Page 213 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

I turned.

Ronan stood in the doorway with rain on his coat and death in his eyes.

Cormac stepped aside.

Ronan looked at Cassie. “Silas claims three of his people were murdered in a lawful hunt for your sake. He demands your blood to answer theirs.”

Cassie’s mouth opened but nothing came out.

Ronan’s gaze moved to me. “He wants Ian’s death as well.”

“Of course he does,” Cormac spat. “This is theatre.”

I looked at him.

Cormac’s voice was grim. “He wants you to break in front of witnesses. Her blood, your rage, humans screaming, maybe a shift where they can see. Every pack here has spent the night whispering that Ronan cannot command you. Silas wants proof. If you go feral and Ronan cannot stop you, Silas challenges him as an Alpha unable to control his own weapon.”

“My brother is standing here,” Ronan said.

Cormac didn’t blink. “I know.”

The words should have mattered. They did, somewhere far away. Deep down, I didn’t care about Silas’s theatre. I didn’t care about council optics, pack challenge, old law, or the careful distinctions between execution and war. I had planned to kill my way through tonight already. Silas had only moved the bodies into the courtyard and complicated the escape route.

My plan didn’t change. Only the cost.

Cassie stepped forward and nearly stumbled. I caught her before Sava could. Pain flashed through the binding but I buried my response beneath calm before she could feel it.

“I have to go,” she said.

“No,” Ronan said.

Cassie looked at him with a coldness I had not seen in her before. “Those are my people.”

“They are bait.”

“Yes. And they are still my people.”

Ronan held her stare, then he looked at me. Brother to brother, Alpha to weapon, executioner to traitor. He knew exactly what I would say before I said it.

“She goes,” I said.

Sava swore under her breath.

Ronan’s jaw tightened. “If she goes into that courtyard, Silas gets exactly what he wants.”

“If she does not, he starts cutting humans until we come anyway.”

“He wants you unstable.”

“He has me.”

Ronan’s eyes flashed. That was too honest.

Cassie looked between us. “There is that secret conversation again.”

I turned to her.

Every word mattered now.