Page 15 of Contested Crown

Cade gasped again, making a frustrated sound before pushing me away. He turned, wiping at his eyes.

“I’m pathetic. Just some idiot boy foolish enough to not see the trap he was in.”

“You’re not an idiot. You trusted someone, someone who repeatedly told you they had your best interests in mind. That makes you human.” I approached Cade from behind. His shoulders were tense, and he brought his hands up, wrapping his arms around his stomach.

“No,” he said harshly. “I’m a prince of House Bartlett. I’m not human. I have to be better. If I was a true prince, I would have seen Leon for what he was.”

I exhaled, my breath ruffling Cade’s hair. “My sister killed the rest of my family.”

Turning, Cade gaped at me, his eyes wide, and then his brows pulled together. “What?”

It was my turn to look away. I stepped back, glancing at the car. The paint was in good shape. Rick would have had it redone, one of the easiest ways to turn a stolen car into a new one.

“I told you that my family was killed by a rival pack. But Miri—my older sister, Miriam—she let them in. I was upstairs because I was feeling sick. But my siblings were all downstairs.” I could still see it when I closed my eyes. Everything about the scene was crystal clear. “Someone pounded on the door, and then I heard some screams. I got to the top of the stairs, and I saw it. The rival pack was in the living room. And they’d killed everyone. All my brothers and sisters. Except for Miriam. She was still standing at the door, her hand on it. She’d let them in. And they didn’t kill her.”

I still remembered that, the way her dark eyes had gone to me, and I’d realized that I was next.

Cade touched my shoulder, and I jumped, snapping back to reality. His blue eyes were focused on me, arctic rivers that I wanted to dip myself in so I didn’t have to feel the raw pain I still felt eleven years later.

Staring at his eyes, I finished the story. “I was upstairs, so I ran back into my bedroom and jumped out the window. They followed me up the stairs, but I was small and fast. I broke something in my leg when I landed, but I didn’t care. I just kept running.”

The rest of the story was messy: hiding from the wolves, making my way to Los Santos, finding Declan. Cade’s eyes were something I could focus on, the blue so bright and clear that it helped me find that place of quiet in myself where I had been living ever since I saw my siblings murdered in front of me.

“What about your parents?” Cade asked. “What happened to them?”

“They…” I swallowed, my heart racing. Mentally, I swore. This was too close, too much information. All he had to do was put together the pieces, and he’d know who my parents were, who they were tohim. “They were at a meeting with some other alphas. They were killed there.

“My point is”—I cleared my throat—“you survive. That’s what you do. You get up, you survive. Even if you think you can’t manage it. You get up. You do the next thing.”

Slowly, Cade moved his hand up my shoulder until it rested right at my neck, his thumb rubbing circles near my clavicle. He swallowed, and there was still something heavy in his throat when he said, “So we both know what it’s like when family betrays you.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, we do.”

In the overhead light, Cade’s eyes were luminous—it was like he was seeing straight into me. I wanted to drown myself in them, let him consume me, let him know every part of me.

As he leaned forward, I saw what was going to happen: Cade was going to kiss me. I wanted to let him. I wanted to lose myself in him. I pulled back.

“Let’s go get some food.”

Cade’s whole body froze, his expression shutting down. “What? I thought the entire point of this place was that we would be eating from the hoarder’s amount of canned goods you have available.”

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. I couldn’t be alone with him right now, not with everything so raw. That had been too close. I almost told him who my family was. We both needed fresh air.

Turning away, I went to the safe next to the couch and opened it, taking out a few hundred dollars. “Let’s get lunch.”

ChapterSix

“Idon’t understand you,” Cade grumbled. “You say, ‘Cade, don’t leave the hotel room.’ ‘Cade, I know what I’m doing. I know how to make sure no one is following me.’ We even got rid of a perfectly good car! And now you want to go out for lunch?”

I was beginning to regret the decision myself, but I didn’t want to explain why to Cade. I only knew that I couldn’t leave him alone in the safe house, not when I still had a niggling fear that something was wrong. But at the same time, I couldn’t be alone with him right now, not with the echo of his kiss on my lips, not with the absolute certainty that if I was alone with him, I was going to say it. I was going to tell him…

“And then you don’t even want to go for real food!” Cade said, throwing me an exasperated glare.

“McDonald’s is real food,” I said.

“Cardboard and fabricated vegetables,” Cade snapped. “Their chicken isn’t even made from chicken.”

“Does His Highness have a preferred drive-through?” I asked. “Because your options are anywhere that doesn’t involve us getting out of the car.”