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A dric knew , even as he fought admitting it. He’d have taken a blade to the heart rather than believe Luc would betray him like this.

But the wolf fada knew the location of Adric’s den, even if the look-away spell prevented him from finding the entrance. If Luc had been outside when Rosana emerged…

Adric was moving before he realized it. He dropped from the tree, shifting in mid-air to land directly in front of Luc.

The wolf fada was much larger than an ordinary lupine. His head reached Adric’s chest, and his canines were a good two inches long. But Adric was the dominant and they both knew it.

He grabbed Luc by the scruff of the neck, shook him. “What the fuck have you done?”

Orange tinged with gold glittered over the wolf’s coat, and then Luc stood before Adric. He was thinner, all bone and sinew, his eyes burning holes in his craggy face.

His chin jutted out. “I gave that do Rio female to Blaer.”

“Rosana?” Adric gaped at him. Even in the face of the evidence, he’d hoped it wasn’t true. That Luc would have an explanation.

A black fury filled his head. His heart exploded into frenzied beats.

The cat clawed to be free. Stole the mate.

Blood.

Kill.

Adric’s hands shot out, wrapped around Luc’s throat. “You thrice-damned bastard.”

Luc stared back proudly, not even trying to fight. “Did it…for you,” he gasped out. “Lady B…ordered me to…capture you. When I saw Rosana…took her instead.”

“For me?” Blood pounded in Adric’s temples. He gave Luc a hard shake. “You traded an innocent female for me . What kind of a goddamned excuse for a man are you?”

Luc’s eyes flared. “A man…under a geas .”

He didn’t add that he’d accepted the geas to save Marjani. He didn’t have to.

Adric forced his fingers to unpeel from Luc’s neck. Killing the other man might satisfy his blood lust, but it wouldn’t help Rosana, and the wolf had intel that he needed. With a frustrated growl, he shoved Luc away from him.

The wolf stumbled back a few feet before catching himself. He brought a hand to his throat and eyed Adric, breath sawing in and out.

“Where is she?” Adric rapped out.

“Inside.” Luc jerked his head in the direction of New Moon. “Lady B took her to the prince. An offering. She’s trying to buy her way into the court.”

Adric’s lip curled. “I don’t fucking believe it. You gave Rosana to that fae bitch after what she did to Jani. To you .”

Blaer had caged not only Marjani, but Luc. And then she’d enslaved him.

“I did it for the clan, too,” the wolf retorted. “If the fae get hold of you, the clan would never recover. We—they need you.”

Adric’s fingers flexed. Gods, he wanted to wrap them around Luc’s throat again.

“Fuck what the clan needs. There are some lines you don’t cross. Ever.”

Luc’s gaze slid from his, but he didn’t apologize. He clearly believed he’d done the right thing.

Adric shook his head in disgust. He’d known Luc since they were both cubs, but now he wondered if he’d ever truly known the other man at all.

Inside, his cat crouched, a concentrated ball of rage. Aching to sink its teeth into Luc’s throat, to drench the earth with his blood.

Easy. We need to find out what he knows.

“Why?” he ground out. “Why would the prince want Rosana?”

“He’s a fae.” The wolf shrugged a shoulder. “Since when do they need a reason to be S.O.B.s?”

It wasn’t a lie, but Adric recognized evasion when he heard it. He scraped a hand over his spiky hair. Luc wasn’t telling him everything, but maybe he couldn’t.

“You say Lady B wants to join the New Moon court?”

A shrug. “She can’t return to Iceland—the ice fae king banished her from his court for a fae year-and-a-day.”

Adric nodded. “Jani told me.”

“The night fae are her mother’s people, but they don’t want her, either. They pawned her off on the ice fae when she was still a kid.”

“Figures.” Adric snorted. The night fae would devour their own young if they didn’t need them to pass on their precious bloodlines. “But that doesn’t explain why the prince would want Rosana. Me, I can understand. Take me, and Jani will come running.”

Their eyes met. They both knew the prince would do just about anything to get his hands on Marjani.

“But Rosana?” Adric shook his head. “He must know it will bring Rock Run down on him. They’re a powerful clan, and everyone knows the sun fae queen has a soft spot for Rosana.”

Luc gave a noncommittal grunt. He seemed distracted. A drop of sweat trickled down his face. At his sides, his fingers twitched.

Suddenly, he lunged. Adric flung himself to the side, but Luc’s fingers closed on his quartz.

Adric jerked. It was like Luc had plunged his hand into his chest and wrapped his fingers around his beating heart. He couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, his whole being consumed with a deep, visceral agony.

He shoved at Luc, but the other man held on grimly.

“Sorry.” His old friend’s face was a stony mask. “She gave me a direct order. I can’t disobey.” He gave the quartz a hard squeeze.

Adric bit down on a scream as more pain jolted through him. His eyes locked on Luc’s own quartz, just inches from his face.

He scrabbled for it, missed. Tried again.

Claws slid out on Luc’s free hand. He slashed at Adric’s forearm, ripping him to the bone, but Adric was in too much pain to register it.

There.

His fingers closed on Luc’s quartz. He glared into the wolf’s eyes, using all the dominance at his command. Praying it would be enough to overcome the geas , at least temporarily.

“Release my quartz. Now .”

Luc shuddered. Sweat poured down his face. But he gripped the pendant even tighter.

Pain lashed at Adric like a fiery whip. Scorching through his veins in an unending shriek of agony.

His body jerked, but he kept up the pressure. “Let. It. Go.”

Luc’s gaze slid sideways—and then he released the pendant and stumbled back.

The absence of pain was stunning. Adric sucked in a breath. Another breath, and then he realized he’d let go of Luc’s quartz.

Fortunately, the other man was in no shape to fight. He bent forward, hands on his thighs, chest heaving.

Adric didn’t wait for him to recover. Jerking his dagger from its sheath, he slammed Luc to the forest floor. Straddling his abdomen, he touched the sharp iron edge to the soft place beneath the jaw where Luc’s right carotid pulsed.

“Don’t move. Don’t even breathe . Understand?”

Luc hissed as the poisonous metal seared his skin. He stilled, resignation sketched on his face.

“Speak.” Adric pressed the sharp edge a little deeper. “Tell me you understand. You won’t move until I say so.”

“Yes.” Luc swallowed. “My lord.”

Adric sheathed the dagger and dragged off his quartz, dangling it from his fingers. Blood ran down his arm. He ignored it to swing the stone back and forth on its leather cord. Deep within, a fiery bronze mixed with blue flared to life.

“Look at my quartz.”

“No.” Luc squeezed his eyes shut.

Adric growled. “Look at it, you son of a bitch. Now .”

Luc shook his head, but Adric was still his alpha, even if he was technically no longer a member of the clan. His wolf wouldn’t let him fight too hard, especially now, when Adric’s command didn’t interfere with Blaer’s geas .

He opened his eyes. They were dull gold. Flat, hopeless.

Adric gave a hard swallow. For a few desolate seconds, he was back in the abandoned den where his uncle had imprisoned Luc for twelve long months.

By then, Adric and Marjani were on the run from their uncle. Leron Savonett had tortured and starved Luc for months, but he’d never given up their hidey-holes. Adric knew he’d have died rather than betray them.

When Adric and Marjani had finally tracked Luc down, they found him manacled to the wall with an iron cuff around one wrist. The constant exposure to iron had weakened him, making it impossible for him to heal.

He lay curled up on the stone floor, his body a rack of bones on which to hang his skin.

Open sores on his manacled wrist. His back bloody from a recent beating.

The eyes Luc had lifted to Adric and Marjani had held that same bleak hopelessness. Even as a teenager, the wolf fada had rarely smiled.

But at the sight of them, a corner of his mouth had lifted. “About time you showed up.”

“Don’t do this,” Luc rasped now. “Just kill me.”

Adric’s throat worked. “I can’t,” he whispered.

Back and forth.

Luc might hate Adric for hypnotizing him, but at least he’d be alive.

“Damn you to Hades.” The wolf’s gaze locked on the quartz swaying, pendulum-like, above his nose.

Adric pumped energy into the crystals. Inside, the flames flared brighter until they were reflected in Luc’s pupils, eerie blue flames in the glistening black circles.

“You’ll take me to Lady B.”

“Yes,” Luc said in a flat voice.

“Can you get me through New Moon’s wards?” He’d planned to use his Gift of hypnotism to trick a guard into sneaking him inside, but entering with Luc was even better. The wards would open for Luc, and Adric could slip inside with him.

“Yes.”

“I want your promise on your honor as a wolf.”

“Yes. On my honor as a wolf, I will get you through the wards.”

Gotcha. Adric’s mouth curved in a feral smile. “Where are your clothes?”

“There.” Luc’s arm swung up, pointed into the trees.

“Take me to them.”

Luc immediately started to his feet. Adric had to scramble out of his way.

The wolf fada walked in the direction he’d pointed, halting in front of an oak tree, where his clothes were bundled into a leather jacket and wedged into a crook of the tree. He stood at attention, awaiting instructions.

Adric was surprised at how easy Luc was to control; it was as if he’d surrendered completely to Adric’s will. But then, he was Luc’s alpha, whether or not he’d been expelled from the clan. When a man like Luc gave you his loyalty, he’d walk through hell or high water for you.

“Give me the clothes,” he told Luc, “and then shift to your wolf.”