Page 19 of Chosen Destiny

He didn’t say anything, but I saw the way Jasmine was looking at him. Her heart broke for him, but I needed Lynerd to saysomething.

Lynerd scratched his head. I’d expected him to jump on the offer, but his hesitation had my lungs seizing. I’d offered him the role in front of everyone without considering that he might not want it.

I hated to think of giving the royal advisor role back to Theo after embarrassing him like this.

We’re going to have a problem if he doesn’t accept,Miles linked. At least he didn’t lecture me.

“It should be me,” Theo said and glared at me. “He doesn’t want it.”

Lynerd growled. “Don’t speak on my behalf when you don’t know what I’m thinking.”

Heart pounding, I wanted him to answer instead of jerking us around. “Which is?”

“All the sacrifices it’ll take to make sure I can protect my people.” Lynerd ran a hand down his face. “All this time, I was angry, knowing the responsibility should’ve been mine, but now that you’ve offered it…”

He was thinking the decision through. Though it was painful for me to bear, I had to respect that. It would’ve been nice if Fate had found a way to restore my memories and give me a chance to think through the royal responsibilities before marking me as queen. Yet, here we were. I refused to pressure someone into taking a role they might not want.

“Take a little time. We need to bury Sybil anyway.” I looked at the witches and forced another small smile. “She deserves to be returned to nature.”

All five witches nodded, and the ebony-haired woman came closer. “Yes, we need to relinquish her power back into the earth. The sooner, the better.”

Jack, Lucas, and Miles headed to the trunk of the SUV while the witches came over. Then, the former advisors walked toward me. There were various questions and concerns on the former advisors’ faces, and I had no doubt they were thinking similarly to Samuel.

Maybe I’d messed up by following my gut, but Theo didn’t feel like the right option.

“May we visit some of your pack and check on them?” Phil leveled his gaze on Lynerd.

That way, you can talk to Lynerd without all of us here, and we can see how his pack’s doing after Queen Kel’s attack,Michael linked.

“Go ahead.” Lynerd glanced over his shoulder at his beta. “You and Frank go with them and introduce them to everyone. They’ll be jumpy around unfamiliar wolves so soon after the attack.”

“On it.” The beta strolled past me, motioning for the others to follow him.

Samuel stayed put and crossed his arms. “I’m staying with Callie.”

He was probably afraid to leave me alone after I’d made a decision he didn’t approve of, but having him here might be for the best. Lynerd might not accept the new role, and I might have created more of a mess than I’d intended.

“Uh.” Dan glanced at me with concern. “If—”

“It’s fine.” I nodded. “Samuel can stay with me.”

Dan paused, but Carl wrapped an arm around his shoulders and guided him to follow the betas with everyone else while Jack, Lucas, and Miles followed the witches, carrying Sybil to wherever they wanted her.

Samuel, Lynerd, and I stood outside Lynerd’s house while Jasmine and Theo climbed back into Jack’s vehicle with Zeke.

After an extended moment of silence, I couldn’t take it anymore. The world seemed to be closing in on me, so I said, “I hate that we couldn’t come here right after the attack. We were trying to get my childhood memories back.”

Lynerd arched a brow. “Then why did you come here this morning?”

“Because Salem, Sybil’s mother, was the witch who locked them away.” I wanted to be truthful and mend some of what was broken between us. “Zeke ran off with her because he knew Sybil could return my memories. Apparently, Queen Kel was supposed to get Sybil from him before we arrived, but instead, she killed her. Sybil was the last surviving person of her bloodline. Her death ended the spell.”

Lynerd pinched the bridge of his nose. “Six years after becoming alpha at sixteen, I had to deal with losing our strongest witch. I remember finding her and her husband dead a few miles from here. Are you telling me Zeke was responsible?”

I blew out a breath. “Yes, he was. I remember seeing her and the spell she performed. Zeke sacrificed his best friend to block my memories.”

“He’s going to be punished, right?” Lynerd locked gazes with me. “For everything he’s done.”

“I plan on locking him up and never allowing him to see the light of day again.” I never thought I could have more anger for that man than I’d had growing up, but knowing everything made me despise him. “When I got my memories back, right after Bodey was taken, I wanted to kill him. But I realized something. Zeke living without control or influence over anyone is a worse punishment than death.”

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