Page 52 of Eclipsed Heart

Answers about my past were something I could get behind wholeheartedly. I wanted them as well as any memories of my parents I could salvage. The idea of the Southwest queen having a hand in spelling me made a tremor snake down my spine. I hadn’t considered it until now, but shewasthe most likely suspect. “How old is she?”

“Forties,” Samuel answered immediately. “Which means she’s had plenty of time to devise a plan in order to make a name for herself.”

Still, that didn’t add up to me. If she was the one who’d killed my parents and messed with me, why keep me alive? “Wouldn’t she have made a move long before now?”

“Not if she needed to get an army ready for war.” Samuel crossed his arms.

“Maybe.” I wasn’t going to disagree with him. He clearly knew the players and the history better than I did. But for some reason, it didn’t make sense to me. “But I do think Bodey has a point. Maybe we should focus on getting my memories back and locating the witch who spelled me.”

Dan pointed at Samuel. “But reaching out to her and asking to meet—that could give us some breathing room. She should theoretically hold off on any more attacks as a show of good faith. It might buy us time to find the witch and get some answers.”

“And if we don’t have answers by then, we could strategize, get her to stumble and reveal some answers at the meeting.” Miles placed a hand on the back of the couch.

If they all thought this was the best course of action, I couldn’t disagree. “Okay. How do we reach out to her?” Even as I said the words, unease crept in. Maybe it was all the horrible events of the day catching up to me.

Jack gestured to my sister. “She must have a way to communicate with the queen.”

Flinching, Stevie swallowed hard. “You want my help? After almost getting me killed?”

She might as well have punched me. I was never going to get over that regret.

Blood boiling, Bodey stepped slightly in front of me, staring my sister down. He sneered, “If you hadn’t worked with the queen, then the queen wouldn’t have tried to have you killed. That wasn’t our fault.You’rethe one who got yourself in this situation, so why don’t you bite your tongue and help your sister out?”

“Hey, man.” Jack jumped to his feet, blocking Stevie from Bodey’s view. “You need to back off. Yourmate—”

“That’s enough.” Something powerful laced my words as I commanded Jack. My wolf had asserted herself, taking me by surprise. The way that Jack was talking to my mate and was about to talk about me could not be tolerated.

Jack’s mouth snapped closed, and his eyes widened. Bodey turned toward me, eyes glowing, his arousal slamming into me.

I wasn’t going to stand here and accept us turning on one another. That was what the Southwest queen wanted, and we had enough issues with Zeke to contend with. “Jack, you don’t get to talk to us that way. You may not agree with my decisions, but you talk to me about them respectfully. I love Stevie, and I’ll admit that I screwed up. But Bodey’s right—she was the one who put us in this situation, even if she had good intentions. All we can do now is forgive each other and try to right our wrongs, and throwing insults at each other isn’t going to accomplish that.”

The room became eerily quiet as everyone blinked at me.

“Wow.” Jack’s mouth dropped. “Look, I know I should be pissed right now, but fuck me. Having that power overwhelming me was both amazing and terrifying. My wolf is bowing out of fucking respect right now. No, fuck that. It did a full curtsy.”

“Leave it to my son.” Carl smiled while shaking his head.

I rolled my eyes, trying to ignore the heat of Bodey’s arousal rushing through me. My own body was warming in response, and the last thing we needed was to leave now and have a quickie.

Damn. That thought was tempting.

Trying not to go down that rabbit hole, I moved so I could see my sister.

This time, she met my gaze.

“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t think anyone would dare attack you here, and that’s why I okayed taking away your pack link. But I should have left guards with you for protection.” I placed a hand over my heart. “I love you, and I never want anything bad to happen to you. I understand you were making decisions you thought would protect our family, but that doesn’t make them right. So I’m asking you to help me now. We can begin repairing the damage we both did to each other by workingtogether.”

I laid my heart on the line in front of everyone, and I could only hope that it was enough to break through to her. This was my olive branch, and if she rejected it, we might never be okay.

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

Stevie ranher hands over her legs, which was her tell when she was torn on something. The warmth in her eyes was gone, making them a dark chocolate brown.

A part of me wished she was avoiding my gaze instead of going through the internal debate I knew she was having to decide if she’d reconcile with me.

I could only hope that my words had convinced her.

Babe, it’ll be okay,Bodey linked and placed a hand on my arm.I promise. You both love each other. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be struggling right now.

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