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“Talk?” Wyatt asked, taking another step toward Tomas, “don’t feel like talking right now.”

Tomas clenched his jaw.

“Cain owed me something. He wasn’t cooperating,” Tomas said. “All I was trying to do is get my fair trade, that’s all.”

“Your fair trade?” Wyatt asked. “Attacking an Alpha is an act of war!”

Wyatt charged at Tomas, wrapping his hand around his throat and holding him to the wall.

“You want war with me?” Tomas laughed.

“Cain is dead because of you!” Wyatt shouted, squeezing enough to cause Tomas to cough. “But I won’t kill you. I’ll let Summer decide what happens to you.”

Wyatt dropped Tomas to the ground and turned back to the fire.

Tomas coughed and cleared his throat.

“No…” Tomas gasped. “You won’t.”

Wyatt turned back with a snarl.

“Not if you want to keep the girl safe,” Tomas snarled.

Wyatt drew back. His eyes widened.

“What?” he hissed.

“Bell? Right? That was her name?” Tomas smiled, getting up off the ground. “What Cain owed me was part of your debt for her.”_.

Wyatt growled.

“Stop,” Tomas snarled angrily. “We made a deal, and I kept my end of it. Cain is the one who broke it.”

He straightened his back and dusted off his shirt.

“So, you still owe me in his place.”

Wyatt growled.

“Don’t worry, it’s simple. I got no use for you like I did him. But now, I have a problem, and you’re going to clean it up for me.”

Wyatt clenched his jaw, the anger in him boiling over. He took a step towards Tomas.

“Hey,” Tomas said, narrowing his eyes at Wyatt. “You should know I already planned for this. If something happens to me, her mate finds out the truth tomorrow. And he will come for her.”

Wyatt stood tall and angry. He locked eyes with Tomas, who smiled with self-satisfaction. Wyatt knew he was telling the truth. Wyatt lowered his head.

“Good boy,” Tomas smiled. “So, when Caleb comes sniffing around again, you just tell him that Cain came across a rogue pack he couldn’t handle.”

Wyatt said nothing, only closing his eyes.

“Now, where is he?” Tomas asked.

“What?” Wyatt asked.

“Where is Cain’s body?” Tomas asked.

“There is no body.”

“What?” Tomas asked, looking at Wyatt with suspicion.

“I tracked him to the river. Your dogs had already torn him apart,” Wyatt growled. “This was all I found….”

Wyatt raised his hand, holding something in his palm. Tomas took it. It was a pocket watch. Inside was a picture of Cain, Fiona, and Caleb as a child.

“This is your proof? He could still be alive,” Tomas said.

“Caleb gave that to him when he was ten years old,” Wyatt said, “Cain never took it off.”

Tomas scoffed.

“You don’t have to believe me,” Wyatt sighed, “Fiona will have felt his loss.”

Tomas nodded. “True.”

He put the watch in his pocket, and Wyatt growled.

“What?” Tomas asked.

“Give it back,” Wyatt said.

“Why?” Tomas questioned.

“Caleb will want some kind of proof.”

Tomas pulled the watch back out of his pocket. He looked at it and spun it in his hand for a moment.

“Yea, that kid’s trouble,” he sighed. Handing the watch back to Wyatt.

Tomas turned to leave.

“I need a guarantee,” Wyatt said.

“Of what?” Tomas asked.

“Bell’s safety!” Wyatt snarled. “That you aren’t going to use her as leverage again in the future!”

Tomas smiled.

“Fine,” he said. “The moon should be out by now; I’ll make an oath to the Goddess.”

Wyatt grunted, and the two men left the cave.

Tomas was right. The moon, almost full, hung in the sky above. He looked at Wyatt.

Wyatt spoke softly.

“I will clean up the mess left from your wolves. I will tell Summer that Cain was killed in a rogue attack and forbid any further investigation, now or in the future. I will never reveal the truth to Caleb.”

Tomas nodded. He pulled out a small knife and cut it into his arm so that a trickle of blood pooled onto the blade. He held up toward the moon as he spoke.

“Under the light of the Goddess, I make this oath with a sacrifice of my own blood. I, Alpha Tomas of Autumn, guarantee the safety and security of the Winter wolf named Bell from her true mate. So long as Alpha Wyatt of Winter keeps his word.”

Tomas’ eyes lit up, and then the reflection of the moonlight on the blade did the same. When the moment passed, the edge of the knife was clean.

“The Goddess has accepted my sacrifice. The oath is made,” Tomas smiled.

Wyatt nodded and held the watch tightly.

“Leave,” he said.

“Already?” Tomas laughed, “but we were getting along so well.”

“Leave Winter now!” Wyatt shouted. “Take your wolves and be gone. By the morning, any wolf of Autumn still in Winter has forfeited their life!”

Tomas snarled.

“Let’s go!” he shouted before walking away.

***

[Present]

Bell sat quietly as tears streamed down her face.

Ashleigh was utterly shocked. Her heart ached for her father, Caleb, Bell, and Alpha Cain. There was so much to process.

“Mom and Axel… they knew?” she asked.

“Not all of it,” Wyatt replied. “They knew about Bell; Axel was there the day she arrived. I had him stay near her grandmother’s house, just in case.”

Ashleigh suddenly understood what Axel had meant and who he had been looking at when he said he wanted to protect her like he had promised.

“They knew that it wasn’t rogue wolves and that a threat against Bell had been made.”

That explained why Axel had been so against Caleb. He was a threat to Bell.

“So, you don’t hate Caleb?” Ashleigh asked. “Everything you’ve said about our traditions and not being able to accept the upgrades from Summer… and telling me to go… to abandon Winter.”

“I disagree with how Summer is run. I always have. I love Caleb like he was my own son,” Wyatt smiled sadly, “but I killed his father, and then I lied to him.”

“The past two and a half years… I couldn’t accept any kindness from Caleb, no aid, nothing. Because each time I considered it, I saw Cain’s face as he laid in my arms dying…

“And because of that choice, there are now sixty-eight other wolves I think of alongside him.”

Wyatt took a shaky breath. Ashleigh watched as his shoulders shook from the sobs he let out. He only allowed himself a moment. Then he sat up and took a deep breath. He looked at his daughter.

“It’s your choice, Ashleigh. You can tell Caleb the truth. Tell him what I did. I will gladly accept whatever punishment he deems fit,” Wyatt said. “But if you do that, Bell will be in danger.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Bell said, clenching her jaw and trying desperately to stop crying. “I never should have written that letter.”

Bell got up from her seat and ran to the door.

“Bell, what are you doing?” Ashleigh asked.

She opened the door and ran out into the night.

“Go after her,” Wyatt said. “She blames herself; we have to stop her before she gets herself killed.”