I put a hand on her arm. “He surely doesn’t mean you,” I murmuredreassuringly.
“I doubt my new pledges—” Cassandrabegan.
“Pledges?” Sarah’s fingers curled into fists. “We didn’t pledge ourselves to you. We wouldnever!”
Cassandra flicked her gray gaze onto my friend. “My newcompatriots. . . Does the term suit you better, MissMatz?”
Sarahscowled.
“I doubt they want to abandon their land,” Cassandra continued, returning her attention to Liam. “Technically,myland.”
“So you don’t accept myterms?”
“I do not accept your terms,” Cassandra saidcalmly.
I snuck a glance over my shoulder at Alex. He was no longer grinning, but he was also not peeing hispants.
“Technically, Kolane, Everest was already a dead man, was he not?” shecontinued.
“We’re not in a court of law. Your son isn’t getting off on a technicality. This is pack law, and pack law forbids inter-pack murders,” Liam said, a pointed edge to his voice. “We have proof your son deliberately ran him off the road. We found yellow paint on Everest’s Jeep. Yellow paint that rubbed off from your son’sHummer.”
“Paint? That’s your proof?” Cassandra’s lips puckered. “When Everest took off from our property, he back-ended my son’s car. That’swhy—”
“Just before the crash, he called me!” My voice fired across the field, leaving a trail of billowing silence. “He said he was being chased.” I swallowed hard. “So don’t youdareclaim he crashed into that ditch byaccident!”
Cassandra’s eyebrows quirked in surprise. She licked the blood off her lips that seemed bluer in thesunlight.
Fingers twined with my own. Slender fingers. Sarah’s. She squeezed my palmtight.
“Look, Kolane,” Cassandra said, “if you give me back my son, I swear in front of every Creek and Boulder that I’llneverchallenge you to a duel.” She tapped the spot over her heart as though to prove her sincerity. “I’ll let your pack go on. I’m willin’ to sign a treaty with you this veryminute.”
A spark of hope ignited within me . . . within Liam. I felt the speeding up of his heart inside my ownchest.
“I didn’t come here to challenge Alphas,” Cassandra said. “I came here to createalliances.”
“Says the wolf who just murdered a man,” Robbieinterjected.
“I didn’t challenge your uncle!” Cassandra’s temper exploded all over her haggard face. She took a few steps back, a noticeable limp in her right leg. “He challenged me! And helost.” She stopped backing up and jerked her arm toward Julian’s remains. “That’s what hubris does to men. It makes them feel like gods but act likefools.”
Liam studied her for a long moment. I prayed he was considering herterms.
“Take her deal,” I whispered, not that he could hear me. “Takeit.”
Sarah glanced at me, conflict written all over herface.
“No!” Liam’s answer was like an explosion—terrifying. “You fight me right here. Rightnow.”
My blood becameice.
“Liam!” Lucas rushed the handrail so fast I worried he would break right throughit.
Cassandra scrutinized Liam. “Trying to take advantage of my injuries,Kolane?”
“Do you accept?” Liamasked.
“Liam, no!” Iyelled.
“Do. You.Accept?”
