“Yeah, bro, look,” Dante told Tanix, “I get where you’re going with that, but she didn’t bring up that line of questioning. That was all Mr. Dick Jacket and the alpha. That chick has taken an emotional beating these last two days. She’s sloppy and unstable—no offense, Alpha. She didn’t execute this plan.”
I gritted my teeth, not commenting, kicking myself for being distracted by the woman yet again.
“I’m just pointing out the coincidence,” Tanix replied.
“You’re pointing out when the alpha was distracted, which was a perfect time for the prisoners to take off,” Sixten said. “Any idiot can see she’s a product of Granny, not a team member. I’m not saying she isn’t a guilty party, because we all heard that she has no reservations about what she was doing, but she is just trying to stay alive.” She paused. “I was in the demon dungeons—I know what that’s like. I’ll tell you something else, if part of my group escaped and didn’t bring me with them, I’d escape later out of spite, track them down, and kill the lot of them. She wouldn’t want to stay behind if she didn’t have to, good sex or not. No offense, Alpha.”
“Real eloquent,” Dante murmured.
She punched him. “Shut up.”
I took a beat to balance myself, thinking through this logically. I couldn’t allow my leadership to be affected by that woman. She’d done it too much already and now the prisoners had escaped. Whether she’d planned it or not—and I didn’t think for a moment that she had—she was still responsible for pullingmy focus away. One of my people could’ve died. I needed to take greater care.
“She sacrificed herself so children could eat,” I said, still looking out at nothing. “She would sacrifice herself here to help her people go free. Any good alpha would, even if she doesn’t know she has that kind of magic.”
“How could she not see how fucked they all were this whole time?” Dante said, bewildered. “Like... we clearly saw her figure it all out. I was watching that shit. She’s not good at hiding her emotions. I felt like I couldfeelher horror. Broke my fucking heart, I’m not gonna lie. But she’s smart enough to have seen this before now.”
“Sometimes we ignore the truths that contradict our worldview or our ideals,” I said. “I’m not saying it’s right, but it is a distinctly human thing to do. If she didn’t ignore it she wouldn’t have been able to live with it, and then where would she be?”
“She survived at the cost of a village,” Tanix said.
“Yes, she did.” I sighed. “I hear your concern, Tanix, but this escape wasn’t her design. Her life is small. She works mostly alone. She doesn’t manage people. She would never be able to pull off this kind of escape, not without some extensive training. This was done by someone with experience. Someone who runs patrols. We’re being shadowed, of that there can be no doubt. My question is, why didn’t they free her? Why didn’t they include her in their plans?”
“Simple,” Dante said, quirking an eyebrow. “She’s being watched closely by a powerful alpha. The others had a lot less people paying attention to them. They just had to break the bond to get free.”
“True, true.” Sixten nodded slowly. “Kind of lucky, then, that there’s a true mate situation?—”
This time Dante punched Sixten. “Lucky for the dragons getting their woman, maybe,” he ground out, “but un-fucking-lucky for the alpha, hey? Have a little common decency.”
Sixten grimaced and looked at the ground. “Apologies,” she murmured.
“The question still remains—how did they break that bond?” I started back to the others. “They shouldn’t have been strong enough.”
“Is it possible they’ve brought in another powerful alpha and just ripped the bond away?” Tanix asked. “The strongest of us were in human form. We weren’t on hand to solidify it.”
“No,” I said. “They said the bond weakened. They would’ve felt someone taking it, even in that state.”
“Can’t be Aurelia,” Sixten said. “Even if she wasn’t suppressed, she didn’t shift.”
“She didn’t know we had other prisoners,” I said. “We’ve kept them apart and as you all have clearly viewed, yes, she’s been watched closely. Besides, they aren’t the first of their patrol to break the bonds. We lost some when we invaded the village.”
“True.” Dante looked out at the trees. “They’ll be back. We’ve got their prize.”
“And now that prize knows she has backup,” Tanix said. “All she has to do is get free of us and they can snap her up. Once they get her, they can head straight to the royal court. If that happens, she’ll be beyond our reach.”
Something like panic gripped me at the possibility of losing her. Of someone taking her to a place where I couldn’t see her again. Of hiding her from me.
Heart racing, I sought her out immediately, ignoring someone offering me my clothes. The crowd in front of her parted and her eyes, tight with worry, found mine.
“What is it?” I asked, and through my concern I forgot to be suspicious.
“She thought she felt a presence,” Hadriel said, holding her hand. I stilled a flash of rage at the contact, backing down my wolf. Well, trying to.
I took her hand from Hadriel only to have her pull away. “What kind of presence?” I asked, letting her.
“Alexander,” she said in a firm voice. That tone was practiced, intent on hiding fear. I could feel her fear, though, like I felt her begging for help earlier. Like I felt her begging for my touch the first time I set eyes on her. “I can’t be certain. I didn’t see him or anything, I just always feel a kind of... uneasy, crawling sensation when he looks at me.” She shivered. “It felt like he was watching me.”
“From where?” I growled.
