Page 51 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

Cassie looked from Sava to Ronan, then to me. Even fevered, she caught the shape of it.

“You’re not keeping me alive for me,” she whispered.

Ronan didn’t lie. “No.”

My hand tightened under hers before I could stop it. Cassie looked at our hands and pulled her fingers back. The mark responded with a hot pulse. Pain flashed across her face, but she didn’t put her hand back.

She looked at Ronan. “Then stop pretending this is care.”

“It is containment.”

Her mouth curved faintly, but there was no humor in it. “At least the monster with paperwork is honest.”

Sava looked away.

I didn’t.

Cassie’s gaze came to me last. “And you?”

I could not tell which answer she wanted. I could not tell which one would hurt least. Maybe all of them should hurt. Maybe anything painless would be another lie.

“I am the reason you are here,” I said.

“Yes.”

“I am also the reason they have not come through that door.”

“Yes.”

The word left her like something bitter.

“I do not know how to undo what I did without killing you,” I said. “I do not know how to leave you without hurting you. I do not know how to stay near you without making it worse.”

Her eyes held mine. For one second, beneath the fever and fear, something in her understood the shape of the trap.

“So we’re all trapped,” she said.

Ronan answered before I could. “For now.”

Cassie laughed once, a thin sound scraped raw by pain. “That phrase is doing a lot of work.”

Ronan turned toward the door as another murmur moved through the hall outside. The pack had felt something. Heard something. Smelled the shift in the room.

My brother placed his hand on the knob but he didn’t open it. He simply stood there, body between Cassie and the wolves, between his brother and the slaughter waiting one bad decision away.

When he spoke, he spoke to all of us. “She is moved to the east suite within the hour. Ian stays close enough to keep the mark quiet. Sava monitors the reaction. No council access. No human access. No one attempts separation until we understand how much distance her body can survive.”

Cassie’s eyes closed.

“You mean prison,” she whispered.

Ronan looked at her. “Yes.”

My wolf rose and my guilt rose with him.

Cassie opened her eyes again, and this time she looked only at me.

“I chased a dog,” she said.