Chapter 33

Logan

I paced the corridor outside my mother’s study, the thick velvet carpet muffling my footsteps. The weight of the past few days pressed down on me like lead.

Evelyn’s voice still echoed in my mind, her broken, shaky whispers in the alley before I carried her from the tavern played in a relentless loop. The rogue’s unnatural death haunted me too, as the words "green eyes" were a thread left dangling in a tapestry I couldn’t yet unravel.

So when the summons came from my mother, I nearly didn’t go.

I was too overwhelmed, too occupied with all of these other endless, swirling thoughts.

But avoiding my mother would only prolong the inevitable. She never waited too long for anyone.

I knocked once before stepping into the room. The heavy doors shut behind me like a cell.

She sat in her high-backed chair, a vision of poise and icy control. Her silver hair was twisted into an elegant knot, her expression unreadable as always. She barely glanced up from the documents in her lap. It was often that she could be found working like this, engrossed in some task, always busy and mostly too busy for her only son as well.

"Logan," she said smoothly, as if we hadn’t spoken in months. "Sit."

I did, reluctantly, my shoulders taut. "You wanted to see me?"

She laid the parchment aside and folded her hands in her lap. "Yes. It’s been a while since we last spoke, and, frankly, it is time we discussed the matter of your future."

"My future?" I repeated, wary. Already, I had dealt with so many existential questions today. This is the last conversation I wanted to have at the moment.

"Your mate, more precisely."

So she was wasting no time getting right to the point of it all.

I inhaled sharply. "Mother—"

"Don’t interrupt. I’ve been patient. In spite of it all, I have remained politely silent. I’ve let you have your fun and have that farce of a marriage. But you two are not mates, and I can no longer sit idle while you throw yourself into the arms of a rogue girl who has no place here."

There it was. The venom beneath the silk.

I straightened, fists curling in my lap. "Evelyn hasn’t done anything wrong. Besides, she’s not a rogue."

"Hasn’t she?" she said, tilting her head. "She has you twisted in knots. You’ve changed, Logan. I see it in your choices. In your distractions. There’s something unnatural in how you look at her."

"Unnatural?"

"Yes," she said coolly. "I believe she’s cast some kind of spell. I mean, why else would you endanger yourself not once but twice on the battlefield? Was it not enough to pay the price of getting shot for her foolishness? Of course she would put you in harm’s way if she were a rogue herself."

“But she’s not,” I insisted.

“So she says,” my mother mumbled. “But why else would a woman be so insistent on seducing your attention if she did not have some ulterior motive in mind?”

I recoiled as if slapped. "You think she bewitched me?"

"All I am saying is that you need to open your eyes. She’s a rogue, plain and simple. We don’t know where she came from or who she truly is. And yet you defend her like she’s your queen."

I ground my teeth together. "She hasn’t manipulated me. She’s my wife. We are devoted to each other."

At this, my mother snorted. “Don’t make me laugh. You hardly talk anymore.”

“Every marriage has rough patches,” I argued.

“Perhaps, but you would be more likely to overcome these challenges if you were wed to your mate. Anyone with eyes can see that there is no love left there if there ever was any to begin with. Let’s not try to fool each other here, Logan.”

“Mother—”

“You don’t see it, but I do. The way she slinks around, always on the edge of trouble. The way she pulls your attention from your duties. And now she’s leaving, thank goodness."

The words hit harder than they should have.

I leaned forward. "What do you mean, she’s leaving?"

My mother gave a small, satisfied smile. "Oh, didn’t you know? Evelyn is finally packing up and going, like she should have days ago."

The blood drained from my face.

I tried to swallow, but my throat felt tight, like it was closing up around the truth.

She was really leaving. I had thought that she was bluffing when she had suggested it, but clearly I had been wrong to assume.

And the worst part of it all was that she hadn’t said a word to me since our last argument. I should’ve known something was significantly and irreparably wrong the way she looked at me lately, like I was a door she’d already closed. Like I didn’t deserve to so much as knock again.

"You should consider someone more suitable," my mother added mercilessly, like a blade to the gut. "Someone like Emma. She has noble blood, grace, and loyalty. She would elevate our pack."

Emma. The name twisted like barbed wire around my heart. I was still so speechless that I couldn’t muster the words to argue with her.

"She nearly died for you," my mother went on. "Wolfsbane fever, now, that’s not an easy thing to deal with. And it’s all because she tried to protect you during that clash with the border rogues. That kind of devotion is rare. Don’t waste it chasing something wild and temporary."

Evelyn might be wild, but I had never considered her as temporary.

I clenched my jaw. My mother would never understand. Evelyn wasn’t some phase I had to outgrow. She was the ache in my bones when she walked away, the fire under my skin when she looked at me like I could break her. Even if I had trouble showing her this, it was the truth, the one I kept hidden from everyone else to protect my heart.

"Evelyn isn’t temporary," I said quietly.

"She is if you want to preserve your legacy."

I stood suddenly, my chair scraping against the floor. "Is that all?"

She studied me for a moment, a flicker of something close to sadness in her otherwise cold gaze. "You always were too soft-hearted. That will either make you a great Alpha... or destroy you."

“Thank you for the warning,” I said tersely.

I turned without another word and strode toward the door.

"She’ll be gone by sundown," she called after me. "This is your chance to let her go. It will be a good thing. You’ll see!"

But I was already running. Sundown was quickly approaching, and I had no time to waste.

The hall blurred around me as my boots thundered against the stone. Evelyn was leaving. Now. And I—

I couldn’t let her go. Not like this.

Not when she thought she was nothing more than a distraction. Not when she’d cried in my arms and called out for someone who never loved her right.

Not when I still didn’t know if those words were meant for me.

I didn’t care. I had to find her. I had to try.

Because if I let her leave now, under these circumstances, I knew I’d regret it for the rest of my life.