Chapter Twelve
Amara stared back at me with wide eyes. “This is impossible.” She backpedaled, trying to create space between us. Her dark hair flying back as she stumbled, but I followed her.
“No…but do you want to know what is possible?” I finally released her throat, but grabbed her hand before she could pull away. “You being here.”
She furrowed her brow. “What?”
“I might have let it go, if I didn’t already know the truth. I should be more focused on this spell, but you chose the wrong face to wear. So now…I’m going to figure this out.” I pulled her closer to me.
“What are you talking about?”
“You, Amara, you are dead.” I watched her eyes widened. Then there was a soft ripple that ran over her face. It was subtle. And if I hadn’t known the real Amara, or if I was farther away, I would have missed it.
“No, I’m not.” She laughed, deflecting my words.
“You are. My father executed you, your mate and your witch grandmother himself.” I got into her face.
“You’re lying.” Her face paled, and she tripped over her feet, slamming down to the ground. I crouched, following her to the ground.
“I’m not. At all. But this proves that you are out of the loop…
so who are you?” I sent a pulse through her and the ripples grew more turbulent.
Like I threw a rock into a puddle and the water danced with the impact.
“Who are you?” I yelled again and sent more power through her.
She screamed, slapping at my hands, trying to pull away, but I tightened my grip.
“No!” She screamed again as the disguise started to slip away. The dark hair turned golden, but the face stayed the same. Aurora trembled in front of me now, but even this felt wrong. “You killed my sister.”
“Try again.” I glared at her, pushing more power into her.
“Do you think I am stupid enough to believe that Aurora wouldn’t know that her sister, her twin, was gone?
They were close. Very close. So, do you want to try again?
” I watched her fight, but even in Toya’s mind, I could feel her strength.
She was a high Gamma or low-level Beta. And the twins were unranked.
“I am Aurora.” She shrieked.
“No, no, you’re not. You might know of them, you might even be related to them but you are not them.” I shook my head slowly as I watched her. She held this disguise better than the last, but I wasn’t believing it.
“How the fuck do you know anything?” She snarled.
“You forget I met both of the twins. Both annoying, overreaching, and bitter. Also, both were unranked. Even Amara, mating the first Gamma, stayed unranked as the mating wasn’t completed.
” Her eyes flashed. “You didn’t know that?
” I smirked and I could see the hatred in her eyes.
“She came into my hospital room with Beck, her mate, and her grandmother. I stopped the cleaving she was trying to do. And then the three of them were executed. Like I said. Aurora ran away, leaving them to take the hit. She is alive, still hiding, but I’ll find her and I’ll kill her too. ”
“Shut up.” She shook her hair and pulled her hand out of my grip to cover her ears.
I laughed as I grabbed her blonde hair. “What’s wrong? You don’t like the truth? Or do you still think I’m lying?” A new ripple started, soft at first in her hair. I knew I was getting close.
“I know you’re lying. My grandmother was too powerful for a nobody like you to take her down.” She snarled, and I could see the truth in her words.
“So you are related to the twins? Interesting.” I pulled her hair back, forcing her to meet my eyes.
“I’m Aurora.” She screamed, but her eyes shifted from their bright blue to a soft brown, then back.
“We both know that’s a lie. But I’ll leave that be for a second.
Your grandmother was powerful, but your family has become too dependent on one thing.
” I pulled her head back farther and wrapped my hand around the necklace at her throat.
“Talismans are an easy fall back to someone who doesn’t remember their spells.
A sure-fire sign that you are weak of mind and weak of magic. ”
She snarled again. But I laughed. “Shut up. My grandmother is the strongest witch I know.”
“Was…she was the strongest witch you used to know. But she is dead. I ripped the necklaces from her neck, shattering her spells and her power.”
“No.” She whispered, a soft horror growing on her face. A face I knew wasn’t hers.
“Yes.” I smiled as I leaned in. “Now. Who are you?” I tightened my fingers on her necklace and she pulled back, but froze when she realized I held her necklace.
“I’m Aurora.” She panted softly, but the panic was in her eyes, eyes that had settled a soft brown.
“Aurora had blue eyes, and you have brown.” I whispered, watching her eyes widen in panic. “There is a peaceful solution.” And I ripped the necklace from her throat.
“No!” She screamed as she tried to turn away, but I held her securely in my hands as her disguise dropped again.
I watched as her blonde hair turned a soft golden brown, somewhere between the dark of Amara and the light of Aurora.
Her brown eyes settled again, starkly different from the bright blue of the twins.
But her face, her face was similar, and I wanted to smack myself from not realizing it sooner.
“Well now. Fancy seeing you again so soon, Verity.” I looked at Toya over my shoulder. She stepped closer, a snarl on her lips.
“You did this?” Toya was furious.
The woman laughed on her knees, but she wrenched away from me.
“Yes. And why not?” She snarled as she turned on me.
“Amy fucking deserves everything to be ripped from her. Her father is dead.” She laughed.
“Soon her mother will become a brood mare for someone she hates.” I snarled this time, and she chuckled.
“So I took a shot to turn her friends on her. And it would have worked. If it wasn’t for the fact, you are all too close.
” She tossed her hands in the air. “You would have been too busy to notice, but no, y’all had to leave all because her father was accused of being a traitor. ” She snarled again.
I furrowed my brow. She didn’t know what happened. She had wormed her way into their brains, but she was kept from knowing what was going on. I looked at Toya, but it was Urbi stepping from behind the dune that drew my attention. “You did this?”
Urbi trotted closer. “Yes. We all created the bubble around her. Once we realized she wormed her way into us, I called the others wolves and we created the barrier to stop her from seeing the truth.”
The woman snarled. “Stupid wolf.” I smirked.
“You’re just mad that they outsmarted you.”
“It didn’t matter. I won.” She gave a victorious smile.
“No, you didn’t.” Toya walked closer to her. “You tried to turn all of us against Amy. But she caught you. I can feel our bond repairing itself. You failed here.” Urbi rubbed herself against Toya and she dropped down, wrapping her arms around her wolf. “I’m sorry.”
Urbi laughed. “What are you sorry about? It’s not your fault she used magic on you.”
I tilted my head. “When did you plant yourself inside of Toya?”
She sneered at me. “Why would I tell you that?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m just wondering. It really doesn’t matter. I assume it was when she went to the washroom.” I watched her face as I said it and she paled a little. “I see I was right.”
“I didn’t see her, though.” Toya looked at me.
“Did anyone bump into you?”
Toya thought for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, as I was leaving the washroom, someone slammed inside.” She looked at her. “It must have been her.”
I nodded. “She was probably waiting for one of you to separate to implant the magic and worm her way inside. She thought that graduation would keep all of us too busy to realize what she was doing before it was too late.”
She growled, but I laughed. “You just had to run off.”
I nodded. “And that pisses you off. That you couldn’t gloat and revel in the fact that you were destroying my life?”
She stomped her foot. “Yes.” She snarled. “I wanted to watch you crumble.”
“But instead you watched us run out of the room, and then our wolves blocked you from seeing what we were doing.” Toya smirked.
“My guess is that while that was frustrating, there was something else that pissed her off even more.” I smiled at her, watched the rage fill her face. “Isn’t that right?”
“Shut the fuck up.” She screamed.
“Watching the king follow us must have just burned.”
Toya’s face filled with joy as she stood and walked over to us. “Him disappearing for hours must have hurt. Knowing he was with Amy.”
She froze, her face paled as she stared back at us. “You’re lying.” She shook her head. “He didn’t follow you. He had to go handle things at the condo.”
“And you actually believed that?” Toya laughed. She leaned into the woman and gave her a smile filled with pity. “He was with us the entire time. He knelt in the dark for over an hour waiting to talk to Amy.”
“You’re fucking lying.” She shook her head again. “He wouldn’t do that. Not after everything I’ve done…”
“Everything you’ve done? What are you talking about?” My stomach clenched. Rowan had been acting weird. He left during my heat and disappeared. I looked at Toya and she met my eyes. She felt something was off, too. But the woman snapped her mouth shut. “Come now Verity.”
She glared at me but I held back. “Cat got your tongue?” I crossed my arms, but my mind was spinning.
Verity was obviously related to Aurora. She was probably a cousin or something.
She had magic like them. The entire family had set their sights high for their mates.
Aurora wanted my father. Amara nailed Beck, which I wasn’t sure if they were Goddess blessed mates now that I think of it.
And now Verity, setting her sights and claws into Rowan.
“I have to hand it to you. Out of the twins and you, you aimed higher.”
“I deserved more than my sisters.” She snarled and then seemed to catch herself.
I felt my eyes narrow. “Sisters? Interesting. But you had different last names. Probably different sires.” I tossed my head back and forth. “I can only assume since your grandmother helped them that you came first, and you were the mistake.”
She snarled, charging at us. “I was not a mistake.” She screamed. “They were weaker than me in every way.” She spun and started to pace. “No one ever sees it.”
I glanced at Toya, but she was already smirking. “How could they see what isn’t there?” She looked down at her hands. “You were the mistake. You were the pup made outside of the mate bond, right?”
“Shut the fuck up. You’re just like them, like everyone else. My father was powerful.” She snarled, and I caught the crazed look in her eyes. “My mother should have been grateful she was selected.”
“Selected?” Toya’s brow furrowed.
But I had a sinking suspicion. “Your mother must have been gorgeous enough to be chosen as a brood mare for an Alpha.”
Verity scoffed. “That is the only thing she had, that and her magic.” She spun to face us. “But could she be grateful, no?”
I watched as the truth hit Toya. Her face was a mixture of disbelief and horror. “Wait…are you saying that your mother should have been grateful because an Alpha abused her? To breed her? To ruin her chances at possibly finding her mate?”
Verity rolled her eyes. “She found her mate when I was ten. He accepted what happened because he was as weak as she was. She could have become the concubine of our Alpha, but she chose an unranked fool to mate with.”
“The Goddess chose her mate. The bond isn’t a choice,” I said. “And the fact that you would rather your mother suffer and be forced by a man to be less than a full mate is disgusting.”
“You don’t get to look down on me,” she growled. “I am a daughter of an Alpha.”
Toya and I scoffed. “So are we,” Toya pointed out. “Only we are rightful heirs made from bonded mates. And you are the trophy of a man who abused his power. Yet somehow you idolize him instead of viewing him exactly as he is. A monster.”
She snarled. “My father is ten times the man that your fathers are. And bonds are a choice.” She looked into my eyes. “Obviously, since Rowan chose me.”
I tilted my head. “Did he?” I felt my eyes narrow as I glared at her. “Or is it more likely that it’s just another spell you cast?”
She reeled back; her face paled for a second before she rallied, then she threw her head back and laughed.
“You almost had me. I’ll be honest. At first, I used magic to keep him away from you.
As he wouldn’t look at anyone else but you, and I was frustrated.
I have been next to him for years, and he never even glanced my way.
But when he started dating the selected women, he started at the list the council gave him, the one I was on.
He said he would see their choices before he moved to his own list, the one you were on.
” She smirked. “He didn’t make it to his list. He stopped at me.
” She smiled. “Once he looked at me, once he gave me a shot, he was a goner.” She smiled widely, but I could see something behind that she was hiding.
But I wasn’t going to focus on that right now.
I laughed. Truly laughed. I turned to Toya and pointed back at Verity with my thumb. “She is so happy that she has Rowan.”
Toya snorted. “She obviously doesn’t know you.” She shook her head and sighed.
Verity shook, anger rushing to her face. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
I tilted my head. “You act like Rowan is some prize.”
She snorted. “He’s the fucking king.”
Toya nodded. “He is, but Amy here is not very forgiving.”
Verity’s face fell. “What are you talking about?”
I leaned in, as if I was telling her a secret.
“Rowan always said he would never touch a female that wasn’t his Goddess given mate.
” Her face paled. “He left me while I was in heat, and I was begging him to help me.” I smiled at her.
“Do you think that a forced mating will change his vow? He will leave you time and time again, begging for help, burning and in pain. King or not, he is a cruel man, and no prize.”