Page 74 of Primal

Also? I’m officially tea-ed out.

It’s felt like the last few days that every time I’ve turned a corner or just sat down, Seren, or even Rhosyn, was there offering me a new cup of tea. Canaan didn’t bother with tea, he just continued on with his campaign for protein shakes.Yeah, no thanks, dude. I think I’d rather just sip on my own hot tearsat this point.He didn’t listen when I told him that just because there’s a chocolate chip cookie decorating the bottle, it does not mean that chalky shit is going to taste like a baked good.

I gaze at the familiar kitchen before my eyes land on Seren. She’s perched on the antique workbench we use as an island, her pale blue gaze already locked on to me. Not a surprise. Her empathic charmer gift probably picked up on my spiral the second I pulled into the driveway.

She doesn’t speak. Doesn’t ask me a question or pry for answers. She waits.

I hate how long it takes me to get the words out, but finally I manage to push them out, proud that I’m able to avoid infusing them with the riot of emotions warring within me.

“Did you know?”

Seren’s brows knit in confusion, her head tilting slightly. “Know what, babe?”

I swallow against the tight, aching knot in my throat. My next words come out softer, raspier, some of my resolve slipping.

“Did you know what would happen to me if I didn’t reciprocate his rejection?”

Her face drains of color. Her mouth parts, but no sound comes out. And then her eyes fill with regret so thick it nearly chokes me. Her chin wobbles, and she blinks hard before turning away.

I should have told her sooner. I never should have kept it from her. Mistake. Mistake. Mistake.

Her agonized voice floats through the tense air between us, coiling up like a dark fog of despair in my mind. Before I have time to comment on it, she opens her mouth and says aloud, “Yes…I knew.”

The betrayal I was anticipating slams into me. My already broken body feels like it might buckle under the weight of it. My knees ache from holding me up.

“Why?” The word rips out of me, rough and raw, before I can stop it.

Seren shakes her head, and tears start to fall.

“Amara…” she says, voice cracking.

Of all the names she could’ve said, that’s the one I never saw coming.

“What?”

“Amara told me not to,” she explains. “She said it was part of the plan when I tried to ask her about it…after. And I knew how much you and Thalassa, especially, trusted her. I was trying to do the same, Noa. I swear I was. I thought she was right.” She looks me over then. I can feel her gaze cataloguing the damage. Every hollowed-out piece. Every unraveling thread. “I tried to tell you in the clearing. That day. I tried, but she told me not to. And I listened. I shouldn’t have. If I knew it would go this far—if I knew you’d suffer like this—I would’ve told her to go to hell.”

My trembling hand rises to my temple, fingers pressing into my skull like the pressure might somehow soothe the pounding ache that’s taken up residence there.

“I don’t…” My voice trails off, the words dissolving into the air as I try to make sense of yet another puzzle piece I never wanted to find. “I don’t understand. What fucking plan is she talking about?”

Seren sits up straighter, the familiar fire lighting behind her eyes. “Yeah! That’s what I wanted to know too. Which is why I marched my happy little ass over to her house today while you were out with Siggy. Actually, I went over there to rip her a new one, because whatever this ‘endgame’ is, it’s bullshit. It’s not working, and I’m done playing along.”

That sharp, protective edge I’ve always associated with her pours off her in waves. It fits her better than the version who kept this from me. That other Seren—the one who sat onsomething this big—I don’t know who she is. But this? This I recognize. This I still trust.

“She told me it wasn’t even her plan,” Seren continues, eyes wide with frustration. “She said it wasThalassa’s.Your mom’s. And of course she was vague as hell about it. But she said your bond to Rennick was ‘the key to undoing her binds.’ Whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean.”

Why does it feel like everyone around me has answers I don’t? Like I’m the only one fumbling in the dark while they play along with rules that were never explained to me?

And why does everything always lead back to the same two people?

Rennick and Mom.

Seren might not understand what Amara meant, but I do. If what Zora and I pieced together is right—if my mother really did bind my wolf, tamper with my memories, leave behind these vague dreams like cryptic instruction manuals—then what Amara said wasn’t just a riddle. It was confirmation.

“Whatever Mom did to my wolf and my memories, I think…”I drag my fingers through my hair, breathing hard through my nose. “I think she tied it to him. To the bond. I think accepting Rennick, completing the bond, is the only way to undo what she did. To get it all back—my wolf, my memories, everything she took.”

Seren stares at me, stunned, her mouth parting, but no words coming. The confusion and guilt swimming across her face say enough.

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