Page 206 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

“Then why are you here?”

“Because you deserved to hear it from me.”

She gave him a long look. “That is a very Alpha-shaped sentence.”

“I know.”

For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then Cassie looked down at her hands. There was dried redness along one knuckle Sava had missed. The sight of it nearly broke the wall I had built in myself.

She rubbed at it with her thumb.

“Will someone tell my family gently?” she asked.

The room went silent.

Sava closed her eyes. I looked at Ronan but he didn’t look at me.

Cassie lifted her head, and her voice thinned around the edges. “They can be awful. Loudly awful, sometimes. My father handles fear by making it everyone’s problem. My mother will cry and then ask whether anyone has eaten. Tessa will blame herself if she thinks I died because of her wedding.”

She swallowed.

“Please,” she said. “Do not let them hear it from someone who says things like ruling.”

Ronan’s face did something I had seen only a few times in my life. It moved toward pain and stopped before anyone else could name it.

He nodded once.

Cassie let out a breath. “Thank you.”

He had not promised. She was too tired, too numb, too injured to notice that all he had given her was a motion.

I noticed and I hated him for it.

A sharp knock came at the door. Cormac opened it without waiting. His face was grim.

Ronan turned. “What?”

Cormac’s eyes flicked to Cassie, then to me. “East boundary just tripped. Two Thorne scents. Maybe three. We lost them in the rain.”

Ronan’s expression went cold enough to freeze the room. “Where?”

“Near the delivery road.”

“Silas?”

“Unknown.”

Ronan looked back at Cassie. “I have to go.”

“Of course you do,” she said.

The words held no anger. That made them worse. Ronan’s gaze stayed on her for one second too long. Then he left with Cormac.

Sava stood at the tray, motionless, one hand braced on the table.

Cassie stared at the blanket over her lap.

The room was too quiet.