Page 96 of Alpha's Rejected Warrior
Trust me.I meet her gaze for a moment before turning back to Haron.
“That’s right. I have the ability to see if someone is being deceitful or not. That’s been my job this entire time.”
Haron’s eyes drift toward the path. “I can see how that would be valuable, but we aren’t being deceitful. We came here on a mission of peace.”
“You can drop the act.” I block her path.
“We know a Shaman is controlling Jayme. Holden disappeared right after your father was attacked — not exactly innocent behavior. You were in on this whole thing too, weren’t you?”
Her expression transforms. “What? That’s—We’rethe ones being attacked—”
Rhiannon moves in closer, her voice taking on an almost maternal tone.
“Haron, please.” She pauses, letting the quiet fill the space between them. “We’re trying to help. We believe you care deeply about your father’s safety. We need to understand what’s happening before anyone else gets hurt, or Holden comes back to finish what he started. If you know something — anything — about his plans, now is the time to share. We can protect you from him.”
Haron stares at her, her soft hazel eyes starting to well up. Then she looks away, a flush creeping into her cheeks.
She’s cracking.
I let out a long breath. “I don’t know what Holden told you, or whatever you two had planned, but you better know that if your father dies, his blood will be on your hands. Is that what you want?”
The dam breaks. Haron covers her face with her hands for a moment, sobs erupting from her body.
“It was never supposed to go this far,” she says through her tears. “Holden— he said he could control that beast. That no one would die.”
The way she refers to Jayme as “that beast” makes my jaw tighten.
Rhiannon pins Haron with a glare sharp as broken glass. I sense the shift in her. Any softness she may have had for Haron is hardening like a stone. “So you didn’t help Holden carry out his plan?”
“No, I did.” Haron sniffles, then looks up at me with pleading eyes. “You don’t understand our history. They believe that the Shaman killed during the end of the Moon Curse were victims of an unjust attack.” Haron drops her gaze, fresh tears tracking down her cheeks. “Our mother was one of them. Holden has never forgiven it. He thinks peace is just a prettier word for letting something like that happen again.”
“So Elder Stasio never wanted to form an alliance with us?” Rhiannon asks with an edge of anger.
“No, my father did want peace.” Her tears slow and she pauses for a few seconds, lost in thought. “He saw Luna Thea during the battle, and he was. . .amazed by her. She was one of us, but also one of you. From that moment forward, he believed Luna Thea was an auspice of a time for change.” She glancesback toward the infirmary, a deep sadness in her puffy eyes. “A time for peace with Lycans.”
“But you and Holden didn’t believe that?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Holden believes that Shaman were put here to rule over Lycans.” She sighs. “I honestly don’t know what I believe. But I went along with him because he’s my brother. I’ve never known him to be a killer. I didn’t think he would take it this far.”
Rhiannon scoffs. “Youwere nearly killed. How could you continue to go along after that?”
“That was an accident,” Haron says firmly, apparently still fully believing that.
“Hold on,” I say. “Let’s back up. How did this whole thing start?”
Haron wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. “Before the summit, one of our oracles detected something unusual: a Scarlet Wolf living in Kortan, heavily consuming Blackroot.”
“Wait, how would they even be able to do that?” I glance at Rhiannon, who looks equally skeptical, given she didn’t know about Jayme for over a year.
“Scarlets give off a different vibration than regular Lycans,” Haron explains. “Our oracles can sense these things, especially when they’re enhanced by substances like Blackroot.”
Rhiannon’s jaw tightens. “You came here specifically hunting for the Scarlet?”
“We weren’t hunting.” Haron’s voice drops. “Holden saw an opportunity. Blackroot has many mystical properties. It’s widely used in our culture for various rituals and remedies. But, Holden...” She pauses, seeming to struggle with the words. “He learned how to conduct a ritual that would allow him to control a Scarlet Wolf using the Blackroot in their body as a conduit.”
My stomach turns. The way she talks about controlling another person like they’re some kind of puppet makes my skin crawl.
“And you helped him,” Rhiannon states flatly.
