Page 112 of Exiled Heir

ChapterThirty-Five

The leather felt heavier in my hands, as though it weighed a ton. I hesitated.

“Well?” Cade snapped. “Are you going back on our deal?”

“No. Of course not.” I remembered the wolves, Justin’s pleas for his pack, how young they all were. “You’ll save them, the wolves? You promise?”

“I said I would. Hurry. There’s lives at stake, after all.” The expression on Cade’s face was cold. Nothing about the man I had slowly teased out from under the ice existed in his stiff lips and snapping eyes. “You are willing to collar yourself for them. Complete strangers whose lives are in your hands.”

I stared at his face, my brows drawing together, something tight in my stomach at his tone. I hadn’t heard that level of harshness since the first time I met him, when he pressed his foot down on my face, filleting me open with his gaze. The chilliness ofThere’s no way out of this room. Do you understand?

“This is what you want, isn’t it?” I asked, shaking the leather. “This is what you wanted since we first met.”

Cade stared at me, nothing about his expression giving his emotions away. He no longer felt like a still winter lake. Now, I was wading into a forest stream flooded by debris and ice from melting winter frost.

“This is what I want?” He barked a harsh laugh. “Yes. You collaring yourself does make things easier.”

“Do younotwant this?” I asked slowly. My legs were freezing from the water, and if I stayed too long, it would chill the blood heading to my heart, and I would die.

“Put the collar on, save the enemy werewolves.”

“They aren’t enemy werewolves. They’re kids who wandered into the wrong place at the wrong—”

“Are you going back on our deal?” Cade’s voice thundered in the room, a cracked tree branch that swept me off my feet and took me under the water.

“No,” I said.

I lifted the leather collar to my throat.

“Shirt off,” Cade barked.

Lowering my hand, I tugged off my shirt. Cade came close, and I thought for a moment he was going to explain the frigid expression, why his mood had suddenly shifted and he was now a strange person I didn’t recognize.

He reached out and paused a second before his hand touched my throat. For a moment, I saw something else in his eyes. Then he wrapped his hand around my neck.

“Basil, come here,” he said.

For a half second, Basil tightened around my throat, and then the snake flowed over Cade’s wrist, disappearing under his shirt. Cade released me instantly, turning around, stepping away.

Slowly, I brought the collar back to my throat, wrapping it around my neck, sliding the tongue into the buckle, and pulling it snug. I swallowed, feeling it press against my throat.

Even with Declan, I had always acknowledged that he was my boss, my employer. At one time, I thought we might be friends, but I hadneverever let myself be owned by him.

Cade glanced over his shoulder, his eyes skimming the leather. “Get cleaned up. I’ll be back later.”

He walked to the door, but when he put his hand on the knob, I couldn’t help myself. “Wait for me. You shouldn’t go anywhere without me. Your house is under attack—”

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned from all of the attacks, it’s that I can take care of myself.” He looked at me without any expression on his face. “I can’t sleep here tonight, anyway. Not with this many people in the house.”

With that, he opened the door, leaving me alone in the room. Despite the warm temperature, goose bumps rose along my chest, and I shivered.

One thing was clear: I did need a shower. The hunt in the forest had left me hot and uncomfortable, sweat dried to my skin.

My heart tugged, tightening. I needed to go after Cade. Someone was trying to kill him, probably someone in this house, and it was my job to keep him safe.

But I couldn’t step back into that freezing river again, not until I understood what was going on.

I headed to the shower but hesitated just inside. My hand rose to the leather collar.