I had been walking for hours. At first I’d cried a lot, the humiliation and anger roiling in my stomach because I couldn’t stop seeing those images Maya had shared, or thinking of all the wolves seeing them… but I quickly pulled myself together.
I was alone in the forest, heading towards the city, but still with at least a day’s travel if I couldn’t find a ride. I knew there was a house out here somewhere. A cabin. I thought I was following a path, but it was so faint, and at times I wasn’t even sure it wasn’t just the roll of the land between tree roots. So I wasn’t sure I would even find it.
~ CASIMIR ~It was an hour or more after Maya had fallen asleep before I dozed off. But my sleep was uneasy. Tense. I couldn’t get comfortable in that pathetic cot, and kept half-waking, shifting my body to change position and try and release myself from the sensation that there was a great weight pressing down on me.But then, just as I’d sunk deeply into sleep for the first time…‘CAZZ!’I shuddered awake and sat bolt upright.The scream was so loud, so present, for a moment I was certain Jesse had returned and was in the room. I came awake with such a jolt, my entire body quivered and my chest heaved. I was on my feet and ready to shift, turning, looking, searching… but she
~ CASIMIR ~I was pacing the cell when Maya returned, arching one brow when I whirled towards the door as she entered. She hobbled inside, thanking Sven, the guard who’d accompanied her, but reassuring him that he didn’t need to come inside.I frowned. Had she taken the loyalty of some of my wolves?“Oh, stop scowling, Cazz. You brought this on yourself and you know it,” Maya muttered as she shuffled to the chair and lowered herself slowly into it with a heavy sigh.I went back to my pacing and waited until she was settled, but didn’t give her a chance to take another dig.“Release my power,” I growled. “You place the entire Kingdom at risk in the event—”
~ JESSE ~I sat, stunned, at our dining table in our home trying to figure out how it was possible that I was here in this place that was so normal… and so repulsive to me.Dad sat at the head of the table, leaning over the end of the wide oak to hold my hand, and kept patting me and offering me reassurance as he gave orders to the dozen men that were in the room—only four of which were my brothers.He was still wearing his flak jacket. They all were. The black body armor that I knew had POLICE in big, white letters under a velcro flap at the back, though none of them had opened those while they were out in the forest. Which meant they were all moonlighting on one of my father’s schemes.My brothers—who hadn’t been invited on the foray towar
~ JESSE ~It had become clear to me the predicament I was now in when we were bumping our way through the forest. So, while I pretended to be shocked and scared, I really used the time to force myself to think and make a plan while we were driving and my father and the others were consumed with making sure we weren’t followed by the wolves.The whole idea was laughable. These SUVs couldn’t move quickly on the roads that were little more than rutted trails through the trees. The wolves wouldn’t even have had to scent us, though they would for miles because these vehicles chewed through fuel. If they were out there, they were listening to us drive from miles away.But were they out there? Were they following?I prayed if they were, that they were being car
~ JESSE ~It was so weird when Dad walked me down the hall towards my room. Like he was… looking after me. There was a piece of my heart that had always yearned for this kind of care from him. This kind of… protection.But the truth was, my father had rarely looked after me. Since my mother’s death, it had always been my job to look after him. And my brothers.He stepped ahead of me when we got to the cross-hall where my bedroom was. He pushed the door open and flipped on the light inside, then ushered me in.The blackout curtains were still pulled—I must have forgotten to open them that morning when they took me for breakfast.Thinking about that made my skin crawl and I shuffled out of the circl
~ CASIMIR ~Maya was refusing to listen to my side of any of this and it was only succeeding in making my hackles rise and my wolf snap his teeth. The bond was tugging at me relentlessly, and the constant barrage of discomfort that bordered on pain in my chest was setting me even more on edge. But she was so damned stubborn. She wouldn’t listen. I needed to get out of here.“…I’m not saying it again, Cazz,” Maya snapped as if she’d heard the complaints in my head, though I knew I had my thoughts carefully guarded. “You pushed those two together—you cannot expect them not to grow close when at the beginning Jesse felt he was her only ally. You forced h
~ CASIMIR ~We’d been talking in circles for an hour and I was done. Maya would not stop pressing on me to simply let this go. To be in love, to trust.It was impossible!But I needed to get out of this fucking cell, and I couldn’t force my way out as long as she was holding my power.We hadn’t spoken for some time. She was resting in the chair, but I felt her eyes on me as I paced.“Cazz,” she started again, and I shook my head.“I need time. To think. I can’t… I can’t keep talking in circles.”Maya sighed and folded her hands in her lap. “I’ll give yo
~ CASIMIR ~“I would never do as my father—” I snarled.“You were never going to compel Rake, either, but I saw it in your head tonight.”“He breached his vow first!”“No, Cazz. He didn’t. God has given you hearts around you that are good. Can’t you see that?”“Good? He wants my mate!”“He loves your mate—he said so himself. But can you blame him? No wolf can control the seeds that bloom in their heart, they can only control whether they feed them. And that male has honored you. I would bet my life o