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I move to stand.

“I didn’t kill her,” he says softly.

I stop. “Bree?”

Now he’s the one studying the workers who are hammering nails into the wooden frame to secure the window in place.

He nods. “We both worked hard to deal with the fallout from my dad’s death. You know what happened to him.”

I do.

It wasn’t a death. It was murder. Bree killed him, believing that Iain would convince Shane to change his mind about being with her instead of me.

“So someone found out that she killed him and killed her?” I ask, sitting back down.

I’d always wondered if they could find happiness together after what she did, because Shane loved his dad. He loved Bree too. He had to have loved Bree to turn his back on his fated mate for her.

How do you build a life with someone who killed the person you love?

“No one outright said it, but from the way I caught them looking at Bree, I think they worked out how he died.”

He refocuses on me and his eyes are bleak, haunted. “I found her body near some rocks. It looks like she just fell, but I knew it wasn’t an accident.”

Strange that she pushed me from the cliff in Winter Lake and someone killed her the same way. “Do you know who it was?”

He shakes his head. “I should have confronted them, but I just walked away. I couldn’t stay there anymore. Not after I lost everyone I loved. It wasn’t home anymore.”

I can’t help but feel a little sorry for him. My powers are not working now, but I feel his pain nonetheless. He’s hurting and probably always will.

Now, it sounds like whatever is going on in the Dacre Pack is the most dominant alphas wrestling for control. Just like what happened to the Raleighs, history is repeating itself.

There wouldn’t have been an heir apparent. Iain Dacre was in his fifties, not that old, and probably would have continued to be Alpha had he not chosen to step aside and pass the leadership to Shane.

Shane would have led the pack for decades, and everyone would have expected his son would be the next Alpha. I mean, there’s a reason Iain was always so insistent that me and Shane have a baby. That was his dream. Because none of that happened, Shane deciding to walk away would have left a gulf that needed filling.

“Who will be Alpha?” I ask.

He shrugs. “I don’t care. Rest. We’ll go back to the room soon.”

I feel sorry for him, but he’s trying to make this into our happy ever after and it isn’t. It can never be because I have that with Mack, and it’s a life I intend to go back to.

Shane’s happy ever after didn’t work out with Bree. I intend for mine with Mack to happen. I refuse to give up on us, even if, right now, I don’t know how I’ll escape.

8

MACK

“Don’t you have a pack to lead?” My dad glowers at Douglas Boone across the kitchen dining table.

Fortunately for us, the table is too small to fit all of us on, so they’re not sitting at it together. But that doesn’t mean the kitchen doesn’t suddenly feel a lot smaller than it did a second ago. Instantly, a wave of exhaustion pours over me. I was tired before, but I can see where this is going and I’m already sick of it.

“I was about to ask you the same thing.” Douglas smiles and eyes Ivy knowingly. “Or perhaps your role in the pack is nursing the babies while Ivy?—”

“No,” I growl.

Heads swivel my way as I look first at my dad, then at Douglas. “My priority is getting Aerin back. If you want to waste that time arguing, get out of my house and don’t come back. I’m not interested.”

Douglas meets my eyes steadily, then nods once and sits back in his seat. “I’m also here to get my daughter back.” He shrugs. “And perhaps I’ll win some favor with some of the other Alphas when I rescue their omegas as well.”

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