Chapter 3: Wanted, For Once

"Stop."

Neither of them looked at me. I stepped between them anyway, one hand flat against Ronan's chest, the other against Asher's, terrified I was about to get flattened by two Alphas who'd forgotten I existed.

"Move, Briar," Ronan said.

"No."

"This isn't your fight to stop," Asher said, eyes still locked on Ronan.

"It's happening in my room, so it's absolutely my fight to stop. Both of you, stand down. Now."

"He put his hands on you."

"And I already handled that. I don't need you to handle it again by putting him through a wall."

"I could put him through a wall without breaking a sweat."

"I don't doubt it. I'm asking you not to."

"Give me one good reason."

"Because if you two destroy this house fighting over me, I'm the one who has nowhere to sleep tonight. Is that good enough for you?"

Nothing happened for a second. Then, slowly, both of them eased back half a step, as my voice had cut through whatever haze they'd worked themselves into. I watched it register on both their faces at the same time, mild disbelief that either of them had actually listened to me.

"You don't get to order an Alpha around," Ronan said, but the anger in it had gone thin.

"I just did."

"Since when?"

"Since about ten minutes ago, when I found out I can throw a grown man into a wall. Try me."

"You wouldn't."

"I really would, and you both just watched proof of it crack a wall in half."

Footsteps pounded up the stairs. A broad-shouldered man appeared behind Ronan, wearing the Beta insignia I recognized from meetings I'd sat through as furniture.

"My Prince," he said. "The council is asking for you. Now."

"I'm not finished here."

"You are," the Beta said, quieter this time, an unmistakable warning buried in his tone.

"Tell them I'll be there shortly."

"They said now, and they mentioned your mother by name."

Ronan's jaw worked. He looked at me one more time, something unreadable behind the gold still bleeding out of his eyes, and then he turned and left without another word. No explanation. No apology. Just gone, the way he'd been gone from every version of tonight that could have gone differently.

"You alright?" Asher asked, once the footsteps faded.

"I don't know what I am right now."

"Pack your last bag. We're leaving tonight."

"I'm already packed."

"Then we're leaving in five minutes."

We were on the road before the moon cleared the tree line, knees pulled to my chest, wrist throbbing, that cracked plaster still burned into the back of my eyes.

"You didn't have to step between us," Asher said, eyes on the road.

"Someone had to. You two were about to level a building."

"I wasn't going to lose."

"That's not the point."

"Then what is the point?"

"The point is that neither of you gets to decide what happens to me by breaking things around me. I've spent my whole life being talked about like I'm not in the room. I'm done with it."

He glanced over, something like respect settling into his expression. "Fair."

"Was that so hard?"

"You're not what I expected tonight, Briar."

"What did you expect?"

"Someone who needed rescuing."

"And what do you think now?"

"That you rescued yourself, and I just gave you a ride afterward."

I laughed before I could stop myself, a short surprised sound that didn't feel like it belonged in the same night as that courtyard. "That's the first thing anyone's said to me tonight that didn't feel like an insult wrapped in politeness."

"I don't do it politely. I am useful. You're useful. You held your ground against two Alphas without raising your voice past a normal conversation."

"I was terrified."

"Didn't look like it."

"Good. I've had a lot of practice not looking like things."

"You won't need that practice at Kade pack."

"Careful. That's the second nice thing you've said tonight. I might start expecting a third."

"Don't get used to it. I ration them."

"So what happens tomorrow? You said the pack would make its case. What does that actually look like?"

"You'll meet my Beta. He'll probably challenge you, because he challenges everyone new, and he'll expect to win in under a minute."

"And if he doesn't win in under a minute?"

"Then you've earned a rank higher than most wolves get in their first year."

"You're very confident about a fight that hasn't happened yet."

"I watched you throw a Prince into a wall two hours ago. I'm allowed a little confidence."

"That was an accident."

"Doesn't matter. Bodies don't lie about what they're capable of, even when the mind hasn't caught up yet."

"You talk like you've seen this before."

"I've seen wolves discover things about themselves under pressure. Never quite like that, but the pattern holds. Whatever you're capable of, tonight just cracked the door open on it."

"That's a strange way to describe getting rejected in front of three hundred people."

"I didn't say it was a good night. I said something good came out of it anyway."

That got a real smile out of me, the first one all night that didn't feel forced. We drove the rest of the way with the radio low, and for the first time since the ceremony, nobody needed anything from me except my company.

"Can I ask you something," I said, somewhere past the halfway mark.

"Go ahead."

"Why does it matter this much to you? An Ironback showing up is rejected. You didn't have to come find me."

"Because the Kade pack was built on wolves nobody else wanted, and every single one of them turned out to be stronger for it. I have a habit of noticing when a good wolf gets thrown away by a pack too proud to see what they're losing."

"That's either the kindest thing anyone's said to me, or the smartest business pitch I've ever heard."

"Why not both."

"Do you do this often? Pick up rejected mates from other territories?"

"First time, actually. Usually I hear about a good wolf secondhand, months too late. Tonight I happened to be close enough to watch it happen live."

"Lucky me."

"Lucky both of us, if tomorrow goes the way I think it will."

"You keep saying tomorrow like it's already decided."

"I've met enough wolves to know how tonight usually goes for someone like you. You're the exception, not the rule. I noticed that the second you didn't run when Ronan grabbed your wrist."

"I didn't have anywhere left to run to."

"That's not why you stood your ground, and we both know it."

"Then why do you think I did it?"

"Because you were done letting people decide things about you without your permission. I saw it happen in real time."

Kade territory came into view an hour later, smaller than Ashguard, plainer, warmer, lit up like people actually lived there. Asher walked me to a guest room himself, showed me where the kitchen was, told me nobody would knock before morning unless the building were on fire.

"Thank you," I said, standing in the doorway. "For tonight."

"Don't thank me yet. Wait until you've met my Beta. He hits harder than he talks."

"I look forward to it."

"You did well tonight. Better than well."

"I threw a Prince into a wall and got into a stranger's car. I'm not sure which word I'd use for well."

"It's the word I'd use."

"You barely know me."

"I know enough."

"Sleep, Briar. Tomorrow's going to test you."

"Isn't tonight testing me enough?"

"Tonight was just a warm-up."

He left. I closed the door on the first quiet I'd had in twelve hours and sat on the bed, still in the dress Wren picked out, shoulders finally dropping.

For a moment it was almost peaceful. My wrist still ached where Ronan's grip had bruised it, but underneath that, something in my chest finally loosened, a breath I hadn't noticed holding all night.

Then a sharp, sudden pain flared right where the mark sat, so intense I gasped out loud and pressed my palm against my own skin.

It wasn't a bruise. This was something else entirely, sharp and foreign, radiating from inside the mark itself, like it belonged to someone else's body and had simply chosen mine to pass through.