“You think this is funny? That it’sfairto keep doing this?” Karl’s voice was low and clipped, fury vibrating through.
Leon met his gaze, looking halfway between defiance and panic. “What are you talking about?”
“You said it before,” Karl said, the words tumbling out in his anger. “When I was half out of my head. And I—” His voice caught. “I believed you.”
Leon’s eyes widened. “You—?”
“I thought you meant it,” Karl bit out.
Horror filled Leon’s face. “I didn’t know—”
“No. You didn’t think.” Karl’s voice was practically a snarl. “And now you’re doing it again, like you get to just—say things. Like it costs you nothing.” He turned away sharply, breath ragged, ribshurting. “Don’t say it again.”
He’d believed it then because some part of him wanted to. Because his wolf had surged forward like it had been waiting. Because for one brief, disorienting moment, the world had made sense.
Leon ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry,” he said, and it sounded sincere. “If I’d known…”
But that was the point. He hadn’t known, and he hadn’tthought.
Karl didn’t answer right away. His ribs hurt. His pride hurt more. And underneath all of it, his wolf was still pushing at him, restless and agitated.
He didn’t want to hear another apology. He didn’t want Leon to try and explain. He just needed space and time to get his head on straight.
“Get out,” Karl said eventually, without looking at him.
There was a pause, then soft footsteps, and the click of the door.
Only when he was sure Leon was gone did Karl let his head fall back against the pillow and close his eyes.
But the silence didn’t bring peace. His heart was still thudding, far too hard, and then there was the word, the one he couldn’t scrub out of his mind.
He kept his eyes shut, breathing slow, steady, mechanical. The complete opposite of his thoughts, which were twisting in wild circles—what the hell was Leon playing at?
Before, Leon’s statement had been justified. That didn’t make Karl’s drug-hazed response sting less, but Leon’s claim had made sense. But this? This was just the two of them, with no one else to hear the words. Leon had nothing to gain, so why say it?
Karl opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. His wolf paced again, uneasy.
Leon hadn’t smirked, betraying that this was a cat idea of humor, incomprehensible to a mere wolf. He’d looked wrecked. So either he was playing a long game Karl couldn’t see… or he meant it.
Karl didn’t know which option scared him more, because, if he meant it—what did that say about his state of mind? It wasn’t possible for cats and wolves to be mates. Everyone knew that.
Or did they? Had they always just assumed?
Didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to think about it. And he carried on not thinking about it, up until a more urgent necessity impinged on his awareness. His bladder was full.
He sat up and scanned the room. When Ruth had helped him before, she’d had a bottle, but he couldn’t see it anywhere. And then he realized—even if hecouldsee it, he had no way of getting to it. Not unless he rolled out of bed and crawled. He’d do that if that was what it took, but rolling out of bed might damage his leg further. Might delay their pathetic, threadbare plan to escape. Might just cost Leon his life.
Karl gritted his teeth and lay there, waiting.
LEON
Leon strode away from the cabin, needing to put distance between him and Karl. He should’ve known better. Hedidknow better. God, he deserved every bit of how he was feeling right now. He dragged a hand through his hair, then again, harder, like he could scrub away the shame still rising like bile in his throat. He’d thought—he didn’t even know what he’d thought. That Karl would hear him and just accept it? That Karl’s wolf would respond the way Leon’s cat had? That Karl would roll over and wag his tail?
He huffed a broken sound that might’ve been a laugh if it hadn’t caught painfully in his throat.
“Fucking sap,” he muttered. At himself. At his cat. At the world.
Because this was what happened when he got soft. When he started thinking he could want something andhaveit. He ended up alone. And heknewit. Had known it for years, yet he’d still made the same mistake.
