Chapter 228
CASSANDRA
The numbers weren’t adding up, and Father was livid.
+25 BONUS
I sat stiffly at the table in the packhouse’s formal office, a fan of expense reports and ledgers laid out in front of me like a criminal record. My criminal record, apparently.
“You bought what?” he barked, his voice bouncing off the walls.
“A mare,” I said evenly, smoothing my palm across the crease in my blouse. “Moon–blessed. Champion lineage. For the charity auction-”
“For what auction?” he snapped, stabbing a thick finger at the figure circled in red at the bottom of the page. “You spent more on saddle fittings than we did training new warriors. Are we running a pack or a stable?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. Hard. I’d learned long ago not to take the bait too quickly.
He leaned across the table, eyes narrowed. “You think you’re going to be Luna,” he sneered. “That Derek’s finally going to come to his senses and put a crown on your pretty head. You think if you decorate the palace, the king will move in?”
My nails dug into my palms under the table. “It’s for the good of the pack.”
“It’s for your ego.”
Before I could spit a response, the office door flew open.
Both of us turned. The wind hit first–cool and sharp–and then Derek stepped into the room like the storm itself had answered my prayers.
Except he didn’t look like the man I’d spent years shaping my life around. He looked like fire made flesh. His eyes burned, jaw locked, shoulders drawn tight with something dangerous.
“Derek, my boy!” Father said, instantly switching gears, standing and smiling like a fool. “We were just going over some budgeting-”
“I need to speak with Cassandra,” Derek said, voice like stone. “Alone.”
The temperature in the room plummeted.
Father paused. The smile didn’t drop off his face so much as freeze there, brittle and forced. He looked at me. A loaded glance: what now? And then he looked back at Derek and gave a little bow.
“Of course,” he said smoothly. “I’ll leave you to it.”
As he passed behind my chair, he clapped a heavy hand on my shoulder. I didn’t flinch. I’d long since stopped reacting to his
version of affection.
The door clicked shut behind him.
Silence.
I turned to Derek slowly, schooling my features into something soft and confused. The way I always had to with him. It had
worked before.
But the way he looked at me?
I’d never seen that look in his eyes. Not even when I pushed him too far. Not even when I touched wounds he thought he’d
buried.
“What have you done?” he hissed.
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Chapter 228
My stomach twisted into a knot.
He knew.
+25 BONUS
My mind scrambled–what did he know? How much? He couldn’t possibly know everything. Could he?
I weighed the possibilities. The most recent thing that might send him reeling was our attempt to sever his bond with Elena. But I couldn’t give away too much. There was too much at stake.
I took a slow, shuddering breath. The only thing to do now was to control the narrative. Get ahead of it. Make him see me as the victim. I could still spin this.
“Derek,” I started, letting my voice tremble just a little, the way I’d practiced. “I didn’t want to go along with it. It was Logan. He made me.”
His face didn’t move. No twitch, no flicker of emotion. He was just watching.
His voice cut like a knife. “He made you what?”
I flinched. “It was all his idea,” I said quickly. I didn’t know what he knew and was hedging my bets that he’d somehow figured out about the bond–breaking spell.
His voice was sharp now. Razor–sharp.
“He made you call the rogue Maggie and arrange for Elena to be kidnapped on our wedding day?”
My stomach dropped. A rushing sound filled my ears.
