“If one more alpha puts a locked door between us, I’m cuffing you to me,” Marcus grumbles. “Are you okay?”
I shake my head and flinch when the door opens again.
Cassian’s scent spikes in my nose, sharp with anger. I meet his eyes over Marcus’ shoulder, see his nostrils flare as he breathes in Rad’s sickening scent.
“He just wanted to scare me,” I say, but my voice is weak and thready.
He stares down at me, something in his pinched expression I can’t quite discern. “You should be scared. Juniper, you should be fucking terrified.”
“What is it?”
“What isn’t it? Go back to your cottage. We’ll pick back up next Friday.”
There’s something hidden behind his narrowed eyes and the stern set of his mouth, something I only catch through the smallest cracks: the faint tremble of his lower lip, the shine in his eyes.
Something he isn’t telling me.
* * *
“Juniper!”
That one word is broken, desperate. And still, somehow, impossibly dear to me.
Luca.
My alpha who wasn’t. The alpha I fell in love with, who only ever lied to me. I can’t face him—not when terror still has me jumping at shadows, wrung out but wary. I turn from him, putting my back to him, and start toward the omega residences. I have to stay ahead of him, can’t catch his scent on the crisp November air. Can’t give him any chance to break me.
But he follows.
“You have to let me explain. Princess, please!”
Tears sting in my eyes and chill against my cheeks, but I don’t turn. I keep making my resolute way toward the omega residences, desperate to be within the safety of the wards, free to crumble, to break down and succumb to the fear that pinches my shoulders together.
I don’t have to let him do anything.
“Juniper!”
“Leave her alone,” Marcus growls. “For the love of the saints, leave her alone. Not today. Not now.”
“Wh-what? Princess, what’s happened?”
A hiccupped sob escapes me because, fuck, he sounds so concerned.
Marcus’ scent spikes and I don’t have to turn to feel the alpha dominance radiating off of him, but it’s when Luca’s scent spikes that I finally look back at the two alphas—because that’s what they are in this instant: all alpha, all brutal power. Strength and destruction. Dominance and brutality.
Juicy cherries and heady red wine wash over me, sharp with Luca’s dominance as they face off, but when Luca meets my eyes, his pale green to my pale blue, he sags, all the power rushing out of him. He crumples, just as I yearn to. He looks my way, as broken as I feel, and the only thing he says before turning away is: “Thank you for talking to the mage inspector. It was more than I deserve.”
* * *
I don’t stray farfrom Marcus the rest of the day. Fear bristles beneath my skin and I can’t get Rad’s dark promise out of my head. I tell Marcus as much as I can bear to repeat and he holds me tight when my voice breaks, when I’m overtaken by desperate, wracking sobs.
“I willneverlet him hurt you,” Marcus swears. “He never should have gotten past me. He hexed me, a confounding spell of some kind. By the time I shook it off… I’m so very sorry, Juniper. You shouldn’t have to spend a single second in his presence, let alone suffer his touch.”
I clutch the soft cotton of Marcus’ waffle-weave Henley in my fists, steal every selfish ounce of comfort I can from him as he strokes my back, as I cry until I have no tears or strength left. I don’t know when I fall asleep, but when I wake up, I’m alone on the couch, a blanket tucked around me. I startle, sitting up quickly, seeking out my honor guard in the dark.
“I’m here,” he says quietly from the armchair near the fireplace.
Our gazes meet in the low magical book light he’s conjured, my exhaustion mirrored on his gaunt face. I want, more than anything, to crawl into his lap, into his protective embrace, but I don’t. I should excuse myself to my nest, but I can’t bring myself to.
