpected peace settled over me.
Not just that, but for the first time in any life, despite all the strife heading our way, a lowering of my defenses I hadn’t anticipated.
An easing of my soul that made my vision haze golden and allowed my inner beast to take over without fear of repercussion.
My wolf accepted her presence here and shifted me before giving into exhaustion.
It...we...I curled up next to her and rested my great head close so I could breathe in her scent as I drifted off.
For the first time in both lives, I slept well and deeply.
So deeply, shockingly enough, even my wolf didn’t sense when she stirred awake.
It did sense when she left my side, though, and I opened my eyes.
When I did, I sensed her fear and awe and knew she hadn’t scrambled away from me immediately but stared at my beast for several long minutes.
Took me in.
Breathed me in.
Now she sat in the chair by the fire, with her arms crossed over her chest, frowning at me.
“Glad to see you’re awake because we need to talk.”
We might be mating, but my wolf wasn’t used to being ordered around any more than I was, so instead of shifting back right away, I stood, stretched, shook myself out, and then stalked her way.
Despite inhaling deeply and visibly tensing at my approach, she just as quickly relaxed, squared her shoulders, and narrowed her eyes.
“If you’re hoping to intimidate me, Tréan, it’s not working.”
She took another deep breath and held out her hand to my wolf.
“See? I’m not afraid of you.”
“Good,”
I replied, surprised by the emotion in my wolf’s inner voice.
The hope he had been carrying that she would accept him.
Me.
Like this. And that became more than apparent when my inner beast rubbed his cheek against her hand, accepting her in a way it never had another, even my blood brothers.
Kaia seemed equally impacted as she ran her hand along my cheek and down the side of my neck, touching me not in fear but affection before she touched my cheek again, marveling at my beast.
Marveling at me.
And it shifted me back before I could stop it.
Shifted me until I was crouching in front of her, and she cupped my human cheek.
Her gaze lingered on me for a drawn-out moment I wished could last forever, and her fingers trailed along my jaw before she snapped out of wherever she’d taken us both and pulled her hand back.
“Enough,”
she muttered, back to frowning.
“Tell me what the hell’s going on because your brothers weren’t helpful in the least.”
Her gaze turned hard as she braced herself for my response.
“What are your real intentions when it comes to me? What game are you playing? Because whatever trust you gained with me is gone, but I’m sure you already know that.”
“I know you’re jumping to conclusions and putting up walls like you always do, and I don’t blame you, given your upbringing.”
I sat in a chair close to her beside a small table that already had meat, vegetables, and drinks on it because I knew she needed sustenance.
Resting my hand on the table, palm up, I urged her to rest hers over mine.
“Often, for newly made wolves, touch allows you to see inside other wolves better than scent or even a growing mental bond, so rest your hand in mine and understand Blaithin better.
Understand the female who makes you so jealous.”
“I’m not jealous,”
she bit back.
“You are.”
“I’m not.”
Prideful and stubborn.
Personality traits I understood well.
“Then take my hand so you better understand the female that is our enemy.”
Knowing how to get her to do what I wanted, I gave her a pointed look.
“Understand the female who could become a problem for us all, including your cousins.”
That got her attention because her pupils flared.
“How much of a problem?”
“Take my hand and find out.”
“Versus you just telling me.”
“Why tell you when I can show you?”
Kaia eyed me with uncertainty, and I didn’t blame her.
What she had seen in the courtyard was more than I would have liked my mate to witness upon arriving at her new home.
Our home.
Fortunately, Kaia was a realist who preferred dealing with things head-on, so in the end, she rested her hand on mine.
When she did, I allowed her to see everything except the intimate details of my relationship with Blaithin.
I would not hurt her that way.
Yet there was still much to see.
Our younger years together. The friendship we had shared. All the little moments I thought might bring us closer, but they never did. Not beyond matters of the flesh and baser needs.
“She disliked them from the beginning,”
Kaia murmured, focusing on what I’d hoped she would.
“The Viking girls were so little when they first came here, but even then, she disliked them because they were different.”
Her gaze rose to my face.
“Yet you were determined to protect them.
Love them.”
She shook her head.
“And she hated you for it even as she loved you.
Saw raising a dragon as unnatural and the eventual downfall of the Wolves of Ossary.”
“Yet it wasn’t.”
I showed Kaia more and more memories.
All the good times.
The unforgettable moments the two little girls had brought my pack over the years.
“If anything, they only brought us closer and strengthened our bonds.”
When her gaze softened on me, my heart leapt.
It was so much better than when she gazed at me in distrust or with a sense of betrayal.
“I haven’t betrayed you, mo maité,”
I said softly, vehemently, wrapping my hand around hers.
“I will never turn you over to Tadc.
Not for anything or anyone.
What I said to Blaithin were false words meant to achieve my goals.”
As I spoke to Kaia, I ensured she saw the edges of the more intimate times I’d spent with Blaithin.
How I had refused to mate with her in the end because she wasn’t who I’d thought she was.
Showed Kaia Blaithin's ever-disruptive behavior and subtle ways of trying to turn pack members against me.
“It wasn't easy discovering who she really was,”
I confessed.
“Heartbreaking in a way but a relief, too, that things hadn’t gone too far.”
“Meaning you hadn’t gone through the Fated Mate Cycle.”
Kaia tilted her head in question.
“Is that what you and I are going through? A Fated Mate Cycle?”
“Ta.”
Nodding, I made things clear as I wrapped both hands around hers on the table and kept my gaze with hers so she knew, felt, that I meant every word.
“And I welcome it as I have welcomed nothing else.
Want it in ways I did not think possible.”
“Why?”
she whispered, swallowing hard, fighting emotion.
“Why when I have a feeling you could have had anyone in either life? Why now? Why me?”
“I couldn’t say other than my inner beast has never felt this way.”
I searched her eyes and meant every word.
“Nor has my human half.”
I cupped her cheek, relieved when she didn’t pull away.
“All I know is we are one in ways I never understood until now, and this pull I have toward you will only grow stronger.
My need for you only more intense.”
“And what about my own needs?”
Her voice was hoarse in that throaty, husky way that told me she felt just as much emotion.
“I didn’t sign up for this, Tréan.
I don’t...”
Her brow furrowed in distress, and her pupils flared again as she struggled against what was happening inside her before her eyes drifted shut, and she leaned into my touch, whispering, “This isn’t me...yet somehow it is...you are.”
I was seconds from groaning and pulling her into my arms at the feel of her giving in to me, however subtly, but a rap came at the door, and she jerked away from the tender exchange.
Good thing, too, I suppose, because I was needed amongst my people.
Needed to assure them a pack war was not at our doorstep yet...or so I could only hope.