The Wolves and the Vipers

Chapter 67 - An Act of the Goddess

I eyed Jace and said absolutely nothing. He didn't see it, did he? He didn't see what was staring him right in the face. Yes, Carl had the means and the motive, but he wasn't the only one. I couldn't just come out and say it — it felt like a betrayal even to voice the question aloud. Saying the words gave them power, and they were already too powerful in my head.

So I didn't dare say it. I let him sit there and grow angrier at the old Beta, and I did nothing. Slowly, so Jace wouldn't notice, I brought up the walls around my mind so I could think about it without anything leaking across the mate bond.

"I'm needed elsewhere," Jace told me after a few minutes. "We'll pick this up again later."

I gave him a distracted nod and watched him leave the room. After the door closed behind him, and I continued to sit there, stewing in my silence, Kara reached out to nudge me.

"You look like you've swallowed a bee, Emma," she told me. "What's wrong now?"

"I don't think Tyler's father did it," I murmured. Without watching for Kara's reaction, I raised my voice so I would be heard in the corridor. "Ashley, Zoe, come inside please."

They did, closing the door behind them.

"Is everything okay, Luna?" Ashley asked me. Zoe's eyebrows were slightly raised, asking the same question.

I looked between them, trying to decide who to ask. Neither of them were ideal. Tyler was most likely to know, because he had been close to the family, but I didn't trust he wouldn't go running straight to Jace. Zoe was more likely to be honest with me, but she was too young to know very much, and Ashley was a cousin to the Lloyd family, so perhaps he had more insight than the average pack member.

"If I ask you a question, it goes no further than this room," I told him. "Is that understood?"

Ashley straightened. His jaw was tight as he said, "Yes, Luna."

I was silent for a moment while I thought about the best way to ask. Innocently seemed like a good bet. "I've noticed that Jaden isn't in any of the family photos. Why is that?"

Ashley let out a sigh. "They were a complicated family, Luna. His mother loved him, of course, but his stepfather didn't. He tried to send him to Lowland when he was just a baby, but his real father wanted nothing to do with him."

"So Jace's father didn't want him living here?" I asked. I suspected I already knew the answer.

"That's putting it lightly. Jaden was the living, breathing reminder that his mate had slept with another man," Ashley told me with a rueful smile. "And there was concern that he would challenge Jace when he grew up."

That made me frown. "I thought they got on well..."

"They did!" he assured me. "Remarkably well. But given a few years, they would have reached the age when our wolves start playing up, trying to find their place in the hierarchy. Maybe they would have started fighting. Both of them had Alpha blood running through their veins, but Jaden was a year older ... so Goddess only knows who would have won."

I tried to imagine holding all of those worries in my head and keeping them there for sixteen years while these two boys grew up. And then I tried to imagine a trusted religious leader having a vision about one son killing another. It would be easy to let your insecurities take over, to let that dream take the shape of your worst nightmare.

And the derwydd had known about all those insecurities, hadn't he? So why had he decided to pour petrol on the fire? Perhaps I should ask him.

"Thank you, Ashley. That was very helpful," I told him. "I'd like you to get into contact with the derwydd. Tell him he's needed at the pack house — that I would like to speak with him."