“The Long Watch stands down during the operation. Your alliance proceeds. The combined forces operate under your command.” He folded his arms. “But if the human fails. If she betrays this alliance, compromises the operation, or leads my soldiers into a trap.”
His eyes found Mira across the clearing.
“I kill her myself.”
Percival moved first. Three steps toward Voss with his canines already dropping, and the sound that came out of his chest wasn’t a word. It was a warning that made two of Voss’s soldiers step back.
Solomon moved second. Not toward Voss. Toward Mira. He positioned himself between her and the commander, one hand reaching back to press against her hip, the other hanging at his side with fingers that had started shifting into claws. His silence and claws said everything his discipline wouldn’t.
I closed the distance last. With the pace of a king who wanted every person in the clearing to understand that what came next would be remembered.
“Commander.” I stopped close enough that Voss had to tilt his chin to hold my gaze. “You are speaking about the mother ofmychildren. The woman who infiltrated the Order alone while my kingdom debated politics. I will rip your tongue off in front of everyone if you repeat that again.”
Voss held his ground against three alphas. I’d grant him that. The man had spine.
“She’s not just your mate. She’s a human operative embedded in an enemy compound who holds the lives of my soldiers in her hands.” His gaze swept across Percival’s dropped canines, Solomon’s claws, my proximity. “Trust is earned, Your Majesty. Not declared in speeches while your wolves bare their teeth at mine.”
“He’s right.”
Mira’s voice. Cutting through the clearing with the calm precision that made my chest ache every time I heard it.
She stepped forward. Past Farmon’s station and the converted hunters. Past Percival, who reached for her arm and missed when she sidestepped him without breaking stride. Past Solomon, whose claws retracted only because blocking her path would have scratched her.
“If I fail,” Mira said, standing in front of Commander Voss, “youcankill me.”
“Mira.” Percy’s voice cracked on her name.
“No.” She didn’t turn around. “This ismyfight. My legacy.”
Voss looked down at her. The height difference was considerable. Mira didn’t compensate by straightening or lifting her chin. She just stood there, belly slightly visible beneath her jacket, mismatched eyes holding steady on a man who’d just promised to end her life.
“You have my word,” she said. “I won’t fail. But if it makes your soldiers follow a hunter without hesitation, then the condition stands.”
Voss’s gaze moved from Mira to me. Reading the fury I wasn’t hiding. Then to Percival, whose canines hadn’t retracted. Then to Solomon, who’d gone so still that lycans near had taken a step away from him.
“Agreed,” Voss said.
He extended his hand. Mira took it. The handshake lasted two seconds.
Two seconds that rearranged every alliance in the clearing.
Percy turned and walked into the forest. The sound of a fist hitting a tree trunk echoed back three seconds later. Solomon closed his eyes and vanished through the tree lines in a blur of motion.
Mira released Voss’s hand and walked back toward Farmon’s station. She passed me without stopping. Without looking at me.
But her hand brushed past mine.
I watched Voss return to his soldiers. Watched him settle into the camp with the satisfaction of a man who believed he’d won the negotiation.
The crown on my head was the only reason his was still attached to his shoulders.
65
— • —
Mira
The camp moved around me with the efficiency of people who had somewhere to be and no interest in making eye contact with the pregnant woman who’d just shaken hands on her own death.
