Page 27 of Betrayed By the Wolf

She watched Jessa’s cheeks move as she drank from the bottle. It was odd thinking back to the person she’d been just a few months ago—anxious, stressed, questioning her path in life. Not to say she had it all figured out now; she was far from that, but even in the tumult of her relationship with Rami, she’d found a sense of peace.

Vera had gone from nights of insomnia stressing over her job and maintaining the image of perfection, to sleeping in Rami’s house, spending her days caring for a child she’d quicklycome to love. In that time, she’d found the breathing room to let herself feel. To be messy. To cry.

Was it better? All those years she had criticized Moira for her unorthodox path, her meandering way through life without any sense of urgency. At the time, Vera believed she was just pushing Moira to be the best version of herself. Looking at Moira now, at how content she was, Vera had to face the thought that maybe life wasn’t about following one path without glancing at the other options.

“I’m glad I glanced,” she whispered to Jessa.

Chapter 12 - Rami

Rami slept on the beach. Curled up in wolf form, tail to nose, his fur was warm enough to protect him through the cold spring night. He woke to the sunrise on his back, casting pink and gold rays over the sea’s calm surface and shook the sand from his fur.

It wasn’t the first night he’d spent on the shore of Silversand Beach. Sometimes, it felt like the only place he had room to think and breathe and feel. Out there, where no one else could see him.

Jonah’s lighthouse was not far—he could smell the woodsmoke from the fire and followed it down the beach. Lights were on despite the early hour. Rami chuffed to himself. Life with a baby, or a toddler in Jonah’s case, meant a life of early mornings and early nights. A far cry from the bachelor lifestyle he’d lived for most of his life, where the only obligation he had was to open the bookshop by noon.

He shifted to human form at Jonah’s doorstep and knocked lightly on the door. Jonah opened it, messy-haired and bleary-eyed, a cup of coffee clenched in his hand.

“Hey man, I know it’s early, but do you mind if I come in?”

Jonah yawned, covering his mouth with the back of his coffee-holding hand. “Course not. Come on in. You just missed Moira and Cora, though; they went out to meet Vera. Know anything about that?”

He wondered if Vera was having trouble with Jessa and felt a pang of guilt slice through him. Maybe he shouldn’t have left last night, even if Vera had demanded it. She had seen right through him in that moment.

Rami shook his head and took the cup of coffee Jonah handed him. “I haven’t seen Vera since last night. I kind of ran out on them.”

Jonah started pulling pans down from above the stove. He grabbed a carton of eggs and a package of bacon from the fridge, and tossed a pad of butter in one of the pans. It was the other reason Rami loved stopping by Jonah’s place—whether it was Jonah’s cooking or Moira’s baking, he knew he’d get a gourmet feast.

“Ran out? I don’t imagine Vera’s going to let that one slide.” His tone was carefully neutral, reserving judgment.

Rami blew out a breath, dropping his head into his hands. “You know, when you’re already so deep on the shit list, there’s only so much you can do to make it worse. Like I can’t drop any lower in her eyes.”

Jonah flipped the bacon in the pan. “Look, I don’t pull this card often but as your Alpha, you need to get that situation under control. If what we suspect of the curse is true, you’re putting Vera and yourself at risk with this fraught bond.”

It wasn’t anything Rami didn’t already know, but the words struck him like blows. He was putting her at risk even as he tried to keep Vera close and protected. Everything he did was wrong.

Jonah’s touch on his shoulder startled him. Dropping his hands, he looked up at his Alpha.

“Finding your mate can be unnerving. It feels like you’ve lost control over a part of your life, like a decision was made without you. I get it.” Jonah smiled ruefully. “I had my troubles with Moira too, remember? She didn’t want anything to do with me.”

He remembered. The two of them had run around in circles before finally settling into their bond. Now, he couldn’t imagine them apart. Jonah squeezed his shoulder and went back to the pan, sliding the bacon onto a plate. He cracked the eggs into the sizzling bacon grease. Rami could imagine him cooking this way for his mate and his child each morning, and the domestic scene it conjured gave him a twinge of jealousy.

“It’s complicated, Jo. My parents were a wreck, and I don’t want to repeat that cycle. Isn’t that what people do? Become their parents?” He sighed, staring down into the oily swirls on top of his coffee.

“I was afraid of becoming my father. Maybe not when it came to relationships, though he was obviously awful at those, but when it came to leading the pack? Terrified. He ruined this place, and I thought I was destined to do the same.” Jonah plated the eggs and set two plates down at the table, taking his seat across from Rami. “But I used it as a roadmap for what not to do. And Moira helped reassure me that my fear of becoming my father meant I never would.”

It was easy enough for Jonah to say with his troubles in the rearview. Rami felt all of the emotions he kept behind a wall, clamoring to get out, and knew that if they did, the deluge would change him. Shake him to his core. He couldn’t let that happen.

“I’m not afraid of anything,” Rami insisted, chewing on a slice of bacon. “On top of everything else, do I want to be saddled with a mate? Someone I have to answer to? It just doesn’t suit me. She’d be a burden and start to resent me, and there we go, just like my parents.”

Jonah snorted. “You’re a really bad liar. Has anyone ever told you that?”

“Yeah, once or twice. Well, shit. I don’t want to put her at risk with the curse banging at our door, but the pressure to patch things up to keep us safe isn’t helping.” He felt the food go tasteless in his mouth as the thought of Vera and Jessa in danger rocked him.

“One step at a time,” Jonah said, finishing off his plate. “Tell her you’d like to try. That’s the first step, then see where it goes from there. I’ve got your back, whatever happens.”

He helped Jonah clean up and wash the dishes, working silently side by side while he digested everything Jonah had said. Was it possible? Could he just tell Vera he didn’t know how it’d end up, but that he wanted to try anyway? Except that she’d declared just last night that she was over him once and for all.

From her perspective, it probably seemed like he’d been playing with her. Giving her the nanny job, his obvious desire, the sex, all of that sent the message that he was definitely still interested. Yet he’d denied her each time she’d pushed for more. It was no wonder she’d snapped.

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