Page 118 of Rejecting his Mate

“You think they are collecting tau wolves to control shifters?”

I shrug, unsure if my theory sounds stupid. “How many times have chosen mates failed to cement their bonds and been stuck in a loveless mating?”

“I don’t know. It happens, or so I’ve heard.”

“And the only way to remove a chosen bond is through magic.”

“That bond was weak to start with.”

“It was, but what if other tau can do the same? What if we don’t need to rely on alpha magic to create packs? What if we don’t need alpha and beta magic to draw the first shift?” I lift my eyes to meet his. “What if Hester isn’t the only one building an army of hybrids?”

He doesn’t speak for a moment, just digesting what I just said. My stomach tingles with nervous energy as Iwait for him to tell me I’m sleep deprived and delusional.

But he doesn’t.

“If that is the case, then you and the others are in much more danger than we imagined. You’re stuck in the middle of a war we don't even know exists.”

Cade comes off the couch, striding toward me until he is standing in front of me. I have to tip my head back to meet his gaze, and his broad shoulders block my view. Everything about him is big.

He presses his hands to either side of my neck, rubbing his fingers against the tight muscles. “No one, and I mean no one, is going to lay a hand on you. Hester is not using you as cannon fodder against these fuckers. And hunters won’t get their hands on you. These bruises,” he swipes over my face where Dalton hit me, “are the last you will ever wear.”

I lean into his touch, needing that connection with him. I can’t even tell him how grateful I am for everything he is. I thought I would be shackled to a monster for the rest of my life, but those chains Dalton put on me weren’t real.

He brushes my hair back from my face before his arms wrap around me, holding me in a safe cocoon. I wish we could stay like this forever, wrapped in each other, the outside world fading to nothing, but there is no peace to be found.

“I know my dad wasn’t a tau wolf. I’m not even sure males can be tau. One of the things I remember from my past is that my aunt blamed me for my father beingkilled. He was protecting me and my mom. My mom could have been tau.”

“It’s likely. I don’t know how it is passed down, but it would make sense if one of your parents were one.”

I close my eyes, trawling through my memories before meeting Delphine. We were running, and then there is nothing. “I don’t remember how I ended up with Adeline. The last thing I see is my mom and me together, so what happened to my mom? Did the hunters catch her? Was she killed, or was she taken?” My eyes pop open, and I find Cade’s. “If she was taken, she could be alive.”

And if she is, I have to find her. But first, I need to recover the memory of my last moments with her, which means I need Hester’s help.

Chapter 28

Cade

Halle pulls out of my grasp as if trying to reach the door. I snag her wrist, making her stop. I know she is desperate for answers, and so am I, but I don’t want her to rush into things headfirst without considering what it might mean.

“Hold your horses,” I tell her.

I feel her frustration through the mating bond, but I don’t need it to sense that anyway. She is radiating it through every line of her body.

“We need to do this now.”

“I don’t like the idea of someone we suspect may be using you poking around in your mind.”

Halle looks a little sheepish as that sinks in. “If Hester wanted to hurt me, she could have done it already.” When I open my mouth to protest, she holds her hands up defensively. “I’m not saying she doesn’t have her motives, that we’re not part of whatever plan she has going on, but I don’t think she brought us herejust to kill us, Cade.”

My fingers are restless, and I end up skimming them over her neck. This urge to always be touching her is so strong it is hard to deny. “The point is, we don’t know what she is doing. Let’s regroup in the morning with the others and see where we go from here.”

She grumbles but softens in my arms as I stroke the claiming mark. That seems to calm her, and I can tell I won her over when she sags against me. “A few days ago, my life was simple. I hated Dalton, my pack liked me, my aunt—I don’t know. Now, everything is so different.”

“Your life was never simple. You were never going to shift during the ceremony, and your aunt was banking on the fact you would and that no one would ever know you were different. She played Russian roulette with your life, and you lost.”

She peers up at me, her green orbs swimming as tears stand in her eyes. I swipe my thumb across her cheek, capturing them as they fall. “I’m trying to keep busy because if I stop for a moment, everything is going to hit me at once. The fact my mom left me with a wolf who stripped away everything I was, that my aunt lied to me all these years about everything, the way Klaus interfered with my mating to his son as if even he knew I was built wrong. Although, I guess I owe Klaus for that.”

I hug her tight against me, careful not to squeeze her too much and hurt her. I can break her physically and emotionally, and I am very aware of the power I have over her because she has the ability to destroy me too.

---