The hand clamped down on Raina’s shoulder, yanking her backward as a wet voice pressed against her ear. “If you so much as twitch, your mother dies. ”
She had come home to darkness, to a silence that felt wrong, and now she was staring at her mother bound to a chair, gagged with strips of cloth. Her sister Savvy was shoved into the room behind her, tears streaming down her face.
Raina was thrown to the floor, and when she looked up, she met the golden eyes of a shifter. He was in his mid-fifties, all muscle and raw violence, and he looked at her like she was prey. “You’re going to do exactly as I say,” he growled. “If you don’t, your mother and sister won’t live to see another day.
”
His name was Duncan Kane. He was the Beta of the pack that ruled the city, and he had a plan for her. “I need you to seduce my brother. Our Alpha.
”
Raina stared at him, sure she had misheard. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know any spells for that. ”
“Then make him fall for you the traditional way. ”
She had never even had a serious boyfriend.
She was a witch hiding in a world where witches were hunted, and he wanted her to become a spy, to get close to the most powerful shifter in the territory, to plant ideas in his head and report back. When she refused, Duncan reminded her of the price. “You’ll swear with your magic that you won’t tell anybody about our agreement. Or I kill both your mother and your sister right now.
”
She swore the oath. Her magic bound her to silence for the rest of her life. Now, seven days later, she was sitting at a piano in Duncan’s mansion, dressed in a gown she’d never imagined wearing, about to meet the man she was supposed to trap. His brother.
The Alpha. Heath Kane. Aiden Kane was nursing a drink in a dingy bar when the fight started. Some red-faced shifter had taken offense to something he’d said, and Aiden had let him land a few punches just to feel something.
“You’re a disgrace to your pack! You’ll never become Alpha and everyone knows it! ”
Aiden rolled his eyes. He’d heard it all before.
When the man came at him again, Aiden caught his wrist mid-swing, twisted, and sent him crashing into the wall, unconscious. The man’s friends fled. Aiden wiped the blood from his split lip and turned back to his drink. His body would heal by morning.
The numbness, though, always stuck around. He was his father’s son, and his father was ashamed of him. The whole pack knew it. Aiden had stopped caring a long time ago.
Then his phone rang. It was Jackson, one of his father’s guards. “Your father has met someone. ”
Aiden pinched the bridge of his nose.
“And why would I care? ”
“Your uncle thinks he’s going to marry her. ”
Aiden snorted. His uncle.
Duncan. Of course his father’s brother was meddling. “You need to come home, sir. You need to come home right now.
”
Aiden hung up. He ordered another drink before letting the thought settle. If his father took a new mate, there could be a new heir. So be it.
He didn’t care about being Alpha anymore. When Aiden finally arrived at the pack house, the first thing he noticed was the girl sitting at the breakfast table with his father. She was young, early twenties at most, with long black hair and a heart-shaped mouth. She’d been dressed like she was going to church, and she sat with all the presence of a shy adolescent.
Heath was adopting her. Aiden couldn’t believe it. His father, the man who had torn him down piece by piece for years, was adopting some random wolfess girl who couldn’t even shift. “Why would you do that?
” Aiden demanded. “So I can finally experience what having a decent progeny feels like,” Heath replied with a sardonic smirk. The girl’s eyes met his across the table. There was something in them, something curious and unafraid.
When a faint blush grazed her cheeks, Aiden smirked. Interesting. Later that night, Raina was playing the piano for Heath when he apologized for his son. “I would never make advances towards you, child.
I hope you know that. ”
She nodded, forcing out a thank you. She couldn’t explain the truth. Her magic wouldn’t let her.
She couldn’t tell him that Duncan was holding her family hostage, that she was only here under a magical oath she could never break. Heath thought she’d been attacked by rogues. He thought she had amnesia. He thought she needed his protection.
The truth was she was a witch playing a role, and the Alpha’s son was already looking at her like a puzzle he wanted to solve. Aiden found her in her room that night. He didn’t knock. He just walked in, his voice low and mocking.
“You don’t even play that well. Why is my father so enthralled by you? Did you cast a spell on him? ”
Raina’s eyes flickered.
“Are you accusing me of witchcraft? ”
He stepped closer, watching her. She could hear his heartbeat, feel the heat of him in the air between them. “What are you doing here, Aiden?
” she whispered. “Playing house in the Alpha’s home? Of all places. ”
She squared her shoulders and smiled.
“Jealous? ”
His wolf purred. He reached out, his fingers brushing her chin. She didn’t flinch.
She didn’t pull back. When he raised his wrist to her neck, scent-marking her, she just stared at him, her eyes wide and unafraid. He should have stopped. But the idea of his father smelling him on his little pet was too tempting.
He left her with his scent on her skin and his head full of questions he didn’t want to answer. Raina pulled the blankets tighter around herself, but she couldn’t block out the memory of his fingers on her skin. She hated that he had this effect on her. She knew better than to stir trouble with Heath’s son.
But for the first time in months, she had felt alive. Like she existed outside of Duncan’s manipulation and Heath’s needs. Like she was more than a pawn. “He scent-marked you,” the maid whispered when she came to do Raina’s hair the next morning.
“The Alpha will be furious. His son leaving his scent all over you like you’re his. It isn’t proper. ”
Raina understood then.
Aiden had used her to piss off his father. She should have been furious. But she wasn’t. Not entirely.
If this was a game, she intended to win it. Heath was waiting for Aiden when he came downstairs. “How dare you scent-mark your sister under my roof like some animal! ”
Aiden didn’t flinch.
Not even at the word sister. He was used to his father’s disappointment. It was the only thing he could rely on. “Look at her!
” Heath spat. “This poor child was attacked. She barely remembers anything. And you—what do you have to say for yourself?
”
Aiden opened his mouth to retort, but then he noticed Raina trembling. She erupted into soft, broken sobs, and the words died in his throat. His father reached her first. “You’re safe, child.
I’ve got you, my dear. ”
Aiden gaped. His father had never once spoken to him like that. He had never offered comfort.
Now he was cradling this girl like her fragility was endearing. Raina turned slightly and caught his gaze. Through her tears, she smirked. Small.
Barely there. But unmistakable. That wasn’t the look of someone broken. That was the look of someone who had just won a battle Aiden didn’t know he was fighting.
Raina leaned back in the car seat, replaying the look on Aiden’s face when he’d realized her crying fit had been an act. She had enjoyed watching him squirm. Then the door swung open, and Aiden slid into the seat beside her. “For you,” he said, handing her a handkerchief.
“To dry those fake tears you like to cry. ”
She kept her face neutral. “You’ll be needing it more than me. ”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Feeling confident, are we? ”
“Well, the Alpha does consider me like the daughter he never had. ”
“That doesn’t say much about his affections. I’m the son he’s always had, and that hasn’t gotten me anywhere.
”
“Your father only likes people who need his protection. ”
He laughed, leaning back with a relaxed ease that unnerved her. “Is that what you want then? To be a part of my family?
Should I call you sis? ”
He caught a lock of her hair between his fingers. “My father gets easily bored. He’ll be done with you soon enough.
”
Her pulse quickened. “Then why are you here? ”
He angled his face toward hers. “Maybe I’m bored too.
”
Their breath mingled. His eyes fell to her lips, and he inclined his head closer. Raina smirked and raised the back of her hand so his mouth kissed it instead. “Back off, brother,” she batted her eyelashes, pushing against his lips.
“We wouldn’t want to displease Father now, would we? ”
“He’s not your father,” Aiden snorted. “We’ll see,” she said, opening the door behind him.
