Page 44 of Starting a New Life

If push came to shove, I could draw a shield around myself. Thanks to Levi, I had more than enough energy to keep me safe. Then, I could use a punch of energy to get Levi’s mate out of the way, another one to shatter the window and…

Levi squeezed my arm again, his aura never even hitching.

He was completely at ease, blissfully unaware of what was at stake.

“I…” I looked at the blanket I was sitting on, the red-and-green plaid flannel probably extremely comfortable and warm for whoever was sleeping under it. “I’m a mage,” I said, keeping my eyes trained on the spots where reds and greens met as I put the final nail into my coffin. I wasn’t telling them anything new, but I was openly admitting it. “The barrier was weak, so uhm, I searched for a particularly weak spot and snuck in.”

A growl vibrated through the room, the Alpha’s eyes flashing. I grabbed Levi’s arm in panic, holding on for dear life.

“You did… what?” he shouted. I raised my hands, waiting for the first blow, but it never came. The air crackled with tension as he cocked his head at me. “Explain,” he demanded, but his voice was calmer already, his tone almost soothing. His wolf was howling in his chest, a haunting song of longing.

I blinked.

“What exactly do you want me to explain?” I’d just told him what I’d done. Did he want me to admit it in detail, so he had more offences to use against me?

“How could you sneak in?”

“Because I’m a mage?” I bit my lip. He was trying to rack up the charges against me, right? Adding more and more infractions so that my punishment could be more severe. He was trying to portray me as dangerous, a threat to the pack. As someone who had to be controlled for the pack’s safety.

Oh god, I was going to be sick!

“And?”

What did he want to hear?

“Mages are the ones who create these barriers,” I started explaining in detail, my mind spinning. Was I incriminating myself further? Could I just… stop talking, or would being uncooperative be worse? “Since the barrier is connected to pack lands and the pack itself, they don’t need frequent upkeep by a mage, but every couple of years, a mage needs to enforce it to keep it strong. If a barrier gets particularly weak, a mage can… uhm… manipulate it and sneak in,” I finished slowly. He knew how barriers worked, right? I mean, he was the Alpha, and he was relying on it to protect his territory. Yeah, the barrier had been weak, but the connection to the pack was strong. Someone was nurturing it, even without having a personal connection. “But I enforced it,” I added, hoping to placate him. “After I snuck in, I fixed the weak spot and made sure no one else could get in undetected.”

“You… did what?” his voice was booming, laced with a growl.

I shrank back.

Okay. So, the pack hadn’t realized someone had been working on the barrier. And apparently, he wasn’t as happy about it as I’d hoped.

“It… needed work,” I said weakly. Still did. I hadn’t been able to give it my all, and lately, I hadn’t been able to give it anything at all.

My fingers kept skimming over the blanket until they found a loose thread, and I started toying with it, desperately avoiding looking at any of them. There was so much tension in the room. I didn’t want to accidentally push anyone over the edge, didn’t want them to think my eye contact was defiance.

“Hey, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Levi said, voice oh so gentle. “You said the barrier getting stronger was a good thing.”

“Yeah,” the Alpha—my mate—said. “When we thought it was getting stronger on its own. Not when an intruder is the one secretly tampering with it. He could have done who knows what to it.”

I bit my lip, fingers curling into the fuzzy, soft bedding.

“I only coaxed back what’d been there before,” I whispered. “I needed it to be stronger.”

To keep the intruders out.

“Why?” The Alpha’s voice was sharp as a knife. “What’s it to you? I’d think a weak barrier would be better for you to sneak in and out unnoticed?”

Resentment was heavy in every word, his wolf howling in sorrow. It didn’t like that the Alpha was angry, didn’t understand it.

I took a deep breath, tried ignoring all the auras and presences in the room and the accompanying rooms, tried focusing on my hands curled in the plaid bedding, on the soft fabric between my fingers, on the way Levi was a source of warmth and unfaltering support.

I wasn’t alone. He’d tried standing up for me.

An intruder.

That’s what the Alpha saw in me. Not just a mage. Not his mate.