Page 18 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

I smiled and his eyes narrowed.

“Grant,” I said, “one day you are going to confuse a woman’s silence with permission in front of the wrong audience.”

“Is that a threat?”

“No.” I stepped around him. “It’s the nicest thing I hope happens to you.”

I walked out before he could answer.

On the terrace, the music had shifted. Guests milled around the tables now, drinking and laughing beneath the lights. Tessa stood near the railing with my mother, showing off her ring to someone who had already seen it.

I made it three steps before Henry shot out from under a table, the pink leash whipping behind him.

“Henry!” Tessa cried.

Every head turned.

Henry bolted across the terrace with the determination of a creature fleeing certain death. He darted between a server’s legs, sailed over the edge of Tessa’s train where it pooled near a chair, and hit the lawn at full speed.

“Oh my God,” Brielle shrieked. “The ring bearer!”

“He’s not carrying the rings tonight,” Aunt Linda said. “Let him save himself.”

Tessa lunged after him in heels.

Grant caught her arm. “Tess, don’t run. You’ll fall.”

Useful, I thought. For once.

Henry cut left toward the garden path. A server moved to intercept him, calm and quick, but Henry was small, furious, and apparently powered by betrayal. He slipped under the man’s reach and kept going.

Tessa’s face went white. “Cassie, please!”

I was already moving.

That was the worst part. I didn’t even think about it.

The dog was terrified. My sister was crying. Everyone else was either drunk, in heels, or Grant.

So I went after him.

“Henry!” I called, gathering the skirt of my manipulative blush dress in one hand. “Come here, you tiny idiot!”

He glanced back and for a second, I thought he might stop. Then something cracked in the trees beyond the lawn.

A branch, probably, a normal sound. A resort full of landscaping made normal sounds.

Henry vanished down the path and I kicked off my heels. Behind me, Dad shouted my name.

I ignored him and ran.

Chapter 3:

A Bad Night for a Treaty

Ian

By the time the elders called me to the circle, I had already chosen the order I would kill them in if the rite went bad.