Page 40 of Fastlander Fealty

“Oh, I took it out so Owen could see your conversation.”

The blood drained from her face, and she rounded on him. “This isn’t my conversation. This was sent to me.”

“Mmm, it’s just interesting seeing how you and your man talk.”

“He’s not my man,” and damn her voice as it shook.

“Why would we believe anything you have to say?” Captain asked, and now his tone had lost its lightness.

Silver huffed a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know what I am anymore. He said he doesn’t want me, but I was already through my Queen ceremony for the Pride. He put my rank at the bottom of the Pride, and picked another. Now I’m extra, and…and…”

“Get the story just right,” Captain encouraged her.

“Fuck you,” she snarled. She was so angry that she was being honest with him and he was insulting her personal life. Nothing was easy for her, and today she’d been trying. She had! She’d been honest with them and was offering to leave. “You don’t know me.”

“Whooo,” he said, standing slowly. “I can hear that traitor lion in your voice now. Good. Now we’re getting somewhere.”

“Captain, leave her alone,” Hallie said from the doorway. “Silver, you need to pack your things.”

“What?” she asked, not understanding the change in the dynamics.

“Gunner called it. You have to leave the territory.” Hallie was leaning on the doorframe with her arms crossed over her stomach. She dropped her gaze to the floor as she said softly, “Now.”

Silver looked from Hallie, to Captain, to Ace, who stood silent near the porch, then to the empty road where Owen had disappeared. She thought about texting him, begging him to come back so she could explain Rook’s text messages, but what was the point? Truly, what was the freaking point? She was here to betray them, and she had caused a mountain of problems.

She didn’t belong here.

She didn’t belong in the Pride.

She didn’t belong anywhere.

Stupid tears burned her stupid eyes, and she blinked hard and bit her bottom lip to punish herself for being so weak. This was fair. The Fastlanders should kick her out of the territory.

Silver walked past Hallie and wiped her eyes fast, looked up in time to stop herself from running right into Corey. Oh, here it went. She couldn’t wait to hear what Corey had to say.

She steeled herself and waited, staring right into her eyes, but Corey didn’t say anything right away. Her eyes were filled with…something. “It was Gunner’s call. Not ours.” And then Corey stepped to the side to allow her to pass.

But she should know. All of them should. They should know what Owen had read. What Captain and probably even Gunner had read.

So, she woke up her phone and opened the text thread, and then turned it toward Corey. She allowed her to read a couple texts and absorbed the appalled look on Corey’s face, and then Silver scrolled. And scrolled. And scrolled, tears still burning her eyes. Rook had texted her dozens of times while they were at the river. “Gunner made the right call,” she uttered.

As she made her way to the hallway, Corey asked, “Then why are you crying?”

Silver didn’t turn around, or even slow. Why was she crying? She didn’t freaking know! Maybe because she was a weak lioness who always cried? If the Fastlanders knew how much she had cried the first day she’d escaped the Pride, they would never speak to her again. Or how much she cried as she adjusted to life outside of the Pride for the first month. Or how she had cried with happiness when she began to make friends outside of the Pride. Or how much she had sobbed when the Pride had found her and taken her away from the life she’d been building. Or how much she had cried when Rook brought her back to his home, and shunned her, and stripped her of her rank. Or how much and how long she had cried when he cut her face with that damn burning knife, and shamed her in front of everyone.

Everything she touched turned to ashes.

God!

It felt like she’d had a moment outside of her cage, and she had laughed, and learned, and loved in such a small frame of time, and it had been intense and emotional and…and…beautiful. She’d gotten a glimpse of the women she could be if only she had space from the Pride, and she’d liked herself for a little while. And now she had to go back, and the moment she’d been so happy in was crumbling around her.

She hated it. She hated her life, and she hated who she would be when she returned to Rook.

Silver fell to her knees in the bedroom and screamed as long and loud as she could, just to expel the awful turmoil that washed through her.

Corey and Hallie appeared in the doorway. She didn’t see them because her back was to the door, but she could feel them there. Could hear their breathing, their heartbeats.

“Could you please leave me alone?” she asked. “I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t want anyone to see me like this. I just want to be alone while I pack.”

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