Page 50 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

I moved closer.

“Don’t,” she rasped.

I stopped and the mark pulsed, darkening at the edge of the bandage. Her breathing hitched. Sava checked the monitor, then looked at me.

“She needs the contact.”

Cassie’s jaw trembled from the effort of holding herself still.

I kept my voice as low as I could. “May I touch your hand?”

Her eyes closed. For a moment, I thought she would refuse and let the pain take her rather than need anything from me.

I would have deserved that.

Then she opened her eyes again.

“Hand,” she whispered.

I set my fingers under hers, palm up, letting her decide the weight of the touch. She dropped her hand into mine because she had no strength to do less. The mark settled almost at once. Her breath shook out of her, and a tear slipped from the corner of one eye before she could stop it. She looked furious about that too.

Good. Fury meant she was still here.

“I don’t forgive you,” she said.

“I know.”

“Don’t say that like it makes you decent.”

The words cut through me. “I am not decent.”

That seemed to satisfy something in her, or maybe she was too tired to keep swinging.

Ronan watched our joined hands. His face gave nothing away, but I knew him. Behind his eyes, he was already taking the bond apart piece by piece. Measuring contact. Reaction. Weakness. Timing.

“When can it be undone?” he asked Sava.

Cassie’s fingers tensed against mine.

Sava didn’t answer quickly. “I do not know if it can.”

“It has been less than a day.”

“That may matter.”

“Find out how much.”

Sava’s gaze cooled. “If you are asking whether I can remove the mark from her body, the answer is no. If you are asking whether distance, time, or medicine can weaken what attached to her blood, I can test carefully. Carelessly, I kill her.”

“And him?” Ronan asked.

Sava looked at me.

The room waited.

“If the wolf believes the bond is being severed by force while she is suffering,” Sava said, “Ian may not come back from it.”

Ronan nodded once. There. That was the thing he had needed named.