Page 111 of Haze

“I need to talk to you,” I tell Cade, probably a bit harder than I should.

“Figured that was coming,” Cade answers. He writes something down on a piece of paper and puts it in the pile next to Thalia. “Do you need privacy, or is this okay?”

I look at Thalia and Deacon. They’re all her family. How private is this?

“I don’t know. How pissed off would my mate be?”

“Ooooo.” Thalia raises her head off the counter. “He wants to talk about Lena. I vote yes.”

Deacon laughs, sitting up on the floor. “Okay, that was funny, but I don’t know if you can really expect that.”

“Deacon, whoever that is isn’t real,” Thalia says, picking up her coffee cup.

“Dammit.” Deacon draws a deep breath and stands. “Sorry.”

“Thank-you notes?” I ask.

Thalia growls, shooting daggers out of her eyes at Cade.

“Don’t give me that look.” He signs another one, and when he adds it to the pile, he kisses her on the head.

Thalia grumbles, “I said we should elope.”

“If it’s any consolation, you don’t have to do one for any of the Irish. I was still the official representative, and I’ve no need for a thank-you.” I shrug.

“Let me guess, you want to know why Lena’s been hiding for so long?” Cade takes another card, signs it, and puts it on the pile next to Thalia.

“Yeah.” First of many questions I need answered.

Deacon comes around the counter with a little bit of a wobble and starts pulling food from the fridge. He moves around the kitchen silently. When I try to help, he walks around me.

“Lena’s hidden her wolf because of who I am. There’s been this long-standing consensus, from the people who raised us and the pack, that The Leviathan wouldn’t have a submissive wolf in their branch of the bloodline,” Cade explains, with the pen hovering over the paper in front of him. “Lena has always tried to protect me by keeping her wolf hidden based on that belief.”

I run my tongue over my teeth, allowing myself to try to understand why he would have thought hurting Lena would be acceptable. I wasn’t here. I have to give him the benefit of the doubt. This might have been the best he could do.

“Finn,” Deacon gets my attention before pausing. “It’s not...” Deacon thinks over his words, waving a spatula around. “Common.” He pauses again, replacing the spatula with a whisk and tossing it into a bowl. He looks at me, and his tone says it all. “For submissives to be treated as well here as they are in Ireland.”

“Cade took the throne the first time because the man who raised them tried to arrange her a mate,” Thalia says, choosing words in the middle of the sentence carefully.

It’s telling of the situation. A sinking feeling falls from my head all the way to where it settles low in my gut. There’s more to her situation beyond what I know.

My wolf starts thinking about new ways to hide bodies here.

“Lena has maintained this wall because she’s afraid of being a victim of a forced pairing,” I voice my thoughts. “And you let her?” I don’t mean that question to have venom, but the emotion slips out in the shortened words and the hardened tone.

“I know I’ve failed her.” Cade sets down the pen. When I meet his eyes, he continues. “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t regret how I’ve handled my life as it concerns her.”

Hanging my head, I divert my eyes and keep my voice low. “Do you worry about Lena fracturing?”

Cade’s silence is ominous. Do I really want to know this answer?

Thalia’s movement in her chair catches in the corner of my eye. She’s spun her stool to face him. “Cade?”

Raising my eyes but not my head, I catch him nodding.

He finally vocalizes it. “I do.”

The snarl escapes, my wolf pushing hard against me. The anger not well contained. I have this urge to climb over the counter and tear into him. At home, I’d take him out back and rip him to shreds for hurting her like this. Cade may have never raised a hand to her, but to leave her so unsupported? The sheer fact that a submissive wolf didn’t have an anchor. She didn’t have a pack to nurture her, and now she’s shoved into the role of an Alpha. It’s not her core instinct. Cade knew, and he’s known the risk.

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