Page 149 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

“You let her run.”

“She chose to.”

“You could have caught her.”

“Yes.”

His mouth tightened. “That was for her?”

I looked at Cassie, seated now while Sava checked the bandage beneath the sweater’s collar. She was arguing with Sava, and Sava was ignoring her with the calm of a woman who had outlived more dangerous patients than Cassie Morgan. Color still marked Cassie’s face, and every few seconds her eyes found me again before she looked away.

“No,” I said. “That was for the bond.”

Ronan went still.

I looked back at him. “If I catch her because I can, the hunt proves force. If I find her, wait, and she still chooses the next move, the bond answers.”

Ronan studied me for long enough that the wolf grew restless. “Careful.”

“I am.”

“No,” he said, his gaze cutting once to Cassie. “You are becoming something else.”

He was right, so I didn’t answer.

Sava looked toward us from the bench. “Ian.”

The edge in her voice moved me before thought did.

I crossed the ground and stopped several paces away when she lifted one hand. Cassie sat very still on the stone bench, one hand gripping the edge beside her thigh. Her pulse had climbed, and the scent of her heat had climbed with it, no longer subtle enough for the watching wolves to miss.

Sava held my gaze. “That distance. No closer.”

Cassie’s head lifted, her eyes narrowing. “Why?”

“Because I said so,” Sava answered, and there was enough steel in it that Cassie gave her a look but didn’t push.

I kept my body still. The wolf wanted to close the space, not to take, but to settle her, to put my hands where the bond would quiet. My body wanted worse than that, and Cassie, with her flushed face and stubborn eyes, felt enough of it to go very still.

Sava saw that too.

“Training is over,” she said.

Ronan took one step forward. “She needs another pass.”

“No,” Sava said.

The word was quiet enough to be polite and final enough to make the entire terrace listen.

Ronan’s eyes hardened.

Sava didn’t lower hers. “Oh keep your looks Ronan. She made him search, he found her, and the mark responded in a way I need to evaluate away from witnesses. If you want her on her feet tomorrow night, you are finished using her today.”

Cassie’s mouth tightened. “I’m right here.”

“Yes,” Sava said. “And you are coming with me.”

Cassie looked at me, and for once there was no joke waiting. “Are you coming?”