24. Asher

ASHER

P haedra was coming to see me again. Well, her and the others, but my wolf and I were far too excited about the prospect of seeing her to mask the excitement vibrating through me.

I had replayed those moments we shared over and over in my head. I couldn't help but remember the way her hair had splayed around her head as she lay beneath me, her every touch making me shiver. The eagerness that matched mine as she held me inside her, with her legs around my waist. The way her pussy gripped me, so wet and tight, it was almost overwhelming.

But if I was being honest, just the thought of her sweet, soft moans and flushed face was enough to turn me on. I needed to have her again, but I knew I had to wait.

Finally, night fell, and Taig and my uncle arrived at my shed. Within minutes, we heard knocks at the door. When I opened it, I saw nobody, but then I heard Phaedra's voice.

"It's us," she said, and before our eyes, she, Selene, Theodora, and Penny shimmered into view. "Eleanor gave us pix powder, so it'll be easier to sneak around."

It was such a relief to see her, I couldn't stop myself from taking her hand and pulling her against me. It was such an immediate reaction that I didn't think it might have made Phaedra uncomfortable until I clasped her hand. Fortunately, she seemed just as eager as I was, holding my face between her soft hands and pulling me down for a quick kiss. Her touch sent fire through my blood.

When we pulled away, everyone was quiet. I couldn't blame them for being stunned into silence. But the range of reactions was interesting. My uncle, Taig, and Penny were grinning openly at us, Theo was staring at her hands and blushing even harder than Phaedra, while Selene and Randall were looking at the manor, pretending they hadn't seen a thing

I wasn't sure where my pack and I stood with the latter two, and at the moment I didn't care because it felt nice to smile and hold Phaedra. Living under Connor's tyrannical rule was so difficult that any bit of levity felt like a gift. Hopefully, this alleviated the awkwardness that Randall and Selene's presence caused.

"I'm glad to see you two are getting along again," Uncle Garrett said. "The tension was exhausting, right, Taig?"

"Oh, yes," my right-hand man agreed. "I wondered when they'd come together again."

The red in Phaedra's cheeks deepened at Taig's choice of words.

"It's about time the two of you stopped beating around the bush about your feelings," Penny added.

My uncle threw his head back and laughed, both hands on his stomach while Taig openly snickered. Penny joining in on the teasing caught me off guard, but I was used to family ribbing me. Phaedra—obviously and adorably—wasn't.

"Gods!" Phaedra exclaimed, throwing up her hands in defeat. "Yes, Asher and I are together, but let's not make that the subject of this meeting, okay?"

"You guys were the ones who started making out in front of everyone," Penny pointed out. "If anything you?—"

"Point taken, Pen." Phaedra's voice was becoming a squeak, and it made me want to kiss her all over again. "Selene, Randall, Theo, I hope that didn't make you uncomfortable."

"Don't mind me," Theo said, her voice squeaking also. She, too, had reddened during that teasing. "I think it's really sweet that you two are together again. Honestly. Somehow, despite getting rid of the mate bond, you're still fighting to be together."

I'm sure she meant it, but she couldn't look either of us in the eye. Then I noticed Randall looking at her. At first, I was on guard on Theodora's behalf. Randall was a beast on the battlefield—on the rare occasions he and my pack fought, he easily held his own against five or six of my wolves. He had the bulk and fighting know-how to prove he was an incredible warrior.

But the urge to call him out for staring at Phaedra's friend began to fade. To anyone else, he might have looked thoughtful or vaguely intrigued, but a man who had found his mate knew exactly what that look meant. I recognized the vague amusement in his dark brown eyes, and the yearning. I would never have thought a brute like Randall and a woman as gentle as Theodora could ever work, but maybe I was wrong.

"It doesn't bother me at all," Selene said, yanking my attention away from Randall.

I must not have looked convinced, because she raised both hands, palms out toward me.

"I mean it," she said. "I'm not at all bothered."

Garrett crossed his arms. "Asher warned us you two would be joining." I didn't miss the accusatory edge he put on the word "you". "But I'm shocked either of you showed up. Especially you, Selene."

Selene's face started to redden. I assumed she was angry or defensive, because the woman who had sold me out to Connor would have been. But when she spoke, I realized that redness came from shame.

"What I did to you and to the Dagger pack was awful," she admitted, looking me, Garrett, and Taig in the eye in turn. "The way I acted was extremely unbecoming of an alpha and someone who was once a friend to you and your people. I regret my actions every day."

"You only regret it because Connor has you under his thumb," Taig said. He spoke calmly, but the slight furrow in his brow revealed he was pissed off. He had once loved Selene—not that she knew that. "You betraying us to the Wilcox pack had no effect on our fate. All of this would have happened even if you didn't endear yourself to Connor. So, what is it? What changed? Is this some attempt to get back at Connor? Or maybe you're planning on selling the knowledge you gain from these meetings to better your position with him?"

I trusted that Phaedra had made the right decision in allowing Selene to join us, but Taig was right to be suspicious. He was asking the same questions I would have asked.

Penny shifted at Theo's side. Her mouth started to open, but Selene shook her head slightly, and Penny's mouth closed again. I frowned. When had the two of them gotten so close?

"I've regretted what I've done since that day," Selene said. "But I didn't try to rectify it until I saw what Connor was doing to the Dagger pack. At the time, I wanted to hurt Asher as deeply as he'd hurt me, but I was so stupid." She fidgeted as she spoke, her eyes downcast. I'd never seen this side of her in all the time we were chosen mates.

"I didn't even think about your pack or what would happen to them. It never crossed my mind. I was stupid. So, so, so stupid, Taig. When Connor made everyone gather in that stupid ballroom, I went back to my pack and told Layla I wanted her to take over as alpha because I didn't deserve it after allying myself with that idiot."

Eyes widened and jaws dropped at Selene's admission. Selene had fought for her title all her life, and she had earned it by killing the previous alpha. But I doubted Phaedra, Penny, Randall, and Theodora would have studied Selene's history the way we Daggers had in the time leading up to our mating agreement.

They probably didn't know that that previous alpha had been an arrogant, narcissistic man whose every decision had worsened the Coldcrows' reputation and squandered its resourced. Actually, now that thought about it, he had behaved a lot like Connor, only he'd had fewer resources to work with and less smarmy people on his side. He wasn't even worth naming, really.

"Layla wouldn't let me do it," she went on. "Told me to fix it if I was feeling so guilty about it. And she was right. I won't sell you out again, and I won't use you as a means to an end with Connor, either. I want to make amends with you and your people. I mean that with everything in me."

Taig scoffed. "You have a history of betraying us, Selene. How can we trust you?"

"She's telling the truth," Phaedra said.

He raised an eyebrow. "How do you know?"

"I… I'll tell you how I know later," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. Sensing her discomfort, I kissed the side of her head. "We still need to hear from Randall."

"Ah, right," Randall said.

I had to admit, it was strange to hear him speak. I wasn't sure I'd ever heard him make a sound other than grunts or roars when we'd clashed in the forest.

"I'll try to keep this brief. Some of you know my history with Connor. I started out as an orphan. Edgar took an interest in me when I was ten after I beat up a guard. He changed me, a street kid who had had to fight and steal for every scrap he had, into someone with purpose. When I was thirteen, he set a challenge for who would be Connor's personal guard. I beat everyone in the competition, except Connor himself. After I recovered from that fight, the only fight I've ever lost, I vowed to protect him."

"Wait," I said, unable to keep myself from interjecting. " He beat you? Connor Salcedo beat you?"

He nodded. "Not sure how. I remember holding my own against him very well, and the next thing I knew, I was in the infirmary with broken ribs. I don't understand how he could beat me so easily then, but not now." He shook his head. "Maybe he was keeping up with his training then. I don't know. I never questioned it until the last few weeks."

"Why?" Garrett asked. "What changed?"

"It started when I saw the way he was treating you and your people. It makes me uncomfortable the way he parades everyone around like trophies. Worthy adversaries deserve the choice of either assimilating into the greater pack or to be given quick deaths. Connor has offered you neither, and from what I understand, it's because he has some sort of power over you all that would disappear if he became your alpha. There's no honor in his behavior, and what's more, he hurts those weaker than himself."

Randall didn't look at Phaedra, but she shifted next to me all the same. I kissed the side of her head again, hoping I could alleviate some of her anxiety when she remembered that night with Connor. I vowed to make that tyrant suffer.

"I swore to Edgar and Connor that I would protect Connor with my life, but I can't abide these things. Edgar would understand my decision, even if he didn't agree with it."

Penny nodded. "He would, Randall."

"I'm glad to hear that you agree." He smiled at her—another expression I'd never seen him make before.

I was seeing so many new sides to people I thought I understood. It didn't make me uncomfortable, but rather I was excited I was getting to know them better.

"Thank you, Randall, Selene," Phaedra said, nodding at each of them in turn. "Now, let's talk about the current state of Den City and high-wolf society. I think there's been a noticeable shift, right?"

"Before we get into that," Taig interjected. "Phaedra, are you sure Randall's telling the truth?"

She nodded. "I'm as sure about him as I am about Selene."

"Why?"

She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she looked up at me, and when I nodded, she let out a long sigh.

"It's a very long and very strange story. Honestly, I don't know how you all are going to take it, but it wouldn't feel right if you weren't in on it too. I was planning on saying this at the end, but you're right, Taig, it makes sense to talk about this now, so you know where everyone's loyalties lie."

Actually, now she was telling the others about her dreams, I realized that I hadn't let myself really think about what she'd told me. She was the daughter of Holo, the goddess my father had poisoned. If he had known his actions would hurt so many people so deeply—including the goddess's own little-known sister—would he have done it? Or was his selfish madness so complete that it would have changed nothing?

It was such a strange feeling being related to the man who had caused the death of my mate's mother. There was guilt, of course, but it felt distant, retroactive. Because of my father's actions, Phaedra would never know or speak to her birth mother —if there had ever been any chance of her being able to speak to the goddess at all.

"What about Otavio?" I asked once she'd finished explaining to the others. They were silent, working through what she'd told them, and I took advantage of the lull before the inevitable barrage of questions came her way.

"There's no record of my father in the Wilcox pack," she said. "No Otavios have ever been born according to those records. He must have been born and raised on Emerys, or he came from another pack. Maybe from the mainland. Mara hasn't come to my dreams since, so I haven't had a chance to ask her about him."

"So, all this time," Penny said slowly. "Every time I told a lie, you knew? Even when we were kids?"

Phaedra nodded. "It's why I trusted you and Theo about letting Randall and Selene in on our coup."

"I suspected you might be some kind of a witch, like Kestrel, but much more benevolent," my uncle said, rubbing his beard. "But this makes some sense. Holo must have been pregnant with you when she came to William for help."

"Oh," she said, then nodded again. "I hadn't put that together, but yes, that makes sense."

"Does that come with any other special abilities?" Theo asked.

"Well, I can tell when people are lying," she said. "I don't really know if I have other abilities. If I see Mara again, I'll ask her."

"If that's true," Taig said, "then you should be able to pass a little test?."

She nodded. "I'll try."

My right-hand was the most visibly skeptical of us. Randall and Selene both seemed a little out of their depth since they knew Phaedra the least, but they didn't seem doubtful. Honestly, it wouldn't be wise for either of them to question her, since she was the reason they were here at all.

"See if you can tell which of these is a lie," he said. "Asher's mother's name was Beverly?—"

"Lie," she said almost immediately.

Taig and I stared at her. I hadn't told her my mother's name was Evelyn, yet she'd known right away.

"What about this?" my uncle asked. "I'm sixty-nine years old."

She shook her head. "I don't know how old you are, but I know that's inaccurate."

"She's right," he said. "I'm actually fifty-one."

She raised a brow, an amused smile spreading across her face.

"All right, all right, I'm fifty-four," he said, throwing up his hands. "Goddess, you could have let me have that one."

His joke let us all laugh off some of the seriousness of the moment.

When we'd settled down, we got down to business. Thing were going smoothly for us. Den City was deeply unhappy with Connor for a few reasons:

1) They couldn't refuse the "gifts" of wood.

2) Wilcox Forest had literally been decimated in order to make those unnecessary bundles.

3) High-wolf society enjoyed many wasteful feasts.

4) There was talk that Connor wasn't even in charge, and that his sister was the one keeping up with the actual duties of the alpha.

All of these things put in stark reality that they had no say or insight into anything that went on in high-wolf society, nor any decisions that were made on their behalf by their alpha.

As for high-wolf society, we learned they weren't happy with Connor either because:

1) Kestrel was making herself at home, which made everyone else very uncomfortable.

2) Connor wasn't doing the work that he was meant to be doing.

3) Connor and Kestrel had a plan to take over the entirety of Isle Royale, but they refused to let anyone in on the specifics of that plan.

4) There was talk that Connor was so unpopular with Den City that there were less recruits for their army, and their own youth might be forced to participate.

High-wolf society was having to come to terms with the fact that their alpha had his own best interest in mind and didn't care about maintaining the status quo.

It was a relief to hear our efforts on both ends were so successful, and as much as I was reluctant to admit it at first, it really was an incredible benefit to have both Randall and Selene on our side. I had so much hope in me that we were not only very close to saving my pack, but the Coldcrow and Wilcox packs as well. There was an ending to our suffering in sight. Finally.

"The only thing we're missing is what Kestrel and Connor have cooking up," Garrett said. "Then we could quash that and give Den City the final push it needs to revolt."

"I'll try convince Connor to let me in on his meetings," Randall said. "But Kestrel won't like that very much."

Taig pinched the bridge of his nose. "Thinking about that old witch gives me a headache. For all we know, she could just be stringing him along, seeing how long she can keep him on the hook before he realizes."

"No, she has some real magic," my uncle said.

Phaedra nodded. "She's definitely got something planned. I don't know what, but whatever it is, it can't be good. Most of you know that when Asher and I dissolved our mate bond, we gave her a book from the manor library in exchange. There's no telling what sorts of spells she has access to."

"Well," Selene said through a yawn. "We won't be figuring that out right now. I'm so exhausted I can barely stand straight."

"Me, too," Theo said. She looked like she was fighting to keep sitting upright. Every moment threatened to make her nod off and fall into Randall's shoulder.

"All right, then we'll call it a night," I said. "We'll meet in a week's time unless something significant happens between now and then."