Page 24 of Red Hood, Bad Wolf

Mae's eyes widened as crimson energy wrapped around her, enhanced by Alder's Alpha power. For the first time, fear flickered across her face.

"What big mistakes you've made, grandmother," Alder snarled.

Together, they struck. Magic and claw, power and fury, love and justice all merging into a single devastating attack. Mae tried to resist, tried to call on her decades of built-up immunity, but this was something new. Something she couldn't fight.

Her final scream echoed through the clearing as the combined power tore through her defenses, ending decades of secret murders in a flash of crimson light.

Silence fell.

Alder stared at what remained of his grandmother, his body trembling. The mate bond carried his anguish, his horror, his relief—too many emotions to process. Rowan moved to him, ignoring her own injuries, and wrapped her arms around him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."

He turned into her embrace, burying his face in her hair. Through the mate bond, she felt the moment his walls crumbled, felt decades of manipulation and hidden trauma break free. She held him tighter, her magic wrapping around them both in a comforting cocoon.

They stood like that for a long moment, healing beginning in the ashes of devastation. The mate bond was stronger now, tempered by shared pain and shared triumph.

"Don't leave," Alder whispered against her hair. "Stay. Please. I love you."

Rowan's heart clenched at the memory of their argument, now seeming so distant. "I'm not going anywhere," she promised. "I love you too."

Above them, the sun broke through the clouds, casting light on a territory finally free of its hidden monster.

Chapter 9

Rowan's magic flickeredlike a candle flame as she cleaned the last of Mae's claw marks on Alder's shoulder. Her own wounds had been easier to heal—physical injuries always were. But the raw anguish pouring through their mate bond made her hands tremble.

"I should have known," Alder whispered. He sat on the edge of his bed, shoulders bowed under the weight of truth. "All these years, she was right there. Killing. Lying. Using me—" His voice broke.

"She fooled everyone." Rowan knelt before him, letting her magic wrap around them both in a soothing cocoon. "Even trained Red Hoods never suspected."

"My mother." His hands clenched into fists. "My father. She—" He couldn't finish.

Rowan felt his pain crash through the mate bond like a tidal wave. Without thinking, she pulled him into her arms. He came willingly, burying his face in her neck as decades of carefully constructed walls crumbled.

"She took everything," he managed between ragged breaths. "And made me believe it was the Red Hoods' fault. Made me hate your kind for years."

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