Page 135 of Wrath

“No way in hell.” I shook my head.

I wouldn’t make a deal even if I knew what he wanted.

Peter’s lips quirked up confidently. “You will. You won’t have a choice. You’ll ask for my help, my darling daughter, and then I’ll take what I’ve been waiting for.”

With that ominous statement, he turned on his heel and disappeared inside.

FORTY-EIGHT

JAX

“Ican’t fucking believe him,” Z snapped as she wore a hole in the carpeting of her bedroom—the same bedroom she’d stayed in during the Damning. “How dare he? How fucking dare he? What could he possibly want from me in the first place?”

Aside from the two of us, the room was empty. The others had left to meet with some trusted nobles and the leaders of our troops. I was asked to remain behind.

Maybe they thought I was too insane to handle such issues.

Maybe they knew Z was nearing her breaking point and wanted me to keep an eye on her.

Maybe it was a mixture of both.

I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. The walls weren’t bleeding any longer, the voices were mercifully silent, and my mate needed me.

I stood from the couch and crossed to her, eating up the distance in three long strides. I placed my hands on her shoulders to stop her incessant pacing and waited until she looked at me. Really looked at me.

“My love, you need to calm down.”

Wrong thing to say.

Never, ever tell a woman to calm down.

Ever.

“Calm down?” One of Z’s golden eyebrows arched. “You want me to calm down?”

I gulped but didn’t release her. “You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

“We’re at war, Jax! We’re about to execute your fathers. My own father is a cryptic, evil asshole! My sister is the one declaring war on us. My mother is…who the fuck knows what she’s doing?” Her chest began to heave. “I can’t calm down, Jax, because if I do, I’ll…I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” I carefully guided her towards the couch, and surprisingly, she came easily.

I sat down first, and she curled onto my lap. Z had such a large, domineering presence that it was easy to forget she was actually extremely tiny. She cuddled beneath my chin like a purring, contented kitten.

“You’ll fall apart? You’ll break? Would that be a bad thing?”

Her words came out muffled from where she spoke them against my skin. “During a war? Yes.”

“But you’re not in battle right now, my love. You’re safe with me.” I began to stroke her hair, smoothing the tangled locks. “Talk to me. Let me carry some of your burden.”

I would carry it all if she would let me, but that wasn’t Z. She would never hand her problems entirely over to someone else.

But maybe I could hold just enough to ease her suffering.

“I don’t know what to say, Jax.” Her lips parted against my throat, eliciting a full-body shiver. I tightened my arms around her instinctively. “I just can’t help but think…what if it’s too much?”

“If what’s too much?”

“Everything.” She shifted on my lap so she could stare up at me, her blue eyes wide and guileless, momentarily unguarded. “My fucked-up family. The kings. Ruling. The list could go on and on.”

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