Page 204 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

Cassie woke with a sharp inhale, her hand closing around my wrist.

I was already leaning over her. “You’re safe.”

Her eyes dragged open. Pain clouded them first. Then recognition. Then irritation, because Cassie had never met consciousness without immediately finding something to be annoyed about.

“That word is becoming very decorative,” she rasped.

I reached for the glass on the bedside table and helped her sit enough to drink. She hated that she needed help. I felt it in the tight line of her mouth and the way she kept one hand braced against the mattress, as if her body were a negotiation she refused to lose in front of me.

“You slept,” I said.

“I was drugged.”

“You needed it.”

“I need coffee, a shower, and to be somewhere else.”

The binding warmed at the third thing.

I kept my face still.

“Yes,” I said.

Her eyes sharpened, though exhaustion still weighed on her. “That was too easy.”

“It was true.”

“That makes it suspicious.”

A knock came at the outer door before I could answer.

Cassie looked toward it.

I stood.

Sava entered first, carrying fresh bandages and a tray with broth, tea, and two small white tablets. Ronan came behind her.

The room changed as soon as he crossed the threshold.

Cassie felt it. She had spent enough time among wolves now to know when power entered quietly and expected the room to rearrange itself. Her shoulders straightened despite the pain. She didn’t reach for me, which made me want to kill everyone more than if she had.

Ronan’s gaze went to her bandages, then her face. He looked as though he had not slept either. The night had carved shadows beneath his eyes and left his mouth harder.

“Cassie,” he said.

She looked at him. “This sounds formal.”

“It is.”

Sava set the tray down harder than necessary. “Which means it is already unfortunate.”

Ronan didn’t answer that. He glanced at me once, and I saw every part of what remained unsaid between us.

Execution before moonrise. Her family too. Break the bond.

Please.

I gave him nothing.