Chapter 24
JUDGE
One of the drawbacks to gaining power is that everyone wants a fucking piece of it. I bet even their third cousins conspire with them on how to take it from me.
Heading down the kennels after a long evening in the long hall, the barking and whining dogs make it easier to have conversations. I walk past the hounds, pulling small bits of jerky out of my pockets to feed them.
Skinner’s crouched by one of the sled dogs, a black-furred brute with a white spot on its chest. He’s scratching behind its ear, murmuring something low that makes the dog huff in contentment. The moment my right hand sees me, he stands, brushing his hands on his thighs.
Skinner motions for me to lean in, and I lower my head to face the dog as I wait to hear what I was brought down here for. “White flag rider is heading this way,” he says without preamble. “Might take him a week or two to get here, depending on the weather. That’s what was so urgent.”
I nod, pulling back for a moment, rolling my fingers inward. “So we have a weasel, and Titan is now sending a white flag?”
A rough sound escapes him, almost like a failed attempt at a laugh. “Yeah, he sure as shit is done being subtle.”
A few of the dogs pace and whine as I force a slow exhale through my nose, hand raising to drag down my jaw.
Diana’s face flashes in my mind—that bare neck, the way she looks when she’s half defiant, half lost, and how it disappears when her body gives into me.
Biting that pretty, soft neck is something I’m always refraining from.
Not yet.
It would definitely form a dark bond right now.
“Any information on what he actually wants?”
“Nope,” Skinner says. “Just that we’re supposed to treat this coming dickface like he’s welcome. The usual diplomacy bullshit.” He glances at me sideways after kicking the dirt. “What about your omega? What if he knows, and that’s why he’s moving in?”
My hand twitches toward my pocket, where the comm screen sits, just waiting for me to peek at her. Oh, I don’t like that feeling that she’s being targeted.
I can’t tell if it makes me proud or terrified that she’s getting bolder. I can sense that she’s itching for something more to happen, that my presence isn’t enough. Which means any control I have now is going to slip away.
I was dreading this.
The only thing that can help is to mark her. To bond her to me so I can feel her, even when we’re apart.
“Diana is adjusting,” I comment after a time. “We might have to resort to some extreme measures.”
“That a good thing or a bad thing?”
“I don’t know yet.” The words scrape out before I can stop them. “Keep a watch on that rider. When he gets closer, we’ll have to take actions that I’m not going to be proud of.”
He clears his throat with another nod, because he knows what that means. “You still on for Scarlett Offering?”
I stare into his dark eyes. “With her in the mix, it’s the only option.”
He sucks his tongue to his teeth, releasing it quickly. “Sounds good, sir.”
I head out of the kennel, hands back in my coat pockets as I breathe in the colder air, looking through the open gates toward the dark horizon where Titan’s rider will eventually appear.
The actions I need to take to keep his attention off of Diana already make my stomach turn sour. My gaze skims over an alpha named Axel with his omega, who makes sure he’s wearing his helmet this time before he goes on one of the last patrols for the season on a bike.
My attention moves to the very top of the building, four stories up, where a glass wall merges with the roof pitch. Where I know exists an omega that is making me risk a whole fuck ton more than I’m comfortable with.
Diana thinks those deep sleeps are just for her, but she doesn’t know that her scent is calming to me, too. And I actively prefer avoiding anything related to my heart, which is why letting our bodies speak to each other is safer.
If I not only found my scent match but was able to hide her away, and something still happened to her? When her safety is my utmost responsibility?
Oh, I’ll make sure to drag Titan down to hell with me.
Nothing will stop me then.