“His exact words were, ‘Better we hold the bait than they do.’”
Silence stretched between them.
“The wreck?” Dax asked.
“A retrieval team is already stripping the site,” Sule said. “State police won’t find enough left to ask questions.”
Dax’s shoulders loosened by a fraction.
“Did he formally claim her?”
Sule shook his head.
“No. A maker tether isn’t the same as a claim. But until the transition settles, the wards will read her through him, and neither of them can simply walk away from what has formed.”
Cole let out a dark laugh.
“So what now? We let him play jailer with his new toy? This isn’t only about him, Sule. My loyalty is to Leena and the child.”
Sule’s gaze hardened, his voice dropping to a lethal edge.
“Do not doubt for a second that I would let harm reach Leena or our child. Rhen is not your enemy. His loyalty to this clan runs as deeply as yours, and when it comes to protecting Leena, I trust him with her life.”
Malakai leaned forward, his chair creaking beneath his weight.
So what is the plan? Contain her? Question her?
“Both,” Sule said. “She stays in the warded eastern suite until the transition settles. No one enters alone. Leena remains behind the inner protections, and Rhen does not decide the female’s fate without this council.”
His gaze moved across the room.
“The tether may be the only thing stabilizing her transition. It also gives Rhen the best chance of sensing what she is carrying before it breaches the inner wards. That makes him useful. It does not make him trustworthy where she is concerned.”
The room went still.
No one said it aloud, but they all knew what Rhen was capable of when instinct overruled command.
Sule’s voice carried finality like a blade.
“It is a controlled risk. Rhen’s loyalty to this clan—to us—is absolute. But if this threatens Leena, the child, or any one of you…”
He paused, his gaze sharp enough to cut.
“I’ll end it myself.”
The tension shifted.
Not peace.
Not agreement.
Something closer to alignment.
Cole was the first to speak.
“Whatever you say, boss.” He pushed his chair back with a sharp scrape. “But if he gets a personal prisoner, I want one too.”
Dax snatched the marble paperweight from the desk and hurled it at Cole’s head.
