Page 59 of Predator

“Claude—”

He ignores Armand. “Did you really think you had the nerve to kill your own blood? I knew Jolie. With a wolf bitch for a mother or not, she was too weak. Madame knew you were the same. You couldn’t do what needed to be done so she charmed you to do it.”

Wait— what?

Lucas’s growl is deep in his chest. “You dare call Fallon weak? Listen to me, witch. Disrespect my mate one more time and there will be two funeral rites given today.”

Three, but I’m not about to mention Remy right now. If the other witches don’t know yet… maybe it’s better to keep it quiet.

“We already have two since one of your wolves slaughtered Remy.”

Never mind, then.

Before anyone can react to Claude’s accusation, Jeannie steps forward. It’s hard to see the silver glow of her eyes in the sunlight, but not impossible. If anyone doubted she was really Luna-touched they don’t anymore, especially when she announces, “The Luna gave me permission to take down whoever was responsible for Jolie Bordeaux’s murder. Remy Gauthier confessed he was responsible, and he was eliminated.”

Claude shuts up. When Armand nods, murmuring his apologies our way, I’m not sure if he knew that Remy had done it, but it doesn’t matter. The truth is that he did and he was killed for it, and while I would’ve preferred to tell Lucas that myself, his only reaction is a barely-there flinch before he squeezes my shoulders again.

I know him. He needed closure about Jolie before we could truly move on together. I hope he has it now—but it’s my turn to command the conversation again.

“Are you saying that she wanted me to kill her? Is that it?”

Claude glances over at Armand. Armand sighs.

“It was always the plan. When the curse broke… if you didn’t choose to lead the coven on your own, she would do what had to be done to make sure you did. We need a new generation of Bordeaux blood. We need you, Madame.”

Good luck.

Well, at least part of that is a little bit of a relief to me. In the back of my mind, I was beginning to wonder if becoming a wolf made me lose any of the humanity I had. Like always, I’d shoved that to the side because I wasn’t ready to deal with that.

It all happened so fast. I wasn’t thinking—and if this witch can be believed, I wasn’t in control, either. Once Marie realized that she was about to lose the one thing she spent more than seventy years waiting for… once she understood that, like my bio dad, I wasn’t about to give up my mate for the coven… it seems like she made the choice for me.

She couldn’t kill me. I was the last of the Bordeauxs. Her only hope to keep the coven in her bloodline. She had no other children, and she murdered her son. No wonder she was so set on bringing me back to Winter Creek.

It wasn’t about the curse, was it? It was about the future of the coven… and now she’s dead, I’m not, and these two are looking at me like I’m not a murderer but, instead, their new leader.

Ah, shit.

“No, no. Sorry. I choose the pack?—”

“And the coven chooses you.”

The younger witch huffs. Obviously, he didn’t, but it doesn’t matter. If Marie’s last wish was for me to take over… he might not want anything to do with his leader’s killer, but he must respect her enough to go through with this nonsense.

Armand certainly does.

And, to my surprise, so does Jeannie.

I wasn’t expecting that. I still don’t quite understand why she’s here. Like, I know the Luna told me that she needed one of her guardians to check up on me since me being resurrected was an agreement between the wolves’ goddess and the witch’s, but they took Jeannie. They kept her prisoner until they could use her against me. And, okay. I’m pretty sure that was part of her mission, but I still didn’t think she would side with the witches over the wolves now.

But she does.

“The Luna brought you back because you were one of hers,” she tells me, that same annoyance in her voice that I’m intimately familiar with. “Same with Hecate. You owe the witches.”

Do I really?

I turn to Lucas. His lips thin, his expression shadowed, and all he says is, “You embraced your shifter side. What kind of mate would I be if I told you you couldn’t do the same for any witch blood you have?”

Oh so now Lucas wants to finally understand that I’m not the type of chick who likes to be told what to do?

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