CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED & EIGHTY THREE


    CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED & EIGHTY THREE


    Nn’s POV


    “Don’t be so upset, Talia. The potions probably wouldn’t have helped anyway,” Jason told Talia. He smirked down at her, clearly enjoying her anguish. It made my blood boil.


    “You bastard! What have you done?” I roared.


    Jason looked up and smirked at me. He turned and strode away while Talia was frantically trying to pick up the pieces of the broken potions.


    “This is on you, Nn. If you had trusted Talia, she would have gotten the potions.” Jason called the words over his shoulder as the rogues closed ranks around him. “Now it is gone. The Alpha King’s death


    will be on your head.”


    I knew what Jason was doing. He was attempting to ce doubt in Talia’s mind about me. It wasn’t going to work. Talia knew my heart and she knew that the real culprit in all this was him and his putrid father.


    My wolf surged forward, and this time I didn’t try to restrain him. I felt the shift starting, but Solon


    stepped directly into my path. His Alpha aura mmed into me as he caught me with both arms. The


    force of my momentum drove him back two full steps before he nted himself and held firm.


    “Don’t,” Solon warned.


    “Get off me, Solon. I am not letting him get away,” I snarled as I iled against him. My wolf roared inside me, demanding that I rip Jason’s throat out.


    “This is what he wants. He wants you to chase him,” Solon advised as his grip tightened. “We don’t know how many rogues he has in waiting. You’re strong, Nn, but not strong enough to take on dozens of rogues and Jason.”


    I stayed rigid in Solon’s grip and forced myself to stop. “Damn it!” I cursed. I knew he was right, but I still wanted to try my luck.


    Jason never looked back. He disappeared into the trees with his rogues. Their footsteps faded away.


    Then there was only the park, the dark stains on the stone, and Talia’s sobs.


    Solon released me and stepped back. I red at him as I took a calming breath. I turned to look at Talia who was still kneeling in the dirt.


    ‘Go to our mate,’ my wolf urged. ‘She needs us.’


    I raced over to Talia. She hadn’t moved from where she had fallen beside the broken containers. Her hands were pressed t against the stone where the potion had soaked away. Tears were rolling down


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    CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED & EIGHTY THREE


    her face, but she was no longer sobbing.


    I knelt beside her. Aside from the marks around her wrists from where she was bound, she wasn’t hurt. Talia continued to stare at the stain on the rock as if I wasn’t even there.


    “Talia, look at me.”


    Her head snapped toward me. Her expression stopped me cold. It was a mixture of anger, grief, and resentment. Seeing her like this made my heart twist.


    I rested my hands on her shoulders. Talia let me for exactly one second before stepping back out of reach as if my touch had burned her. Her hand struck me across the face.


    “Exin yourself,” she demanded. Her voice was calm, which worried me more than the p she gave <ol><li></li></ol>


    “I know what this looks like and we do trust you. You have to believe that,” I told her.


    “If that was the case, you wouldn’t be here. Do you think saying that to me is going to make me feel better? The potions are gone, Nn. Do you understand that?”


    “We weren’t here because we doubted you. We were here because Jason had already ambushed six Lonefur warriors and killed five of them. We couldn’t let you walk into that without making sure you


    were safe,” I exined.


    “You don’t have to keep telling me that!” Talia finally eximed. “You told me that you trusted mest


    night. Was that all a lie?”


    “We weren’t going to approach if Jason hadn’t restrained you. We just wanted to be near in case things


    went south,” Solon added.


    “You didn’t think he nned for that? He had his rogues hidden everywhere,” Talia countered.


    “We used Leslie’s suppressive scent spray to hide our approachpletely. It should have made us impossible to detect,” Solon exined. “We didn’t know that Jason had a counter to that.”


    Talia studied him for a moment before turning back to me. “You should have told me the n. Remember what De said. Keeping everyone out of the loop would cause mistakes we couldn’t afford,” Talia said. ” This was a mistake. If you had told me, I could have warned you through the mind link what Jason was nning.”


    “By then, it could’ve been toote. We didn’t want to take that risk,” I said and Solon nodded.


    Talia looked between Solon and I. The anger remained, but now exhaustion and defeat were written all over her face.


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    “It doesn’t matter now. You went against my wishes, and everything is messed up now,” Talia sighed. Her eyes drifted to the dark stain on the stone. “That was our only chance.”


    “I’m sorry, Talia. I really am,” I told her. I didn’t think this would turn out like this, but I was never going to apologize for wanting to keep her safe.


    “Good but I am still angry with you. You should’ve listened to me.”


    “I know.”


    Talia exhaled and finally let me pull her into my arms. She was still upset with me, but she didn’t hate me. That was something I could work with. I would rebuild the trust in time.


    When Talia stepped back again, her expression wasposed. That was what I loved about her. She would refocus for the greater good.


    “What do we do now?” she asked.


    “I already sent word to Alpha Landon. Before we left this morning, I warned him about what we might be walking into. I asked him to search for alternatives. Anything that might buy us time while we figure out how to find Jason again,” I exined.


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