A Rejected Wolf and a Court of Ash (Eden and Azriel) novel Chapter 64

Chapter 64

Eden

We don’t let Eldra inside at fast

She stands in the snow, drenched and shivering. Her blonde hair stringy and wild like she’s been running for days. I don’t move. Axel stands beside me, arms cressed, muscles tense, clearly ready to throw her back into the woods if I give the word.

Butt don’t just stare.

This is my old best friend. The girl who walked to school with every single day until she decided to badmouth me to Paris and help me ruin me. It annies me how she looks like a ghost of herself. Her family never had money, but Parls gave her a wardrobe change. Now these clothes are tom. Her lips are blue. And her expression is stripped of vanity. She looks…human. Broken, maybe, But real again rather than the Barbie version of herself Paris helped

She lifts her pointy chin. “I know I’m the last person you i want to see. I know I don’t deserve forgiveness. But I’m not here for that. I’m here to help.”

Avel scoffs, “Why should we believe anything that comes out of your mouth?”

She is smart enough not to argue Girl doesn’t even finch. Just meets my eyes. “Because Paris turned on me the second you were gone. Hilda too. They used me to make you hurt from my betrayal. They never cared about me. And I was stupid enough to think I mattered to them.”

Her voice cracks. She presses her lips together, breathing hard to hold her tears. “I was jealous of you, Eden. That’s why I went to them. I also wanted to matter. To be popular in the Valentine pack. But the thing is…you were the only real friend had. And Hucked it up.”

I stay silent, I won’t make this easy for her.

“Aher you escaped, Paris had no one else to push around. So I became her victim. And when I wasn’t useful or fun to push around anymore, she spat me out. I’ve spent the last few days in the pack dungeons. Begging her not to kill me.”

She pauses, her gaze flickering to Axel. “Paris said I deserved the dungeons since I’m a traitor for not sticking with my best friend. That she couldn’t possibly trust me after that, but she didn’t have to torture me for that! So now…now I just want her gone. She shouldn’t be Luna and I want to help make sure she is overthrown!”

Axel growls low in his throat, not impressed. “And you think we’re going to just accept you on the team? Let you, a fucking rogue, join us? You’re just here because your mind is cracking from being a rogue!”

My eyes widen, Axel is right. Elvira isn’t with the Valentine pack. She is a rogue now and that smell on her means she is dangerously close to going feral,

She needs a pack

“My mind might be cracking, but I have something to offer you guys!”

Axel snorts. “And what is that?”

Elvira looks between us. “My family”

blink. “Your family?”

She doesn’t alter from my stare. “The Fagerlöfs. They won’t help me. Not atter what I did to you. But they might help you. They always loved you, Eden. My mother used to call you her other daughter.”

Heel my heart squeeze. The Fagerlöfs never treated me badly and I’m sure Elvira’s mother tried to get me out of the pack dungeons. She couldn’t, of course, but I don’t think she was sitting idle while I was in there.

“My family doesn’t trust me anymore, Elvira continues. “But if you ask them, they might forgive me. And they’ll fight with you, Eden. I don’t know how you and Alex have managed to form a pack on your own, but you smell like an Alpha and my family would join your cause. Even if it meant fighting the Valentine pack.”

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Chapter 64

Having the Fagerlöf family fighting with us would give us numbers.

Avel shifts his weight. I can feel his eyes on me. Waiting for my answer.

“Okay,” I say, “We’ll go. But don’t think this means I’ve forgiven you,”

“I don’t expect you to “Elvira whispers.

The journey to the Faget home is quiet.

I shuffle snow while walking in my human form. Elvira is in human form too and so is Axel, He is keeping his eyes on my former best friend, not trusting

her at all.

The Paperlof home is ahead of us, nestled in a clearing surrounded by fir trees. Smoke is curling from the chimney, and my heart squeezes. It looks just the same. Home Sale Warm.

Until the wolves appea

Golden–blond and fast. They pour from the trees, surrounding us in seconds. Growling Eyes glowing.

Adam and Jens, Elvira’s older brothers, are huge. Muscles ripple. Fangs are bared.

Elvira finches. “They might attack me.”

I keep walking through the snow. “Let them.”

The wolves approach me, sniffing the air. Testing us. Axel growls back in his human form. His voice is low and threatening, but I hold out a hand to stop him

He falls silent and I turn my attention to Adam. He sniffs at my shoulder, then my neck. His eyes widen. Recognition. Then a wolfish grin.

I don’t have time to brace myself before I’m tackled into the snow

Axel chricks “EDEN!”

They blonde wolves are on top of me. Jens and Adam. Licking my face like I’m a long–lost pup. I shriek, laughing as try to push them off

“Get OFF! You’re squishing i

Oddly enough, I can hear their voices inside my head.

Adam rumbles. “Still tiny as ever”

Jens grins. “We missed you, runt.

Why can I hear them?

You would be able to hear Axel through your head too, my fox answers. You’re pack and have a mind–link. These wolves? You share a bond with them too.

You’re family.

Tears prickle behind n

my eyes a

at the word family, and when my brothers‘ finally let me up, I’m breathless and grinning at them both.

Ronja, Elvira’s young little sister, can’t shape–shift, but she runs from the house. Wide–eyed with glasses too big for her face, she squeals and hugs me. “You’re meal! I thought I dreamed your”

Then Stina, Elvira’s mother, appears at the door. She freezes, and her hand lifts to her mouth. “Eden?”

My voice is thick. “Hi.”

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