“Sorry for stealing him from you for so long.”
Cassian studies me for a moment. “You needed him, and he needed to be there for you. Saints, Junes, Iwantedhim to be there for you.” He sighs. “Look, I can’t take back how I acted toward you when Simon first admitted he was falling in love with you. I took my fear and jealousy out on you, and I’ll never forgive myself for it. I was terrified. Terrified that he’d rather be with you than with me, that he’d come to resent that we were mated.”
“Simon would never, Cass. He loves you.”
“I didn’t say it was arationalthought. I get it now. None of us are going anywhere.”
“I could be mated to Rad,” I whisper.
“Not going to fucking happen. You areours.”
I can’t help the shy smile at his possessive admission. His too? More and more lately, I’ve come to really like the thought of that.
“I know what Simon wants. He wants all three of us to be together.”
My heart leaps into my throat. “Is that what you want?”
He looks up at me, ardor in his smoky quartz eyes. “You know it is, Juniper. I was colossally stupid and didn’t realize it earlier, but you and me? We’re meant to be.”
“Colossally,” I agree, but my impish smirk immediately fades into something softer, something more vulnerable. Because I feel it too: this draw between us. Day by day and kiss by kiss, it deepens into something beautifully, terrifyingly familiar.
For the second time in my life, I’m falling in love with Cassian Leclerc.
* * *
“Feeling better, dear?”Sienna asks, as I set my book bag down in her study.
“Rad’s coming for homecoming,” I sigh, pulling on a pair of gloves before taking Guinette’s diary from its protective, bespelled wrappings. “I’m meeting him at the game after this. And we’re going courting tomorrow.”
The older woman sits down on the edge of the stately wooden desk at the center of the room. “Do you have a plan, Juniper?”
I frown. “For tonight? Steal as many of his thoughts as I can.”
She frowns. “I meant a more long-term plan. That alpha needs to be dealt with.”
Dealt with.
I don’t doubt the meaning layered in those two words.
“He’s an important source of information,” I hedge. I don’t dare tell the headmaster’s mate that my men have all but drawn straws to see who gets to do the honor of killing Rad—that I’m still arguing with them about it.
“That may be,” she grants. “But is that information worth more than your life?”
I press my lips together. I vowed to exhaust him of all the secrets he had about Project Halcyon and the evil machinations between our fathers’ two companies. I said I’d bring him down, but I have no idea how I plan to do that. Revealing what I’ve learned from him is a weak plan at best. Do I have the strength to end him, tokillhim? After everything he’s done to me, I want to believe I’d have the courage, the resolve, but I don’t know if I could strike the killing blow.
But my men have vowed to.
I can’t let that happen.
I can’t bear the thought of one of my alphas having to live with that kind of blood on his hands.
I have to find the courage to take Rad down myself.
* * *
I arriveat the lacrosse stadium before Rad does, heading to the Radcliffes’ private box. It’s situated high above the field, granting spectators a perfect view of the whole stadium. It’s as much a place to watch the game as it is a place to be seen, and I feel utterly exposed, feeling the eyes of the alphas in the box next to ours on me as I primly take one of the seats at the front of the box.
Marcus stands at the door where he can survey the entirety of the box, back straight, arms crossed.
