“What’s wrong?” I asked as soon as the others’ conversation had faded to a distant hum.
“I can’t tell you.”
“I’m your mate. I know we haven’t known each other long, but I promise I will never betray your confidence. You can tell me anything, good or bad.”
She shook her head, color rising in her cheeks. “No, you’re misunderstanding. I actually want to tell you. But Ican’t.”
Shit. “You have orders from the enclave to keep information from the pack?”
She nodded, biting her bottom lip and staring off into the distance. The stress rolling off her was palpable, and my wolf didn’t like it.
“And you don’t like the orders?”
“Not one bit. This pack feels more like family than an assignment. But if I betray my orders… I’ll get permanently reassigned elsewhere. I’ll never see them again as long as I live. And the conditions for me sharing the information haven’t been met.”
Bingo. “So, there are circumstances in which you’d be allowed to tell us?”
She hesitated, running a hand through her shiny, dark hair. “I… yes. Yes, there are.”
“Can you tell me what those are?”
Elodie groaned, covering her face and turning away. “You’re missing the point. I can’t intentionally circumvent my orders either! Life was so simple in the early years. Train. Sleep. Eat. Repeat. Now? Now everything is in the shitter, and I’m keeping valuable information from the people I care about most in the world. But Ican’ttell them.”
A dilemma.
“What if I guess it? Can you confirm?”
She shrugged one shoulder helplessly, and I knew she felt duty bound not to share any more specifics with me than she already had. But that was okay, because knowing shecouldhelp might be enough to figure it out.
I started to pace, my usual tactic when I had to process something difficult. Movement helped the thoughts flow too, somehow. “Okay, so the maidens know something more about this stone that they haven’t shared with the pack who holds it.”
A quick glance at Elodie’s carefully neutral face, and I knew she wasn’t going to give up the information easily.
“The red obviously means something that concerns you, based on how much it’s bothering you to keep it to yourself. So what could red mean that’s trouble, but that keeping it silent doesn’t violate the oath of the maidens to protect their omega charges? You clearly don’t think their lives are in immediate danger, or else you’d be forced to act, secrets or no.”
She crossed her arms, nodding that I was correct on that guess. “I will always protect them first and deal with consequences later.”
Yes, so I’d learned, given she’d already almost died to protect them once, according to Lucien. “Is the stone going tobreak again? It was weakened by being destroyed and put back together? It’s rejecting a bond with Brielle?”
Elodie flinched at that last one, avoiding my gaze but neither confirming nor denying what I’d said.
But it was enough.
“Come on.”
We walked back to the others to find them quiet, all heads turned toward Cristian. “Ahh, there you two are. I’ve just received word that the maiden priestesses have arrived and would like to speak with the pack and examine the stone. Shall I bring them here, or would you like to return to the castle and receive them in your rooms?”
“Being here didn’t do anything, so I vote we go back indoors,” Leigh groused, rubbing her lower back with a petulant twist of her lower lip.
“Seconded,” Brielle voted, looping her arm through Leigh’s as they began the short walk back to the castle.
My own mate stood alone, observant, on the fringes. It struck me as sad. She was their protector, their friend, but never quite part of the pack. Not so long as she chose to keep herself apart. But if she chose me, we could change that together.
The question was, did shewantto be part of the pack?
She hid her emotions well, always dodging the hard subjects behind cheer and humor. But deep down, I suspected she wanted much more than she was willing to admit, even as she called them family when they weren’t listening.
What I didn’t know was if I’d made the list of things she wanted.
