Page 49 of Predator

“Don’t be cheeky, mon cher. It doesn’t suit you.”

I wasn’t being cheeky. I was giving her a chance to end this without the tensions between shifters and witches getting any worse.

“But you’re right. I could send her back to the dogs. I could give her to one of my witches to practice on.” She taps her pointed chin with a perfectly manicured nail. “Or maybe play with. Remy insists on having you, but Claude has shown an interest in the wolves.”

“But he’s a witch?—”

“And she would have to join the coven, of course. We may have an uneasy truce, but I will always put the coven first.” Marie tsks as she looks at Jade. “She seemed less than pleased at the idea. She also didn’t think you’d come to retrieve her if I sent her photograph to you. Luckily, we have other leverage.”

Jeannie.

“As for the wolf,” Marie continues conversationally, “I got tired of her howling and after I was so kind and gave her the photograph of Jolie and I last month.” So that’s why the cursive was the same. Marie sent over both envelopes! “Ah, well. I’ll wake her up eventually, but the mutt isn’t the reason you are here. Is it, petite fille?”

I don’t know what’s worse: hearing her call me ‘Jolie’, or the repeated reminder that she was Marie’s granddaughter.

Both. It’s both.

“I want my friend.”

“The human girl is with Remy now.” Of course she is. “Once we’re done here, you can have her. But, first, business.”

No. “I don’t have any business with you.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.”

Maybe, but I don’t care. Ever since this woman proved that her precious coven is more important to her than any blood tie we might have, I want nothing to do with her. She told me where Jeannie is—and as much as I don’t want to deal with Remy again, I will—and that’s all I need to know.

I’ll get Jeannie. I’ll figure out how to save her and Jade. Fuck the truce. I’ll rally the whole pack if I have to because, damn it, Jade’s ours, Jeannie is mine, and I’m sick of these damn witches.

I start for the closed door, but I don’t even make it two steps before her voice stops me.

“You should thank me. I gave you to the Alpha and you tamed him. Look. I see his bite on your skin. I had my doubts that you would, but you did it. And now here we are.”

Are you fucking kidding me? She makes it seem like she played matchmaker between me and Lucas. I don’t care that, even as his feral, Lucas recognized how important I was to him. If he hadn’t have gotten control of himself, he probably would’ve mated me—and regretted it when he came back to his senses—but I don’t think he would’ve killed me.

But she didn’t know that, did she?

I certainly didn’t.

“You tried to sacrifice me to him!”

“For the coven,” she says simply. “I sacrificed my son for the coven. Why wouldn’t I sacrifice my granddaughter? There isn’t anything I won’t do to see a Bordeaux lead the coven. No split loyalties. It’s coven or nothing, and time you understand that, Jolie.”

I don’t.

There’s no point reminding Marie that my name is Fallon. So maybe I was Jolie once, but she lived her life. She lost it—and if she hadn’t, who the hell knows if I’d even be here—and I’m sorry for the ripple effect her death had on so many lives, but, yeah… that’s life. It sucks. Whether it’s because your adoptive mom died of cancer, or your bio parents died in a crash?—

I sacrificed my son for the coven…

“What do you mean ’sacrificed’ your son?”

“He chose the wolves. He chose Guinevere. Of course he had to be eliminated once he had a child to carry on our name.”

Guinevere… A shiver runs down my spine at the name. Not only because it has meaning to me, but because the way Marie sneers it, I just have to ask, “My birth mother?”

I was adopted as an infant by Adrienne Witt. She named me herself. Fallon Genevieve Witt. When my classmates would poke fun at my first and middle names since they were both unusual, she’d tell me stories about Queen Guinevere from the days of King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, and Camelot. Of course, she kept them PG since it’s one of the most infamous love triangles in literature, but still. She loved the stories, loved the name, and loved me.

As for Fallon, she always said she just liked the sound of it. After looking it up once, I learned my name meant ‘in charge’ and ‘descended from a ruler’. Considering Mom’s fascination with a medieval queen, it made sense.

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