Chapter 21 A Dangerous Admission #5
“We are tracing the handlers now,” Cormac said. “Two boundary guards are missing. One may have run. One left blood at the post.”
Ronan’s hand closed around the evidence sleeve. “Silas?”
“That is the next problem.” Cormac’s mouth tightened. “No one has seen Silas Thorne since Evelyn made the challenge.”
Silence.
Even Sava went quiet.
Cassie looked between us. “I’m going to assume that is bad.”
“Silas does not miss a public humiliation,” I said.
Cormac nodded. “He especially does not miss one involving Ian, a disputed mate, and a chance to make Ronan look weak in front of both packs.”
Ronan’s voice dropped. “He set the board and left before the blood hit it.”
“That is what it looks like,” Cormac said. “Evelyn is still performing outrage downstairs. Loudly. She is demanding punishment for the deaths of Thorne wolves during a lawful trial.”
My vision narrowed.
Cassie’s voice cut through it. “That woman has incredible stamina for bullshit.”
Cormac’s eyes flicked to her. “She does.”
Ronan looked at me. “Don’t.”
“I have not moved.”
“You thought it loudly.”
Cassie lifted a weak hand. “For the record, I also thought it loudly.”
Sava muttered, “I need a different profession.”
Ronan looked at Cormac. “Seal the exits. Quietly. No one leaves the resort without my order.”
“Already started.”
“Find the missing guards.”
“Done.”
“Separate Evelyn from her people.”
Cormac’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “That may be taken as an accusation.”
“It is an accusation wearing manners.”
“I can work with that.”
Ronan turned to Sava. “Can Cassie be moved?”
“No.”
“Sava.”
“No,” she repeated, with the full force of every year she had kept wolves alive despite themselves. “She can be guarded. She can be watched. She can be allowed to sleep. If you move her tonight because politics has become inconvenient, you will be doing Thorne’s work for him.”
Ronan accepted that with a curt nod.
Then he looked at me. I knew what he saw. Bare chest. Cassie’s blood still under my nails. A bond deepened past caution. A weapon with his loyalty split open and rewired in front of witnesses.
I also knew what he needed.
“I stay with her,” I said.
His eyes hardened.
I held his stare. “You need me contained. You need her guarded. For once, those are the same order.”
Ronan said nothing for a long moment.
Then he looked at Cassie. “Do you want him here?”
The question surprised her. It surprised me more.
Cassie looked at me, then at Ronan. She was exhausted, hurt, and shaken by too many truths at once. My confession was still there between us. I could feel it in the careful way she didn’t touch it yet.
Good.
She didn’t owe me an answer because my heart had finally become too heavy to hide.
“I want him here,” she said. “I also want everyone to stop making life-altering threats until I’ve had at least four hours of sleep and maybe a carbohydrate.”
Cormac nodded gravely. “A reasonable platform.”
Ronan’s mouth tightened. It was not a smile. On him, it was close enough to mercy. “Sava stays outside the door. Two guards in the hall. Cormac, put wolves in the service passage.”
“Already done,” Cormac said.
“Then double them.”
Cormac nodded.
Ronan started for the door, then stopped beside me. His voice lowered until only I could hear, though Cassie probably heard anyway. The mark had been sharpening her senses for days.
“This is not over.”
“I know.”
“If Silas has moved from influence to assassination, he will not stop because the first attempt failed.”
“Neither will I.”
Ronan’s eyes held mine. Brother beneath Alpha, just for one breath. “That is what scares me.”
Then he left. Cormac followed, already speaking quietly into his phone. Sava remained long enough to check Cassie’s pulse again, glare at me, and adjust the blanket around her shoulders with surprising gentleness.
“You sleep,” she told Cassie. “If he broods too loudly, throw something at the door and I will come in.”
Cassie’s eyes were already half-closed. “What if I can’t lift anything?”
“Then insult him. He will carry the message.”
Sava left and closed the door.
The room quieted again, though the world beyond it had become sharper and more dangerous.
I sat beside Cassie. For a while, I didn’t touch her. I let her choose. Her breathing slowed, then hitched once when pain moved through her. I reached for the water, helped her drink, then set it aside.
Her fingers found mine in the dark.
“You said something,” she murmured.
My chest tightened. “I did.”
“I’m too tired to handle it properly.”
“I know.”
“I’m not ignoring it.”
“I know.”
Her thumb brushed my knuckles. “I’m also not saying it back just because we’re bleeding and everyone is insane.”
A quiet breath left me, almost a laugh, almost pain. “I would not want you to.”
“Yes, you would.”
“Yes,” I said. “I would. But I would not take it.”
Her eyes opened enough to find mine. There she was again. Exhausted. Injured. Impossible.
Alive.
“Stay human,” she whispered.
I bent and pressed my mouth to her fingers. “I will.”
Outside the suite, the pack prepared for war. Inside it, Cassie fell asleep holding my hand.