The Wolves and the Vipers

Chapter 12 - Breaking

"Hi," I said back. It surprised me how normal my voice sounded. But I was very good at that - the pretending. I didn't even do it deliberately anymore. I didn't mean to, and I didn't know how to turn it off. It had been for Kara's benefit mostly.

Jace pushed one of the plates towards me. He was contemplating me with a very solemn expression, and I got the sense that he had already talked to the people downstairs. "I know I left without an explanation this morning. Do you want one now?"

I gave him a tiny nod. "I think that would probably help. Most of my guards didn't think I needed to know."

"They're not trying to be cruel to you," Jace said quietly. "They're trying to be loyal to me. They're clearly going about it the wrong way, and I'm sorry about that. I'll talk to them. The problem is, I think, that a handful of them were on my mother's guard rota, and Dad was ... well, he didn't treat her like an equal when it came to pack matters. I'd be the first to admit that."

"Well, they all probably hate me now," I mumbled. "That's not the first time I've been short with them."

"Goddess, Emma. They don't hate you. They're all sat down there hoping that you're not mad at them," he told me incredulously. "You're their Luna. They'd die for you if they had to."

I hugged my knees and managed a tiny little smile. "Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that."

"It won't," he promised. "I managed to talk to the Riverside Beta this morning. That hasn't happened in ... Goddess. Not in years. But the impression I got from him was reassuring, to be honest. They're trying to scare us. They're making a point. I don't think they're actively trying to kill you. Even Darren knows that would be going too far - he would lose the moral high ground and his pack's support."

"Darren is their Alpha, right?" I asked quietly, and Jace nodded. "Why does he want me dead? I haven't done anything."

He grimaced. "I know. And he knows that, too. I ... didn't mention what happened after the fire, and I probably should have. My brother, Jaden ... he was furious. Mum was dead. We thought Aria was, too, and it seemed like Darren had ordered it. We didn't actually have proof, and I knew that. I don't think Jaden cared much. He went over to Riverside that night."

I waited in silence for him to finish.

"And he wasn't the only one, either," he told me dryly. "Dad snapped pretty quickly after he found my mother's body. He crossed the border, attacked a whole patrol of their fighters and got himself torn apart. But Jaden went all the way to the pack house. I assume he was thinking 'an eye for an eye' or something along those lines, because he went looking for the Riverside Luna. And he killed her."

"Goddess," I murmured. I was starting to understand why they might want to kill me now. It was misguided anger, yes, but it wasn't without good cause.

"Ah, but it gets worse," Jace said quietly. "As it turns out, she was pregnant. So he took away Darren's mate and his unborn son. There was a daughter, too, but she was probably fourteen years old, and Jaden didn't hurt her. I suppose he could have..."

So he had killed a pregnant woman. Crap. Deliberate or not, my dislike of him waxed stronger in the space of a heartbeat. I didn't think that deciding not to kill a child redeemed him very much. It just made the difference between me wanting to stay very far away from him and me reviling his very existence.

"Anyway, he ran after that," Jace finished wearily. "I couldn't have protected him if he'd stayed, and I'm not sure I would have wanted to. It would have been prison at the very least. A slow and painful execution, if Darren had anything to do with it. He killed an innocent, defenceless woman. I don't know where he is now. Hiding out in the hills, probably."