“Because you’re here. With a man who orchestrated everything bad that happened to you. And I left once already. I’m not built for doing it twice.”
Her eyes snapped up. The anger there was real, and it landed as a blade.
“You want to talk about what you’re built for? You’re built for following orders. Lucian says jump, Solomon makes the plan, and you fall in line. That’s what happened in that study. You all decided what was best for me without asking me, and then you left me.”
“I know.”
“Do you? Because you’re doing it again. Showing up, making decisions about my life, barging in without asking if I want you here.”
“You’re right. I didn’t ask.” I held her gaze through the bars. “I’m asking now.”
She looked away. Her jaw worked, and I saw the effort it took her to hold herself together. The bond pulsed, faint and distant, and for one second the wall thinned enough that I felt what was underneath. Pain.
“Lucian and Solomon had reasons,” I said carefully. “The council was threatening not just the throne but your life. Your father’s connection to the Order puts the entire kingdom at risk. They didn’t reject you because they wanted to.”
“And that’s supposed to make it hurt less?”
“No. It’s supposed to explain why two men who’d die for you chose to walk away instead.”
“Maybe that’s the problem.” Her voice went flat. “Maybe lycans have been making choices for humans for centuries and calling it protection. Maybe the Order exists because your kind hurt people first, and my family decided to fight back.”
The words landed between us.
“Is that what he told you?” I asked quietly.
“He told me a lot of things. Some of them might even be true.”
“And some of them are designed to turn you against us.”
Her eyes blazed. “Don’t. Don’t tell me I’m being manipulated. I’m not stupid, Percy. I’m just bad at choosing who to trust.”
She pressed closer to the bars, and her voice dropped. “I trusted three men who promised me forever and then decided I wasn’t worth the political inconvenience. So forgive me if my judgment needs some work.”
I had nothing for that. No joke to smooth over the fact that she was right and it destroyed me.
“You want to know what your protection cost?”
She pulled back her sleeve. The skin beneath was mottled, veins visible where they shouldn’t be, a map of deterioration that the muted bond was carving into her body.
“This is what happens when three alpha lycans claim a human and then shut the bond down. It doesn’t just hurt, Percy. It’s killing me slowly. And none of you bothered to check.”
My vision went red at the edges. The silver restraints burned against my wrists, and my wolf surged so hard against my control that I tasted copper.
“Mira-”
“I’m getting you out of here.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and the vulnerability vanished. “Not because I forgive you. Because if my father finds out what you are to me, he’ll use you to get to the other two, and I won’t let that happen.”
“If he finds out you helped me escape...”
“Then I’ll deal with it. I’ve been dealing with things my whole life. I’m good at it.”
She came back at dawn with a keycard she’d taken. The sublevel door opened. She knelt beside me without a word and reached for the restraints.
Her hands were shaking.
The silver clasps stuck, and she had to work them loose one at a time, her fingers slipping on the metal while I held still and watched her face. When the first cuff came free, the skin beneath was raw, blistered, weeping where the silver had burned through to muscle.
Mira went very quiet.
