Page 15 of Wicked Fate

“Because you made sure it felt real.” Sun’s arms were crossed, her voice venomous.

“Wait.” I rubbed my eyes. “Then why did he reject me at the cliff?”

“Something I hadn’t accounted for.” She picked at her nails. “As soon as Sun and Ryker showed up, there were complications. When you four met, my spell started to unravel. The magic couldn’t hold. The closer each of you was to your true fated mate, the weaker the spell became, and then the forced bond began to repel Reid and Ember from each other.”

“So you allowed him to humiliate her?” Ryker pointed a shaky finger at the witch. “You let her suffer. You let the entire damn pack believe she wasn’t good enough. You let him tear her apart.”

“I didn’t mean for that to happen,” Cassi said, sounding broken. “I was trying to give us all a chance to survive! I didn’t know it would hurt so many people.”

“Man, this is fucked up,” Gage whispered not so quietly behind us.

Reid looked like Cassi had kicked him in the chest. “You think I wanted that? That I’d agree to bond myself to someone I wasn’t fated to just for a chance to be king?”

“You wouldn’t have,” she said softly. “But that was the point. Neither you nor Ember would’ve accepted power for power’s sake. Which meant you were the ones who should have it.”

His growl vibrated through the room. “You’re wrong. If you really believed in me, you would’ve told me the truth.”

Sun paced beside the bed, shaking her head, eyes narrowed like slits. “You humiliated Ember, Reid, and me at the ceremony. And now we find out the only reason the bond existed was because some witch decided to play matchmaker with magic?”

Ryker flinched, his entire body vibrating with tension. “You didn’t just screw with Reid and Ember,” he ground out. “You messed with all of us. You know what that rejection did to her? What it nearly did to me, watching her fall apart over a lie?”

My throat burned. My chest ached so fiercely it felt like I was back on that cliff again, staring at the man who was supposed to be mine as he looked at me like I was nothing.

“I thought I was going insane,” I whispered. “Because when you rejected me, I could feel it slipping. The bond. I thought it meant I wasn’t good enough. That Fate made a mistake—or I had. And then I met Ryker and couldn’t trust anything I was feeling.”

Reid’s expression crumpled.

Briar stepped forward, brows furrowed. “So your magic just… forges fake bonds?”

Cassi stiffened. “No.”

Everyone went still again.

Ryker narrowed his eyes. “Then what else can you do? What else have you messed with?”

CHAPTERFIVE

Cassi stiffened, her throat working like she was trying to swallow her words before they ever left her lips.

I inhaled deeply, steeling myself for something else that would make us all question reality.

“Dammit, Cassi.” Reid’s nostrils flared. “Just tell us everything. You withholding information is only going to worsen things between us.”

She flinched and closed her eyes. “I can… feel true fated-mate bonds.”

“What exactly does that mean?” Gage asked, moving to the other side of Briar so that the four of us stood between the door, Reid, and Sun.

“When two people who are meant for each other are in close proximity, it’s like electricity under my skin. I can see it. Like golden threads stitching the air around them.”

My breath caught. That sounded very similar to what I felt when Ryker and I touched.

“I knew Ember and Reid weren’t truly fated.” Cassi’s gaze flicked toward the bed. “Not in that way. That bond didn’t spark. Not until I forced it and, even then, it didn’t really hum.”

Reid’s chest heaved, his bandages stretching with the movement. “So you knew it wasn’t real.”

She nodded. “I thought I could strengthen it if I moved fast enough. If I got you two to complete the mating ceremony, the mate bond would take effect once you claimed each other, and you wouldn’t ever know you had a fated mate.”

“So you knew,” he snarled. “Youknewit was falling apart the moment I met Sun, and you still tried to get me to complete the fake bond with Ember?”

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