bChapter /bb175 /b

Eryx POV

This can’t be happening, there’s no way that he sold her to a rogue. Who even does that? I continue to fight against the threads, but my mother holds them tighter around my legs so that I can’t move.

“Why?” task.

“Why not? Did you think I didn’t know?” Wesleyughs, and it sends a chill down my spine. “Foolish boy, I knew you were her mate before you did.”

This is wrong. “If you knew, why pretend like you didn’t?”

“For this reason, you walked straight into my pack, without permission,” he says as he gestures around us.

she

“Look, we didn’te to start a war, we came for April, that is all,” my father speaks.

“You don’t walk into enemy territory and expect it not to begin a war, Xander, foolish beliefs you have.” Wesley tilts his head and looks at me. “She’s gone, that is no lie, she’s been gone for hours and I gave the rogue a driver and car to ensure he can get far away from here before you arrive.”

Is this what my mother faced? I know her father, ior /isupposed father did it to her. “Which rogue?” I ask.

“Does it matter? He’s imed her, Eryx, she’s his mate now. You know that, right?”

“Bullshit! She’s still my mate,” I roar.

He steps forward, and the threads tighten more. “But will she still want you? Once the im has taken hold, there’s ba /bchance it will make her forget how she felt about you, and instead, she will do everything to stay with him.”

“She won’t. Now give me a name!” I insist.

“Why would I do that? I have nothing to gain from giving you the name of the rogue she was sold to.” He looks from me to my father. “I’m sure your father can find out, he has connections, right?” Wesley says smugly.

“Just give us the name, and we’re gone,” my father says tightly, his voice strained from the effort of holding himself back. “You do realise they’ll kill her? Rogues rarely keep their females alive. You’re really going to stand there and let them ughter your only daughter? That’s what you want?”

Wesley lets out a low, humourlessugh, shaking his head as if he can’t quite believe he’s being questioned. “She’s lucky I let her live this long. We’ve never had a use for a girl.”

Something inside me snaps before I can stop it. I don’t think. I don’t n. I just let the fury take control. The threads burn up beneath my feet asl surge forward, my body moving faster than reason. Someone grabs for me, fingers closing around my armb, /bbut I flick my wrist hard and feel the crackle bof /bpower ripple through the air. Wesley’s body lifts clear off the groundi, /ithrown like a rag doll across the clearing. He hits the small wooden outhouse with a sickening crash, the entire structure copsing on top iof /ihim.

But wood isn’t heavy enough to kill him. I wish it were. My magic res again as I raise my hand, focusing on the splintered mess he’s buried under, and then I watch as the dry timber ignites, mes leaping and twisting in the air.

“Eryx!” My mother’s voice cuts through the roar of fire. I freeze as her magic surges past mine, calming the mes, forcing them back until only smouldering embers remain.

Wesley rises from the wreckage, brushing soot and ash from his shoulders bas /bif he’s shaking off an inconvenience instead of crawling free bfrom /bwhat should have been his funeral pyre.

“You were warned not to show people outside our pack your power,i” /imy father growls, and though his voice stays blow/bb, /bbthere’s /bbno /bbmistaking /bbthe /bbanger /bbeneath it. It’s not disappointment. It’s fury, Cold and sharp, like a de pressed to my skin.

“You heard what he said,” I argue.

b“/bAnd you were foolish enough to react, bhe’s /bnot going to tell us where April is if you’re throwing him around with your magiet

“No but maybe someone else will if i kill him,” I warn.

“Eryxb, /byou stand back and be quiet or we leave, right now.”

I step back, and let him and my mother stand in front of me.

“Your child just started a war, let me tell you this now, Xander. I’ll let you leave, but only because I want you to not be prepared for when we attack, and believe us, we will.”

“Just give us a name and I will happily walk out of your pack right now,” my father says. “You say it doesn’t benefit you, but I would say it does. You bwant /btoe to war with us, surely us distracting getting April, helping her recover from what you caused benefits you as we’re distracted.”

Wesley looks between us, then nods. “Okay,

He says that so calmly. My father stills, hi. “‘s with Rnd Corwick.”

“Dad?” I whisper.

“Let’s get home,” he says.

face pales and he just stares like the name

has silenced him entirely.

“No, why are you looking like that? Dad?” I shout.

“Maybe because Rnd Corwick has bought at least ten women this year, imed them and killed them within a few days,” Wesley says with augh.

No, my head shakes.

“Dad!” I shout.

“Look, Rnd is rogue who has always used women as nothing but toys. He ims them, uses them, ensures they can’t heal so they die. We need to go home, right now,” he says.

I don’t want to go home, I want to search for her, I want to find her. Now, notter. Why am I been told to go home! I feel a hand grip my arm, and my body is dragged back through the portal.

Ten women in a year, how much chance does April have now? I thought I would find her easily, get her back here, but now… Now I’m facing the possibility that when we find her, she’s already dead.

bAD /b

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