Page 12 of Eclipsed Heart

She bears the mark, not me. It’s her call, not mine.Samuel’s jaw clenched.

The walls seemed to close in on me. I hadn’t considered how upset Samuel must be about all this, but why wouldn’t he be? He should be king. He should be the one with the mark.

But he was right. For now, the decision was on me.

“Callie?” Stevie’s voice quivered. “What’s going on?”

Before I could question my decision, I forced the words from my mouth, hoping I wasn’t making a mistake.

CHAPTERFOUR

My chest squeezedas if a vise had closed around it, turning my breathing ragged. I wasn’t sure what the right answer was—lock Stevie up or not—but I couldn’t ignore everything that had happened.

“Callie?” Stevie’s voice broke. “Are you going to answer me?” She hugged her waist even tighter.

Straightening my shoulders, I prepared for the reaction that would follow. “With everything that’s happened, I have to make a decision about something awful that I don’t want to.”

She took a step back, her body tensing. “Like?”

Bodey linked,We don't have to do that if you don’t want to, babe. We can keep an eye on her here.The guilt curled through me.

That was sodamntempting. I didn’t want to lock up my sister. I winced even thinking about it, but Samuel was right. The longer she was out here with us, hearing everything we said or did and getting more familiar with the advisors, the more information she would have to tell the queen. “We're going to have to put you somewhere so you can’t leave.”

Her brows furrowed. “What do you mean? You’re going to throw me in a basement like that scout?”

I shrugged. “Stevie, you betrayedus. You betrayedme.” I gestured to the new tattoo that moved across my skin. “There’s no other choice. We can't trust you.”

She dropped her arms and marched up to me. “I didn’t betray you! I was trying toprotectyou theonlyway I knew how.” She took my hand, grasping it hard, and continued, “I would never betray you, Callie. With you as the queen, there’s no reason for me to continue feeding Queen Kel anything.”

“That doesn’t fix the problem.” I squeezed her hand back. “You should’ve never gone to Queen Kel to begin with, or at least come clean when…” My voice trailed off. “Wait. The scouts that attacked me. Were you behind that?” After spending time at Bodey’s and with Samuel, I’d been attacked seemingly at random in the woods behind the office of my new job. Stevie had taken my injury hard. At the time, I’d thought it was because she didn’t like seeing me hurt, but now…

The pack connection I had with her grew heavy and icky…guilt.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen.” She dropped her hand and took a few steps back, finding the wood floor very interesting. “I told the queen about Charles and their attack on you at Hells Canyon and the rift between Zeke and the other advisors. I didn’t expect her to send scouts after you. She wanted to question you, and since the advisors seemed to like you, she said she wanted to capture you to force their hand.”

“And you still told menothing?” A knife in the back would’ve been less painful than this.

What’s going on?Bodey linked.You’re upset. I told you—

Stevie informing on me to the queen was the reason for my attack by those scouts.

She ran her fingers through her hair. “Zeke was still being a prick, and Bodey hurt you! I thought we might still need her protection, and I didn’t want to involve you.”

Samuel took the spot beside me, his nose wrinkling. “You not only put Callie at risk but every family living in the territory.”

Huffing, Stevie lifted her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.”

“When you pick a side in war, there are always casualties.” The words fell from my tongue, and somehow, they sounded familiar. “Either way, you betrayed everyone, and I can’t risk you funneling Queen Kel more information. Intention doesn’t matter. We need to keep you somewhere and block you from communicating information to someone else who could get it back to the queen.” The problem was, I had no clue where. I’d walked around this pack neighborhood all of once—with Samuel.

He caught my sister’s arm and said, “I’ll take her to Michael and Janet’s basement. It can be locked, and you’ll be close enough to check on her.”

“What? No.” Stevie tried pulling away from him. “Callie, don’t do this. You know me.”

My heart fractured. “I thought I did, but I never expected you to work with the Southwest queen. We have to take safety precautions. What if she tries to use someone against you to keep information coming?”

“Are you serious?” Her bottom lip quivered. “I did all this for you…for us. Now that you’re mated to an advisor and have been marked queen, everything has changed.” There was no stench of a lie. “Don’t you believe me?”

“None of that matters.” I blew out a breath as my eyes burned. I tried to keep the tears at bay because letting them spill wouldn’t solve anything. “What you did wasn’t right, and until the advisors get here and we can discuss the situation, you need to be detained. I’m sorry, but this is how it has to be. We need everybody to feel as safe as possible. And they're not going to feel that with you around. At least, not right now.”

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