He squeezed my hand, and I continued.
“One minute I was getting ready to leave regardless of what the alpha said and the next? I woke up in a cage. Being captive and locked in a room whenever they felt like it. Well, I learned to pick locks. I’m sure those assholes never saw me coming.”
He was pacing again, and I was cold and alone again.
“They will pay for this. For all of this.”
My throat constricted. I wanted nothing more than vengeance, but a larger part of me wanted it left behind.
“I think maybe it would be better to stop the practice of selling off daughters and shit. That’s about the only way you will make them pay. They don’t have morals and they don’t like change. The only thing those asshats understand is power. And they lack that,” I said.
He stopped running a hole in the floor and came back over to me. Once upon a time I thought he was my safety net in a dream. But the size of him, the power radiating off of him, the storm behind those eyes? I wasn’t sure that he was any of the things I’d imagined
The magic in me from my wolf swirled before it died down again still too suppressed. No, he wasn’t the things I’d imagined, but I still knew he was my safe haven.
“What did you mean by that I’d fucked everything up?” I asked coming back around to other conversations that he’d throw at me.
He startled and blinked at me like he hadn’t actually been here for a few seconds.
“My marriage. The contracts are being drawn up and then? In you stumble. What kind of timing is that?”
My heart constricted. His marriage. Contract?
“Contract? That means she isn’t your mate?”
My stupid heart seemed to skip over a beat at the idea. I should know better than to hope. Hope was for those that had the power and the money. Not for someone like me.
I swear the entire room warmed by several degrees as he turned and closed the distance between us. Goddess, the way he looked at me elicited something new and foreign and I wanted it. I wanted him. His fingers reached for my chin and turned my face up to meet his.
“No. But you should already know that, shouldn't you?”
I searched his face for any flicker of teasing. There was none. I didn’t understand.
“Fuck. I’ll be back later,” he said.
He turned and left before I could blink leaving the sound of the slamming door as a goodbye. I guess he didn’t want my answer.
Because, I didn’t have one.
CHAPTER7
Devon
“How long isthat shit going to suppress her wolf?” I practically screamed at our healer, Sarah.
“She’s been given high doses for years, oh Alpha.” Her hands were on her hips and she spit out the word alpha like it was a swear word.
I cringed. I was the future alpha, and I was acting like the asshole that my father was. I wasn’t going to create change if I repeated the same shit. There were some things that I didn’t need to change, like how my father had the respect of his pack. It was clear that how I treated my pack would always be the priority.
I ran my hand down my face knowing that my father could be a heavy-handed asshole, but he had taught me how to be a fair asshole to most of his pack members. I had to remember that. Fuck, he’d even tried to get Kiara. In his mind, the future of the pack was all that mattered.
“Shit. I’m sorry. I’m just at a loss of what the hell to do. We’ve been trying to come up with ways to tie the northern and southern packs for years to try to smooth over the problems. And she shows up from a southern pack no less, but for a treaty.”
“Look, Devon. I understand. The whole pack can feel the unsettled energy around her and her appearance here. Is there something I should know?”
I leaned against the doorframe of the infirmary. I’d just left her in her room and I was certain she was confused. I accused her of knowing who my mate was and she just looked all doe-eyed at me. Because without her wolf she really didn’t. Or at least she probably wasn’t sure.
I started to pace.