Chapter 17 - Rhys
My daily routine with Cassie and Sadie nourishes my heart. I’d be living in paradise if the plight of my pack wasn’t eating away at my soul.
As I wake in the semi-darkness, I can hear my phone buzzing on the nightstand. I’ve been ignoring it for days because I know what I’m going to see when I open it, and I’d rather not know.
The damn thing keeps buzzing like a mosquito in my ear. Finally, it bugs me enough that I get up and swipe the screen to open it.
The first messages I see are from Owen and Shane, checking on me because I haven’t spoken to them in a few days. After that is line after line of messages from the council, mostly from Faye.
Holding in a groan, I tap open her thread and see that over the last week, she’s gotten more and more insistent. It seems the other council members hassled me in equal measure until it became clear I wasn’t going to answer, then they unloaded all their frustration onto Faye.
I’m sorry, I type back. I’ve been distracted, but I promise I will meet with the council soon to discuss these issues.
I feel bad about my generic response, but I can’t think of anything else to say, so I just drag myself out of bed and get ready for the day. I can hear Sadie downstairs making breakfast for Cassie, but the comfort of the domestic scene can’t reach me through the anxiety rising in my gut.
It’s getting worse.
There is absolutely no doubt now that the sickness is growing. More wolves from both packs are experiencing sudden illness or disruptions to their powers. I can’t ignore it, but I also don’t want to face it.
Because then I’ll have to admit the marriage ritual didn’t work.
I can see it all too clearly—Darla announcing she was right all along, Thorne backing her up, all of them turning on Sadie and coming up with suggestions for how we’ll get rid of her.
None of which would be pleasant, but ultimately, I know they’ll argue for her execution.
I can’t even guarantee that Cassie would be safe.
When she first arrived, the others agreed she was a full-blood shifter, but she doesn’t seem to share any attributes with the other shifter kids.
Even though she seems full of power, she smells less like a wolf every day, and that will only make the council fear her—and that is more dangerous than anything else.
Sighing, I head downstairs, hoping that I can hide my feelings from the girls. I can’t ignore what’s going on in the pack, but I don’t feel good about telling Sadie, either. When I get to the kitchen and see her drawn, tired face, it confirms what I’ve already been feeling the last few days.
She’s not well, either.
“Morning,” she says, gesturing to the table. “There’s a cup of coffee there for you.”
“Thank you,” I reply, sitting down across from Cassie. “Good morning, sweetheart. How did you sleep?”
“Great!” she says, beaming. “Mommy made waffles.”
“I see that,” I say, laughing.
Cassie grins as she shovels a big piece of waffle with ice cream and syrup into her mouth, and my heart aches with tenderness.
At least someone’s happy. I feel like if Cassie’s okay, I can survive anything. But this emotional tug of war inside me sure feels like a slow way to die.
Sadie sits down next to me, smiling as she puts down a plate of waffles for me. I eat slowly, watching her, and she only takes a few bites before pushing the food around on her plate.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
She nods, smiling quickly. “I’m fine. Just not as hungry as I thought I was. Should we get going soon?”
“Sure,” I reply, knowing that she’s more worried about distracting me than getting to work on time. Jean comes to pick up Cassie, and Sadie and I head off, the silence in the car between us feeling like a glass screen that could shatter and cut us both to shreds if we say the wrong thing.
She looks so tired and restless that I can’t bring myself to say anything to her, but throughout the day, more messages come through from the council and my friends.
I realize I can’t stall on this any longer and decide to organize a family day tomorrow so I can take us away from everyone else and hopefully get Sadie to open up.
We might even talk about Cassie finding out I’m her father. She already sees me as her dad, and we need to decide if we’re going to take this next step or not. Is Sadie still planning to leave?
I text Sadie my idea for the family day, possibilities swirling in my mind as I try to distract myself by getting under the hood of a car for a few hours.
Cars are simple. You put the pieces together right, and it goes. Nothing like running a pack… or surviving a marriage.
When I check my phone, I’m surprised to see that Sadie has replied, but she wants us to go out alone and leave Cassie with Jean.
My first instinct is to protest and bring Cassie with us, but then the idea strikes me that Sadie might have something specific she needs to talk about that she doesn’t want to say in front of Cassie.
Even though I feel relieved that I might finally have an opening for the difficult conversation, I’m also full of foreboding for what it could mean.
The ritual didn’t work. That’s clear now. The council wants her gone. Sadie doesn’t want to stay. This could all work out for the best.
The thought causes raging frustration to rise in my gut, and I throw myself back into work, trying to ignore it. In this scenario, everyone gets what they want—except me.
I can’t let them go! It’s so selfish of me to want them to stay, even though it doesn’t help the pack and it’s not what Sadie wants. I can’t help it, though. I want them in my life.
After work, I pick Sadie up, and we chat on the way home. She seems much more relaxed and asks about the plans for tomorrow. I explain the family activities I had in mind, but she surprises me again by telling me she wants it to be just the two of us.
Back home, we make dinner together, and when Cassie gets home, we eat at the table as a family. Again, my emotions twist inside me as I try to contemplate the rest of my life without them in it.
I can’t do this. I literally cannot imagine my future without them.
After dinner, we settle into our routine of putting Cassie to bed, and she falls asleep when we are halfway through the bedtime story.
I stand hesitantly in the hallway afterwards, wanting to ask Sadie to share my bed again but fearing that she’s already made her decision to leave.
The thought is so depressing, I end up saying goodnight and hurrying back to my room before she can reply.
***
The next morning, I wake with a new sense of purpose. I still don’t have a plan to save my pack, but I know I want Sadie in my life, and I don’t want to let Cassie go.
This is my chance to tell Sadie how I feel and see if she feels the same. Then we can decide what to do.
When I greet them in the kitchen, Sadie turns to me with a bright smile. Her eyes are clear, and she looks well-rested for the first time in days.
She must have had a good night’s sleep last night. Is it because she’s decided what she wants to do?
After Jean picks Cassie up, we head out to the car. Sadie takes my hand, squeezing it and smiling up at me. My heart aches with conflict and regret—all that we could have been, and the future we’ll never have.
No matter what Sadie decides, the pack wants her gone, and I can’t leave them. Whichever way this goes, my heart and soul are going to be ripped apart.
On the way to the park, Sadie talks excitedly about her work and the old texts that she’s been going through.
“What do you really know about witches?” she asks me as we unpack the car at the park.
“I don’t know how much I should tell you,” I reply, as we walk across the grass to find a nice, shady tree. “It’s very different from the town records.”
“That’s exactly why I’m asking you,” she says as we sit down. “I know the wolves don’t trust magic, but I don’t know why.”
“Well, no one really does,” I say. “It happened so long ago. The witch queen and wolf king were close, founders of the town. There was some conflict, and we became enemies and have been since.”
“But what happened to the witches?” she asks.
I pause for a moment before answering, focusing on pouring her some champagne.
“We hunted them to extinction,” I say. “There hasn’t been a witch in these hills for a hundred years.”
“Are you sure they’re all dead?” she asks.
I nod. “Positive. We made sure of it.”
“But… what about the magic? Was it really a threat to the wolves, or was there something good about it, too?”
“I don’t know,” I answer. “I had no direct experience with it, but the old records indicate it was extremely dangerous, unstable, and the witches used it to hurt us.”
“Oh,” Sadie says softly. She takes a sip of champagne, her eyes dark and full of unspoken thoughts.
“Why?” I ask.
She shrugs. “There’s nothing in the town records about any magic being dangerous. I haven’t finished reading about the witch trials. I don’t know, I just thought that maybe witches could be good as well.”
“I don’t think so,” I say firmly.
Sadie nods, looking up at me and biting her lip thoughtfully as if she wants to say something, but thinks better of it.
“Tell me how Cassie is going,” I say. “She’s doing a sports competition with the other kids, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” Sadie says, smiling. “It’s just an informal soccer game, and an athletics carnival, but Jean says Cassie has natural talent, and even though she hasn’t shifted, she definitely has enhanced attributes.”
Once we start talking about Cassie, the conversation is much easier, and both of us loosen up. After a few glasses of champagne, the energy between us shifts into a different gear, and suddenly all I can see is how beautiful she is.
The sunlight flickers down through the leaves far above our heads and dapples across her brown hair, making her glitter with a golden glow.
Her dark brown eyes seem dark and mysterious, shadows that evade the shimmer dancing across her hair and pale skin.
When she smiles at me and tilts her champagne glass in a toast, the arousal I’ve been trying so hard to keep at bay suddenly rises inside me and pumps through my blood.
It's been bad enough being caught between my duty and the selfish need to keep Sadie and Cassie in my life. The last thing I need is to be wrecked with desire as well.
After we finish the bottle, Sadie comes to sit next to me, leaning against my side and holding my hand. I can feel her passion for me, and it’s more than wishful thinking—I can sense the changes in her body that tell me she’s getting aroused.
More than ever, I want to ask her what she intends, if she’ll stay with me, but I don’t want to break the magic between us. Thoughts of my pack and my duty to them threaten me, and I push them away, feeling ashamed of myself.
My whole life has been duty. Why can’t I have something that’s just mine?
“Rhys?” Sadie says very quietly.
“Yes?”
“Would you come with me, please? I want to show you something.”
“Oh?”
“Just a short walk into the woods.”
“Okay. Did you still want to go to dinner?”
“Maybe. I just really have to show you something.”
There’s an urgency in her voice that I can’t ignore, and my instincts are triggered.
Maybe I can finally ask her about her feelings for me. What else could this possibly be?
“Okay,” I reply, and we pack up the picnic gear together. I put it back in the car, and Sadie leads me into the woods across from the park.
There is no path, and the plants grow wild, long stalks of grass reaching up to low-hanging branches. I’m forced to walk behind her until we come to a small, circular clearing where a small leather trunk sits against a tree. My instincts go crazy as I feel an intense magnetism in the area.
I’ve never felt magic… but what else can this be?
“I found a ritual in the old books,” Sadie says, kneeling down to open the trunk. “And I want to try it.”
“What?” I almost yell. “You want to do magic?”
“It’s not really magic,” she says. “I’m not a witch… am I?”
Something about her words doesn’t sound right to me, and her dark eyes seem to grow wider and deeper, like a void coming to swallow me. A sudden cool breeze blows through the trees, and the shadows lengthen sharply.
It’s sunset. She timed this.
“Please, Rhys,” she says, an urgent note coming into her voice. “This is to trigger a prophecy—to show us our destiny.”
“But it’s magic,” I repeat, watching her pull a stone bowl, some sprigs of dried herbs, and a vial of oil out of the trunk and place them on the ground.
“I promise, it’s safe,” she says. “But… I need to do this.”
I look down at her, feeling the conflict inside me reach cataclysmic levels. As much as I want to run from this place, I am also bound to Sadie.
I trust her. I don’t know why, but I do. We need to do this.
“Okay,” I say, kneeling across from her. “What do we do?”
“Just watch,” she says. “The important thing is that you’re here with me.”
Sadie puts some oil into the bowl, then crushes some dried herbs into it. She whispers a few words I don’t hear, then strikes a match and lights the oil on fire.
There is a sudden bright blue flash as the oil ignites and explodes. In the moment that follows, my senses stunned, I see words in my mind and hear them ringing in my ears.
“Darkness comes. It binds you both, but light lives beyond it and shows you the way.”
When the moment passes, I look over at Sadie. She looks shocked, her face pale and her eyes wide.
“What does it mean?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “I’m not sure. I’ll need to think about it.”
As she packs up the items, I ponder the prophecy.
The only thing it can possibly mean is the sickness in the pack—that it’s going to be solved by our marriage!
Relief floods through me, so powerful that goosebumps rush across my skin. The tension in my muscles eases, and I feel better than I have in days.
“Sadie,” I say, reaching out to take her hand.
“Yes?” she asks, looking over at me.
“Thank you,” I say, squeezing her hand gently. “Really, thank you so much for this.”
She smiles, and I feel like the lightness in me has spread to her, and suddenly we’re on the same wavelength.
“Okay,” she says.
I can tell she has more to say, but I don’t want to hear it—all I want is to immerse myself in this feeling, and ride the wave into that beautiful light the prophecy promised me.
I lean forward, running my hands up Sadie’s arms to pull her closer, and kiss her.