Blood And Silver Rise of the Alpha's Rejected Mate

Chapter 20

DANE

Everything in me went numb. Time stopped. I stared.

The children froze, as well. They looked at me curiously.

I thought I heard Aurora's breath catch for an instant. Then she was between me and the children. She took them each by the hand and knelt in front of them. "Uncle Trajan is hurt, but he'll be all right. It's not a good time to see him right now, but maybe in a few hours when his wolf has had time to heal him, okay?" The boy nodded. The girl peered around her mother's shoulder at me curiously.

"Aurora," I said through a clenched jaw. "Whose children are those?"

Just then, a man came barreling down the hall. He scooped the children into his arms and shot Aurora an apologetic grin. "Sorry. They got away from me." "Dane," Aurora said quickly, gesturing at the newcomer. "You remember my cousin, Evander."

That was right. When I heard a child cry the other day she said.

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her cousin had just arrived from Europe. It could explain the girl's dark hair and eyes, but not why she looked so much like Aurora. And the boy.... "These are your children?" I asked. He didn't look more than twenty-three, and the kids had to be at least four. "Is their mother visiting, as well?"

"No," Aurora said. "She's not. Evander?"

"Time for a snack in the kitchen," he said.

Then he took the children and disappeared, and I was left wondering why it felt so wrong for another man to carry them

away.

I glanced at Trajan, who slept in the bed. I pitched my voice low. Even injured, a man like that would make trouble for me if he thought I was threatening the woman he saw as his Luna. "You're lying to me about those children."

She wore the maddeningly cool, polite expression she always wore now. It was like a mask she used to hide her old face. "Their mother isn't visiting," she said.

I stepped closer, until she had to tilt her head back to look at me, and growled, "Ann, or Aurora, or whoever you are. Are those my children?" Chapter 20

AURORA

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Dane backed me against a wall. I thought he would pin me there. That's what he would have done years ago-loomed over me, trapped me, threatened me. Now, even though he was close and his voice was low, he didn't loom or threaten. He asked.

But that didn't mean he wouldn't kill me in an instant if I gave an answer he didn't like.

"No," I said. I kept my voice and eye contact as steady as I could. Then I leaned forward and pushed against his chest with my fingertips. "And if you keep looking at them that way, you're going to scare them." Dane frowned and backed away.

I matched his expression. I could tell he didn't entirely believe me. Why wasn't he threatening to kill me?

A knock came on the door. Dane tore his eyes from mine and opened it. Celia stood there. I remembered her. She was middle aged and not as unkind to me when I was part of Blue Ridge as many of the other wolves.

Dane gestured to the bed without speaking, and I gathered that he and Celia were speaking in their heads through the pack bond. Celia nodded, then shot me a small smile and went to tend Trajan. Chapter 20

"I'd like to see the book again," Dane said.

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His words were unexpected, and I remembered him asking why he shouldn't just kill me and take it. But if he wanted to do that, he could have already.

Maybe my grandmother was right. Maybe he did have honor...in every way except toward me.

I nodded and we went to the safe in my bedroom. "What do you think you'll see?"

"I don't know," he said. "But after today...there's no way you could have known this, but the Mannerings were wiped out by a hunter nearly two years ago. Had you waited for me to call you back, I would have told you that meeting with them was some kind of trap." "I called you this morning. I had no more time to wait. My grandmother insisted I keep the meeting," I said.

Dane hesitated, then nodded. "You're right. You did call this morning."

My brows drew together in confusion. I still didn't understand why he was suddenly being...not kind, exactly. But he wasn't speaking down to me, either.

Was it because of the children? Because of the attack? Or was it because it took all the power and wealth of one of the strongest wolf packs in the world for him to treat me with the base level of respected any person deserved?

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I pulled the book from the safe. The round, beautiful pearl pendant, I left inside. Lately, I was tempted to wear it. My grandmother was so sure I was the chosen of the goddess. That I was the one destined to free the ancient relic that would bring magic back into the world. I carefully opened the ancient tome and flipped through the pages. When I neared the back, Dane grabbed my arm. "Stop! What is that?"