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Royce rolled his head on his shoulders rather than answer, and I knew he was fighting back his frustration. I understood why he was pissed, but just because I understood didn’t mean I would change my mind.
“Did you link with her?” he asked, changing the subject again. It was a reason why he was my second—he knew what battles to fight and what ones to leave alone.
“She resisted complete surrender,” I told him, checking over my shoulder to make sure we were alone. “She’s so fucking strong,” I added with a frown. “Too strong for an eighteen-year-old girl.”
I felt the side-eye this time. “Her age didn’t stop you from almost bedding her in a cell,” he reprimanded me.
I knew I’d taken it too far. I didn’t need his reminder that I’d almost fucked her then and there. She was like the sweetest nectar. Her scent was intoxicating, and her heat…fuck…her heat made me want to rip off her clothes and pound into her untouched body until we were both exhausted and spent.
“I needed her to lose control,” I reminded him coolly. “Once the control went, I knew the wolf would surface.”
His harrumph spoke volumes. “She didn’t submit, but did she at least communicate?”
I nodded slowly. “She did. She’s protective.” I looked at him with a grin. “She’s not a fan of either of us.” Rubbing my forehead, I sighed. “She’s been hunted by men, which we knew. Fighting for money, which we knew.” I watched her sleep. So peaceful. So innocent-looking. “She said nothing about the men she killed.”
“Nothing?” Royce asked in a sharp whisper.
“Nothing. When I asked, she shifted back to Kezia,” I admitted. “I made her shift two more times, but each time, she shifted back.”
“Then you need to use your Will on her.”
“I did.” I anticipated his protest. “No. I will never use the wolf’s Will on an innocent. I am not him.”
“Cannon? She took three human lives.”
“There’s more to the story,” I told him. “I know there is.” I was sure of it. I just didn’t know what. “She said to me in the cell earlier, before I made her shift, that if she killed Bullet. Why if?”
“She’s trying to place doubt in your mind?” He nudged my arm for me to look at him. “And from the sound of it, it’s working.”
“I don’t think she was aware,” I told him my suspicion quietly. “If her wolf did it, I don’t think she was conscious of it.”
“We aren’t separate entities,” Royce reminded me gruffly. “We exist as one.”
“What if she doesn’t?” I countered. “What if they are separate, and they coexist?” I gestured toward her still-sleeping form. “What if she’s never melded to her wolf?”
Royce gaped at me. “That’s insanity. The mind and spirit combine at the first shift. She’s eighteen years old. They can’t exist apart.”
“I know,” I said with a nod. “But I think she’s different.” I glanced at him, seeing my oldest friend struggling to accept the possibility. “I need the human here.”
“Are you insane?”
“She was with a man the night we caught her. He runs the fighting rings. He knows more than he let on when we questioned him the first time. Bring him to me.”
“I am not bringing a human into packlands.”
I turned to face him head-on. “Do you want me to leave her while I go down and get him myself? She’s newly fed, her wolf’s hold is back, and she’s going to be livid when she wakes up. And her heat is bound to come back.” I held my hands up in mock surrender. “I mean, I’m eager to avoid the conversation about kissing her, so if that’s what you’d prefer, to fight off the pack as they fight to get to her, then, just say…”
With narrowed eyes, he took a step back. “You owe me for this. Huge. And when I come back, you better have another cell ready, because no human is seeing where my children live.”
“Take Nikan.”
Royce opened his mouth to protest, but instead, he turned on his heel and marched out of the barn.
I would owe him. Probably huge.
My focus returned to her, and I stood leaning against a wall and waited for her to wake. Then, hours later, her arm moved, and her hand was raised to scratch her cheek.
“Cannon…” she murmured as she moved slightly on the cot.
