20~ A DEAL

SAGE

I wake in the middle of the night with a dry, hollow ache in my throat. The whole mansion is quiet, the kind of quiet that settles into the bones, so I pad down the hall barefoot to the kitchen, thinking only of cold water and the small relief it will bring.

At the doorway to the living room, two voices stop me. One is low and taut with anger. The other is Brian, always the one who fills empty rooms with careless jokes.

“I am frustrated, Brian,” Knight says. “Another rogue attack. It is getting worse and nothing we do seems to work.”

I remember the last time he spoke like that, insisting the bodies were the rogues’ doing and not his. His words pull me toward the doorway and I freeze there, unseen.

“I so badly want to kill those inside, my insider and the allies working with them,” he continues. “But I am worried about Sage.”

At the mention of my name, it made stunned.

“She might see me again at that moment. She will hate me,” he says.

But the next minute Brian laughs too loudly. “Wow,” he says. Half disbelief, half mockery.

There is a stupid, familiar sting in my chest when they speak my name. Knight sighs. “You must care about her, then. You have not even called a girl to your room lately.” Brian said again.

My eyes widened hearing that. At that moment I leaned by accident against the stair rail and the wood groaned.

Knight turns so fast I think he will leap. I drop the small noise into the silence and hold my breath, waiting for teeth or claws.

For a moment his face is all blur and threat, and then his eyes find me and something like relief passes over him. He looks less like a predator and more like a man caught naked in the dark.

“When did you get here?” he asks.

“Just now,” I answered, a bit embarrassed that I had been caught. My voice is small and I do not know why I am walking toward them instead of retreating up the stairs. Perhaps curiosity. Perhaps a foolish hope that whatever he is planning is not about me.

“You heard our conversation?” he asks, I snickered at this, it's a sound that surprises me.

“Yes. About the bad border,” I say, and the two of them exchange an uneasy look.

Brian whistles an easy note that should mean nothing and asks, “Where are you going now?”

“The kitchen,” I answered as I tried to sound indifferent. My throat aches with thirst and I hate how exposed I feel standing there in the doorway while they study me like a puzzle.

“You want to cook?” Knight asks with genuine confusion and for a second Knight looks almost human, amused by the idea of midnight cooking.

“Who cooks past midnight? I am thirsty,” I say.

”Really… then..” his words were left hanging as he moved to the refrigerator and retrieved a bottle of water. He hands it to me with surprising tenderness.

“I am sorry I have not gone to sleep,” he says. “I didn't mean to come closer." He tried explaining himself.

I nod and take the water, appreciating it as it cools my tongue. He watches me drink, then smiles in a way that is not entirely kind or cruel. I start up the stairs but stop, compelled to look back to see he was still staring at me.

I wanted to ask why he wasn't looking away but then I glanced back for another reason.

“You need a company that will supply you with good border equipment, right?” I ask, before I could control my tongue.

Well, I have lived with packs and favors and bargaining. It is easier to talk about trade than to talk about the other things between us.

“Knight?” I called out seeing how he just stood speechless staring at me.

“Yeah,” he replies, still having that blank look.

“I can introduce you to one.” I let out and Brina jumped from the sofa in surprise. Knight looks curious, the way a wolf studies a new scent.

“I helped my former pack get the equipment they use now,” I explained.

“They are not a popular company, but their tech is good. They just need recognition.”

Knight and Brian exchange a look that smells like opportunity. “Then can you introduce them to me?” Knight asks.

My hands fold in front of me and the certainty of it steadies me. “Yes. I would be thrilled,” I say, though a small, cold fear threads through me.

“But I am terrified they will be killed if they cross the wrong people.”

Knight steps forward with an earnestness that makes my skin prickle. “I promise I will control my beast, so no one will get hurt.”

I tilt my head and smile, half skeptical. “I will need to draft a contract,” I say. “And you will do something for me in return.”

He blinks. “What do you want?”

“Help them become rich,” I tell him quietly. “Make them successful enough that they will stop selling to the Moon Stone Pack.”

He stares at me as if he has seen the future and it is a bargain he can accept.

“And if I accept…?” he asked

“Then I will reach out to them as soon as possible.”