Chapter 265
I’m grateful for James’s solid, silent support next to me.
Honesty, I don’t know how I would be getting through these agonizing days without him.
“Aaron died,” I say, cutting my gaze away from Emily.
The words are physically painful to say, like they’re being wrenched out of my chest.
“We had no choice but to break our mating bond after the Council sentenced Aaron to death for treason. I had to survive
for our son, Ethan.”
Emily gasps, and I can’t help but look back at her.
“Aaron has a son?”
“That’s right, Emily,” James puts in with fondness in his voice.
“You’re an aunt. You’re going to love Ethan when you meet
him.”
“Oh my god,” Emily whispers, seeming to not know what to do
with this information.
Except then apparently she decides.
“It should have been you,” she says viciously. “You should have died, and Aaron should have survived breaking the mating bond!”
“Even if he had,” James says, starting to sound annoyed now. “The Council still would have executed Aaron for treason. He had the power of three Alphas, and the Council was scared about what he planned to do with that power. They needed an excuse to stop him, and they found it. Ethan would have been an orphan if things had played out that way. Is that what you want for your nephew?”
Emily at least has the good sense to look somewhat abashed at James’s words.
“Besides,” he continues. “Leah is the one who figured out you
were being held out here. Both Alpha Roberts and her brother
Liam took the information to the grave with them. So, if it
wasn’t for Leah, you might never have been found at all!”
Emily crosses her arms grudgingly, and I doubt I’m ever going to get any gratitude for getting her out of the gilded prison my father had been keeping her in.
“Alpha Roberts and that asshole Liam are dead?” Emily says. “Well, at least there’s some good news!”
I roll my eyes.
Honestly, Emily is going to be the kind of handful I don’t even want to think about right now.
I really didn’t need this on top of everything else happening, but I’m glad she’s alive, and I know the Rathborn pack will be overjoyed to welcome her back into the fold.
“Come on, let’s go home,” I say. “I want to be there for Ethan’s
next feed.”
James nods and then motions to Emily.
“I’m really leaving?” she says anxiously, as if she can’t quite
believe it.
Does she seriously think I could find out she’s being held here and just walk away, leaving her to the same isolated, lonely fate my father and brother did?
She really doesn’t think highly of me at all.
But I suppose that’s no surprise considering what she’s endured at the hands of Roberts pack.
“Yes, Emily, you’re really leaving,” James says gently, but then sends her a quick, cheeky smile. “Unless you want to stay?”
“No way in hell!” Emily replies adamantly. “Let’s get out of
here.”
I let Emily walk ahead of me–honestly, I don’t trust her at my back in the slightest bit–and then follow James and Emily out to the waiting SUV.
I pause to tell the two men to report back to Roberts pack lands where I’ll have someone reassign them new duties, and by the time I’ve done that, I turn to find Emily has helped herself to the front seat of the SUV and is talking animatedly
to James, probably catching up on all the things that’ve happened in the Rathborn pack since she’s been gone.
I get into the backseat and then get to spend the whole drive
back listening to the pair chat like the long–lost friends they
are.
As we swing around the circular driveway of Rathborn
mansion, there’s another SUV pulling in, and someone is
getting out of the backseat when James pulls our vehicle to a
stop.
Emily suddenly squeals in excitement and rushes out of the
car.
That’s when I get a good look at who it is, and my heart drops into my shoes.
Jessica.
