Page 64 of Wolf's Endgame

“I don’t need a moment,” Nikan snapped. “I’ve absorbed all I need the weeks you lay dying.”

“Nik—”

“I’m sorry, Nikan.”

I looked down at Kezia in surprise at her apology. “I know it’s me you’re pissed at. I also know Tev would still have made a move against your brother, even if I had been here. Me leaving worked in their favor to allow doubt to be spread between us, but the attack itself, I couldn’t have stopped that. What Moonstar would have done is heal Cannon quicker. That is all. I couldn’t have done that either.”

“You shouldn’t have left.”

“I know.”

Nikan’s glare was focused on the bookshelf, but he glanced at my mate as she stood beside me, her gaze calm and steady. “You trusted none of us,” he added.

“I trust you all,” Kezia said quickly. “I trusted you all to stop me.”

His eyes flicked back to hers in understanding. “Which is why you never told us.”

“He’s my brother.” Kezia shrugged almost apologetically. “Saving him was the only thing I could focus on.”

“And I have already pointed out to my mate,” I cut off Nikan’s next words, “that I saved her brother. We did.”

“Because the semantics are what’s going to win this war,” Kezia drawled, but no one missed that her head dipped or that her smile was forced.

“We both have things to learn,” I reminded her softly, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Right?”

“Right.” As she tilted her head to look up at me, I leaned in and gently pressed my lips against hers. To my delight, she responded by lifting herself slightly, meeting my kiss with a touch more urgency, deepening the connection between us.

“The Goddess is happy,” the shaman declared. Kezia and I both turned to look at him. “I feel her presence, and she is content that the bond is strong.” The old shifter leaned back in his chair. “But her anger is equally as strong.”

“At us?” Nikan asked, glancing our way.

“At Bale,” I corrected. “He strikes against the packs, against pack law. A pack leader is not an alpha, no matter how downtrodden his pack is.”

“Not all of the pack are guilty,” the shaman reminded us.

“None of them are innocent,” I reminded him. “They are complacent with the way he runs that pack. They have been complicit in the treatment of Kezia for years. None of them can be called innocent.”

“Cannon,” Kezia murmured. “Not everyone is strong like you.”

“You’re too kind, Kezia,” Royce told her. “Your life there was not a happy one, yet you still defend them.”

“I had Cass,” she answered simply. “And Landon.”

“Hmm, tell me how that worked out again, the friend who wishes you to give him an alpha child.”

“You make it seem sordid.”

“Because it is!” Leo and Nikan were both nodding in agreement with me. “If you are only friends, then where does the idea to impregnate you come from?”

“I think he was trying to save me,” she countered. “I don’t think he wants that any more than I did.” She wasn’t looking at me when she spoke, and I think my mate forgot about our bond. I could feel her uncertainty. Kezia had expressed her doubts about Landon, confiding in me that she wasn’t certain she could trust him. However, I also knew now wasn’t the time to press her. We had a pack war on our hands, and that was where our focus needed to be.

“Kezia?” Leo spoke from his position on the couch. “Can you tell me about this compound? How many shifters are there?”

“There were rooms, some with a bathroom, some like mine, where there wasn’t. Cameras all over. In rooms, in the shower block.”

“Shower block?” Royce asked.

“Landon took me there. Another shifter came to…” She swallowed hard. “To watch.”

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