Trial by Heart (Trial Series Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

lake. We arrive half an hour later to an unfamiliar home on the side of the lake Ben owns.
    Whereas Ben’s house was one story, this one is two stories tall. The differences seem to stop there, for there are as many windows in this log home as Ben’s, and the secluded estate is likewise tucked away from the road in the forest.
    Four large dogs run to greet us. I start to smile as I get out of the car, tickled by the idea of a werewolf with pets. The driver shoos them away, and they run to the forest.
    Ben is waiting in a picnic area near the side of the house. He’s not alone; Jason and another man, whose back is to me, are standing farther away, heads bent as they talk.
    Ben offers a half smile as I approach, his sizzling golden gaze moving past me to the driver, who returns to the car. Tall, muscular, and every bit the sexy alpha, Ben’s features are tight and his stance unusually closed.
    I glance at my feet to see if Erish is with me, as usual. The second shadow is present, even if he’s quiet. He’s probably spying, and has been my entire life, a realization that gives me the creeps.
    “You okay?” Ben asks in his low growl. His eyes are on my second shadow, too, and I know without a doubt he understands what it is.
    It kind of hurts to know how much he and the others kept from me.
    “Awesome, considering I’m being stalked by a ghost,” I reply sarcastically.
    “It’s about to get worse.”
    I lift my eyes to his.
    Ben clears his throat. “I want to tell you what I lied about, before you find out the hard way.”
    I hold my breath. I want to know – but not really. Everything I learn crushes me. I don’t think I can live with the idea of Ben betraying me horribly. I need to believe in the candidates, to know I haven’t made the worst mistakes of my life by trusting them.
    Be strong, Leslie. Ben’s watching, I tell myself.
    “Jenny wasn’t my fiancé,” the werewolf starts. “She was my mate.”
    My mouth drops open.
    “We mated in secret soon after your father chose the candidates,” he goes on. “The circumstances were … complicated.”
    “Oh, god!” I exclaim. “She wasn’t pregnant or something was she?”
    “No. Nothing like that. She threatened to leave me otherwise, and when it came to her I was blind. Always. In every way,” he answers. “This was the clan’s opportunity to obtain equal footing in the Community. It’s all we’ve wanted for thousands of years, and Jenny knew that up front. She promised she was okay with me going through the trials, so I agreed to marry her.”
    I nod, aware of how important winning the Community leader position is to the werewolves. There’s a small part of me that’s almost relieved to learn of his betrayal, because I feel less embarrassed about how I treated him. We aren’t even, because I was a bitch during our trial, but it’s nice not to feel alone in making mistakes.
    “In hindsight, I should’ve asked her to explain her motivation and timing,” Ben continues. “You don’t think about that when you love someone. I assumed she wanted the curse broken like I did. A week with a fucking Kingmaker, and the hope of breaking the curse, were small prices to pay for us to be able to have children one day.” His smile is tight and softens the impact of his words.
    “You hate me,” I murmur. “ I hate me!”
    My father, or Erish, whomever’s turn it was to write Ben’s biography, expressed how sacred the mating bond is for werewolves. After experiencing it with Ben, I understand it all too well. If he were willing to sacrifice his own bond to be with me, and betray his mate, even for a week with her permission, he was desperate to do his part to break the curse.
    But I killed his mate . What has that done to him? To have hoped to have children with her one day then to lose her to a Kingmaker, of all people?
    “It doesn’t change the fact she betrayed me. One of her confidantes claimed she thought someone was about to find out about