Page 77 of The Cursed Wolf King

Raina’s hand tightened on my shoulder, anchoring me, but even her touch couldn’t stop my thoughts spiraling faster than I could grasp.

My wolf turned inside me, the most movement I’d felt from her that I could remember, and it made me feel sick to my stomach. The restlessness, the wanting.

“She’s your fated mate?” Rhys barked. “Logan, you’ve lost your fucking mind.”

Logan’s growl rumbled low, a warning that silenced Rhys before he could say more. “This isn’t up for debate.” Logan was composed now, though I could feel the tension in every word. “She is. Don’t ask me how, I don’t know. But it’s true.”

“The Great Separation meant—” Isabelle started.

“I know what it meant,” Logan snapped. “And I don’t give a fuck what they say. I know it to the core of my soul. My wolf knew before me.”

“She’s dangerous.” Rhys shook his head. “You think she’s your mate. Even if it turns out to be true, you think it changes anything?”

“Fatedmate. And I don’t think it. I know it,” Logan replied, his words cutting through the room with the finality of an alpha’s command. “You all know me—youknowme—and I wouldn’t risk our pack for anything. But my very soul commands me to protect her. To save her. To?—”

“Stop,” I said, shaky, but growing stronger as I forced the words out. I shot to my feet before I could stop myself, the sudden movement sending my chair skidding back. Raina nearly lost her balance beside me, her hand slipping off my shoulder. She caught herself. Every head in the room turned to me but I didn’t care. “Just… stop.”

Logan’s eyes snapped to mine, searching me. “Eve?—”

“No,” I interrupted, holding up a hand. My pulse thundered in my ears, but I couldn’t stop. “I sense what’s happening in the pack, and the more this is about me, the worse this is going to get.”

Rhys frowned, clearly on the verge of another argument. I turned toward him with all the strength I could muster.

“And you,” I said firmly, despite the way my hands shook. “Of course I know I’m dangerous. I’ve been dangerous since the day I was born.”

I’d never said it aloud before, never admitted it, not even to myself. But it was true.

Logan stepped toward me. I took a step back, shaking my head. “Don’t,” I said, knowing I was pleading. “Don’t try to fix this for me. You can’t. I don’t know what this is really about, but I feel the division in this room, and it will only spread to the rest of the pack. I know it. It’s too soon to make rash decisions based on what we believe about our bond. There’s too much we don’t know.”

“You’re wrong.” He put his hands on my arms, the touch sending a wave of comfort over me. “Eve, we know what they said in the old days about fated mates, and we have to believe it’s true for us too.”

“I don’t know how to believe.”

Because I already knew how everything ended.

Badly. Very, very badly.

The bond between us was vibrating. I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff, teetering between the urge to fall and the urge to fly.

Raina cleared her throat. “Eve,” she said gently. “Whatever you’re feeling, whatever you’re thinking, you’re part of this—of us—now.”

“How can you say that?” Rhys said, glaring at Raina.

She addressed Rhys head-on. “Because I’ve been on this land longer than you, and seen more than you can let yourself imagine. And I believe our alpha when he says she’s his fated mate. Doyou?”

The sincerity in her eyes cut through some of the noise in my head.

Rhys looked around the room, but his chin dipped low. “Logan, you know I’ll follow you into the depths of hell. I just hope you’re not sending us there too soon.”

Silence settled over us.

“The pack will follow me,” Logan said. A wordless warning passed between him and Rhys. “You don’t have to like it, but you will accept it. We are Orion, and we stand behind each other. Hear the truth in my words: She is my fated mate. And she stays. Because without her, I cannot succeed.”

Rhys’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue further.

The room went still. Logan didn’t yell or make a show of power. He didn’t need to. The wolves around the table straightened slightly, shoulders relaxing as Logan’s declaration, his alpha energy, coursed through them. That alone was enough to bring them back together, uniting behind him.

And in uniting behind him, they were uniting behindus.

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