Page 35 of Fastlander Fealty

“I mean, I respected the move, and I don’t even like you,” Corey said. It wasn’t completely the truth on the last part, but Silver didn’t point it out.

Hallie flashed her a look and went back to brushing out her damp hair with a comb she’d plucked from the dresser.

“Owen’s nice,” Silver admitted softly.

“Owen’s a mess,” Corey corrected her. “But so are you, so I could see the appeal.”

“Are you going to stop being so mean any time soon?” Hallie asked her cousin.

Corey shrugged. “Probably not. She’s here to spy on Ace. No forgivesies.”

“That’s fair. If someone came in to spy on my mate…” Silver frowned. “Well, I would probably help them, fuck that guy.”

“You have a mate?” Hallie asked.

“I used to. Kind of. I don’t know what I am anymore. He still says I belong to him and I have a shot at getting my Queen rank back, but he reminds me that I’m nothing all the time. The spying was supposed to reinstate my rank in the Pride.”

“Your Pride sucks,” Corey said, grimacing.

A few days ago, Silver would’ve argued with her. She’d been trained to protect their behavior no matter what, but she’d watched the couples here today. They were kind to each other. And even though she and Corey didn’t get along, she was protective of her mate, like she should be. Silver respected her too. How many times had Rook thrown her under the bus over the past few years? Hundreds.

“Rook has a new Queen. They just had the ceremony,” Silver said as she dug through her dresser drawers. She froze, stunned at herself, and turned. “I don’t know why I just said that. I’m sorry. That’s a party-foul admission, just forget that little gem slipped out, okay?”

Hallie sank down onto the bed. “He’s got himself a new Queen, huh? You know what that means? It means you’re single.”

“Technically I’ve been single for over a year. I’ve just been working to…” She frowned. “To be his mate again. If he accepted me. If I did enough, and was good enough. If I was perfect…maybe he would…” She scrunched up her face. “Take me back. Hey you know how sometimes when you say something out loud, it sounds way worse than you thought?”

Both Hallie and Corey wore matching grossed-out grimaces. “No man should ever make you feel like you have to work to be good enough,” Corey enlightened her.

“Amen,” Hallie agreed. “He’s the one who isn’t good enough.”

“But…he’s a King.”

“Sweet, who cares?”

Well, huh. “All of the lions?”

“He’s the one who sent you here, right?” Hallie asked.

Silver nodded.

“Cool, cool, cool, so the man is making you jump through hoops just to be at his side again? And he’s sending you into what he considers enemy territory, alone, with no back-up, to spy on shifters who can snuff you out any second they want to? That ain’t your man, girl. That’s an anchor.” Hallie cocked her head and narrowed her eyes. “You’re a lioness. A lioness. We saw you fighting out there. You went after everyone. A woman like you doesn’t need an anchor.”

And then Hallie and Corey left the room. Just, walked out, leaving Silver to mull over those words that all of the sudden felt very important.

What was she doing here?

Not just in this room, she could see how she’d gotten here to this moment, but what was she doing putting her life at risk to be accepted by a man she couldn’t even stand? Hallie and Corey said things in a way that disrupted her entire way of thinking. But it felt right.

A small part of her was defensive. Those two women didn’t understand the dynamics of a lion Pride. They didn’t understand the traditions. They were just making snap judgements on something they couldn’t fathom. She wanted to be protective of her decisions. Wanted to snap at them that, ‘they just didn’t know.’ But she sat down on the edge of the bed and really considered what they’d said instead. She absorbed it and pulled herself out of her defensive tendencies, and really heard them.

They weren’t trying to be mean. Being mean would be them telling her she should go back to him and put herself into the small box Rook had created for her, and do better, and try to be perfect for a man whose idea of perfection was ever-changing and unreachable. They hadn’t done that. They’d said screw him, she could be what she wanted.

In a way, they’d said she was too good to be chasing anchor-boys like him.

Enemy territory.

Enemy territory?

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