Page 81 of Crimson Moon Falling

Owen had been with Anna after he and Sawyer banned her from their Pack lands, and then Owen had kept his mouth shut as Conall and Riley suffered through the mate bond withdrawal. His brother got a woman pregnant, knew she was pregnant, but still walked away. And he let Conall nearly destroy himself and his mate in the process.

Conall’s phone lay on the table, Riley’s call still unanswered. The bond had gone cold again, the brief flare of rage already receding, leaving something hollow and aching in its wake. He stared at the blood and glass in his palm and tried to breathe through the fury that threatened to choke him.

His brother had a daughter, and he had a little niece. A child born of jealousy and spite, and god only knew. Anna had rejected and tried to harm her before she was even born.

“We need to find Owen,” he growled. “Tonight.”

Chapter 25

Riley

The bungalow creaked in the late evening cold, the knotty pine contracting. I sat in bed with my laptop open, pretending to review case files. A few minutes ago, the bond had flared white-hot, waking me from a dead sleep and sending my heart pounding.

Conall still hadn’t called or texted back. I wasn’t just jumping to conclusions at this point. I felt like I was free-falling.

My phone lay dark on the nightstand. I’d made myself stop checking it hours ago, along with that anonymous photo of the woman in the red skirt.

When I finally turned off the light and started drifting off, my phone lit up a few minutes later, Conall’s name glowing on the screen. My heart lurched. I stared at it for a few seconds before answering.

“Hey. Are you still awake?” he asked, his voice low and rough.

“Yes.” I opened my mouth to ask about the photos, but paused. Something was wrong.

The silence between us grew. “You texted me,” he finally rumbled.

“I did. A while ago. I called too.”

“Things blew up here. I need to go to the British Columbia Pack compound.”

I sat up and stared into the darkness. Anna was from that Pack. “What happened?”

“Anna had her baby earlier today.”

I gripped the phone. Why would he call and tell me about this? Did he know he was hurting me? The implant scrambled to analyze the incoming data as his news hit like a physical blow.

“Is everything alright? Is the baby healthy?”

“The DNA came back a fifty percent match to mine.”

My brain stalled. Fifty percent match, but not one hundred. Sibling, parent, or—

“It’s Owen’s.”

“Yes,” he hissed out.

Rage slammed through me, along with disbelief, and a sick, crawling vindication that made me hate myself a little. All those months. The mate bond sickness and withdrawal that left me shaking and nauseous at three in the morning. The way Conall cut me off and put his Pack under interdiction. All because he thought that child was his. But his own brother had known the truth all along.

Owen had watched Conall suffer, knew I was in pain too, but said nothing.

“Why?” My implant sent a pulse of cold clarity through my system, trying to help me think through the implications, but my rage was too hot and bright. “He let you go through that. He watched you rip us apart, and he said nothing. Does he hate us being together that much?”

Under his anger, I sensed something else. A raw wound that made my throat tight. “I don’t know, Riley.”

“Is the baby alright?” I asked again.

“Anna rejected her and refused to hold or name her.” His voice dropped lower. “She tried to hurt the fetus late in her pregnancy.”

So it was a little girl. A little girl whose mother didn’t want her. At least my father hadn’t abandoned me before I was born. Memories surfaced without warning of my mother and her beautiful, tight face. Of her energy, telling me exactly what she felt.