Chapter 7 continued
1672 Words
She smiled into her tea.
The meal continued with less prophecy and more humiliation.
Mother told Anna how I had once attempted to shift too early and spent three hours trapped between forms with one wolf ear and a tail.
“I was six,” I said.
“You cried,” Maggie added.
“I was in pain.”
“You cried because Ian pulled your tail.”
“He should not have touched it.”
“I was a baby,” Ian said.
“You knew what you were doing.”
Carlos told her about the time I challenged a visiting Alpha’s son and fell into the horse trough before the fight began.
“I won afterward.”
“You were wet through the entire fight.”
“He was still defeated.”
Lucía revealed that Carlos had practiced his mating proposal for three weeks and forgotten every word when he saw her.
“That is private,” Carlos said.
“You threatened Tomás with coyotes,” Anna reminded him.
Carlos considered this.
“Continue.”
By the time honey cake was served, Anna’s laughter filled the entire dining room.
She no longer hesitated when someone filled her cup.
She no longer reached for every fallen spoon.
When Mother asked whether she enjoyed the blue silk, Anna ran her hand over the skirt.
“I do.”
“Then we will order another in a different design.”
Anna looked at me.
I waited.
She smiled.
“I would like that.”
No one at the table understood what the answer cost her.
I felt it through the bond.
Anna was allowing herself to want something she had not earned, did not need, and could never have purchased alone.
Not because she was surrendering her independence.
Because she was beginning to trust that accepting love did not make her weak.
After dinner, musicians played softly in the adjoining sitting room.
Mother and Father danced first.
They moved together with the ease of two people who had shared the same rhythm for decades. Carlos pulled Lucía into his arms. Maggie attempted to force Ian to dance until he escaped through the nearest door.
Anna stood beside the fireplace.
“Will you dance with me?” I asked.
“I do not know how.”
“Neither does Carlos.”
Across the room, Carlos nearly stepped on Lucía’s foot.
“I heard that.”
“You were meant to.”
Anna looked at my offered hand.
“You will laugh.”
“Never.”
“You laughed when I dropped the cups.”
“I did not.”
“You smiled.”
“I had just found my mate.”
Her expression softened.
She placed her hand in mine.
I led her into the center of the room and settled one hand carefully against her waist. She rested the other against my shoulder.
“Follow me,” I said.
“You enjoy saying that.”
“I enjoy when you do it.”
“I rarely do.”
“I have noticed.”
We moved slowly.
Anna stepped on my boot.
She froze.
I kept my promise and did not laugh.
“You may laugh,” she said.
“I value my life.”
She stepped on me again.
“That one was intentional.”
“A little.”
I pulled her closer.
Her perfume surrounded me. Beneath the jasmine and vanilla, I caught the warm scent that belonged only to her.
The rest of the room faded.
“Are you happy?” I asked.
Anna looked toward my family.
“Yes.”
The answer entered the bond with enough truth to warm my entire body.
“Good.”
“I was afraid your family would see me the same way the council does.”
“They do not.”
“Your mother made me feel as if I belonged here.”
“You do.”
“And your brother thinks purple solves everything.”
“He is young and foolish.”
“It is a beautiful color.”
“Then he is accidentally correct.”
Anna smiled.
Her gaze lowered to my throat.
“Enrique?”
“Yes?”
“What happened this afternoon?”
My hand tightened slightly at her waist.
“What do you mean?”
“I felt something through the bond. Anger. Then something else.”
I knew exactly what she had felt.
Sebastián kneeling at my feet.
His terror.
My satisfaction.
“Carlos found someone connected to the message.”
Anna stopped dancing.
“Who?”
“Sebastián Cruz.”
“The young clerk?”
“You know him?”
“He has delivered kitchen orders before.”
“He used my father’s stolen seal to enter the kitchens.”
“Did he place the flower in your basket?”
“No.”
“Did he open the stall?”
“No.”
“Then what did he do?”
“He followed orders from someone who wanted to frighten you.”
“What did you do to him?”
The music continued around us.
“Removed his position and sent him to the southern border.”
Her face changed.
“For how long?”
“Permanently.”
“Enrique.”
“He betrayed his Alpha.”
“He is nineteen.”
“So am I.”
“He is not you.”
“No. He had the privilege of believing he would be protected by his father’s name. He used it to help someone humiliate you.”
“Did he understand what they intended?”
“He knew enough.”
“And did he give you a name?”
“His father may be connected.”
“May be?”
“We will investigate.”
Anna withdrew from my arms.
“You punished him before learning the whole truth.”
“I learned enough.”
“Did Carlos agree?”
I did not answer.
She looked toward him.
Carlos was no longer dancing.
He had heard us.
His expression gave her the answer I refused to provide.
Anna turned back to me.
“You promised to protect me without becoming cruel.”
“I did protect you.”
“By frightening a boy?”
“He is not a boy.”
“Then why are you hiding what you did?”
“I am not hiding anything.”
“You waited until I asked.”
“This was supposed to be a family dinner. My mother forbade us from discussing the investigation.”
“Do not use your mother as an excuse.”
I lowered my voice.
“He helped someone reach you. What would you have me do? Forgive him and wait for the next message?”
“I would have you learn the truth before destroying his life.”
“He still has his life.”
The words silenced her.
Pain entered the bond.
Not fear.
Disappointment.
It cut deeper than anger.
Anna looked at me as though searching for the man who had waited outside Maggie’s door that morning because she asked him to.
I was still that man.
I did not understand why she could not see it.
“I did this for you.”
“No,” she whispered. “You did it because his fear made you feel powerful.”
My body became still.
Carlos looked away.
Anna had felt that too.
I reached for her.
She stepped back.
“I am tired.”
“I will walk you to Maggie’s chambers.”
“My guards can take me.”
“I am coming with you.”
“Then walk beside me. Do not order me.”
She said good night to my family and left the room with Marisol and Elena following behind her.
I remained beside the fireplace.
The musicians continued playing, but no one danced.
My father approached me.
“You used the bond against Sebastián.”
It was not a question.
“He refused to speak.”
“And you forced his wolf to surrender.”
“I obtained the truth.”
Father’s disappointment resembled Anna’s.
I hated it.
“I did what was necessary.”
“No,” Father said. “You did what was fastest.”
“He obeyed.”
“Today.”
“That is enough.”
“It will never be enough for you.”
Something in his voice sharpened my anger.
“You surrendered the throne willingly. Do not stand beside it and criticize every decision I make.”
Father studied me.
“I am not concerned about every decision.”
“Only the ones you would have made differently?”
“Only the ones you enjoy too much.”
He left before I could answer.
My family slowly followed.
Mother touched my cheek as she passed, but sadness lived in her eyes. Maggie did not look at me. Carlos remained for several moments before Lucía took his hand and led him away.
Soon, I stood alone in the family dining room.
Anna’s empty chair waited beside mine.
The pack bond stretched throughout the territory, carrying hundreds of heartbeats into my soul.
Beneath them all, I felt Sebastián’s fear as warriors escorted him toward the southern border.
Beyond the dining room, servants whispered about how quickly the Alpha had discovered someone involved in threatening his mate. Their fear moved from room to room.
So did their admiration.
By morning, every wolf in Dios del Sol would know what happened to those who helped my enemies.
No one else would approach Anna.
No one would touch her.
No one would dare.
I should have regretted what I had done.
Instead, I stood in the center of my family’s empty dining room and felt safer than I had since finding the bloodstained flower.
For the first time, I understood that fear could accomplish in minutes what trust might require years to build.
I also understood why powerful men so rarely chose the slower path.
The revelation should have frightened me.
It did not.
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