“Uncle Ronnie?”
“Yeah, Ladybug.” He walked over, and I could see how tired he was…how tired everyone was.
“Do we have enough gags for everyone?” He shook his head.
“No way. We didn’t expect over twenty wolves to be held at the same time.” I wiped my face and nodded.
“Fair. I know everyone is tired. So, have the guards set up chairs in the cells? Tie everyone to a chair, and use silver rope to gag them.” There was a gasp from those kneeling. “Wrap a cloth around the part that touches skin. It’s just to keep them alive.” Ronnie nodded. “We are short on cells, so double or tripleup if you have to. Just champion them to the walls away from each other. We just need to keep them alive long enough to get answers. I want guards on a four-hour rotation so we all can sleep. We will start the interrogations tomorrow.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll call Greyson and start.”
I called Tina. “Since I already sent off your mate, do you mind checking on everyone coming back?” I looked down at her belly. “If you are okay, that is.”
She smiled. “We are perfect.”
I grabbed her hand. “Take Lynn with you.”
Tina nodded once, and I saw the sadness in her eyes. “Of course.”
“Actually.” A call from the trees had us turning. Lynn stepped out. “Everyone is already settled or on their way to being settled.” She looked away from everyone staring at her. “I checked as I was coming in.”
I walked over to Lynn and held out my hand. She came over, and I felt her relax as soon as she touched me. Nix ran off, probably to talk to Lynn’s wolf. And I just nodded towards the house. “Everything went smoothly, I assume?”
Lynn took a deep breath. “As smooth as can be expected with everything going on.”
“Fair. Since you handled everything. Head up, and I’ll check in with you later to go over everything.” She looked exhausted, but also could see she was struggling with so many people.
“Thank you.” I saw the relief as soon as I said it. She turned and headed straight to the house after nodding at my mom.
I turned back to Tina. I could see the question before she said it. “I don’t know everything. But I know she went through a lot. Believe me when I say that she is doing amazingly compared to how she was when I first got her back out.” I looked at the thinning crowd.
Tina grabbed my hand. “You feel guilty.” She and I both knew she meant it as a question, but it came off as a fact.
I nodded. “She came to Oakenfang for me. And she went through hell because of it.”
Tina pulled me towards the house. “She made her own choices.” I just shook my head. “How about you talk to her before you start hating yourself? Lynn would never want you to blame yourself.”
“You don’t know that.” I pull away.
She laughed. “Hey! I’m technically your aunt, so you have to listen to me.” I raised my eyebrow, and she laughed. “Just go talk to her.” She pushed me towards the door. “I’ll tell the King and get food sent up to your room. We have this. Go talk and then sleep. Before anything else happens.”
“Lynn.” I caught up with her at her door. “Do you have a minute?”
She turned to me and nodded. “Of course.” Her eyes were wary. “Come in.” She pushed into her room, a suite just like my own. She looked longingly at her bed, and I chuckled.
“I promise I won’t take too long. I just wanted to check on you, without anyone listening.” She turned and raised one eyebrow. I winced as I sealed the room. “Sorry.” I chuckled as I sank into a chair. “I’m tired.”
Lynn nodded. “I think after the last few days, we are all tired.” She sat across from me. “What did you want to talk about?”
I rubbed my face. “How are you really doing?” I dropped my hand. “We haven’t had a minute to talk alone after everything that happened at the mating ceremony.”
Her shoulders inched up. “I’m fine.” I leveled a look at her. “I am.” She looked away from me, and her body started to tremble. “I killed him, and now everything is fine.” She sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than me.
“Do you want me to command you to tell me the truth?” She whimpered, and I realized she thought I was threatening her. Lynn would never offer the truth, and this would take her emotions out of it. “I can word it in a way that you won’t feel it, just like you were reading off a list.” I leaned back. “It sounded like a threat, and I didn’t mean it to. It was an offer.” I stared up at the ceiling. “I know you don’t want to talk about it, because talking about it is reliving it.” I closed my eyes, and I was back on the table. Every cut, every burn, all the pain. I felt tears pool at the corners of my eyes. “But I know from myself that talking about it was a release. The more I talked about it, the easier it was to face.” I turned my head to find her staring at me. “I would never make you tell me anything. Not unless you gave me permission. This way…I can take it all away and let you finally tell it. In full. Without any judgement.”
“You will judge me.” Her voice broke, and she looked away. She growled, but I knew it was aimed at herself.
“Never.” I reached over the small table between us and snagged her hand. “I’m going to say this once, and I need you to listen to every word I say.” She turned to face me, and she was mad. Whether it was at me or herself, I didn’t know. “You did whatever you had to do to survive. Everything that you did to come out alive was justified. End of story. What was done to you…that is on Derek. What he did—”
