Page 62 of Owning His Mate

Sawyer leans back in the chair, his stance radiating a lazy ease that is not mirrored in the tenseness of his shoulders. I’ve noticed this wolf tries to hide behind humor, and to the untrained eye he manages it, but I see it for what it is. “For a myth this old bitch is getting a lot of airtime right now.”

“All myths are based on truth,” Abel says, speaking for the first time since he entered the room.

Tessa reaches up to grab his hand, giving it a squeeze and smiling at him. He softens immediately for her, and I wonder if that’s the kind of adoration I have in my eyes when I look at my mate.

“We need the others here,” Roux says. “Wyatt might know something, maybe even Dove. She’s seen the inner workings of the Order, at least.”

I straighten at this admission. “In what capacity?” I demand. Was she a captive or a member?

“She was held in one of their facilities, Jackson too,” Tessa says. “Neither of them remembers much, but we suspect they could have been used in their breeding program.”

Fuck. If that’s true I feel for them both.

Halle pulls out her phone, her fingers rapidly bouncing around her screen before she pockets it, glancing around everyone. “I bet I know who has answers to these questions. Hester.”

The little I have gleaned from Apryle means I know she betrayed my mate, though she has been less open about thenature of their disagreement, which automatically makes me hate Hester.

“She isn’t going to tell you a damn thing,” Cade counters. “She lied to us the entire time we were at the Sanctuary.”

“I miss her,” Sawyer muses, his finger pressed against his lip as his expression turns pensive. “At least we knew where we stood with Hester. Better the devil you know and all that.”

“Yeah,” Halle says. “Where we stood was in the fucking dark. She knew who that white-haired bastard was all along, which means she probably knows where my mother is. Yet she hasn’t said a single thing about it. I don’t miss her. We should have rung the answers out of her before we left.”

“Violent little thing, aren’t you?” Sawyer smirks. “Don’t ever piss your mate off, brother. She might smother you in your sleep.”

Cade rolls his eyes. “Your imagination, as usual, surpasses expectation.”

I want them to focus, to stop fucking around. This is serious. My mate is in danger, and I want to know how to protect her. “Quit joking,” I snap. “Come up with answers.”

“Hester might be an answer,” Roux says, defending her mate. “She knows things.”

“Yeah, like the fact her brother is the head of the Order,” Halle adds. “Which means she definitely knows where my mom is, even though she won’t tell me.”

I blink. “What?”

“You didn’t know?”

The growl that surges up my throat is savage. “Obviously not.”

“Hester and the white-haired asshole are related. Hester is terrified of him and ran away, creating the Sanctuary—a sort of vacation spot for persecuted tau. She lied about everything andwhen we found out we left her there,” Sawyer says. “I think that about covers it.”

Apryle hadn’t told me any of this yet, though I have no doubt she would have eventually, but I’m blindsided by this news. “So let’s grab her and demand answers.”

“We can’t,” Roux says, which earns a grumble from Halle. “She’s a victim in this too.”

“A victim with important fucking information,” I challenge. It could protect Apryle.

I find Sawyer’s hand pressed into my chest as I step toward his mate. Gone is the jovial expression and his eyes are hard. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

I scoff—as if he could—but I do move back. These are Apryle’s friends, her coven too. I don’t want to stir up shit.

“I understand the anger you feel. We all had the same response, but I get the impression she’s scared of him.” Sadness threads through Tessa’s words, and I wonder how she deals with her empathy on a daily basis. It’s such a burden the way she seems to take everything personally.

“Just assuming that these followers really believe that Revna is real and that she really did create our kind as the stories say,” Cade muses, “what difference would it make if she was free?”

“She was trapped by Torsten.” Roux taps her fingers on her knee. “I think that’s what the story said.”

“What it actually says,” Sawyer corrects his mate, “is that he rejected her, she went crazy, and he banished her to some dark hole so he could move on with another chick.”

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