Free Web NovelChapter 21: Chapter TWENTY ONE — HONEYMOON
Ragnor
I sat at the dining table, knife and fork gliding against the plate as I cut into the eggs Benedict.
The sausage was crisp, yet everything tasted bland. Terror had been pacing restlessly inside me since the moment I woke up, his presence a constant nagging in my head.
We hurt our mate. Why did you do that?
I cracked my knuckles under the table, jaw tight. Enough of this. Nothing was going to change what happened last night, or three years ago.
She was late for breakfast. Why wouldn’t she be, after what we did to her last night — after the way we had fucked Deidre right in front of her, after we’d painted her body while she begged us to stop.
Terror snarled louder. Our mate. We humiliated our Daisy.
I shoved him down harder, forcing another bite of food. She deserved it. She was the reason River was dead.
My teeth ground together, and I glanced at my brothers, wondering if they felt it too — that crushing weight sitting over my chest like something ten thousand tons heavy.
I hadn’t been able to sleep a wink all night. Her pain and anguish had flooded the mate bond in waves, and every one of them gutted me like a blade I couldn’t pull out.
The dining room was full. Beta Nathan and Lady Elena had joined us for breakfast, as well as Gamma Randolph, while Dad had sent word that Pack business kept him away.
Reign and Ryker flanked me on both sides. Reign had stacked his eggs and sausage into a ridiculous sculpture that made Deidre laugh, her face buried against Ryker’s arm. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
I shouldn’t be thinking about Candace. Who cared what she felt? Not me. I shouldn’t.
The sound of footsteps on the staircase had my spine stiffening. I had spent a large part of my life listening to her approach. I knew it was her even before her scent reached me.
Ryker went rigid beside me. Reign’s sculpture collapsed, his hazel eyes cutting toward the stairs. The sweet scent of maddening daisies drifted into the room, sweet and maddening, making Terror press forward with a whine I refused to indulge.
Mother descended first, and behind her, fingers loosely curled at her sides, was the girl who had dismantled my family three years ago. The girl I had once been hopelessly, humiliatingly in love with.
Candace’s copper-blonde hair was still damp from a shower. Even from across the table I could see the faint redness circling her wrists where the cuffs had been.
My gaze dropped to her neck. To our marks.
Something ugly and wordless twisted in my chest.
Terror went deathly still. Look at her. Look at what you did.
I didn’t want to but I did. My eyes dragged over her pale, blotchy face. She had been crying — that much was obvious. Her golden eyes were rimmed red, and the weight on my chest grew heavier.
What’s Mom doing with her? Ryker demanded through the mindlink.
Some kind of tradition, maybe, Reign replied. His eyes cut to mine, sharp with the same thought. What if she told Mother what we did last night?
Across the long stretch of polished oak dining table, Gamma Randolph lifted his head as Candace approached the table. His grey eyes met hers, and he tipped his chin in a small, deliberate nod.
Candace moved to take the empty seat beside Mother when a loud clatter pierced
"Oops." Deidre gasped her green eyes gazing softly at Candace. "Candy, honey could you get that for me, please?"
Candace stared at the fork on the floor for a long moment. Then she lifted her head, looking tired.
"Are your hands paralysed too, cousin?" Her voice was soft, almost gentle, and it cut through the room like a blade. "Or is it just your conscience?"
Deidre’s eye twitched, her smile falling away immediately. Ryker growled low beside me, but I couldn’t look away from Candace.
She turned to a maid standing against the far wall. "Could you be a dear and help my paralysed cousin with her fork? Thank you."
She paused as she pulled out her chair, pressing a hand to her chest in theatrical surprise.
"Oh, my mistake. I forgot that I supposedly poisoned you yesterday." She tilted her head with mock sympathy. "Your hands really could be paralysed." freewebnøvel.com
A small smile creased Mother’s face before she lifted her teacup to hide it. Lady Elena’s fork struck her plate with a sharp clatter.
"The audacity of this girl," Lady Elena hissed, her eyes burning as she watched Candace settle into her seat.
Deidre’s eyes flashed, but she exhaled softly and turned to Ryker with a wounded expression. "It’s okay. I understand. I would be bitchy too if I couldn’t satisfy my mates."
Candace’s fingers tightened on the edge of the table. She reached for her fork and began serving herself without a word.
"I mean, I would seriously doubt why the moon goddess would pair me with them if I would never be enough for them," Deidre continued, eyes wide with false innocence.
Candace set her fork down slowly.
"It’s strange." A small smile touched the corner of her mouth without reaching her eyes.
"I’ve never heard of the goddess pairing anyone with a stand-in." She raised her unflinching gaze to Deidre’s across the table. "But what would I know? I’m just the one she actually chose."
Terror howled with vicious pleasure in my chest.
Enough, he roared, fighting to push to the surface. Enough of this.
I set my knife down and cleared my throat.
"Eat quickly. We have a plane to catch."
Candace’s head snapped toward me.
"Flight?" The surprise in her voice was faint but unmistakable.
Deidre beamed and looped her arm through Ryker’s. "Oh, sweetie, what kind of bride doesn’t know about her own honeymoon? It’s Paris! Paris is beautiful this time of year, isn’t it, my loves?"
Deidre had chosen Paris. I remembered sitting at a cluttered desk with Candace five years ago, history notes spread between us, and her going on and on about how overrated Paris was — her eyes bright with the kind of conviction she gave everything.
She had laughed when I pushed back, and I had let her win the argument just to keep her talking. I loved hearing her talk back then. It was soothing.
Her eyes weren’t bright now. They darted to Reign’s face, and for a brief, unguarded moment, pain crossed her face. Then she blinked, dropped her gaze to her plate, and pushed her eggs around in silence.
I couldn’t stop watching the way her shoulders curved inward. The way her hands trembled faintly against the table.
Fuck you!Terror howled inside me.
I cracked my knuckles, trying my best to push the gnawing guilt eating at my heart. The Prikaya law had given us 150 days before we would have to either fully claim her or sever the bond entirely.
We had Deidre and the moment those 150 days were up, Candace would be gone. Out of this pack. Out of our lives for good.
Then Candace did something I didn’t expect.
She set her fork down, slid her chair back, and rose to her feet.
The trembling in her hands didn’t stop, but she folded them in front of her with the composure of a Luna, and the look she gave the three of us — me, Reign, Ryker — was not the look of a girl who had been broken last night.
"I’ll go pack," she said. "Thank you for the most unpleasant breakfast of my life."
"There’s no need," Ryker said, his lip curling. "No amount of clothes can change what you are."
"You’re right, Ryker." She responded. "No amount of clothes can change what I am." Her gaze swept the table once. "Just as no amount of Paris will change what she isn’t."
Lady Elena gasped, her knuckles whitening around her cutlery. A smirk pulled at the corner of Reign’s mouth before he caught himself. Candace turned and walked out without looking back, her scent trailing behind her.
We didn’t cancel the honeymoon on purpose. Our honeymoon was a ploy, a way to burn through the Prikaya law countdown outside pack walls, away from prying eyes but as her scent faded from the room, I didn’t feel relieved.
I felt something I hadn’t let myself feel in three years — something I thought I had buried the same night I buried my brother but I didn’t know what to do with it.
