Page 47 of Breathe Again

Yes.

Luke, too?

My gut churned at her question.

Cole? Do they have Luke Larken in custody?

I looked up to see Thomas staring quietly at me. “Luke Larken. Is that the one that keeps insisting he’s not guilty? The one asking for Elizabeth?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Damn it!” I cursed under my breath.

Yeah, they got him. He’s been asking for you,I said, unable to lie to her.

I’m on my way.

The last thing I wanted was for Elizabeth to come to the jail. I hated the thought of her being near those guys. I had seen the terror in her eyes while they chased her, and it would haunt me for a long time. I had to keep telling myself that I made it in time and she was fine, but the memory alone would always set me on edge thinking through the what ifs.

What would have happened if she had died and our bond was still unresolved? What if I had been stubborn and hadn’t gone after her? What if the Larken wolves had gotten to her first? I tried to push those questions from my mind, but they still lingered there.

I felt her presence before I heard her arrive. It was followed quickly by the smells of her sisters. All of them had come along.

“Tell me again why we’re even giving a Larken the time of day?” Peyton protested.

I smiled. I always did like that girl. Peyton had rarely strayed from her mother’s shirttails as a small child, but she was witty and sweet, just like the cookies and cakes she loved to bake.

I’m with Peyton. What the hell are you doing here?I asked without alerting the others to my frustration.

Elizabeth ignored me and addressed James instead. “Let Luke go. He’s not part of this.”

“Lizzy, we caught him chasing you with the other two. We tracked them back to the location of the distillery they had on Collier land. His stench was all over it. You don’t seem to want to believe it, but he is guilty,” Thomas told her.

“He wasn’t chasing me. He was chasing them. He would have stopped them if he had to. Look, he told me to run when they came after me. He told them to leave me alone, but they wouldn’t listen. Luke is a lot of things, but guilty of threatening me isn’t one of them,” she said stubbornly.

“Then guilty of trespassing on Collier land at the very least. Regardless, he’s guilty,” James added.

“When’s his trial?” she asked.

“Come again?” Thomas questioned.

“When is his trial? You can’t just condemn him without a trial, Thomas.”

“Actually, under pack law, I can,” he said.

“I’d like to represent him and request a full trial then.” She shocked us all. “Now please, prepare a room so I can talk with my client.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me, Lizzy,” Thomas said, and my wolf perked up on edge from the tone of his voice.

“That’s a major conflict of interest,” James pointed out.

“Yeah, well, if you’d all get your heads out of your asses, you’d realize that I was the victim here and I’m telling you, it wasn’t Luke. He’s innocent.”

“But he was still trespassing,” James reminded her.

“Actually, he was yelling at them to get off our land,” she told him defensively.

I was too shocked by what I was hearing to join in with my two cents. But as much as I hated it, I knew I had to stand up and support her. I didn’t want any of those bastards let loose, but if she felt this strongly about it, I had to give her the benefit of the doubt.

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