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The fog of rage was clearing from my head, and I was suddenly acutely aware of the ache my body felt. But I also knew he was lying for me, and my brother’s death grip on my shoulders told me he knew it too, and he was keen to keep it that way.
But that would be a lie.
“Bale.” I stood and swayed slightly, and Kris steadied me. But I had heard the grunt of surprise at my use of the pack leader’s name. “Sorry, I mean Pack Leader Bale.”
“Shut up,” Kris hissed in my ear as he loosely held me.
“It was me. I asked Landon to spar with me. I wanted to show him I was as good as any male in this form.” It hurt to speak, and I wasn’t entirely sure I still had all my teeth. “I goaded him, and then I went…” How did I explain it?
“Feral?” One of the pack security team spoke, and I turned to look at him, not realizing he had been in the room but recognizing the look of distrust in his eyes.
“Um, I don’t…” I hesitated. “I don’t know.”
“It was me, not Kezia,” Landon spoke loudly, and I saw he was also standing. “I used my superior strength and power after I tricked her into sparring with me.”
“Landon—”
“I’m so sorry, Kezia,” Landon spoke over me. “And I apologize, Father. I have disgraced you.”
“It’s her heat,” Kris spoke for the first time to Bale. “It’s coming, and her body will throw off pheromones, and he’s reacted to it as any male would. He saw the challenge from a female, and he met it.”
And now I felt nauseous.
Bale looked me over with a speculative look. “Of course. Your heat is coming. That explains a lot.”
It really didn’t. My heat coming meant that if it actually meant anything, Landon would have wanted to protect me, not fight with me. Had everyone forgotten basic wolf biology?
“She will need to shift,” Bale spoke over my head to my brother, avoiding looking at me. “The pack won’t understand the delicacies of this. We keep this between us only.”
When I went to ask what he meant, my brother once again tried to break my bones single-handedly as his grip remained punishing. I heard him agree, and then we stood silently, as Bale commanded Landon to shift.
I watched the dark brown wolf shake his head, then stretch, and Bale ordered everyone out of the room.
Leaving me with Kris.
Shaking out of his grip, I turned to demand what was happening, but my words died on my tongue as I was struck silent by the wrath in his eyes.
“I won’t ask you what you were thinking. I won’t ask you if you are trying to be cast out, and I won’t ask what the fuck you were thinking?”
“You said that already,” I mumbled.
“Do not push me, Kezia,” Kris growled as he marched past me. “I may finish what Landon was failing at so badly.”
“I thought I was to shift?” I called after my brother as he headed for the door.
“You’ll be healed by the time we get outside,” he snarled over his shoulder.
“I will?” When he cast an angry glare my way, I hurried to catch up with him. “Why will I heal so quickly without shifting?” I asked again. “I thought I looked worse than Landon?”
Kris stopped at the broken door and looked up the stairs, ensuring we were alone, before he looked at me, checking me over and shaking his head in anger. “No, you don’t look worse. You look like you’ve been brawling, nothing worse.”
“Huh?”
Kris sighed as he rubbed his forehead. “Your injuries are minor. You always were quick at healing. Be grateful your friend is a quick thinker and an even better, more practiced liar.”
“But I’m bleeding.”
My brother’s steely gaze stopped any more protests. “You’re barely scratched, whereas the pack leader’s son was getting his ass kicked by a girl, and we all saw it.”
