The Rogue's Captive

4 - A New Future

~Jenetta’s PoV~

It all happens remarkably fast. The day after discovering Patrick’s betrayal, my father calls me to his office. “I’ve just spoken to the western king. He’s so eager to have you as his son’s mate that he’s practically doubling his original offer, whereas I was ready to take half just to help you save face.”

Although I know I should be grateful not to have Patrick’s infidelity broadcast to the whole pack, it still pains me to see my father’s glee at the price he got for me. Do I really not mean anything more to him than that? If my mother were here…

Quickly, I push that thought away, since it doesn’t do me any good to imagine what might have been. I have to focus on the present, and the future. The past can’t help me, nor any of the people in it.

That night, my father calls a pack-wide assembly. We don’t have them often, so everyone knows the news must be big, and I can feel the buzz of anticipation in the air as I step onto the stage. Normally, I stand on my father’s right side during these occasions, in the place reserved for his heir, but that night, I’m banished to the left, trying to maintain a neutral expression as he announces my new engagement to the confused back.

Patrick looks almost sick to his stomach as my father calls him and Evie forward, on his right side, introducing them as the future Alpha and Luna. It’s the first time I’ve seen either of them since his room the night before. Holding Patrick’s arm, my sister waves at the gathered crowd, looking perfectly content with the way things have played out.

When the assembly ends, I don’t stick around. People don’t want to talk to me anyway. They’ve come to fawn over the new Alpha and Luna, already trying to curry favor even though my father has no plans to retire anytime soon. Unnoticed, I head instead to the library, my sanctuary inside the pack house. In a pack of warriors, it’s not used much, so it’s usually quiet there. For my whole life, whenever I felt sad or alone, I would come and sit among the bookshelves at the back of the room, letting the stories inside those books take the place of my own troubles until I felt ready to face the world again.

Will the western king’s home have a space I can make my own? I have no idea what to expect. This is the only home I’ve ever known.

“Jenny?” Patrick’s voice takes me by surprise as he says my name. Sitting with my back against one of the shelves, I had let my eyes close, and when I open them, he’s standing at the end of the aisle. I would ask how he found me, but I don’t need to. He knows this is where I hide. He knows everything about me.

Uninvited, he sinks down next to me, and says my name again, quietly, the word full of misery. “Jenny. I’m sorry.”

The words irritate me but I can’t avoid him any longer, so I take a deep breath and look him straight in the eyes. He’s been my best friend for so long, but at this moment, he feels like a stranger to me. “Your regret can’t change anything. We’re on completely different paths now.”

“I know.” He squeezes his eyes together for a second, as if he’s trying to hold in his pain. “I’ve lost everything.”

He’s lost everything? That seems like an exaggeration. I’m the one who has to leave my home, travel to the other side of the world and mate with a man I’ve never even met before. “You’ll still be Alpha,” I point out, bitterness lining my words. “You’ll have your family, your pack, your home. The only thing you’ve lost is me.”

He looks on the verge of tears. “Don’t you see? To me, that’s everything.”

He sounds utterly sincere, but it makes no sense. If he truly felt that way, why would he have done what he did?

I didn’t plan to ask him for an explanation, but faced with his sorrow, I can’t hold the words back. “Why did you have s*x with her? Was it to get back at me, because I didn’t respond to you the way you hoped I would?”

His eyes widen in horror. “No, not at all. I was disappointed with how things went between us, yes. I can’t lie about that, but I would never hurt you on purpose.”

The disbelief I feel at those words, since he did exactly that, must show on my face, and Patrick groans.

“I know, it makes no sense. Trust me, I understand that. I’ve spent the whole day trying to figure out what happened.”

Patrick has never been one to deflect blame or shirk his responsibility before. If anything, he actually took the blame for me on occasion when we were young and stupid and got into trouble, so out of curiosity, I ask him to explain what he means. “What did happen? I mean, before what I saw.”

Wincing at the memory, he tries to explain. “After I left your room, I went for a long walk. I figured you’d be feeling guilty, and I didn’t want you to, so I went to the kitchen to arrange a picnic for us today. I thought it might make you feel better.”

That sounds exactly like something my sweet friend would do, but it only makes me more confused about what happened next.

“Later that evening, Evie showed up at my room. I was surprised, obviously, but she asked to come in so no one would see her there. I should have said no then. I see that now.”

He sighs, looking down at his hands as he keeps talking.

“She told me she heard about what happened between us. I thought that was strange, since I didn’t think you would have told her, and no one else was there, but she had the details pretty clear, so I supposed you must have. She started talking about how I deserved better than that, how you had never appreciated me, and how… well, how she had always been interested in me.”

My blood runs colder with every word from his mouth. That scheming little sneak! I don’t know how she knew about my conversation with Patrick, but however she came by the information, she clearly set out to use it to her advantage.

She and my father have a lot in common sometimes.

“I was polite with her, not wanting to offend her, but I explained that since you and I were betrothed, it was too late for any of that. She disagreed and, out of nowhere, she kissed me.”

So, it had really just been lust? All it took was a kiss, and he fell at her feet? “It must have been some kiss,” I mutter.

Patrick inhales deeply. “That’s the weird thing, Jenny. That’s what I tried to tell you last night. When she kissed me… I felt different. I felt like I wasn’t fully in control of my body anymore. I couldn’t think straight, or stop myself, not until you came in and saw us there. I think… well, I know it sounds crazy, but I think she might have used magic on me.”

He glances around nervously as he says it, and I look too, making sure we’re truly alone. Very few people know about the magical abilities that run in my family, the abilities my mother had and that I inherited. It’s a gift I try very hard to hide, since werewolves who can do magic often wind up dead.

Just like my mother did.

“Evie’s never shown any magical ability,” I remind him, keeping my voice low. My own abilities started when I was sixteen, the age at which those kinds of powers usually make themselves known. My mother had just started training me on how to control them when she died. I’ve never told anyone else about it on purpose. My parents knew, and that was all. I’ve done my best to never use it in front of anyone.

Patrick only found out by accident because I used my magic to save his life once. We were hiking in the mountains that border our territory, and a rocky ledge gave way beneath him. He should have fallen to his death, but I stopped his descent with a sheer force of will. That day, I told him the truth but swore him to secrecy.

My mother told me that everyone’s abilities are different. Hers tended towards healing, while mine seemed stronger in protection. Evie’s, if she had any, would likely be different too, but when she turned sixteen, no powers came.

At least, that’s what she told me. But maybe they had, and she kept it hidden, just as I did?

If there’s any truth to it, Patrick’s accusation is very serious. My mother warned me that there were those in the magical community who monitored the misuse of magic, especially when it was used to bring harm to others, but so far, no one has shown up to chastise Evie. Does that mean she didn’t use magic, or simply that if she did use some kind of seduction charm, it wasn’t considered harmful?

I have no idea. My mother might, but she’s not here to ask.

And sadly, even if Patrick is telling the truth, even if he never meant to betray me at all, it’s too late to change anything. The second my father saw the situation, our fates were set, and now that it’s been announced, it might as well be written in stone.

For the first time since I walked in on them the night before, I allow myself to feel some sympathy for the man beside me. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I hope you can make the best of it. That’s all either of us can do. Who knows? Maybe this is for the best. Maybe you would have ended up hating me, and I would have hated that. Maybe you’ll be happy with her.”

I don’t know if I really believe that, but for his sake, I try to stay optimistic.

“I would never hate you.”

He sounds so sure of that, and so lost, that I take his hand in mine and try again to reassure him. “It’s not the end of the world, Patrick.”

“Then why does it feel like it?”

He leans against me, his head against my shoulder, and we sit there together for a long while, both of us knowing that it’s the last chance we’ll ever get to be simply Jenetta and Patrick, lifelong friends. In a matter of days, I’ll leave the territory, leaving him with Evie.

Whatever comes next, one thing is clear: we can never go back to the way things were before.