Oh. I didn’t need to look at Jay to understand the dynamic now. In every room I had ever been in, werewolves clawed for dominance between each other, but humans and mages were usually left out of the fray. Jay wasn’t the one I would have to fight for dominance in this situation. Isaac was.
I stared at him, completely silent, waiting.
He blinked first, pushing his hands into his hair. He turned back to Cade. “Where did you even pick him up? You never said you were seeing someone. Why didn’t you tell me?”
The last question had a cut of hurt in it, as though Isaac cared less about me personally and more about the fact that he hadn’t known about the fictional relationship Cade and I were in. It felt more personal than Sonja’s irritation.
“We met before the poisoning. I had a conversation with Leon a couple of days ago.” Cade looked away. “He told me what’s being said behind council doors.”
Isaac blew out a loud breath but walked over to the chair on Cade’s right side and sat down.
“And what is the high-and-mighty council saying?” Isaac asked, but his tone made it clear he already had a good idea.
“The council isn’t going to approve me until I have a consort. They feel, given what happened with my parents…” Cade’s face went pale, but he straightened his back, looking around at us. “I was going to ask Miles anyway. I knew as soon as I met him he would make a good consort. This just moved the timetable up.”
Something cold settled in my stomach as I absorbed all the information. The casual reference to Cade’s parents made me shiver. It was the first time he’d spoken about them explicitly. Although, apparently he assumed we all knew what happened to them.
I wasn’t sure what to make of Leon telling him what was said behind council doors. Was Leon on the council? I thought he was a butler, but the way Cade and Isaac exchanged glances, it was clear I didn’t understand his full position in House Bartlett.
“And you?” Jay spoke, his voice light. He offered me a twitch of a smile, still shrinking back when I looked at him.
I might have gone a little bit too hard on the display of dominance.
“I like what Cade is offering me.” I wanted to let that be it, but now I had both Jay’s and Isaac’s attention. Jay looked almost friendly, but suspicion clouded Isaac’s eyes. “I have no pack name. No last name. A home is something I haven’t had in a long time.”
Now even Cade was looking at me with a slight frown between his brows, which cleared immediately when I looked at him.
“See? Everything is fine.” Cade dragged his eyes away from me to focus on Isaac. “What are you worried about?”
“I worry about everything.” Isaac’s shoulders slumped. He scrubbed his hands through his hair again before pulling it straight. With the anger wiped off his face, he looked younger, maybe only a year or two older than Cade. He was definitely too young for the position he held. “I worry about the optics of bringing in a wolf when we still haven’t found the attackers. It makes you look weak. I worry about the fact that we haven’t caught whoever is behind the attacks. I worry about Trish’s family. They’re making noise about compensation for her life. If they leave, that would be a major blow to House Bartlett.”
Cade waved his hand. “The Jennings are always upset about something.”
“They lost their eldest daughter.” Isaac’s brows drew together again, and this time, he looked horrified at Cade’s callousness instead of angry. “This isn’t like the time you dug up their entire prize rose garden. This is something anyone would be angry about.”
Noise in the corridor tore my attention away from the conversation. I was half out of my seat when Jay tilted his head, hearing it.
“Dinner,” he said, his voice so quiet it was clearly intended for Isaac’s ears alone.
Isaac glanced at the door just as two servants brought in trays of food.
We sat in uncomfortable silence as they took the coverings off, revealing a first course of salad. The green lettuce was crisp, as though someone had gone out into a garden and picked it five minutes before dinner. The color was perfect, deep red edging that faded into a bright green. It was topped with perfect cherry tomatoes and carrots. Dressing was on the side, a small container that smelled like balsamic. We waited for the servants to withdraw before turning back to the conversation at hand.
I memorized their faces, although neither servant had looked at me at all. One of them might have left the note or know who did.
“If the Jennings leave, they take the Franks with them, and the Franksarepowerful.” Isaac stabbed violently at his salad.
Cade scraped the tines of his fork around the edge of the plate for a moment. “A few minor cousins leave. It’s not a big deal.”
“It willbea big deal. It’ll be a big deal when everyone else treats it like a chance to jump ship.” Isaac glared down at his plate, and Jay reached over, putting his hand on Isaac’s forearm.
Isaac turned to him with a smile, one so gentle that he didn’t even look like the same person. For a moment, I could see the bubble that surrounded them, as though they were something special, and the rest of us were just living in their world.
“We will find the killer. When we do, I will ascend, and I can put an end to this nonsense.” Cade said each word distinctly, as though it was a mantra he had been telling himself.
“Is that something you’re going to help with?” Jay asked me.
Surprised, I looked at him. It was an incisive question, one I was sure that Isaac shared. Slowly, I nodded. “I want to find who’s behind the attacks.”
