Page 21 of Ascendant King

“No,” I said shortly. “They turned their backs on their previous pack. They declared loyalty to Los Santos Pack right now, but there’s always a chance one of them is still working for Ghost Pack.”

Cade exhaled through his nose. “Good.”

I looked at him, seeing the crease between his brows. “You thought I was just going to trust them?”

“I know exactly how easy it is to trust people from your past who you shouldn’t.” It was his turn to glance out the window, so I couldn’t see if the tension in his jaw reached his eyes.

Isaac and Jay were full-fledged members of the pack, but every part of me still tensed when they entered a room. Every part of me worried that at any moment, they were going to betray us.

I made sure they never had any critical information or anything that would hurt us if it got out, but that didn’t help the pain I saw on Cade’s face when he looked at his cousin.

“Do you want to expel them?” I asked.

Cade’s eyes flicked to me, a glance almost completely covered by pale eyelashes. “The members of Ghost Pack?”

“Isaac and Jay.” I rolled my shoulders, hearing a pop, feeling the pressure of tense muscles. “We can. We don’t even need to give an explanation.”

“Isaac is a powerful mage. If we’re going up against House Bartlett, we need as many mages as we can get.” Cade kept hiswords clipped, his tone neutral. “The smart decision is to keep them.”

“I find the smart decision isn’t always the one I want to make.” I waited for Cade to look at me, to glare, to take some of his hurt out on me.

Instead, he shook his head. “That’s something I understand.”

If I sliced myself open on the bitterness in his voice, I would get tetanus, a blood infection that would rot me from the inside out. In his tone, I could hear how much he still hated me, how even looking at me hurt.

“Do you really still think my parents did it?” I measured out each word, trying to match his cold voice.

“Yes,” Cade spat. “And looking at you means that I haven’t gotten vengeance for my parents yet.”

“Leon was the one?—”

“What did he do?” Cade asked. “How did he control the most powerful alpha in the country and force her to kill my parents?”

“I don’tknow. But I know who my mother was. I know who my father was.” I pressed a hand to my thigh, digging my fingers in. The birthday card was in my duffel bag, carefully tucked between the pages of a book I was reading, probably the most precious thing in the car other than Cade.

“So do I.” Cade turned and looked at me, his eyes burning. His anger had melted any sympathy he felt at the Castillo farm.

I didn’t say anything, turning away from him. A few miles later, I asked, “Was there anything you noticed about our new members that I should know?”

Cade shook his head, but the line between his brow was troubled. “I just think if they’re switching loyalty so easily…”

He didn’t need to finish. I knew exactly what he meant.

“The trouble is I can’t reject my mother’s people.” It had been a trap, one I had willingly walked into, the siren call of my family home impossible to ignore.

“You could have,” Cade pointed out.

“Not if I’m trying to gain support in my bid for the Emperor Wolf throne.” I stared at the back of Gabe’s head, and his eyes flicked up into the rearview mirror before he forced them back onto the road. I could hear his girlfriend on the earbud. She was talking loudly about some frustration at work, and Gabe grunted.

“A pack isn’t just the company you work for, the sports team you sign with. A pack is your life. A pack is the people you would die for, you would kill for. Sometimes people switch packs. If you want to marry someone, and you want to join their family.” I thought about my father, who had been packless when he met my mother. “No matter what they did after my mother was killed, these people were once my family. Their blood was my blood.”

“Yet none of them saved you or your siblings.” Cade frowned at me, and I raised a single shoulder in a shrug.

“No. But did any of them even know what Ghost Pack was going to do?” Although they had to have suspected. They had to have guessed something might happen. I stared out the window, seeing only a hint of Cade’s reflection in it. With sunset, the houses and buildings around us turned on their lights, fireflies in a dimming world.

“How can you forgive so easily?” Cade challenged.

I chuckled, the sound unhappy. Turning, I raised an eyebrow. Cade knew better than most thatacceptingwas not the same asforgiving. “What choice do I have?”