Chapter 31 Sage’s Choice
Sage’s Choice
The map took me to a small, one-room cottage about a mile off the highway, tucked so far into the trees you wouldn’t be able to see it unless you were looking for it.
I parked my car and covered it with the tarp in the trunk, then grabbed my go-bag and headed inside.
Morgana had packed it for me, and it had everything I’d need to spend a few days in isolation—bottled water, dried fruit, jerky, my medication, clothes, a flashlight, and a portable charger with lots of extra batteries.
The cabin had a generator, but I didn’t want to risk the noise or the light, so I lit some candles I found in the kitchen cupboard instead to orient myself to the space.
There was a small pullout sofa that had seen better days, a table, a chair, a few books in built-in shelves, a small kitchenette and a bathroom.
More than enough for me.
I made my bed after shaking the dust off the blankets, opened up a bag of jerky, and sat with my knees pulled up to my chest while I muddled through my options.
The last thing I wanted to do was go back to Victor. Even if he’d never actually kill me—he needed my blood too much—there were far worse things than death, and I had no doubt he had a long list of punishments he was itching to enact once I was back in his grasp.
But if what Selene said was true, that Ronan was a bounty hunter and had likely made a demon deal with Victor to get me back to him, then he would die if I didn’t return.
And unlike Victor, Ronan actually was my mate.
My chest constricted at the thought of him. Just mere minutes in his presence and I’d felt my body slowly untying the knots of trauma leftover from Victor. Like being in his arms would heal all of my scars.
And even if he didn’t realize I was his mate yet, I doubted the sincerity, confusion, and hope in his eyes were faked. He must have been conflicted, too, and recognized something was between us.
At least I hoped he had, because if my mate was the type of man who could deliver a victim back to their abuser without any guilt, then Hecara must have really hated me to saddle me with two goddess-awful alphas.
But no, bounty hunters went after criminals, right? Victor must have concocted some lie about me. Was I a failed assassin, perhaps?
Actually, I kind of was, if Victor would die due to my absence.
So my options were to run, and then both Victor and Ronan would die. Or I go back, and Victor and Ronan would live.
My freedom, my independence, my well-being on the line because two alphas made stupid decisions and gambled their lives on my imprisonment.
How was this all on me? It wasn’t fair. All I’d ever wanted was to live a quiet life back in Cindralis, running my silly little app and filling my days with video games and friends.
I tried to distract myself from the longing building inside me to see Ronan again by going on my phone and checking the admin dashboard for Kaldrin.
Daily active users was in the thousands now, thanks to word of mouth and some viral marketing by Morgana, and the app’s MagikGraph account was getting new followers and tags from happy customers and witches every day.
My lips began to quiver. No matter what happened, at least I had a legacy. I’d done something that might make a difference for Magiks, so even if Victor handcuffed me to a bed for the rest of my life, someone out there would be glad I’d existed.
* * *
I barely got any sleep, my mind continually running back to Ronan and wondering how he’d even found me in the first place.
Morgana had said she had someone in her basement—that must have been him. And he obviously had gotten out. Perhaps he had forced the information out of her…
Wait, no, he couldn’t have. Even if he’d possessed her, she’d spelled herself so she couldn’t tell him anything.
But he must have at least incapacitated her and Vesper, since she hadn’t called to warn us he was out and on his way.
I hoped they were okay.
When I realized I was just going to be awake now, I got up, took a quick shower, and changed back into my clothes from last night. I only had a few clean outfits, and I wasn’t sure how long I would be here until I either received an all-clear or needed to run again.
I paced around the room, chewing on my nails, trying to ignore the need growing in my belly. Being in Ronan’s proximity had awakened something inside me, and while it was too early to think he had jump started my heat, I couldn’t deny that it was a possibility, either.
He was my mate, and he was an alpha.
A very good-looking alpha, with horns made for grabbing onto while I rode—
Focus!
I fanned my face, my cheeks flushing at the thought. A part of me was glad that Victor hadn’t completely ruined me for the possibility of intimacy, but not if the man I wanted to be intimate with had to choose between betraying me or death.
My hands twitched to just doom scroll on my phone to distract my mind, but I couldn’t waste my battery, either.
I had books, at least, and I pulled a thriller off the shelf. It took a while for me to focus enough to actually read the words on the page instead of skimming over them while I worried about being caught, but I finally relaxed and got into the story.
Just as I had almost gotten to the reveal of the criminal, the perimeter warning sounded.
Intruder.
Adrenaline shot through my veins, the walls temporarily becoming invisible from the inside so I could watch their approach, nullifying any cloaking magic from whoever was outside.
It wouldn’t be Morgana or Selene, because they would know the magic word, Zathen, or “friend,” which wouldn’t have triggered the silent alarm.
Twirling around, my ears straining for sound, I finally saw him.
Ronan.
My whole body rebelled against the need to run, taking a few tentative steps towards him, like a magnet unable to fight the attraction any longer. But my mind wrestled back control, and I watched as he crept along the side of the small cabin, sniffing the air and heading towards the door.
I couldn’t believe he had found me so quickly, and I worried about Selene and about the other old alphas at the bar. They wouldn’t have known where I’d gone, but someone desperate and callous enough to sell their soul might be willing to hurt Magiks along the way to collect his prize.
It didn’t matter in the moment, though. All I needed to do was escape. He’d come from the direction of the road, which meant he’d probably seen my car, and I had to assume he had made it unusable in some way, like I’d done to his Hellfire on the way out of the bar.
My flight needed to be on foot, but I’d never been very fast.
You’re going to get caught, whispered the pessimistic voice in my head. You were a fool to ever think you’d be able to get away from him.
Which him? I argued back, snapping a charm to silence my footsteps as I sneaked out the window.
You know…
I had just made it to the trees when I heard him roar, a mix of frustration and…
Desire.
The sound reverberated through the air, shaking birds from the trees and alighting every nerve in my body, a primal call impossible resist.
He was an alpha in a rut. And I was his mate-blessed omega, running away from him, which only encouraged his need to chase. To hunt. To fuck.
And the throbbing between my legs was my body making itself ready for him.
I was toast.
Branches scraped against my skin, and I abandoned all hope of furtiveness, bolting as fast as my weakened legs could carry me, my heart feeling like it might explode out of my chest.
Don’t you want him to catch you? I bet he feels so good.
Shut up! I growled back, ignoring the slick pooling in my underwear.
This was not good. He could probably scent me from a mile away now.
I saw a small creek ahead of me, the water low and exposing a few stones close enough together I could easily jump to.
I was halfway across when a deep growl halted my progress, nipples hardening as I turned to look at the source.
Ronan.
He was magnificent. Fire in his golden eyes, black claws extended from the tips of his fingers. His chest heaved as he watched me, seeing my face without my glamour for the first time.
A part of me hoped but also worried he’d be disappointed by the real me, but instead he looked even more enthusiastic, a grin showcasing his sharp, canine teeth.
A sight that should have scared me after years with Victor only felt right, like they were the fangs I’d been waiting for.
Hecara, what would it feel like to have those buried in my skin, to wear his claiming bite—
Dammit, Sage! Run!
I couldn’t just give up. I couldn’t go back to Victor, I couldn’t—
I’d just landed on the other side when he slammed into me, bringing us both down and maneuvering the fall so he’d take the brunt of the impact.
Even in his craze, he wasn’t trying to hurt me, the instinct to protect me front and center. An instinct Victor had never shown.
But the instinct to fuck was also strong, and he flipped us over immediately, his nose digging into my neck to find the source of my perfume. One still altered by the charm, but not enough for him to deny the connection.
“Mine,” he snarled, and I closed my eyes, whimpering to the sensation of his body over mine. It felt so right, like this was how it was supposed to be.
I could feel how hard he was, thrusting against me already, his hands hungry for flesh as they tried to remove my clothes.
But as perfect as this should have been… If we did this… If he realized who I was and what we were together…
He’d die.
And even if it was his own, selfish fault, his scent was already imprinted in my mind, and my own drive to protect him overrode the one to feel him inside me.
“Stop,” I whispered, putting my hands on top of his to halt their progress. Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes and began to spill over. “Please.”
I thought my resistance would be futile, but to my great, sad surprise, he stilled that instant, the craze in his eyes clearing to the cold reality that I didn’t want this.
His teeth and nails shrank back to their usual size and he backed completely off me, regret and horror blanketing his face.
“Oh, shit.”
Slowly raising myself up on my elbows, I managed to sit back up, picking the leaves out of my hair as he rambled his apology. And my heart broke even more at how unlike Victor he was, how the absence of my enthusiasm had stopped him in his tracks instead of enraging or encouraging him.
“I’m so sorry… I… I’m in a rut. And I know that’s not an excuse, it’s no one’s responsibility but my own. I just… the suppressants don’t work against your scent for some reason. I was out of my mind.”
Because I’m your mate.
It was hard enough turning off my own desire, my own body’s slow return to normal after shutting down with Victor, so I could only imagine how much his rut had been riding him.
I drew my knees up, holding onto them for support. And to keep me from seeking solace in his embrace.
Because it would only betray me in the end.
“It’s okay. I’m used to it.”
His face fell, and I couldn’t even look at him. I just wanted to cup his cheek, to feel the scratch of his short beard across my palm. To kiss the tip of his nose and tell him I was fine.
Even if I really wasn’t.
“Victor sent you, then?”
“Yes, I’ve been hired to bring you to him, and I’m afraid there’s no getting out of it. I’ve made a deal.”
And there it was.
I couldn’t hope to outsmart or outrun him at this point, so the only way to get away would be with his help. Help he would surely grant if I told him the truth about us, and what Victor had done.
But if I did that, he would die. And then I wouldn’t even care what happened to me afterwards, anyway.
I had to protect him. Even if it meant Victor would keep me locked up for the rest of my life, meant I’d have to endure every bite, every touch, every violation.
I would choose Ronan.
Because he was my mate, and I wanted him to live.