CHAPTER NINETEEN || DANIEL #2
Then my heart stopped in my chest when I realized he was holding my private journal, which contained the research I’d gathered over the years on how to put Lee and Hunter back together. And, at the very end, my breakthrough. The fully completed spell to do just that.
He’d taken it during the search, I realized, numb horror spreading through me.
While I’d been standing in the cabin in shock, while my family had been rifling through my things, Micah must’ve pocketed my journal and I hadn’t even noticed.
“Get out,” Hunter said immediately, stepping forward.
Micah ignored him. His gaze swept the room—the assembled wolves, Reed and Harris in the center of the room, the whole pack watching—and a thin smile crossed his face.
“I thought your pack might want to know something interesting about Daniel,” Micah said. “Since he seems so determined to stay. And you seem so very determined to allow him.” He paused. “I wonder if your minds will change?”
“Micah,” I said. My voice came out strangled. “Don’t.”
“First things first.” Micah’s gaze settled on Hunter and Lee. “These two aren’t twins. They’re the same person. They were split into two people by a forbidden spell Daniel cast two years ago, so that he could gain more power.”
Micah’s eyes danced when they met mine—he was enjoying himself.
He continued, his gaze sweeping the room, “Hunter Lee Jameson and my brother were inseparable, ever since they were eight years old. The family didn’t approve, of course.
” He paused, an over-the-top regretful note entering his voice.
“But no matter how close they were, he was collateral damage in my brother’s quest for power.
And then, once the damage was done, Daniel brought them here.
He had your pack turn both halves into wolves to keep them alive, against their will. He made your pack clean up his mess.”
The silence that followed was profound.
Horrified, I looked around the room, bracing for shock, for revulsion, for the pack turning on me.
But what I saw was… less dramatic than I’d feared. Reed’s expression didn’t change. He’d already known the truth. Harris glanced at his mate and gave a small nod—he’d known too. Either Reed had told him or he’d figured it out on his own. Lacey’s jaw was set, her eyes hard, but not with surprise.
Sarah, however, was visibly stunned. Oliver’s eyebrows had climbed toward his hairline and he was blinking rapidly, his lips parted with dismay.
He hadn’t had a choice in becoming a wolf, either.
Emma, at the back of the room, closed her eyes and let out a quiet breath, as if Micah had just confirmed something she’d long suspected.
My brother frowned at them and his eyes narrowed in displeasure. Clearly, it wasn’t the bombshell he’d been hoping for. The pack hadn’t immediately and vocally turned on me.
“You piece of shit,” Hunter swore, breaking the silence. He started toward Micah, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
My brother cast a spell, lightning quick, that froze Hunter in mid-step. “I think you’ll all want to hear this next part,” he said, his eyes lighting up in triumph. His gaze lingered on Hunter, then slid to Lee. “Especially you two.”
“Micah, don’t do this,” I said, my voice coming out as a choked whisper, as I realized what was coming next.
“That was all setup,” Micah said, ignoring me. “That’s not the interesting part.” He opened my journal to the last entry. “The interesting part is what Daniel’s been doing about it.”
“Micah, stop!” I lunged forward, prepared to rip the journal from his hands, if that’s what it took.
My brother snorted derisively and, with a flick of his hand, forced me to step back and sit down in my seat. Like all Henbanes—except me—he specialized in spells to control the minds and bodies of other people. And not even my parents were better at it than him.
While my brother’s magic forced me to sit perfectly still, my eyes locked on him, unable to even blink, my mouth clamped shut, Micah began to read aloud.
“‘The reversal spell framework is complete. The containment structure, limitations, and necessary circumstances are all in place. The only missing element is the catalyst—a spell capable of merging two separate magical signatures into one unified whole without destroying either of them.’” He looked up, his eyes bright with malice.
Then Micah turned pages. “Ah. Here’s the good part.
Dated just yesterday.” He cleared his throat performatively.
“‘I’ve found the catalyst and the reversal spell is now complete. Two years of research and I’m now certain that if I cast this, Hunter and Lee will merge back into one person and Hunter Lee Jameson will exist in their place.
And because he was never bitten by a werewolf, he’d probably be an ordinary mundane man again.
He could then have the life he’d always deserved.
But I’m afraid of telling them the truth.
I’m not sure I can trust what will happen if I do. ’”
I felt Hunter’s betrayal slice through the bond. But I couldn’t even move to look at him. Beside me, Lee was perfectly still, as if he’d been frozen in place as well.
Then a blast of green magic hit Micah square in the back and he went sprawling to the ground.
The instant he was distracted, the spell on Hunter and me broke. I could move again. In theory. But any movement at all felt like it was capable of shattering me. Hunter finally put his foot on the ground, breathing hard. His back was to me, so I couldn’t see his face.
But I could imagine his face well enough. This couldn’t be happening.
Rowan stood in the doorway, her black hair blowing in a spectral wind from the spell she’d just cast, her dark eyes blazing. She took in the scene, and her expression went from anger to total outrage in a single heartbeat.
“Micah!” she shouted. “What are you doing here?”
“Telling these nice people the truth,” Micah said coolly, pushing himself off the ground, tucking the journal safely under his arm. “That’s something our brother seems constitutionally incapable of.”
“This wasn’t the plan! We agreed—”
“You all agreed,” Micah said with a sneer. “But I thought Daniel’s little friends had a right to know who he really is, before he leaves for good.”
“Get out,” Lee said, speaking for the first time. His voice held more rage than I’d ever heard from him.
Micah cocked his head to the side, looking first at Lee, then at Hunter, and finally at me. His eyes were sparkling with glee when they met mine. “I was done anyway. We leave at sundown. I’d start packing, if I were you.”
With that, he turned and walked out of the mess hall, leaving a shocked silence in his wake.
I felt a numb sort of surprise. I would’ve thought he’d want to gloat.
But he probably didn’t like his odds against the entire pack and Rowan, who was staring at him with absolute murder in her expression.
Micah had always been cruel and vindictive, but he wasn’t an idiot.
I stood up and took a hesitant step toward Hunter before I even realized what I was doing. Every member of the pack was staring at me.
If I could just explain myself… If it wasn’t too late—
Hunter turned. And any hope I had of that died.
Because everything about him had changed. His face was pale and closed off, his jaw tight, his green eyes fixed on the space directly over my shoulder, as if he couldn’t bring himself to look at me. The fury I’d expected to see wasn’t there at all.
What was there was worse. It was an absolute blankness, as if he’d retreated behind a wall I couldn’t see through.
“Is it true?”
Panic surged through me. “Yes, but—”
“You promised,” he said, sounding just as numb as I felt. And then he did look at me, and that was even worse. Because I saw that his eyes were wet, filled with pain and betrayal.
“Hunter,” I said desperately, stumbling forward and reaching for him. “Please. Let me explain—”
“I—I need to think,” Hunter said, taking a step back. His expression tightened and he looked away from me sharply. Then, without another word, he turned and walked out of the mess hall.
I couldn’t breathe. The room was tilting.
I turned to Lee, desperate. “Please. Don’t leave.”
His expression was carefully neutral, but his eyes were almost as wounded as Hunter’s. Through the bond, I could feel his emotions. They were a cold weight between us, jagged around the edges.
“Give him time,” Lee said. His voice was even, but there was a tightness in it that told me what it was costing him to stay calm. “He needs to process this.”
“Lee—”
He shook his head and the words died in my throat. “Don’t.”
Then his gaze found Lacey’s across the room. “Stay with him.”
Lacey nodded once, but her face was troubled. She’d gone much paler than before. Was she ready to turn on me as well?
Then Lee, walking stiffly, followed Hunter out the door without another word.
I watched them go, rooted to the spot and powerless to stop it.
Everyone in the room was still staring at me. Reed. Harris. Emma. Sarah. Oliver.
Everyone in the pack.
Even Rowan, her dark eyes filled with regret, was looking at me.
But she probably only seemed regretful because of what Micah had just done.
She was still on their side. She was still a Henbane.
She was still planning on forcing me to leave here against my will, just like the rest of them.
Except, unlike my brother, she just didn’t want to be cruel about it.
“I have to get out of here,” I choked out, my eyes swimming with tears, in danger of breaking down completely in front of all of them.
Then, not trusting myself to stay there a moment longer, I fled.
* * *