Page 47 of His Bullied Fated Mate

“Because it’s not known to the public.” His face fell. “I’m walking a fine line here, Janella. I’m trying to protect everyone without scaring them. We don’t know what’s going on, and once it goes out…. I need answers. Everyone is going to be asking me for answers, and I have to have them.”

I swallowed, feeling my anger settling.I understood his point. The council likely doesn’t want anyone to know or worry about it. The more people worry, the worse the situation is.

“Is there anything else I need to know?”

He shook his head. “You know what I know now.” He waved towards the door. “Can we go now?”

I nodded and followed him. But he wasn’t taking me towards the car. He was taking me down a hallway and stopped at a locked door. I read the plaque and saw it was his office. “Why are we here?”

“Because I have some books that I had dropped off for you.”

My eyebrows went up. “For me?”

He nodded, opening the door. “Yeah, I was asking around about some books that would help you learn about magic and how to pull it out. So, I had some dropped off.”

I felt my heart skip a beat and took a seat in his office. I expected it to be messy, but much like our house, it was organized and spotless. There were a couple of books sitting on the corner of his desk that he grabbed.

“One is about spells, another is a history of magic, and the third one is about learning to hone in on it. They have others, but I figure these would be three good ones to start with. The basics.”

I felt moved that he’d already thought about helping me learn. But I know he was only doing it because he wanted me be able to use the magic. I was just someone he needed to save the pack and nothing more.

Chapter 13 - Riley

I was leaving my office and heading down the hallway to exit. But I found Janella sitting on the bench.

“Janella, what are you doing here?”

She gave me a soft smile. “I thought we could go have lunch.”

“Oh, that's nice. I'm starving. What were you thinking?”

Janella wrapped her arm around mine, and we walked together as one. She beamed as she stepped, humming something.

I pushed the door open, and as we stepped outside, I froze. I noticed there were bodies all over the ground, and blood was pouring out of them. My eyes widened. “Oh, my god.”

Then a sharp pain stabbed me in the back, and I tumbled forward. Laughter filled the air, and I turned to look at Janella. She had a knife in her hands that was covered in my blood.

“Janella, what did you do?”

“What had to be done.” She twirled the knife, and pain started to shoot down my spine. “You really shouldn’t open up so easily, Riley. You never know who’s going to stab you in the back.”

“Why would you do this? This isn't you.”

She gave me that wicked grin again. “That’s just it, Riley. This is me. This was all part of the plan.”

I jerked up in my sleep, gasping for air. I quickly reached for my lamp and flipped it on. The room lit up, and I stared looking around in a panic. I could feel my heart racing, and I was sweating all over. What the hell!?

It was a nightmare, but it felt so real. She looked so much like herself and yet twisted at the same time.

I showered, hoping it would help put the nightmare behind me. But it didn’t. I kept replaying it over and over in my head. The look in her eyes and the knife in her hand.

I headed to the office early. I tried to shake the feeling off because it was just a nightmare. I knew Janella, and she wasn't like that. She might have had a mouth on her, but that was as far as the evil went.

Philip, my Beta, came into my office. “Hey, Riley.”

“What?” I snapped.

Philip froze in the doorway. “Okay, someone's a little grumpy today.”