34. Mai

By my reckoning, it was another two hours before Hayley came to visit. She sauntered in, an insidious smile playing on her lips. I clenched my fists to stop myself from flying at the bars to try to get to her.

"Comfortable, Mai?" she purred, her eyes surveying me in my cage.

"Not really. Couldn't you have made up my room for me?"

She laughed, the sound echoing in the barren room and bouncing off the cold, concrete walls. "Well, I wanted to make sure you're safe. After all, that is what Jem would've wanted."

I clenched my teeth, swallowing the bitter taste of anger. "Jem would've never wanted this, and you know it."

"Maybe. But Jem isn't here anymore, is he?" Her voice was cold and callous, her eyes devoid of any sympathy. "Because of you."

I recoiled, her words hitting me harder than any punch. She was blaming me for Jem's death?

"You're the one who killed him, Hayley. The one who plunged a knife into his heart, not me."

She scoffed. "Semantics. If you hadn't come back, hadn't interfered, if you hadn't tried to control everything, Jem would still be here."

I took a deep breath and let it out again. "You aren't honestly trying to say that you killed him because he wanted to spend some time with his sister? The one he hadn't seen in four years?"

"I was his mate!" she yelled, slapping her chest. "Me! That should have meant that I came first. In everything. But he always let his attention be swayed, first by idiotic little Pack disputes, with everyone always wanting us to be there to sort out their problems for them. Then you came back, and it was all, ‘Mai this and Mai that.' He had no time left for me. Me, who was supposed to be his whole world." She shuddered, her eyes filling with tears. "I did what any mate would have done. I wasn't going to be treated like that."

"He was the Pack Alpha, Hayley. You both were. It was your duty to be there for the Pack."

"It was his duty to be there for me. It's the Pack's duty for all of them to be there for me!"

I always knew Hayley had an incessant need to be the center of Jem's attention, but the whole fucking Pack?

"You're not fit to be an Alpha," I snarled.

She stepped closer to the bars. I so wanted to grab her hair, and slam her head against the cage, but she stood just out of reach.

"And yet here I am. Still the Alpha after four years. I must be doing something right. Unlike you. You, Mai, will never be an Alpha. Never. You're going to come to the Pack Meet with us, you're going to renounce any ties you have to this Pack and any fucking claim you might think you have to the Alphahood, and if you do it right, I'll sever your bond with the Three Rivers and let you leave. You can find a new hole to hide in, as long as it's far away from here."

I laughed. I couldn't help it. Brock hadn't shared his glorious plans with Hayley. "You're delusional, Hayley! Brock has his own plans that have nothing to do with you. Didn't he tell you about his Wolf Council dreams?"

She frowned, a look of uncertainty quickly flashing across her face.

"Brock has no intention of letting me go. Just like he has no intention of sticking around and playing to your whims. You can't be this na?ve, Hayley, not if you hope to survive."

"You don't know what you're talking about," she hissed. "Brock is good to me. He listens; he understands me in a way Jem never did. He gets me what I need."

I made my voice go soft. "Jem loved you. More than the Pack, more than me. Did you know he was giving it all up? He wanted to train me and Ryan, so we could take over. Then he was going to leave with you. Go someplace quiet where it was just you and him, and he could devote all his time and attention to you."

Her face paled. "You're lying!"

"He was going to give up everything, Hayley, just to find a way for you to be happy."

She stared at me for a moment, her eyes haunted, then she shook her head. "It doesn't matter now. The bond was impure, just like your bond with the Three Rivers is impure. The only way is to cut it out, sever it, for the sake of the Pack."

My hair stood on end. Impure? That was exactly what Seth had said to me when he'd kidnapped me, that my bond was impure and had to be broken. And Arabella had said something about feeling like she was only pure when she was on ripple.

I felt a cold shiver go through me.

"Are you using ripple, Hayley?"

She grabbed the bars, pulling herself up close to them. "At the Meet, just give up your claim. That's all you need to do, Mai. Then you'll be free."

I stepped toward her and asked again, "Hayley, are you on ripple?"

"It's magical, Mai," she whispered. "It lets me see the truth. It cuts out all the noise. All the doubts. I know what I have to do when I'm on it."

Fuck!

"Where are you getting it?"

She stared through me, not really seeing me. "Brock's so good to me. He takes care of me, Mai. Not like Jem. Brock sees the real me."

"Does Brock give you ripple, Hayley?"

Her eyes focused on me, and she looked so confused for a moment. Then she stepped back. "Give up your claim to the Three Rivers. You'll have the chance at the Meet. Take it. Break your bond. Or I'll do it for you."

Only a werewolf, or their Alphas, could break their bond with their Pack. Seth had tried to break my bond with the Three Rivers Pack. He'd used witch magic, though. Hayley was an Alpha. She had the power to break my bond, and now that she had me here, she could do it at any time. The thought sent ice skating down my spine, and I could feel panic trying to erupt from my chest. I had to distract her before she realized that she could sever my bond now and still take me to the Meet to banish me.

"You need that, don't you? The public spectacle?" I knew why Brock wanted it. It would be a powerful message if I renounced any claim, and then he could kill me for my insubordination. But I had a feeling it was different for Hayley. I stared at her, stoking my anger so I wouldn't feel the fear creeping along my limbs and she wouldn't smell it. "You always did need everyone to adore you, didn't you? Always wanted everyone's eyes on you, everyone whispering about how perfect and powerful Hayley is. You need me to renounce the bond in front of everyone so that they'll all know that you won. Do you honestly think it'll show them how powerful you are, and they'll love you for it?"

Her gaze faltered for a moment, but she quickly masked it.

"That was always your weakness, Hayley. It's why you could never truly be happy with Jem. Because you couldn't stand sharing him with anyone else, not even his own family." I stepped closer to the bars, making sure she felt the full weight of my words. "Even if he had taken you away, it wouldn't have made you happy, would it? Because deep down, you crave adoration; you need it like you need ripple. It's insatiable, your desire for validation. You want to be Alpha not for the good of the Pack but so that everyone will bow down to you, to constantly remind you of how cherished you are."

I tilted my head, my voice dripping with contempt. "That's what makes you such a shit Alpha. A true Alpha stands at the helm, not to be served but to serve. They lead to support and love their Pack, not the other way around."

Hayley's face contorted with rage, her hands clenching into fists.

I wasn't done. "If you truly believed in your cause, in your leadership, you wouldn't hide behind this facade. You'd face me at the Meet, a one-on-one challenge."

Her face was inches from the bars, her voice a venomous whisper. "You think you're so smart, don't you? You're not going to goad me into fighting you, Mai. I'm not giving you any chance to wriggle out of this. You will renounce your claim in front of everyone at the Meet tomorrow, or the first person I execute will be Sofia."