But I still had to say it. “He passed that test. And then two weeks later, he turned around and locked me in a room.”
Just saying it made me queasy, made my mind waver and threaten to collapse again. “I banged and banged. He didn’t let me out.”
Declan’s anger flared as I relived it.
“I’m sorry he did that. And you haveeveryright to feel the way you do. But you should know—the Shadow King and I would’ve said no to your request, too. Bears are extremely protective.”
I turned to my ever-silent king. “Cian is fine with this. He’s being reasonable.”
“I assure you, he’s not,” Declan said. “And if itseemslike he is, that’s only because he’s blocking you out. Just like I’m doing with the worst of my own feelings about being on a plane to Canada with my pregnant wife.”
“What? No…”
But when I looked over at the Shadow King, he confirmed Declan’s words with a solemn nod.
Which explained the silence I kept feeling from him. Not the moon’s serenity. This was cottony. Muted. A refusal to let me feel the depth of what he was truly feeling.
“Nothing in us likes this,” Declan said—his voice sharper now, less patient than Tadhg’s had been during my training. “We’re only allowing it because of whathedid. It’s his fault we’re on this plane. Otherwise, you’d be home right now, being pampered endlessly until it was time to take you into town for the delivery. None of us would’ve liked you eventalkingabout leaving. And without this bond bite, I don’t know how we would’ve responded, finding you at that tower.”
I bristled. “Are you saying it’smyfault that he?—”
“I’m saying, he was already on edge,” Declan cut in. “Even if you only went up there out of curiosity. Iknowyou weren’t planning to leave. But?—”
“Itoldhim that! I told him over and over again as he dragged me back!”
Tadhg hadn’t listened. Hadn’t said a single word. Just threw me into my room and locked the door.
“You told him,” Declan said gently. “And he couldn’t believe you. All he saw was his innocent, cloistered queen, taking the same escape path his mother once did.”
Declan exhaled heavily. “But believe me—he’s paying for that oversight. You’re pregnant with his child. And you’ve been taken away from him. He knows full well you may never forgive him. That a custody agreement might be the only contact you two ever have from now on.
“And believe me, Sadie—he’s in a hell right now that makes anything your people came up with feel like a cakewalk.”
“I…” I shook my head, at a loss. “I don’t know what you want me to say to that.”
“I don’t, either,” Declan admitted. “But you asked why, and I’m telling you. Because I want you to understand what happened—even if you never forgive him.”
Never forgive him.
Never speak to him again.
Never…
My chest splintered before I could finish the thought.
That was when I started to sincerely regret falling in love with the Mountain King. There’d only been catatonia, then anger, these past few weeks.
But now my heart wrenched between understandingwhyhe did what he did and despairing that I could never trust him not to do something like that again.
“If you truly wish to trust him, then you must exchange bites.”The Shadow King’s black-silk voice startled me when it slid into my mind without warning.“It’s the bears’ natural protection protocol. It ensures these kinds of misunderstandings never happen.”
He would know. His parents had never evenfoughtin front of him. And Declan’s bonded parents were happily retired to the kind of place bears dream about: quiet woods, no drama, plenty of salmon.
“But Tadhg’s parents were bonded, too.…” I pointed out. Only to be hit with the truth from both sets of mental links.
They weren’t. The Mad Mountain King had never allowed anyone into his mind—not even his queen. He’d been too paranoid.
Just like Tadhg had been too afraid to bite me.
