Page 127 of Contested Crown

“Because I’m an alpha?” I asked. “That’s why I’m a monster.”

“You take good boys and girls, and you force them to submit. You make them do horrible, nasty things.” She glared. “I know your kind.”

“But sending them off to be a mage’s consort is fine?” I asked.

“Mages take care of them! Help them control their animal urges. They keep them safe from society, turn them into good citizens.” She lifted her chins. “Rightcitizens who don’t turn into animals and kill people!”

It was strange to see it laid out so neatly. Packs were wrong, but sending the children under their care to be pimped out and enslaved was fine because it helped control them.

I looked past her to Theo. “What happened? Coral says she can’t shift to help her heal.”

“Coral!” The nun shoved past me and rushed to her side.

Theo looked toward Coral, but I saw the moment his leg gave out, and in two steps, I was there, holding him up. He trembled.

“When was the last time you ate?” I demanded.

“No, that’s not it,” he said.

“Explain,” I demanded.

He heaved a breath. “It’s hard.”

“Try.” Carefully, I walked him over to one of the chairs on the edge of the room and then settled him in it.

I found another two for me and Cade, and we sat across from him, my attention half on the room, half on him.

“When you left House Bartlett—” Theo paused, then shook his head. “—when Leon forced you out of House Bartlett, things started changing quickly. He made an announcement that any consort would need to return to the old ways. Collared all the time. Bowing to any mage they met and only speaking when spoken to. No eye contact. No congregating together. Kneeling before entering the room their mage was in.”

My heart pounded, blood rushing in my ears, as the image choked me. Something warm brushed over my wrist, and I looked over. Cade had placed his hand on top of my clenched one. He rested it there, a reassuring weight that made no demand that I give up my anger. Instead, it was just showing he was with me. He was present as well.

“The physical parts were hard for me.” Theo’s smile was lopsided. “Then they had every consort come in for an examination. They said it was to make sure none of the rest of us were unbonded. They didn’t want a repeat of you. That’s what they said. But they checked all of our vitals, took blood samples, and then they gave us an injection.”

He rubbed at his arm and then pushed up his sleeve and presented it out to me. The injection had long since healed over, but the area around it was radiating black lines, a dark star of pain. I reached out to touch it, and Theo bit his lip to avoid crying out.

“Then we started getting tired. All the time. I could barely get out of bed.” Theo looked over at one of the occupied cots. I vaguely recognized the mage from House Bartlett. “Jack tried to stop it. He tried every healing spell he knew. He took me to Rhys. He took me back to the doctor, but the doctor just said it was a mild reaction to the injection. He wouldn’t even tell Jack what it was.”

I fisted my hand so tightly I could feel my nails biting into my palm. Cade’s hand pressed down on mine, forcing it into my leg, giving me some of the reassurance I needed. They must have been injected with the same drug I had, but why had their reactions been so different?

“Did everyone respond the same way to the injections?” I asked.

“No.” Theo shook his head. “I was the only one who got really sick. But everyone got tired all the time. Coral started looking skeletal. And no matter how much magic our mages gave us, it didn’t help. But every other mage in House Bartlett got stronger. It was strange. Jack kept getting weaker and weaker, and mages who’d never had any power were suddenly able to lift cars.”

My mind raced. I knew that the drug had suppressed my wolf and that every time Cade had given me magic, it had come back twofold. We’d discovered that he had been draining my wolf, my essence, by accident. The two of us had fixed it by having him give me magic.

Even now, we played a careful balancing game so that I kept enough magic to keep my wolf present, but he got the magic he needed from me to perform his spells.

But what if that wasn’t the purpose of the drug at all? Cade’s hand had gone still on mine, and when I looked over, I could see the same thoughts reflected on his face.

“What?” Theo demanded.

I looked at Cade. “If I was bonded to you and you were still prince of House Bartlett, you would be owned by the house effectively, right? So what if…”

I struggled to put into words the horrible idea that I was coming to.

“The magic that made up your wolf would go to House Bartlett instead of me.” Cade nodded. He looked over my face. “It would drain your life. It would drain your wolf. And if I gave you more magic to tide you over…”

“Your magic would flow straight out of me and to House Bartlett.” I tried to think of a reason. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Leon believes in consorts—why would he do something that would kill them?”