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He tugged his wraps off. “What is it?”
“It’s about the negotiations with the pack… For me.”
His eyes dropped down to where I was wringing my hands, and his brow furrowed.
“I need you to help me… if they don’t go as planned…” I trailed off, wincing and half expecting him to interrupt, but he didn’t. “I need you to promise me something.”
“What’s that?”
“I can’t…” I took a breath, processing all of Zeus’s commands, trying to make sure I wasn’t breaking any. I could fight them, but Zeus would know, and his demand for silence was the one he valued most. It wasn’t worth what waited for me if I did break it. My heart thundered in my ears. “If something goes wrong… I don’t want to live like that.” I swallowed. “I don’t want to, but that’s… that’s what will happen.” My voice shook. Zeus had told me what it would look like. They would hide me away somewhere my mates would never find me. Either that or… or there was a promise of worse, a threat so dark I’d drowned it from my mind…
Ebony’s jaw clenched, his eyes narrowing as he analysed me. It was grounding, holding that silver gaze, knowing the objectiveness of what he offered was exactly what I’d come for. After a long moment, he spoke. “You can’t kill yourself?”
I released a breath at those words, even as the weight of Zeus’s command paralysed me from even a nod. He cocked his head, eyes more calculating than I’d ever seen them. It took him an age to speak, and when he did, his words were slow. “There’s nothing on this planet I wouldn’t give them for your bond, Vex. Thatwewouldn’t give them.”
“I know…” I whispered. “But… but what if… What if something goes wrong?”
Zeus had scared me today in a way he never had before.
Something was wrong. I could feel it.
There was a long silence, and I saw the resignation in Ebony’s eyes as if this was something he’d already considered. “What are you asking?”
“You know… what I want,” I whispered. “Please um…” God, I almost cracked then. “Please don’t make me say more.”
Still, he didn’t move. He didn’t draw me against him and comfort me, and for that, I was grateful.
I both needed and feared the answer already in his eyes. My mind went to Zeus, to Cerus, to Triton, a million terrors catching up to me, flashing in my expression for him to see.
“I promise you something no one else can, Vex,” he said at last. “Iswearthere is no world that exists in which you walk away belonging to that pack.”
My vision blurred with tears for the millionth time today, and my breath caught as he said what I needed to hear. That last, smothering weight, threatening to steal my happiness from the time I had left with them, it was gone. I drew him into my embrace, holding tight.
For the first time, I was sure.
“Thank you.”
THIRTY-FOUR
ROOK
Vex was so perfect it was unbelievable. She was perfect,andshe was giving me a chance.
She’d spent the afternoon with Ebony. I had abitof a connection with her right now—since a stoned ass-cheek bite was apparently only enough for a half-bond—but she’d been rocky all afternoon. And then Drake had dragged me and Love into the theatre to tell us what had happened.
My blood chilled just thinking about it. About the fact she could just be taken on their whim, hurt while she should be in our care.
Still, when she turned up to the roof for our date, it was with a timid smile, and all of her anxiousness melted away. I averted my eyes from the bandage wrapped around her wrist, knowing she didn’t want me to bring it up. Even when it almost got a growl from my chest.
But she wanted me to focus on tonight, so that’s what I’d do. Going out might be a little crazy right now after how public we’d just been, so I’d grabbed wine and food and blankets and brought her up to the roof because the September stars were almost as beautiful as she was.
She lay on the daybed beside me, pointing up at different constellations as she tried to guess them. I had to pull an app up so we could keep track.
I’d already secretly ordered a dozen packs of glow in the dark stars with the intention of putting them all over her nest ceiling. I paid attention to her favourites. Orion was one, I determined. He was going right above her bed. Although… I narrowed my eyes at the belt.
It was a dude.
Could be an alpha.
