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“I’mallowed in.” I stepped to the side, trying to dodge around him.

“He said no one.” Jocko held out an arm, blocking me.

“Open that door or I’m going to blast you to the other side of this field.” It was all bluff, but after my taking out the tree, my words must’ve carried more weight.

He didn’t step aside, but he turned to yell for reinforcements. “Kaden, she’s—”

“I know,” Kaden said as he opened the barn door. He jerked his head toward Jocko, who walked away. He glanced over my shoulder to Jules and Remy. “You can take off. I’ve got her,” he said.

“What are you doing in there? Are you interrogating people?” I asked, trying to walk past him.

He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me back out, and he didn’t let go. He was so comfortable with our touching that he was starting to do it instinctually, it seemed.

But there was nothing natural about it to me. Every touch of his hand short-circuited my senses.

“By interrogating, you mean questioning a few people? Yes, I am. We think it was probably Mason, but I need to make sure no one else was involved,” he said.

I tried to focus my attention back on the conversation and not the way his hand was splayed on my back.

“I won’t have you torture innocent—”

“I’m not torturing anyone.” He pushed a strand of hair away from my eyes. “We’re having a nice little chat to make sure some of the shadier people here aren’t involved. Now, you’re still weak. You need to rest.”He laid a hand over my chest, as if testing my heart.

I pulled his hand down, not wanting him to ask why it was pounding. “I’m fine. Now I want in there.”

“Kaden, you coming back?” Tiber yelled from somewhere in the barn. “I got a feisty one. He’s trying to break out of the chains.”

I got up on my tiptoes, trying to peek around Kaden. “What the—”

“Tiber thinks he’s funny,” Kaden yelled over his shoulder. “Tell her you’re joking before I come and beat you.”

Tiber’s face popped out of the barn. “It’s true. I was just kidding. I really had you, though, huh?” He laughed.

“Very funny.” I put out a hand to grip the side of the barn, feeling a little lightheaded.

“That’s it,” Kaden said. “You’re going back to bed. You can’t even stay upright.” He scooped me up, carrying me with him toward the house.

“I’m fine,” I said, looking around and seeing all the attention we were getting. “And you’re making a scene.”

“I’m carrying my recently poisoned mate back to the house because she was about to fall over. I’m acting quite sane,” he said.

“You’re abusing our agreement.”

“I’m not abusing it. I’m holding to the letter of it. Unless you’re saying you want to break the agreement?”

I huffed. “I’m not saying break the entire agreement, but you can’t use it as carte blanche to create a scene everywhere we go.”

He walked into the house, carrying me upstairs into the bedroom and dropping me on the bed. He yanked off my boots.

“You want to see a scene? Try to get out of this bed again.”

“I’m fine. You’re not the boss—”

“Right now I am your mate, and that poison is still running through your system. I don’t want you exerting yourself and driving it to your heart faster before the antidote is done doing its work.” He pulled the corner of the blanket over me.

“Is that true? Or are you making that up?” I said, suddenly feeling more drained.

“I’m not taking the chance.” He laid a hand on my head and then checked my pulse.