Page 212 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

The silence between us held too much history. Broken bones. Silver burns. Border fights. Ronan young and blood-covered. Me younger and already learning that useful boys became useful men if they didn’t die first.

Sava reached up and put her hand against my cheek.

I went still.

She had done that once when I was sixteen and concussed badly enough to snarl at everyone who came close. She had slapped me afterward because I bit a tray in half.

Now her hand was gentle.

“Do not decide the world has no place for you because the cruelest people in it have been loud,” she said.

The bathroom water shut off and Sava dropped her hand at once.

Cassie’s voice came through the door. “If either of you is saying emotionally meaningful things without me, I will be annoyed.”

Sava wiped her face with clinical efficiency. “I told him his posture was terrible.”

“It is. He stands like the embodiment of trauma.”

I stared at the door.

Sava looked at me.

For one brief, impossible second, the room almost held something like life.

Then the suite door slammed open and Cormac came in at a run.

Every muscle in my body changed.

Sava turned. “What happened?”

Cormac’s face was pale beneath a smear of rain. “Silas.”

The wolf rose.

I stepped toward him. “Where?”

“South courtyard. He has the wedding party.”

The air left the room.

Cassie opened the bathroom door.

She was dressed in her own clothes. She wore black pants, a soft cream sweater, and boots with the laces tied badly because bending must have hurt. Her hair was wet and combed back from her face. Without the ruined dress, without the blood and mud, she looked more like herself.

That made the bruises worse.

Her eyes locked on Cormac. “My family?”

“Alive,” he said quickly. “For now.”

Cassie’s face went white.

Cormac’s gaze flicked to me, then back to her. “Silas has them in the courtyard with his wolves. Human form. Human weapons visible. Knives, batons, zip ties, utility blades. He is keeping the secrecy line intact for now.”

Cormac nodded once. “He is calling for Ian and Cassie.”

Ronan’s voice came from behind him. “He wants blood payment.”