Page 72 of Red Dragon’s Heart

“Just be a good little girl and do what you’re told, and I won’t have to.”

They signed off, and Maddie said, “He’s going down if I have to do it myself.”

“You don’t,” Zak said.

“But I want to,” Maddie said. “Fucking motherfucking psychopanther.”

One of Flynn’s crew—Xander, a panther shifter—looked up from where he’d been sitting in the corner, tossing his hunting knife from hand to hand.

“Hey now,” he said. “I resemble that remark. Except, I’m a psychopanther with a heart of gold.” He gave one of his murderous grins. “So I’d be happy to kill him for you. I hardly ever get to kill people anymore.”

“If you get the chance, go for it,” Maddie said. “With my blessing.”

Flynn said, “I think there’s going to be a line to take this one down.”

“Well, I’m at the front of it,” Zak said.

Once the plan was finalized, everyone dispersed to try to figure out how to occupy themselves until the next day, when everything went into motion.

Lucinda was talking to Maddie, and Zak said to them, “You go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute.”

He stood by the windows, looking out, until everyone had gone. Then, with a roar, he picked up the edge of the conference table and flipped it across the room.

“Feel better?” said a voice from the doorway.

Emon was standing there, arms folded. The last person Zak wanted to see.

“I fucked up,” he said to his clan leader. “All I wanted to do was fix myself. No one else was supposed to have to deal with it. And now it’s all gone to hell, and Maddie is suffering.”

Emon opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and then stepped inside the room and smacked the back of Zakerek’s head hard enough to make his ears ring.

“I’m done with your shit,” Emon said. “You’re a member of this clan. The gods help me, I even like you. Why the hell didn’t you just ask me for help?”

Zak stared at him. “Because I don’t do that.” It had actually never occurred to him that Emon would want to help him. It had definitely never occurred to him that Emon liked him. He looked away. “And anyway, after Kendra—I thought you wouldn’t want anything to do with me.”

Emon sighed. “You’re going to do it, aren’t you. You’re going to make me talk about fucking feelings.”

“Please don’t.” Zak didn’t think he could deal with that right now.

“Shut up,” Emon said. “The thing with Kendra wasn’t your fault, which I would have told you if you hadn’t fucking disappeared. After that, I figured you didn’t want to talk to us. So I left you alone.”

Zak hadn’t thought of it that way. Emon seemed like—well, he actually seemed a little hurt that Zak hadn’t come to him.

Emon sighed, raking his hand through his hair. “Look, I’ve been where you are. People sucked. They did bad things to me. It was easier just to retreat into my own pain than deal with any more of that, and pain was all I was going to get, right?”

That hit uncomfortably close to home. Zak said defensively, “And then, miraculously, you managed to transform into the warm and fuzzy creature you are now. Tell me how, o relationship guru.”

Unfortunately, his sarcasm didn’t deflect Emon from talk about feelings, although the king did look for a minute like he might be going to head slap Zak again.

Instead, Emon took a deep breath and said quietly, “You know what happened. Trish happened.” His face got softer as he spoke about his mate—the only time it ever did, except maybe when he was thinking about his daughter. “She broke through that shell I had around me, that kept everyone away.”

Yeah well, just because Emon got lucky didn’t mean Zak would. “Yeah,” he said, “and now you’re stuck with a castle full of allies—friends even—and their terrifying children—”

Emon snorted. “After Kendra, no children can scare me. She’s more terrifying than all the Bad Blood kids put together.”

Zak went on, “—and a bunch of human farmers and an entire village full of rescued wolves. And you’re responsible for everyone.”

Emon said, “I’m a king. You’re not. You only have to let down your guard for one little human.”