Chapter 236

The woman walked away from me after telling Candido whatever she had to. I tried to hear what she was saying. I wanted to step in and pull them apart, but there was a barrier around them. I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t even read Candido’s lips or see his expression as they talked.

Jealousy burned in me. I had just gotten rid of Estella, and that had been hard. I was still trying to get rid of the rest of his family and everyone else who would be against us being together. I had never expected to have to try and get rid of a vampire too.

I hurried towards the bubble, but before I could slam my hand against it and try to break it, the light faded. My hand fell through the air. Candido turned away. I dashed in front of him, cutting him off. He cocked an eyebrow at me.

I stared at him, waiting for him to say something, but he said absolutely nothing. For a few moments more, I waited, but still, he didn’t say anything. I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t stand it. The anger boiled in me and I glared up at him.

“You’re supposed to say something, Candido.”

He blinked at me. “Why?”

I drew back. “What?”

“Why am I supposed to say something, Hedy?” He tilted his head. “And what exactly are you expecting me to say?”

I ground my teeth. “You’re supposed to protect and defend me. She just called me a disgrace, and you said nothing.”

His lips twitched into a small smile. “I was under the impression that you weren’t a vampire.”

“I’m not!”

“Then, what does it matter to you if a vampire calls you a disgrace?”

I blinked. “I’m still your future wife. No one should talk to me like that.”

His eyes flashed red. “Is that so?”

“Of course, it is,” I huffed. “Why do I have to explain that to you?”

“If you feel so strongly about it, why didn’t you say anything about it?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you saying you agree with her?”

He tilted his head. The red glow in his eyes remained and almost seemed brighter.

“Did you actually have something to say to me of importance, Hedy? We’re preparing for war.”

I flinched. “What do you mean by that? I should be more important to you—”

“Than the lives of every werewolf in Solare?”

I hissed. “You sound like a vampire.”

He smiled. “You sound like Sibyl.”

My gut plummeted and I flinched back. It was the second time he’d said it.

My eyes burned with tears. They welled up and started to spill down my cheeks, but he looked so unmoved. Once, he would have tried to comfort me, but his eyes were still filled with red light and his expression didn’t change.

“You… You can’t compare me to her,” I said. “We’re—”

“Stop,” he said looking down at me. “Just stop. If you aren’t going to help with the war efforts, go with the rest of Wolf Fang.”

“My place is with you,” I said. “I’m better served here.”

“How? Doing what?” Candido said. “Tell me what it is you expect to do?”

“I’m here to support you.”

“Doing what?” He asked.

“Supporting you,” I said. “Obviously.”

“How?” Candido asked. “Doing what?”

“I’m…” I set my jaw. “We’re mates. Just being by your side—If I was Estella—”

“Stop,” Candido said. “I don’t need you by my side.”

My heart lurched. My chest felt tight. How could he say that to me?

“I need someone who can pick up a gun and fire,” he said. “Someone I don’t have to protect but can watch my back. An equal, Hedy.”

My jaw trembled. “I am your equal.”

“And again, I say, if you really believe that then prove it.”

“Are you saying you don’t?” I asked. “What about all that talk about us being mates? About what it means for us to be mates? Just because I know my place is at your side, just because no one will give me a weapon—”

“The last time you had a weapon, you tried to shoot someone on our side,” Candido said. “No one is going to trust you with a weapon. You aren’t trustworthy.”

“I—”

“And if you were really interested in proving them wrong, you wouldn’t be attempting to get in the way. You wouldn’t just stand around waiting for someone else to do something. You’d help. You’d contribute. You’d at least apologize, and---”

He shut his mouth with a loud click and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. I stared up at him as if I didn’t know him. This wasn’t Candido. This had to be Estella’s enchantments still affecting him.

“Hedy,” he said firmly. His eyes opened, still glowing red. “I really need you to stop this and go with Wolf Fang. You want to be protected? The members of Wolf Fang will do that.”

“I don’t want to be protected by them. I want to be protected by you, just like you promised—”

“We’re in war, Hedy. I can’t protect you,” he seethed. “I can’t protect you when you don’t listen to a damn thing I say.”

“I’ll be luna,” I said. “I’m supposed to be by your side and you keep pushing me away. How am I supposed to listen to that?”

He laughed and shook his head. His eyes never lost their red glow. His expression vanished as he stared at me. I was frozen for a long while then he turned from me as someone called him over.

I stared after him wondering what had just happened. Candido would never talk to me like that. We’re mates supposed to be rely on each other? He was the alpha king. My support should be just being at his side. I thought about Lilian and Steven. She was luna of the Wolf Fang Pack. She didn’t do anything. She was never helping him run the pack, not really. If anything, she just seemed to be making my life hard and trying to kill me. It was almost as if that was the only thing that she was supposed to do. From what I remembered, even Candido’s father’s wife didn’t do anything. Sure, I hadn’t been alive when she was ruling, but it was so obvious that her job was just to have his children. If Sibyl had become luna she wouldn’t have done anything but make trouble.

I set my jaw. He’s just saying that because Estella was the way she was. Sure, she could heal or whatever and she had other powers, I guess, but she wasn’t better than me. And there was no guarantee that if I had allowed her to take my place that she wouldn’t have ended up continuing to be the way that she had been. With Candido around to protect her, who in their right mind would bother trying to fight at his side? He didn’t have an equal. Even if she was a golden wolf, which I doubted, Candido didn’t have an equal. She would have fallen back and let him take the lead because that’s what a luna was supposed to do: bear the alpha’s children, raise them, and be loved by her mate. That’s it.

I sneered as I remembered what Cillian said about golden wolves. He had to be lying. I was a golden wolf. I didn’t know what it meant that I had turned white, but I’d figure out, and in the end it wouldn’t matter.

I was going to be luna.

There was no one else. Candido would recognize that I was the perfect luna for him. I am the only luna for him. I pressed my hand to my chest where the mark had been once and swallowed.

I would fix this somehow. We would be together no matter what.

I searched for Cillian, but I didn’t find him. Everyone else, including Peter, seemed to be avoiding me. I tried to get a weapon as soon as I saw the last members of Moon Shadow and Blue Moon, but they were all snatched from me. I was shoved away from the supplied they were packing. The whole camp seemed to be turned against me, until finally I gave up.

I walked to the edge of the camp and sat and watched silently, waiting for my chance to snatch a weapon when no one was looking. I saw Candido moving back and forth, speaking with werewolves from Lunae and a vampires. I saw Ian around. The werewolves of our world watched him drift through the crowd with something like awe at the glow radiating from him. Then, there was Raven leaning over something with Wren and Peter. She was wearing armor like something out of an old painting and leather pants. Peter had changed into something similar as had Wren.