Page 33 of Exiled Heir

“Prince Bartlett,” a voice interrupted.

Jay jumped noticeably, and I wasn’t much better, jerking around to see whoever had snuck up on me. The last time I’d failed to hear someone approach, it was because I’d been so sick I was hallucinating. I’d been laid up with a bacterial chest infection that had me feverish and seeing ghosts. Declan had actually shown up himself with his personal doctor in tow because I’d put the wolf he’d told to take me to the hospital through a wall.

Leon stood in the doorway, flanked by two servants. Cade placed his fork on his plate with an audible click.

“Leon,” he greeted. “Join us for dinner.”

ChapterTwelve

Leon bowed his head. “I would be honored.”

He strode into the room, the servants behind him keeping up with quick steps. As they set out dinner, one of them murmured that she would go get another plate. I watched her leave. Had she looked at me a moment too long?

Leon stood next to my chair for a long moment, something pinched in his expression. Isaac glanced between him and me, and I quickly realized what the problem was. Isaac had taken the seat to Cade’s right, and it seemed like Leon was used to the seat on his left.

The seat I was now sitting in.

He pulled out the chair next to me, and I picked up my fork to dig in but realized everyone else was waiting. Carefully, I placed it back down.

Jay and I both tensed at running footsteps, but they slowed before they reached the door, and the servant walked through it, slightly uneven breathing the only sign that she had run all the way from the kitchen.

“Prince Bartlett, were you able to bond?” Leon looked between me and Cade. “Sonja and Petrona both saw that he arrived unbonded. They… informed the others.”

“Yes,” Cade said simply.

I suddenly felt three pairs of eyes focused on my neck, covered by the high collar of the shirt. I looked across the table at Jay. His collar was a simple strip of black leather. At my gaze, he raised a hand to it self-consciously.

“Yes? You have bonded?” Leon said.

“That’s what he said, isn’t it?” Isaac snapped. “What business is it for the council, anyway?”

“The council needs some reassurance that Cade has not allowed an unbonded werewolf to wander our grounds freely.” Leon’s lip pulled up for a half second, a hint of a sneer that was quickly covered. “Youknowwhy.”

He looked at Cade for the last, his tone sympathetic. But I saw the expression on Cade’s face. He was pale, his lips practically bloodless.

“Cade would never do anything that would endanger House Bartlett,” Isaac said. “Andyouwere the one whispering in his ear that he needed a consort.”

“I was advising. As is my duty as seneschal of House Bartlett.” This time, Leon’s lip did more than twitch. It twisted up. “Remind me, what is your position in the house, Isaac? You aren’t evenonthe council, so you’re a… what? Unemployed member of the house?”

Isaac bared his teeth, ready to snark back. I glanced between them, trying to make the math make sense. Cade had presented Isaac as his second, calling him his lieutenant. But was it an informal role? One that Cade had assigned him rather than an official one in the house structure?

“This is delicious,” Cade said. The sound of his chewing seemed loud in the silence that had fallen between Leon and Isaac’s sniping.

I looked down at the plate. The meat looked like some sort of poultry, the skin crispy and honey colored. There were vegetables and a small serving of mashed potatoes.

Cutting myself my own piece of the meat, I put it in my mouth. I didn’t recognize it. “What is this?”

“Duck,” Jay said quietly. “One of the chef’s specialties.”

Leon and Isaac were still glaring at each other, but when Jay pressed a hand to Isaac’s wrist, he began moving it mechanically to cut up his food.

“Well,” Leon said to me. “Now that you are bonded, will you take on the consort duties for Prince Bartlett?”

“Consort duties?” I nearly choked on my bite.

My mind flashed to the large four-poster bed in Cade’s room. I imagined myself on the sheets, spread open for him. Or maybe he preferred it the other way, his cool, blue eyes staring up at me from a tangle of sweaty sheets.

I swallowed, reaching for one of the glasses in front of me. I took a gulp of wine, the liquid dry and burning my throat as I drank too much, too fast. There was no way that Leon wasimplying—