Page 46 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

“I am not.”

“She is alive because the mark took some kind of hold.”

“She is alive when she should not be. I want to know whether that means the mark is weaker, stronger, or simply unfinished.”

Sava studied the black lines fading beneath Cassie’s skin. “It is not settled. That much I can say. It is behaving like venom and bond at once. Her body is fighting it. The mark is fighting back. Ian’s proximity slows the damage.”

“And distance?”

“May kill her.”

Ronan’s eyes remained on Sava. “Or weaken it.”

My chair hit the wall when I stood and Cassie’s heartbeat jumped on the monitor.

Ronan looked at me then. There was no surprise in his face. He had expected the reaction. Maybe he had wanted to measure it.

Sava snapped, “Sit down before your temper finishes what the poison started.”

Poison.

The word got through.

I looked at Cassie. Her hands had curled into the sheet. Her pulse ran too fast on the monitor because I had moved too hard, breathed too sharply, let the wolf too near the surface. I sat, slowly.

Ronan watched me until he was satisfied I would not cross the space between us. Then he spoke again, still to Sava.

“If distance kills her quickly, we cannot use it. If controlled distance weakens the mark without pushing him feral, I want to know.”

Him. Not her. Ronan was not asking how to free Cassie. He was asking how to take the match away from an open powder room.

Sava’s mouth tightened. “You are thinking past the patient.”

“I am thinking about the pack.”

“And your brother.”

“Yes.”

The honesty landed without warmth. Ronan finally looked at Cassie. “She is a living breach. If she dies badly, Ian may tear through anyone close enough to blame. If she lives visibly, the humans ask questions we cannot answer. If the council panics, they force his wolf into a choice none of us survive cleanly.”

My wolf rose at the word choice.

Ronan’s eyes darkened. “And if you think I do not understand what your wolf has decided, you insult me.”

I held his stare. “Then understand this. No one hurts her.”

His voice dropped. “I am the only reason no one has.”

The door shook under a blow from the other side.

Once.

Hard enough to rattle the frame.

I moved before I could stop myself, but Ronan was already there. He turned, opened the door only wide enough for his body to fill the gap, and stepped into the threshold.

Voices rose in the hall.