Page 243 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

Cassie sighed against me. “I assumed.”

“Many questions.”

“I assumed many.”

“And I am not okay with any of this.”

“Completely fair.”

His gaze dropped to my body, then shot back to Cassie’s face with paternal horror. “Also, he needs pants.”

For the first time since the night had broken open, something close to a laugh moved in my chest. It didn’t leave cleanly. It was rough and unsteady, but it was mine.

Cassie felt it.

She looked up at me, pale and exhausted and alive. “Yes,” she said. “He needs pants.”

Ronan took one step forward. My body shifted before thought, placing itself between him and Cassie.

Not fully wolf.

Ronan stopped, then he looked at both of us. I expected command. Law. Another terrible choice shaped into duty. Instead, he looked tired in the way a man looks when the world he has held together changes shape in his hands and demands he decide what survives.

“No one touches them,” Ronan said.

The council elder turned sharply. “Alpha.”

Ronan looked at him and the elder stopped.

Ronan’s voice carried through the rain. “No one touches my brother’s mate. No one touches her family. No one follows them without my direct order. Anyone who tries will answer to me.”

“And me,” I said.

Every wolf heard it.

Henry barked once.

Cormac lifted a finger from where he had finally sat down on the wet stone. “And Henry, apparently.”

Aunt Linda shouted, “Damn right.”

Cassie leaned against me because her legs were done and her pride had finally lost the vote.

“I told you,” she whispered.

I looked down at her. “You told everyone.”

“I was efficient.”

“You slapped me.”

“You growled.”

This time, the laugh made it out.

She lifted her chin. “About that goodbye kiss.”

My chest tightened. The courtyard still held danger. The council had not vanished. The old laws had not rewritten themselves because Cassie had yelled at them in the rain. Silas was dead in the fountain. Evelyn still breathed in chains. Her family had seen wolves, and there would be consequences I could not yet count.