Page 180 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

Ronan didn’t look away from me. “I need the room.”

“No,” I said.

His eyes went cold. The Alpha entered before my brother did. It changed the air. Power pressed against the walls, old and familiar, the weight I had bowed to my entire life because the pack needed me to kneel somewhere.

Cassie stirred against my chest. My arm tightened before I could stop it.

Ronan saw. Of course he saw.

“That,” he said quietly, “is exactly why I need the room.”

Sava shut the door. “You can have a conversation without clearing out the injured woman whose room this is.”

Ronan’s gaze flicked to Cassie. Some of the ice shifted, not softening exactly, but acknowledging her as more than a problem in a bed. “Cassie.”

She opened her eyes. “If you’re here to congratulate me on surviving the murder maze, I’d prefer a card.”

Sava made a small sound that might have been approval.

Ronan didn’t smile. “Three Thorne wolves are dead.”

“Should I have written them thank-you notes for trying to rip my throat out?”

“No,” Ronan said. “You should have been protected from them.”

Cassie looked at him more closely, some of the defensive edge easing under exhaustion. “Then we agree on one thing.”

“For now,” he said.

I sat up slowly, keeping the blanket over Cassie. “Say what you came to say.”

Ronan’s eyes returned to me. “You didn’t answer command.”

“I know.”

“You killed three wolves.”

“They were Thorne soldiers in a rigged hunt course with my mate’s blood on their hands.”

Ronan stepped closer. Power rolled with him. “That answer will satisfy the part of the pack that enjoyed watching you make a warning out of them. It will not satisfy the council. It will not satisfy neutral witnesses. It will not satisfy any Alpha looking for proof that my enforcer can no longer tell the difference between justice and slaughter.”

My lips pulled back. “They wanted proof. They got it.”

“Yes,” Ronan said. “They did.”

Cassie’s fingers tightened around the sheet.

Ronan lowered his voice. “You think tonight proved the bond is real.”

“It is real.”

“It proved she can call you back when I cannot.”

I rose from the bed.

Sava moved at once. “Ian.”

Cassie pushed herself up on one elbow and winced. “Don’t.”