Chapter seven

CHAPTER SEVEN

HAZEL'S POV

He slammed the front door so hard the windows rattled. A minute later I heard him shift on the lawn. It was the wet crack of bone and a long, furious howl that set every dog in Weston barking. Then he was gone into the trees.

I cleaned the kitchen. I wrapped my wrist in gauze. Then I went upstairs and locked the nightstand drawer with the little key from my jewelry dish.

He would never love me, and he would never let me go. I was the one stain on his perfect life, and he'd never risk letting the Council see a second.

I didn't cry. I just felt tired all the way down to my bones.

Julian didn't come home for two days.

Jenna let things slip when she texted. Sienna's ankle was broken, not twisted, and she was milking it. Julian had skipped the pack's monthly run so she wouldn't be alone.

Jenna knew because her older brother, Jonah, was one of Julian's lieutenants. I'd only learned that six months after I started at the bakery. She never talked about her pack.

On the second night, my phone rang while I was walking in the garden. It was Caleb Price.

"Luna, you need to get to Nightfall. Now." His voice was low and fast. "Julian's going after Jenna."

I didn't stop to change. I grabbed my keys and drove.

The private room at Nightfall was wrecked when I pushed the door open. A chair lay in pieces against the wall, and there were long claw gouges in the leather couch.

Jenna stood in the middle of it all. Her white blouse was soaked red with wine, and it was still dripping from her hair. There was a hand mark on her cheek, five fingers, and it was already fading the way wolf bruises do. It must have been very hard to have shown up at all.

I went straight to her and started wiping her face with my sleeve.

"Hazel, go home." She tried to push me toward the door. "This isn't about you."

"I'm not leaving," I signed.

Julian sat in the center of the couch with no expression at all. The wolves around him were all looking at the floor. The air in the room felt heavy, as if a storm were about to break. Even I could feel it. It was his Alpha pressure, and he was pushing it out on purpose.

Sienna sat beside him with her leg in a cast. Her lip was split and there were fresh scratches down her neck.

I didn't know what had happened, but I could guess. Jenna had found out what Julian was doing to her family and gone after Sienna, and Sienna had gone crying to Julian.

I went to her and bowed my head. "I'm sorry," I signed. "I'm apologizing for my friend."

Sienna rolled her eyes. "Don't flap at me."

"Don't you dare bow to her," Jenna snarled. Her eyes flashed green. "I swear to the Moon, Lowe, if you..."

"If I what?" Sienna smiled. "Three of your pack's trade routes closed in two days. Your hunting grounds east of the river have been seized for review. And your grandfather's lying in the infirmary with his heart failing." She tilted her head. "Do you really want to find out what's next?"

I went cold.

I turned Jenna to face me. "What is she talking about? What happened to your grandfather?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Tell me."

She pressed her lips together and looked away.

So I turned to Julian.

He'd leaned back into the shadow of the lamp when I walked in, and I couldn't read his face. I didn't understand any of it. Two days ago he'd been furious that I offered to step aside. Now he was tearing apart the one pack that had been kind to me.

I knelt on the carpet in front of him.

"Please," I signed slowly. "Whatever happened, let the Hales go. Old Hale swore to your grandfather at my bedside. He's part of the Accord. If Sienna wants an apology, I'll give it. I'll do anything you ask."

"Julian," Caleb said carefully. "The Hales are Accord. If the Council hears that you've..."

Julian turned his head, and the pressure in the room doubled. Caleb went white and shut his mouth.

I reached out and took Julian's sleeve. "Please."

Jenna grabbed my arm and hauled at it. "Get up, Hazel! Don't beg him for me. If he wants to gut my pack for his girlfriend, let him try. Neither of them deserves you on your knees."

I didn't get up. I looked up at Julian with my eyes full, and I didn't care anymore who saw.

He looked back at me for a long time. Something moved behind the gold in his eyes.

Sienna spoke before he could.

"Fine. The Hales can have their routes back." She gestured at the table, which was crowded with bottles. "If she drinks all of that."

There were at least twenty of them. There was bourbon and wine, and in the middle stood two tall black bottles of Nightfall's house spirit, the stuff they cut with a little wolfsbane so it could still get a wolf drunk.

"Are you out of your mind?" Jenna shouted. "That would kill a human!"

Sienna only looked at Julian.

Julian said nothing. He didn't say yes, and he didn't say no.

That was his answer.

I let go of his sleeve and stood up.

"All right," I signed to Sienna. "Keep your word."

I reached for the nearest black bottle.

Jenna snatched it out of my hand so hard it shattered on the floor, and the room filled with the smell of wolfsbane. Every wolf in it flinched back from the fumes.

"You can't!" Her voice cracked right down the middle. "Have you forgotten what the healer said? You lost the pup three days ago, Hazel! You can't drink a drop!"

Across the room, Julian went completely still.