Page 71 of Ruthless Moon

Gooseflesh rises along my arms. My hands grow cold.

I can see it. The glint in my father’s eyes, the one that spells danger. The one that says I’m ten moves ahead and you’re already in checkmate.

“You don’t have a choice, Aiden.” The razor-edged whisper slices through the tension, just loud enough for Aiden and me to hear. “Finish this ceremony, or I’ll start with eliminating a man you both care deeply about.”

My father looks at me again, hellfire burning in his black gaze. “Either way, Liam will feel pain for your defiance, Imogen. It’s up to the both of you whether or not his pain is brief or extended.”

The world spins, my legs threaten to give out.

Liam.He knows. He knows. He knows.

I grab fistfuls of my dress and bite back the scream rattling in my throat as reality collapses around me.

Then the world erupts into chaos.

A rapid-fire sound cuts through the air—pop, pop, pop—before being drowned out by a resounding explosion. Then smoke rises from the street on our right.

“Looks like it ended quickly. Lucky boy,” my father says, his tone laced with annoyance. Liam dying was an irritation. Him not having the opportunity to torture Liam was merely a disappointment.

“Liam!” His name wrenches from my throat, tearing out a piece of my heart as it does. I lunge forward, a desperate need to reach him searing through me, but Aiden’s arm is a steel band around my waist, imprisoning me against his hard chest.

I writhe and thrash against his grip, my limbs tangling in the heavy folds of my dress, vision obscured by a veil of tears. My chest tightens with a profound sense of loss. My lip trembles and a mournful howl rings out within my soul, my wolf grieving the loss of our mate.

“Mother!” Aiden shouts behind me. Pandemonium takes hold as he issues orders, his mother and several men rushing around us. “Take theminside. Now.”

My legs fail me as Aiden hands me off, and I’m suddenly cradled in the arms of a stranger. I let him. They can do whatever they want with me now.

He dashes toward a truck, the world blurring past in a shroud of color and noise.

The other man helps Aiden’s mother into the back seat and then I’m shoved beside her. My dress is stuffed inside, billowing up nearly to my face. They slam the door and we’re driving, but I’m consumed by a single, devastating thought.

I’ve lost him.

It’s not the chaos, not the ruined alliance, not the aborted wedding I focus on—it’s only the selfish realization that the one person who mattered the most to me is gone. Wolves are resilient but that explosion wasn’t small.

I’ve cost Liam everything because of my love for him. If only I’d denied the connection, pretended it didn’t exist. I could have saved him.

I knew better.

Tears burn down my cheeks, and I sob. Big, loud, ugly grief-stricken sobs shake me like a rag doll.

Aiden’s mother reaches over, brushing her slender fingers over mine in a hesitant show of comfort. But even that slight touch burns like a brand.

I don’t want to touch anyone but Liam.

“Gen...” she begins, her voice soft and wavering.

I turn away from her, pressing my forehead against the cool glass of the window, hoping the chill might numb the agony coursing through me.

With every turn of the wheels, every mile that passes, the remnants of my hope slip away. I cling to the slivers of the memories I have of Liam from the last few days—his laughter, his warmth, his unwavering love. The more I hold on to those pieces, the sharper they seem, each one a bitter reminder of what I’ve lost.

Of what my father has taken from me.

How could I have thought I could hide something from my father—from the great all-seeing Oliver Gallagher? How could I have been so arrogant?

Eleanor’s hand reaches out again, resting atop mine, her grip firm yet gentle. “You’re not alone, sweet girl. Whatever happens.”

My gaze drops to our intertwined fingers. Her hand, marked with the fine lines of age and experience, holds a strength that I find myself yearning for...