Blake

"So when are we going to release her?" I asked, sounding calm but my emotions were swirling inside of me.

"Tomorrow."

I'd been expecting it to be soon, just not that soon. I wasn't sure if I was ready for any of this.

"Why the hurry?" I asked.

"The longer we keep her a prisoner the more agitated her pack is going to become," he explained with a crease in his forehead.

He was right to look at me with concern. As an Alpha who had already run a pack, I would know this stuff.

"I'm sorry. I'm not thinking straight at the moment," I explained before I rubbed my hands over my face.

The truth was since I'd found out Keri was my mate, I'd been a mess. My volatile emotions clouded my logical thinking. I couldn't make decisions concerning her without my emotions taking over. It was a good thing that Cade was the Alpha because I wasn't so sure I'd be able to do the job at the moment.

"How long do you need?" he asked.

I stood up and began to pace. I wasn't sure how much time would help me accept the reality of my situation.

"A few days," I answered, rubbing the back of my neck. The tension in my body was tightening my muscles.

"Fine," he agreed before he pushed the chair back. He stood up and walked around the desk to stand beside me.

"Thanks, man," I said, feeling relief at putting off the inevitable for a few days.

"Sure, no problem," he assured me. "Before you leave, Scarlett wants to talk to you."

"Where's she?" I asked, wanting to talk to her as quickly as possible so as to be able to put some space between Keri and myself.

"Upstairs resting."

I could tell from the annoyance in his voice that it had probably been a battle of wills to get her to take it easy. A smile spread across my face at the thought of Scarlett.

She was strong and willful, which made her a perfect match for my hotheaded best friend.

"I'll speak to you again soon," I said to him before I walked to the door of the study.

"Sure," he said.

He sat back down at the desk and opened up his laptop as I left the study.

I climbed the stairs to the first floor of the house and walked down the hallway to the end. I knocked on the double doors.

"Come in," I heard Scarlett say through the door.

She was lying in the bed with her arms crossed over her chest when I entered the room. Her eyes brightened at the sight of me. Bruises still marred her face. She'd been beaten pretty badly by Victor. Being a werewolf had it perks and one of them was faster healing, so in a day or two the bruises would be gone.

It was still hard to believe that she'd killed one of the most powerful alphas. The fact that she hadn't grown up in a pack and until a few weeks ago didn't even know that she was a werewolf made me respect her more. She'd worked and trained hard to get up to speed with werewolves who'd trained their whole lives.

"Cade said you wanted to talk to me," I said, walking to the bed. I pulled a chair up and sat down beside her.

I had no idea what she wanted to talk to me about.

"Yes, I did," she said as she dropped her hands into her lap. Scarlett rarely looked nervous but there was no mistaking it. Whatever she wanted to talk to me about she was unsure of.

"I'm here, so talk," I said, waiting for her to tell me what was on her mind. I had a lot of respect and affection for her. We'd come a long way since the first time I'd met her. In the beginning she hadn't been able to stand the sight of Cade or me but now we'd risks our lives for each other.

"It's about Keri," she said, her sharp eyes watching me for a reaction.

I wasn't ready to talk to anyone about Keri. It was only because I really cared about Scarlett that I gave her a chance to finish what she was going to say about Keri.

"I spoke to her earlier," she began to say.

I pressed my lips to keep myself from snapping at her. It was hard enough trying to figure out where to go from here but now I had to listen to what she had to say about Keri. At my visible agitation she reached out and placed her hand over mine.

"I know you are angry. We're all pissed at what happened," she said. "But I was the only one that was there to see Keri with her father."

I wasn't sure how this was going to change anything for me but I continued to listen to her.

"At first when I found out she'd betrayed me—us—I was angry. But I saw how scared she was of Victor. He didn't treat her like a daughter. He treated her like a pack member to do his bidding."

She paused for a moment.

"I had two loving parents and I couldn't imagine how horrible it would have been to only have a father like Victor. She's never been loved."

Her words made my chest hurt. I rubbed my forehead with my free hand.

"She was scared of her father," she told me. "Not just a little scared, she was petrified. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I would feel like the rest of you do. But I saw it."

I let out a sigh.

"The thing that I can't understand is if she was so scared, why did she stay with the pack?" I asked softly. I wanted to believe that there was some good in Keri but from my point of view I couldn't see any. "Why stay if it was so bad? Nothing was keeping her there so why would she endure that day in day out? What if, despite everything you've said, she is the power-hungry villain that her father was?"

She bit her lip and remained silent. She knew I was right.

"I don't want her to be the villain," I added as I held her gaze. "But she is."

I closed my eyes briefly and took a deep breath. Scarlett's hand squeezed mine.

"You don't know how badly I want to believe that she isn't a replica of her father..." Talking about it was making the pain in my chest worse and I rubbed it with my hand. "...that the evil inside him lives in her."

I let go of Scarlett's hand and stood up.

"I know how badly you want to believe that there's good in her but I think you're setting yourself up for more disappointment," I said, finishing my argument. "She's hurt all of us and you'd be naive to think she won't again."

"There are things that don't add up but I saw the fear in her eyes," she said, standing firm on the fact that she didn't believe Keri was the evil that her father had been.

She probably had no idea what Cade and I had just agreed to do to keep our pack safe. I wondered how Cade was going to tell her because there was no doubt about it, she was on Keri's side. I would have to start pretending that I was able to forgive Keri but for today, I didn't have to. Today, I could feel the anger and betrayal of being mated to someone I couldn't stand the sight of.

"I have to go," I said to Scarlett. I needed to get out of there and I didn't want to waste any of the time I'd been given to get myself together.

"Okay," she said, sounding a little defeated. I wasn't sure what she had hoped to achieve by having this conversation with me but it hadn't worked. I still hated Keri and nothing anyone said was going to change that.

"Take it easy and I'll see you soon," I said as I bent down to give her a slight hug.

"I will."

I left as fast as I could. Time was what I needed to get my head around what I had to do. It wasn't going to be easy. I wasn't a deceitful person but I had to be good to be able to fool Keri. I didn't want to think about what would happen if I failed. When you touched your mate, a connection was formed. I wasn't sure if I would be able to turn my back on her and leave once that happened.

That was what scared me the most. What if my head was clouded by the emotions that joined us and I couldn't leave her? Would the destiny that joined us together be stronger than my sense of what was right and wrong?