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“Dad, please,” I whisper, shaking my head. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I don’t? My daughter is kidnapped, kept here for days, and then I find out she’s nearly killed? There’s never been a better time to do something like this.” With a shove, he breaks Wilde and me apart. “This has gone far enough.”
This is new. The rush of white-hot indignation at the way he so carelessly separated me from Wilde. There’s an intense pressure in my chest that, for a second, I’m afraid has to do with my injury.
No, it has nothing to do with that. It’s my wolf, trying to push her way out, the sound of her growls ringing loud in my head. “Leave him alone.” I hardly sound like myself.
And I’m not the only one who feels that way. Both of them gape at me, their mouths hanging open. “What did you say?” Dad whispers, his head snapping back in surprise.
“I said, leave him alone.”
“I should kill him for what he did. He put your life in danger by bringing you here and keeping you. That witch—”
“That witch did not kill me.” I hold his gaze, unflinching. “And I’m telling you, you can’t kill him. That’s my right, and my right alone.”
His face falls in dismay. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we’re mated.” Where is this coming from? The lie is already coming out of my mouth before I even know what I’m going to say. “He marked me. I marked him. It’s done. We are mated.”
30
WILDE
I’m hallucinating. That must be it. Three days of almost no sleep have left me groggy and slow, and now I’m hearing things. Seeing them, too, because what I’m looking at can’t possibly be true.
Lili stands, her chin held high as she stares down her father. “You know you can’t get in the way of what’s already been put in motion,” she reminds him. Her voice is firm, leaving no room for argument. She’s confident, poised, and strong.
And damn it, my cock stiffened the instant she said she marked me.
Even though it’s a lie.
She’s a damn good liar, too. She slowly scans the room, meeting the gaze of Forrest and Dad, and Thorne before looking at Benedict again. “I’m sorry, Dad, but that’s how it is. And I’m telling you, I’m fine. That could just as easily have happened back home if the witches had invaded us there.”
“But they didn’t invade us there, did they? They did it here.”
“And where else would I be but with my mate?” She reaches for him and takes his hands. “Dad, things are already tough enough right now. And yeah, I had a close call. But shouldn’t that tell us there are more important things than petty arguments? I don’t want things to be like this between us. But I can’t deny the bond, either.”
I manage to pry my eyes from her long enough to glance at my brother, whose expression reveals his surprise. He’s impressed, too. I feel it, and my pride threatens to make its way out of me in a howl. Look at her. Listen to her.
Benedict looks at me, still seething. “Is this true?”
“It is.” I don’t trust myself to say more than that. He’s desperate to find any small chink in my armor, anything he can use against me. The more I say, the more opportunity I potentially hand him.
“What, you don’t believe me?” Lili laughs softly. Where is this coming from? She’s like an entirely different person: poised, confident, skillfully working her way around her father’s anger, cooling him off. And there’s not so much as a twitch of her eyebrow or the flush of her cheeks to reveal her lie.
Why is she lying for me? What does it matter? She is, and I could throw her to the floor and fuck her half to death for it. Heat spreads through my chest, and I know my wolf agrees, but then he would.
Three days. I spent three days at her side, sleeping in that damn chair, twisting myself into positions I didn’t know were physically possible. Three days laid there, unconscious, unaware of the battle raging in her poor, traumatized body.
And what does she do? She wakes up when I’ve been called to a meeting with my father—and hers, which I soon found out. I wanted to be there. I wanted to sit at her side, for her to find me waiting when she woke up. What would I have said? I don’t know. Maybe I would’ve told her how it seemed like my world fell to pieces when I saw that arrow in her chest. How, in that moment, I would have given anything to trade places with her. How watching the life drain from her eyes was a sort of torture I never imagined possible.
Or I might only have congratulated her on waking up and filled her in on what happened while she was asleep. Who’s to say? That opportunity was taken from me, and I’ll never get it back again.
