212 The Price of Silence
Lucian
Darian and I rushed home right after the meeting. The air between us was tight with unspoken thoughts, the weight of what we had to do hanging like a storm cloud.
I didn’t know how I was going to break the news to Mara. But I had to.
Whether she liked it or not, Mistwood was no longer a place we could avoid. Chase Nighthorn was baiting us, leaving breadcrumb trails that all led to that one place. He wanted us there.
Needed us there. And that alone made it more dangerous than we were ready for.
But if I was going to protect this pack, protect her, then I needed to know what Chase was doing in Mistwood… and why
he had such easy access.
Our military strength was fractured. Trust was eroding. We couldn’t afford to sit back and hope it resolved itself. We had to go straight into the lion’s den.
I just hoped Mara would understand, and not try to stop me.
When we entered the mansion, we took the left wing. I reached out to Mara through the link, but got no reply. I could sens
e her, but there was no response.
That was strange.
“Tiffany and Emma are in your room,” Darian said.
“Is Mara there too?” I asked, just to be sure.
He nodded. “Yeah. She’s with them.”
“Take Tiffany to your room,” I told him. “I need to talk to Mara alone, about the trip.”
Darian snorted. “Good luck with that. With everything going on? Mara’s not going to let you walk off into whatever trap
Chase is setting. You know that.”
He wasn’t wrong.
But that didn’t change what had to be done.
The signs were all there, fractured alliances, stolen resources, Chase pulling strings we couldn’t even see yet. If the packs
in Mistwood turned against us, if they allied with him, we could be facing something far worse than theft.
We could be staring down the start of a war.
And if it came to that, love couldn’t stop me from doing my duty.
I just had to make Mara see that.
I stepped into the room and found Tiffany cradling Emma, the soft glow of the television painting their silhouettes in
warm light. She looked up, and before I could speak, Darian appeared behind her.
“I’ll take her,” he said, gently motioning Tiffany out. As they passed, he smirked and muttered, “Good luck.”
I didn’t respond. I didn’t have time to.
I moved past the sitting area into the bedroom, and stopped cold.
Mara was lying on the bed. Her back was turned, but I saw the bloodstains on the pillow.
< 212 The Price of Silence
Panic gripped my chest. “Mara,”
She sat up slowly, raising a shaky hand. “Stop,” she whispered.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice tight. She looked pale, drained. Off.
“I’m okay,” she said, barely. “Just… don’t link me. Please.”
18 Ponte)
I frowned, concern crawling deeper under my skin. Still, I said nothing. Just quietly pulled off my shirt and climbed into bed beside her. I sat up so she could rest her head in my lap.
My fingers moved through her hair gently, trying to comfort her while I wrestled the fear building in my chest.
“What happened, Mara?” I asked again, softly this time.
She looked up at me, shame flickering behind her tired eyes. I could already tell I wasn’t going to like what she said.
“I promise I won’t react,” I added, trying to ease her fear.
She took a breath. “When I got to the building, the staff were being manhandled by the soldiers. They looked terrified.
Confused. I needed a way to calm them down… to tell them what was going on.”
Her voice cracked slightly. “So I did something stupid, I linked all of them. At once.”
I froze.
“What the f**k, Mara?” I snapped, the words out before I could stop them. “Do you want to kill yourself? Why would you,
why would you even think,”
She winced, eyes closing as if my voice was another blade in her already frayed nerves.
I bit back the rest. No. She was already suffering. Yelling wouldn’t fix anything.
She whispered, “My father said I just need twenty-four hours without linking and I’ll be okay.”
I sat there, my hand still brushing her hair, my jaw clenched so tight it hurt. I wanted to scream. Shake her. Hold her
tighter. Do something.
Instead, I breathed through it.
She’d made a call. A dangerous one. But she’d done it for the pack, for the people. And she was paying for it now.
I leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“Next time,” I said quietly, “you don’t go in alone. Not like that.”
She didn’t answer. She didn’t need to. Her hand reached for mine and held on, silent but steady.
Evening had settled in, casting long shadows across the room. I decided to take a shower and try to rest. Talking about Mistwood could wait, Mara wasn’t in the condition for it. Not tonight.
But as I stepped under the warm stream of water, she surprised me.
She joined me.
I expected her to be in bed, nursing her headache, but instead, she slid in behind me, her arms circling my waist, her cheek pressing softly against my back.
“I can still function, Lucian,” she said with a teasing lilt, her voice low and tired but laced with that familiar fire.
It was her way of saying sorry.
She turned me around and rested her head on my chest. I held her, letting the water roll over us, the silence filling in what words couldn’t. My arms tightened around her, needing the closeness more than I realized.
212 The Price of Silence
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
I exhaled slowly and stroked her back, relieved she’d said it.
Pouth
“Just don’t take risks like that again,” I murmured. “If something happens to you… those people won’t carry the pain. I will.
Me and our baby.”
She looked up at me then, eyes shining, vulnerable in a way few ever saw her.
I held her gaze. “It’s okay to be selfish sometimes, Mara. No one’s going to protect you better than me. But you’ve got to protect yourself too.”
I kissed her forehead gently.
We stayed like that for a while, the water washing over us like it could rinse away the weight of the day. When we finally dried off and got into bed, I resisted the part of me that wanted more. I didn’t know how much her body could handle right
now, and I wouldn’t risk it. Not tonight.
But when she turned to face me, something flickered in her expression, restlessness, need, maybe even fear.
Then she kissed me, hard.
I felt it immediately. Her urgency. Her silence. Her desire to drown out the chaos with something real. Something only we
could give each other.
I kissed her back, and when she tugged at my shorts, I let her take control. No questions. No resistance.
After a day like today, love wasn’t a luxury.
It was medicine.
She slipped off her robe and climbed onto me, guiding me inside her with a soft gasp. Her body moved with quiet purpose, her skin warm against mine. The sight of her above me, her breath catching, her chest rising, beautiful and fierce, took everything else out of focus.
I sat up to meet her, wrapping my arms around her back, my mouth finding her breasts. She moaned softly, her fingers threading through my hair as I tasted her, worshipped her.
She rode me slowly at first, hips rolling in a rhythm that pulled both of us away from everything else, Chase, Mistwood, the
blood, the fear. All of it dissolved in the heat between us. I held her close, grounding myself in the feel of her, the sound of
her voice, the shiver of her body.
Her pace quickened, her moans rising with every movement, and I knew she was close. I held on, letting her take what she needed, waiting until her body trembled and collapsed into mine with a soft cry of release.
Then I moved, flipping us over, driving into her to carry her over again, to fall with her. The pleasure hit like a wave, stealing
my breath and my thoughts. I buried myself in her and let go, groaning as everything inside me surrendered.
I collapsed against her, heart racing, body trembling. She held me, her hands moving gently along my back, steady and
soothing.
Still inside her, I drifted into sleep, safe, spent, and at peace for the first time since the horrible nightmare started.
1
