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“She was scared,” I say, and my voice comes out harder than I intend. “She was a young woman in a pack she didn’t fully know yet, who got targeted by someone who knew exactly how to spot the vulnerable ones.”
“Not vulnerable enough. The bitch came all the way out here and then got cold feet. Refused to give me anything.”
“And then when she changed her mind, you—” I stop.
Ramsey looks at me for a moment. Something behind his eyes that might be regret or at least the shadow of it flashes quickly before it’s gone again.
“War has casualties,” he says.
“You’re disgusting.”
He flinches but otherwise ignores the slam. His voice even, he says, “You want to protect people like her? Do it from a position where you actually have the power to.”
Now it’s my turn to flinch. We both know I’ve spent my life protecting people like her. “I have power.”
His gaze flicks pointedly to Nash as he says, “You have proximity to power. It’s not the same thing, and you know it.”
The words land because he knows exactly where to aim them. He always did. Ten years of watching me fight for a seat at a table that kept adding chairs for everyone else but me. He has that whole history, and he’s using every inch of it as ammunition now.
“Grey gave me a seat at the head of his table,” I say.
“Grey gave you a job,” Ramsey says. “I’m offering you a throne.”
“I don’t want a throne. I want people like Lena Voss to stop ending up dead in a pile of leaves.” I hold his gaze. “And you can’t give me that. You’re the reason she’s there.”
The bitterness breaks through fully then. Just for a second, just a flash of the old wound underneath all the control. “My whole life, I waited for this pack to be something worth dying for,” he says, low and furious and raw in a way I haven’t heard before. “I waited for Grey to come back and be who he was supposed to be. I waited for the city to change. And instead, I got exactly what I always got: left behind while better-connected wolves moved up and the rest of us—”
He stops, and I know he’s thinking about his father. The way Franco shot him in front of all the generals. For nothing except his own ego and entertainment.
“Ramsey.” My voice is quieter now. Because I can hear him. The real him, under all of it. Not just rage. Grief. “I know you’re angry. I know what your father’s death did to you. I know what it felt like to be overlooked and dismissed and—”
“Don’t,” he says sharply. “Do not patronize me.”
“I’m not patronizing you. I’m telling you I understand. And I’m telling you that what you’re doing with your anger is going to destroy you.” I pause and then add softly, “I don’t want that.”
For exactly one second, something in his face goes young and lost.
Then it closes.
In its place is a ripple that brings a new awareness. His wolf is stronger than I remember. More dominant.
An alpha but… wrong somehow. Chaotic and unsettled. My wolf doesn’t trust it—or him. Nash is right. Ramsey took the serum; I know that without even needing to ask. Somehow, he muted it when he first walked up, but he’s not bothering to hide it anymore.
“Last chance, Mia,” he says. Quiet. Back to clinical. “Join me, or become a liability I can’t afford.”
“My answer hasn’t changed,” I say.
A sinister chill settles on his face then. And in his blue eyes, there’s a glacierlike coldness. “So be it.”
The three wolves at Ramsey’s back stir restlessly, and I brace for an attack. Because this is it. I’ve finally refused Ramsey, and now he’ll follow through on his threat to destroy me for it.
Then Nash moves.
Not aggressively. He simply steps forward and to the left, putting himself between Ramsey and me.
“We’re done here,” Nash says. His voice is completely level. “You’ve made your offer. She’s declined. Just as I did. If you’d like to discuss terms of your surrender to the Giovanni pack, I'm available for that conversation. Otherwise—”
“Otherwise,” Ramsey agrees, almost pleasantly. He takes one step back. Then another. His wolves mirror him. “I’ll be in touch, Mia. One way or another. Your alphas won’t be safe in their castle much longer.”
