Page 19 of Rejected By the Alpha King

We took a few minutes to set up a clearing, and then everyone except Saul, Anna, and me shifted. My wolf also yearned to be out, to sidle up to her and comfort her, and for that reason alone, I stayed human.

Saul went to Anna’s side and inflated the pillow for her knee. I settled just out of their sight and listened to them talk.

“When Cora first went missing, we had our witch try and track her. Irene is a powerful white witch, and she couldn’t track my twin more than twenty feet from our boundary,” Saul said quietly.

Anna inhaled sharply, and Saul murmured an apology. After a moment, he continued.

“When Cora did return, she was in so much pain, she could barely speak. The only reason Jax found your father was because Cora had a strange map in her pocket. Step counts from a rock formation. It was lucky that Jax was familiar with the rock formation.”

“Lucky,” Anna repeated flatly.

“The only thing is that the map was not written in Cora’s hand.”

I stiffened. Saul had never said that to me.

“You want me to admit that I wrote the map and sent your sister out in hopes that she’d see someone who might care before she died?” Anna asked lightly. “Is that going to help you find closure, somehow?”

“Closure. That’s an odd term. Do you feel closure now that your father is dead?”

My mate snorted. “Fine. I get your point.”

And what exactly was the point that Saul was trying to make?

“Were there any other females taken with Cora? Any other females other than the children at the camp?”

“No. Just me. Why?”

“And the children. Did she know that they were there?”

Anna was quiet for a moment. “I think so. I don’t really remember, but I probably told her to motivate her. Why?”

“So she never saw them.”

“No. She never got that far. She’d spent less than twelve hours at the camp, and she spent all of that with me. Do you want to know what we talked about?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t remember,” Anna said, and my gut tightened. Normally, it was easy to tell when one of my wolves was lying, but with Anna, it was always hard. It wasn’t my bond to tell me that she’d lied just then, but I heard a tell in her voice. A slightly higher pitch. The words spoken a little too quickly.

So far, she’d told Saul everything that he wanted to know. Why would she lie now?

“I see,” Saul said quietly. “Thank you for the information you did provide. I know that you didn’t know Cora when she was at her best, but you were right. She was strong. A fighter.

She was born seventeen minutes before me, and she never let me forget it.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I thought you might want to know something about the woman who saved your life.”

“Since your alpha won’t listen to me, and I’m probably going to die on this trip with the rest of you, I would argue that your sister did not save my life.”

Saul chuckled softly. “We both know that is not true. I’ve spent a long time thinking that you had the heart of a killer.”

“You agreed not too long ago that I was responsible for the death of your sister.”

“The hand of a killer is not the same as the heart of one.”

Enough of this bullshit. I didn’t know what Saul was doing, but I moved into the clearing.

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