Chapter 24 #3
“My first mistake was fighting and then denying the pull I felt toward her from the start, the pull that told me she was meant to be mine. But my greatest sin was letting something sacred, something the Goddess herself entrusted me with, be turned into a bargaining chip by Cathal McNamara. The thing I should’ve guarded with my dying breath became currency in his game of manipulation, and I let it happen because I convinced myself that rejecting my fated mate was a loss I could bear to live with.
” Rennick doesn’t hide the remorse the etches across his face or the subtle full-body wince.
He allows them all to see the way he’s frayed at the edges. “But I was wrong.”
The rest of the room might think he’s speaking to them, but I know better.
The conviction in his voice is the same one he used in those private moments when he tried to stitch us back together, when I was still too scared to believe in it.
In him. But hearing it again, spoken into the open before witnesses, makes something deep inside me buckle.
It’s different this time, the way the defenses I built to survive him begin to break. It’s not a crack I can seal, but a shattering that’s beyond repair. Each word he speaks loosens another stone, and in the quiet ruin they leave behind, something fragile stirs to life. Trust. Faint, but alive.
Talis’s practiced composure finally cracks.
The color drains from her face, leaving only two angry blotches high on her cheeks—a trait bestowed on her by her father’s genes.
She turns like she means to stomp down off the stage, but Rennick’s hand snaps out, catching her by the wrist. His grip is visibly tight and unyielding.
Talis spins, copper hair flaring as she snaps her teeth at him, but Rennick doesn’t blink.
He bares his own once, the low rumble that follows shaking through the room and straight into my bones.
Talis stops cold, her neck bending in instinctive submission.
The sight is glorious and has a shiver racing down my spine.
Voices rise and movement stirs at the edge of the stage—bodies shifting as Cathal’s men close ranks.
I can’t see the other Alpha’s face anymore, can only hear his growl cut through the noise, low and defensive.
For a fleeting second, I think they’re going to rush Rennick, and dread knots deep in my gut at the thought of them all moving against him.
But then I see them…
Witches.
As if they’d been waiting for some kind of unspoken signal from Rennick, coven members—led by Amara herself—unveil themselves, emerging from shadows crafted from magic.
A glamour crafted by an illusionist. They move with choreographed grace, gliding into the budding chaos as though they’ve been rehearsing just for this moment.
In one seamless motion, they encircle Cathal and his guards.
The air suddenly snaps, sharp and alive with power, and I know it’s Amara’s doing before I even see her hands rise. It twists about like a contained storm until wind and magic braid together and create something solid around McNamara and his snarling goons. A cage. With impenetrable walls.
Not only are they stuck there until Amara releases them, but the Canadian Alpha’s fury and displeasure are muted, barely audible through the partitions made of wind.
Cathal’s not going to be able to stop or object to whatever is about to happen.
The other McNamara wolves in attendance start to move, a few brave—or stupid—souls edging closer like they plan to interfere.
That bravado evaporates the moment the coven locks onto them and shifts into defensive positions.
The visiting wolves freeze where they stand, no doubt worried they’ll end up hexed into toads or something.
But that was Rennick’s plan all along, wasn’t it?
All of this, down to the coven’s assistance and putting precautions in place to corral Cathal, Rennick thought it all through.
Is this what he meant when he said he had a plan?
The one he begged me to trust blindly in but I had refused because the scars carved by the claws of his previous betrayal had still been too fresh?
I can’t move. Can barely blink. Heat and cold flood me all at once, adrenaline clashing with something fragile, softer—two forces warring for space in my chest.
Rennick faces his pack again, his voice rolling through the room like thunder.
“You deserve better than an Alpha who would throw away something as sacred as his Goddess-given mate. A man who would sacrifice his omega instead of sacrificing everything for her is not a man worth following. And that’s not the kind of Alpha I’m willing to be. Not anymore.”
Silence stretches between his confession and the next breath, thick and unmoving, as if the room itself is holding its breath.
Or, fuck, maybe that’s just me. “I came to this truth too late. I know that now. But I’m trying to make it right.
And I can only pray I’m not too late for that too, that she hasn’t given up on me yet. ”
The last line hits like a heartbeat that isn’t mine, throwing off the rhythm I’ve been fighting and failing to keep steady.
He turns back to Talis, and the mask he’s worn for months—the one built out of obligation and duty—splinters. The tolerance he once forced himself to show her is gone. Every trace of civility burns away until all that remains is contempt so sharp it gleams like a blade in the sunlight.
“I allowed you to stand beside me while I destroyed what was mine. I allowed you to take part in it. But this—” He gestures to the stage, to the room, to the farce of their engagement, to her.
“—this is what I should have rejected from the start. So, I’ll do it now.
” His voice deepens, steady and absolute.
“I, Rennick Fallamhain, Alpha of the Fallamhain Pack, reject you, Talis McNamara, as my betrothed mate. You will never bear the title of my Luna. You will never wear my mark. And you will never carry my children. From this moment forward, I renounce any claim you have on me.”
For a heartbeat, nothing moves. Nobody breathes.
Then the room comes alive in a rush of sound.
Some guests cheer, clapping, shouting their approval like they’ve been waiting for this moment.
Others protest, voices harsh with anger and disbelief.
The two currents crash together, joy and fury colliding until the noise turns into a single, roaring storm.
And me? I’m still gripping Seren’s and Siggy’s hands like I’ll fall without their support, my heart pounding in time with the chaos, as I try to process what’s just happened.
What he’s just done.
For me.