been forgotten nor healed. “It was a simple text that alerted me something was wrong. It was from a man named Jude, demanding to know when the hell she was coming back home, because he was missing her something fierce.”
“You read her texts?”
“Not intentionally. She was in the shower and the text flashed up on the screen.” He grimaced. “It did at least explain why she’d been so protective of her damn phone.”
“And Jude was?”
“Her husband.”
My gut dropped. No wonder he’d been so determined to uncover my secrets—he’d feared he was facing a similar situation. And, in many respects, he had been. “Oh fuck, Aiden—”
“Yeah.” He shook his head. “She went back home five or six times while we were together, and I never thought anything about it. I just figured she was missing her pack. As it turns out, she was going back to see her husband rather than her family.”
“Surely he must have suspected something was wrong?”
“Why would he? I didn’t, not until that text. But even if he did, the Raine pack was going through hard times thanks to the long drought and a fall in tourist numbers. His entire family are omegas, and way down on the pack’s food chain. It was her money that kept them going.”
“Why go interstate to work, though? Surely she could have gotten at least some work in Darwin?”
“It’s hard to run a cash grab scheme if you’re well known in the territory.”
“But she was married—surely that would have come up during a records search?”
“No, because it was common law.”
I frowned. “But how would marrying you ease her pack’s woes?”
His smile was bitter. “The O’Connors are a wealthy pack, thanks to our situation here. Any divorce settlement would have seen her well looked after.”
And unless there’d been some sort of prenuptial agreement, she wouldn’t have had to stay with him for long to gain a benefit.
“It’s still hard to believe a wolf would let his mate—”
“Fuck another man?” he finished for me. “As an omega, he mightn’t have had the choice.”
“That suggests you think the pack gave its approval to the whole mess.”
“Not so much approval, but forced a blind eye? Yeah, I suspect they did. Mia wasn’t the only wolf who’d been placed in interstate packs to hook the unwary.”
“But how—” I hesitated. “You used your ranger connections to find information out about her and the others?”
“I did indeed.”
“So the ultimatum you gave her was either divorce him or break it off with you?”
“Yes. She obviously chose him, because she never came back.”
I reached across and touched his thigh. He briefly wrapped his fingers around mine and squeezed them gently, but the thick sense of hurt and anger in him didn’t ease. No surprise there—aside from the fact he’d loved her deeply, he was an alpha, and they never liked losing.
“I know it doesn’t help much, but she’s an utter fool.” One who had no idea just what she’d thrown away, despite the fact she’d been with him for over a year.
“Thanks, Liz.”
I gently extracted my hand and returned my gaze to the road. And tried not to think about the hurt that lay in my future.
Silence fell. We eventually stopped at the side of the road that ran along one of the compound’s boundaries and climbed out of the truck. Mrs. O’Connor pulled up behind us and then wound down her window and said, “What happens now?”
“It might be best if you wait in the car, out of the drizzle,” I said. “I’ll attempt to create a protection circle and then connect to the wild magic.”
Karleen nodded and wound the window back up. Aiden went to the back of his truck and hauled out a bright yellow raincoat. He held it up so I could slip my arms into it and then turned me around to zip it up.
“I know it’s not exactly a fashion statement, but it will at least keep part of you dry.”
“Thanks.” I kissed him, well aware his mother watched and not really caring. “You’d better go join your mom.”
“I’d rather stay right where I am. I’m not feeling overly happy with my mother right now.”
I frowned. “I can’t produce a protection circle large enough to encase us and her vehicle.”
“Then don’t. Just make it large enough for the three of us to stand within it. She and I are werewolves—a little rain isn’t going to hurt us.”
I had a feeling his mother wouldn’t agree with that statement—at least not when she wore her Sunday