جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 310

~ JESSE ~ Cazz glanced towards the door, shooting a dark look that way, then turned back to me. I frowned a question at him, but he was looking at Maya.“The power… is it unsafe for her to use?”“Not exactly,” Maya said grimly. “Clearly they’ve both survived whatever that was. But it does better explain why it came on so quickly for her, and grew so strong so fast. She needs training to control it. The hormones and her tiredness will make it more difficult to control even at the best of times. But with her lack of experience and the stress of… recent events,” she said the words with a twist of distaste on her lips, “I imagine it will be even more erratic. She needs help, Cazz. Training.”

 ~ CASIMIR ~ As Jesse slid slowly into sleep, her exhaustion and tension seeping out of her, I took a very few minutes to simply enjoy the knowledge that our love had been a success, that we had truly built something together. A family. God, what a thought—there was a soul already alive that was made of me and her. As I thought of how close I’d come to breaching that bond—and it occurred to me what the likely fate of our child would have been if I’d done that—I had to breathe through the panic and let myself sink into the sensation of her arms around me and her weight leaning against me. Her trust in sleeping with my wolf, in clinging to me as she rested… It was a balm, and one that made the bond glow. But that connection between us was still thin. Present. Not broken, thank God. But thin. And… da

~ CASIMIR ~I sat there, stewing in an entire life’s worth of political machinations, education, and hierarchical jousting.Even my father had always agreed that the culture came from the top. I’d prided myself when I removed him by immediately taking steps to lower the sense of threat and intimidation that wolves felt from the throne.But my perspective had been off.Being an improvement on my father hadn’t killed the root of the weed that plagued us. It had only driven it underground. And now we were finally seeing those green shoots and leaves, full of poison and malice.And I’d done nothing to stop that. If anything, I’d worked in the shadows more. My father had never hidden his compulsion

~ JESSE ~He licked his lips and his forehead pressed into lines. “Jesse,” he breathed. “God, I’m so sorry, but it wasn’t what you think—”God, I wanted to slap him!“What part of that wasn’t what I think, Cazz?!” I shoved the words at him through gritted teeth, dashing away the tears that wouldn’t leave me alone. “What part of that wasn’t a fucking knife to my heart?”“The part where I made her leave because even though I thought you were with Rake, I couldn’t stop loving you. And when I came…&rdquo

~ CASIMIR ~There was silence in the link for a moment. Then Rake’s voice came through just a little bit hushed, ‘Wow, okay. Thanks.’‘I mean it.’‘I can tell.’‘But?’  I asked with my teeth gritted.‘But…’ He hesitated for a minute, then sighed. ‘Do you still want me to be the challenger? Or is that just going to make this worse?’‘No. I… I need to hear what you