Chapter 15 A Matter of Proof #3
No polish.
No hospitality.
Only power.
Malrec tapped the cane again. “Two nights. At moonrise. If the mark is real, it strengthens with time. If it is false, delay gives it opportunity to root deeper.”
Ronan looked at Sava.
Sava’s face was grim. “Two nights is dangerous.”
“Will she die walking the course?” Malrec asked.
“I cannot promise she will not.”
“Then she is already dying.”
I moved before I meant to but Cassie’s voice stopped me.
“I get two days,” she said.
I turned toward her. Her face had gone almost bloodless, but her voice held.
“Not one,” she said. “Two. And if I collapse before the hunt, your proof is invalid because the test failed before it started. You want old law, fine. Then use it cleanly.”
Malrec studied her. For the first time, he seemed less certain she was only a body to remove. That didn’t comfort me. Predators paid attention to things that cut them.
Evelyn’s mouth curved slightly. “You argue well for someone who claims not to be using the mark.”
Cassie looked at her. The bond warmed with a feeling I recognized too late.
Disgust.
Not fear.
Not insecurity.
Disgust.
“Sweetheart,” Cassie said, and every wolf in the room seemed to notice the blade under the human softness, “I survived a cheating ex, my mother’s emotional blackmail, and a bridesmaid dress in a color called bashful rose. If I wanted to manipulate a room, you’d know.”
Sava looked down. Lucien, standing near the door, briefly looked as if he respected her.
The wolf did more than respect her. The wolf wanted. Not because of the mark, because she was hurt, cornered, furious, and still standing inside herself.
I locked that want down before it reached my face.
Too late.
Cassie’s eyes flicked to mine and a faint flush rose in her cheeks. She felt something. Not all of it, but enough.
Ronan stood.
“Two nights,” he said. “The hunt convenes at moonrise. If Cassie Morgan survives the course and Ian returns her before dawn, the bond is acknowledged under old law until the full moon decides what modern law cannot. If she fails, no one touches her without my order.”
Malrec began to object.
Ronan’s eyes cut to him. “No one.”
The council lowered their eyes.
One by one.
Evelyn lowered hers last, but it wasn’t submission. It was patience and that was far worse.
The meeting ended without ceremony. Wolves left in quiet streams, all of them careful not to look too long at the human woman in the study or the enforcer standing between her and the room.
When the doors closed, Cassie sagged into the chair. I was in front of her before I remembered moving.
Sava didn’t stop me.
“Cassie.”
She opened her eyes. “Don’t start.”
“You agreed to be hunted.”
“I agreed to be proven inconveniently alive under the rules currently available.”
“You are hurt.”
“I’m aware. The bite keeps sending newsletters.”
“This is not a joke.”
“No.” Her voice softened by one degree. “It’s worse than that.”
I crouched in front of her chair but I kept my hands on my knees. She looked down at them.
“You’re angry,” she said.
“Yes.”
“At me?”
“No.”
“At them?”
“Yes.”
“At yourself?”
Always but I didn’t say that. The bond said enough though. Her face changed. There was the bleed again. Not pain. Not desire. Something quieter, more dangerous because it asked for sympathy neither of us knew what to do with.
She looked away first. “I need to know how the hunt works.”
“No.”
Her eyes came back to mine.
I corrected myself before she could speak. “Not no. Not now. You need food. Then rest. Then I tell you.”
She studied me for a long second. “You caught that fast.”
“I am learning.”
Her mouth parted slightly and the bond warmed. This time, the warmth was not only mine. I knew it. She knew I knew. Then her gaze dropped to my mouth for less than a breath.
Less than a heartbeat, but long enough that my body went tight.
Cassie’s cheeks flushed harder, and her eyes snapped back to mine.
“I’m injured,” she said.
“I know.”
“You bit me.”
“I know.”
“I might be feeling your feelings.”
“Yes.”
“You might be feeling mine.”
“Yes.”
“So whatever that was, we are ignoring it.”
I should have agreed. Immediately. I should have given her the clean answer.
Instead, I told the truth.
“I will ignore it,” I said. “But I will not pretend I didn’t feel it.”
Her breath left her.
Sava made a pointed sound behind us. “Food. Rest. Terrible emotional decisions later.”
Cassie closed her eyes. “I hate that she’s sensible.” I stood before I made a worse choice. Before I touched her. Before I let myself want where she could feel it.
“I will get the tray,” I said.
Cassie opened one eye. “You fetch food too?”
“Yes.”
“Very full-service prison.”
“It is a terrible prison.”
“The worst I’ve attended.”
I didn’t smile but something in me eased.
When I left the study, the mark pulled softly, as if it disliked even that small distance. This time, Cassie felt it too. She looked down at her bandaged shoulder, then at me.
Neither of us said anything.
Two nights until the hunt. And every hour between them had just become dangerous in a new way.