Novak Raven (Harper's Mountains #4)(49)

“I was never yours, Benjamin.” She dared a look up at him. “I am my own.”

Benjamin huffed a breath and shook his head. His eyes as cold as a snake’s, he said, “This isn’t over.”

Ryder was picking at his teeth with the pointed blade of the machete and made a loud sucking sound. “It should probably be over if A, you don’t want Weston serial-killing all you *s, and two, our alpha charring your corpses like little crispy chickens and getting her eat on. Our monsters are better than yours.” He arched his red eyebrows up. “Bye.”

Weston and Ryder didn’t say a word as the raven shifters filed out of the shop with Caden leaning heavily on Dad.

They followed them out and watched them leave in a gunmetal gray Jeep Patriot. And when the sound of their engine disappeared completely, Avery whispered, “I’m so sorry.”

“Ave, please tell me you aren’t really engaged,” Weston growled out.

“No! Well…kind of.”

Weston ripped his hat off and threw it into the yard, strode away from her down the porch and returned looking frightful. “What do you mean you’re kind of engaged?” His voice was dark and intimidating.

“What happened was…I told the council I was engaged to you, and they allowed me to live here to obey our customs of courtship.”

Weston shook his head in shock and blinked hard. “What?”

“So, you and I are kind of technically engaged. Or we were, before you told them we weren’t.”

Weston stared off in the direction the Patriot had disappeared. “Ave, that makes no sense. They seemed to think you were still with Benjamin. They sure as shit didn’t seem to think we’re living our happily ever after!”

“I don’t understand what they were talking about. I swear I’m telling you the truth. My Dad telling me I didn’t have to stay with you—”

“That was your dad?”

“Yes. He was acting all concerned for me, but that’s not the relationship we have, Weston. It’s not! I left in the middle of the night from Raven’s Hollow, sure. But my mom encouraged me to elope with you.”

“But I didn’t even know you were here for me. We aren’t even engaged!”

“Yeah, but the council didn’t have to know that. I was just going to live here near you, near the Bloodrunners, and pretend I was under your protection so I didn’t have to marry Benjamin or anyone else. Benjamin is scary. He’s powerful in the community, the future head of the council, and he would give my family the rank they want. But he’s the boy who was awful to me. He’s always hated me, and now he wants to marry me? No. He wants to have control over me. I couldn’t do it, Weston. The day after I left, my mom gave the council a letter I’d written, telling them I couldn’t marry Benjamin because I was being courted by you. It was a desperate move, but I didn’t see any other way they wouldn’t come for me. I called her when I had been here a couple days, and she told me the council approved a courtship with you. And of course, they did. I should’ve wondered why they let me go so easily, but I was just so happy to be out of there, I didn’t ask questions. But you’re the Novak Raven! Why wouldn’t they be happy that I was being courted by you? That was the game plan since birth, right?” She held her hands out helplessly. She hated the disappointment on Weston’s face. “I don’t know why they were here acting surprised and concerned. They aren’t like that. None of them are.”

“Benjamin said this isn’t over,” Weston murmured, a deep frown marring his striking face. “You can’t go back there. What can I do to stop them from coming?”

Marry me. She wouldn’t force him into that, though. If he’d told Dad that yes, they were engaged, this would be done. But that wasn’t fair on Weston. He’d only just begun trusting her again.

Weston was staring at her, waiting for an answer, so she gave him what she could. “Until I’m married, I’m up for grabs. Claiming marks don’t count in Raven’s Hollow. I’m of breeding age and apparently Benjamin is determined.”

Standing here, looking into Weston’s eyes, the ones that had grown dark with his anger and disappointed at the turn of events, she hated the ravens for tainting her home here.

“What do we do?” Ryder asked grimly.

Weston didn’t take his angry gaze from Avery, but he answered his best friend without a moment of hesitation. “We call a crew meeting. Avery’s one of us now. If the ravens pose a threat to her, they pose a threat to the Bloodrunners.”





Chapter Twenty


“If the ravens are coming, I can’t protect her,” Harper said.

Anger blasted through Weston’s veins. His alpha was sitting on the tailgate of her truck beside Wyatt, who looked sick.

“It’s okay,” Avery whispered. “I’m not one of you.”

“Stop,” Weston gritted out. He swung his pissed-off glare to Harper. “What the f*ck, H? You’ll throw down for anyone here, but when it comes to the mate I choose—”

“Don’t finish that sentence, Wes,” Harper gritted out, her blue dragon eye flashing brighter. “I love you like my own brother. I love all of you. Avery is one of us, sure enough. I knew it from the first time I saw you two together, but I can’t physically protect us if the shit hits the fan right now.”