Chapter 44
Blood seeped through the gauze on my palm again.
Mia had just finished wrapping it up, but the second Kael stormed out and Riley stood there like the world couldn’t touch her, 1 clenched my fist too tightly,
Again.
I didn’t even feel it.
Just a dull, distant throb. A whisper compared to the chaos inside my chest.
Scarlett was gone upstairs–following her parents, trying to “smooth things over,” no doubt. The room emptied out in minutes, like they couldn’t wait to let the dust settle.
Now it was just me.
And Riley.
She stood across the room, her hands clenched at her sides, her chin lifted like a wolf ready for the next hit. She looked… tired. Not the kind of tired that could be fixed with sleep. The kind that seeps into the bones after years of holding yourself together while everyone else tried to tear you apart.
I stood. I didn’t even know why.
She moved too–too fast, too sudden–and bumped hard into the edge of the coffee table.
She winced, but didn’t make a sound.
She didn’t even glance back.
She just walked away.
Not to Kael’s room. Not even to her assigned bedroom. She headed toward the far end of the hall–toward the old supply. closet the Pack used to throw things they didn’t want.
Of course.
The e unwanted daughter returns to the unwanted room.
Before I realized I’d moved, I was already behind her.
The second she stepped inside, I slammed the door open. She jumped, turned–and I kicked it shut, hard.
My hand shot out.
Pinned her to the wall.
Her breath caught, chest heaving against my palm.
Our faces were inches apart
.
Close enough for me to see the way her pupils flared. Close enough to smell the faint trace of antiseptic and blood under the synthetic rose perfume clinging to her hair.
She trembled under my hand. Not from weakness. From trying too hard not to show fear.
I hated how much I noticed that.
I hated how it still made me want to protect her.
I should’ve walked away. Should’ve said nothing.
But my voice came out anyway–sharp, biting, soaked in something I refused to name.
“So you’re really that eager to get married?”
Her lips parted, her eyes flashing. She shoved at my chest with both hands–small, pale fists that didn’t budge me an inch.
Ronan.”
“It’s none of your business, R
My name in her mouth didn’t sound like it used to.
No softness.
Just, finality.
I leaned closer, unable to stop myself.
“None of my business? After what you did to Tessa? After what you did to my family? You think you can just walk out of here and marry into Stormridge like none of it matters?”
I could feel my voice rising, heat crawling up my neck.
But I couldn’t stop.
I didn’t want to stop.
She went still.
And then, her voice–flat, cruel–cut through the air.
“Better Stormridge than this house. Better being a stranger’s bride than your family’s burden.”
The words hit harder than I expected.
And then she looked me in the
eye.
“Tell me, Ronan… Is the Stormridge heir more dangerous than you?”
That made my breath catch,
Just for a second,
I saw the flicker in her gaze. The fear. The memory of that night,
Of what I did.
of how low I sank when they told me what she did to Tessa–and I believed it. Of how I stood in that courtroom and let her
fall
I’d buried that memory for years.
Now it stood between us again, more real than ever.
She looked at me like I was a a monster.
And maybe I was.
Maybe that’s why stepped closer again–until there was nowhere left to go.
Because this wasn’t just about jealousy. It was about control. Territory. Duty.
The alliance between Blackmaw and Ebonclaw had to happen. That much was clear.
As the heir to Blackmaw, I would have to choose a daughter of Alpha Alaric..
IT
you asked me who I wanted–it would’ve been Riley.
Always Riley.
But she attacked my sister Tessa. She went to prison.
My mate can’t carry that kind of stain.
But that doesn’t mean she can belong to someone else.
“You think I’ll let you marry him?” I asked, voice like gravel. “You think I’ll just watch you walk away after everything?”
She didn’t flinch.
Bubher voice was low now. Cold.
“Who marry has nothing to do with you.”
I laughed.
Short. Biner. Twisted.
“In what world, Riley? You think you’re free? You think because you’ve been paroled you’re clean?”
I reached out again, not to hurt–just to remind her. My fingers brushed her shoulder, just above the bandage. She didn’t cry out, but her body flinched.
I hated that.
Hated how her pain still felt like mine.
“You’re still marked by what you did. And as long as my sister doesn’t wake up, you belong to the Blackmaw Pack. You belong
to me.
Her eyes widened.
She looked up at me like I’d struck her.
And still she said nothing.
Just stared.
And in her silence, something inside me cracked.
I remembered her tears when I had a fever. I remembered her skipping her only national academic competition to sit by my bedside. I remembered how she used to whisper her dreams of Ashmoor Academy at midnight.
And I remembered that I’d crushed every one of those dreams.
Her eyes now were nothing like the girl I knew. Just grey glass, frozen to survive.
1 loosened my grip.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Like I was afraid she might shatter if I touched her too long
Her breath came out shaky, but steady. She didn’t move.
And I…..
I couldn’t look at her anymore.
1 let go
The warmth of her body slipped out from under my palm. She didn’t say thank you. She didn’t curse me.
She just stood there. Quiet. Proud. Unbreakable.
I turned away before she could see the worst of it
Before she could see that the Alpha heir of Blackmaw–Scarlett’s fiance, their future alliance’s keystone–had almost begged a convicted trautor to stay.
And worse?
That a part of him still wanted her to say yes..