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“Then tell me what the hell you’re talking about.”
She gives me a slow, exaggerated shrug. “I was just surprised, is all. That you’re not worried about your pack master. Ruthless, if a little cold-hearted. I like it.”
She smirks like she knows exactly what she’s dangling over my head, but still, I take the bait. “What about Cam? If he steps in for Westcott, he can hold his own—”
Her eyes bulge comically wide. “He’s in Westcott’s service until he releases him. That’s the deal he took on for you. GoingagainstWestcott’s best interest like, I don’t know, plotting to kill him or make his following turn against him, doesn’t seem like that fits the job description, now does it? If he helps with this plan in any way, there’s a good chance he’d be going against his deal, which means—”
“Cam would die,” I breathe.
“Of course there’s no way of knowing if that would count as breaking his deal. But are you willing to risk it?” V’s smile turns knowing, her eyebrows sky-fucking-high. “How much does the pack master’s life mean to you?”
“He—we just won’t include him in the plan.”
“Oh, but he’s already contributed, hasn’t he?” She pretends to pout. “By telling you about the cuffs. He’s helped already, dear Valerie. He’s in it. So as long as he has your blood deal on his arm, if you go through with this plan, you’ll kill him.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
I don’t knowwhere Cam goes after whatever meeting he’s in, but it’s not his room.
I would know. I’ve been sitting in it for two hours now.
Which, I suppose, has given me more than enough time to think.
To come up with a different plan.
In all the time I’ve been at Auclair, I’ve never seen where Cam’s been staying. Despite how crowded the estate’s been, he has his own room, though it’s on one of the human floors, so it’s small and furnished as a servant’s room would be. Considering Cam’s disdain for the estates’ extravagance, honestly, he probably prefers it.
Maybe this was his request.
The door creaks open, and I jump to my feet.
Cam barely has one foot inside the room before I demand, “Where the hell have you been?”
He lurches back. “Christ, Darkmore. You scared the shit out of me. I was—Leif was filling me in. What are you doing here?”
This is the first time I’ve seen him this close since the attack at Reid’s coronation. I’d known he was okay, but Leif hadn’t given me many more details. He has a fading black eye and a jagged mark down the side of his neck along with a dozen other healing cuts and bruises, and that’s just what I can see.
The sight momentarily steals my breath, and I swallow hard, trying to force the sudden tightness in my throat away. “I need you to give me my deal back.”
Slowly, he closes the door behind him.
“The blood deal.”
“I know what you meant, Darkmore. I can’t.”
“I—yes the fuck you can. Because if you have that deal when we go through with this plan, it could go against the terms and kill you. So just give it back.” I cross my arms over my chest and flick my wrist, though the words don’t sound nearly as blasé as I intended. They’re thin, strained.
His mouth freezes around whatever he was going to say, understanding dawning in his eyes.
“You’re in his service,” I continue. “He might not have specified what that meant with you, but going so blatantly against him…”
“Would likely go against the deal,” he finishes. “Don’t let that stop you, princess. This is the first plan I’ve heard around here that might work. Don’t worry about me.”
Don’t let that stop me?Is he out of his fucking mind? I throw my hands up. “Of course I’m not going through with it like this!”
“Why not?”
I scoff and pace from one end of the bed to the next. “You know why not.”
