Page 31 of Moon Claimed

Oh, you clever son of a bitch.

I felt the immediate tension in my team.This is what we came for. “How thoughtful of you.”

Roderick cleared his throat. “Given both side’s willingness for change, I think we can entertain this additional small request.”

Yeah, yeah.They wanted to nose around. Sascha wouldn’t have left a damn Luther manual lying around.

“Very well,” I said. “Wade will remain with me.”

Suck on that.

I resumed my chair, exchanging a leaden look with Wade as everyone filed out of the bungalow.

Sascha picked up his throne and placed it before me. When he sat, our knees were just a whisper apart.

Wade eyed the proximity. “You know she doesn’t want this. You could at least respect her wishes and maintain your distance.”

If he was surprised that Wade knew, Sascha made no comment. “It’s physically painful to be apart from her at this stage of the meets. Being close when I can allows me to resist the next meet for as long as possible to respect her wishes.”

“Touché,” my friend said after a beat.

I brushed my hair back. “Did you really want to discuss what happened at the tower or was this another ploy?”

Sascha drawled a smile that called to a heat simmering deep within me. One I hated. “Why not both?” His face grew serious. “You lied to your sister on the pier. You told her you didn’t see who the wolf was. You did.”

Not the only lie I told that day. “He wasn’t wearing an oxygen mask, so I can surmise that he was a Luther. Why?”

“He acted outside pack orders. He attacked my potential mate. That is a grave offence. You are my vulnerability, Andie. My life was tied to yours from the moment we first met. Through you, a wolf could kill me.”

I never thought of it that way. Sascha’s hold on the pack seemed so infallible. “They want the top job? Surely the pack wouldn’t follow someone who did that to you.”

“Likely not. There’s no honour in such backhand tactics, and a pack must respect its leader first and foremost. It doesn’t change that my death would be catastrophic for our pack and our position in Victratum.”

It must be so strange to talk like this knowing your entire pack could listen in. The wolf who bit me could be listening too.

I leaned forward. “Then why would someone do it?”

“Because my mate is human.”

“Ouchies,” Wade said.

“Our kind has long been persecuted by humans,” Sascha answered. “Some think Andie is unfit to be my mate. Others believe the match means I am unfit to lead.”

I said, “Luthers talk too damn much. But let me try to remember the guy’s face.”

There were bubbles everywhere that evening. And light was low. Everything happened so fast. I could only recall that damn smirk, really. The flash of his teeth. “He had black hair.”

“Nothing else?”

“A smirk I wanted to slap off his face. White teeth.”

Sascha rubbed his forehead.

“I know what you’re thinking. It would be a lot easier if his teeth were blue.”

Wade tossed me a grin, but Sascha just sighed. “We’re a dark-furred pack. Aside from a few here and there, most of us have black and brown hair.”

Crap.

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