Forbidden Mate

Chapter 26

Cordelia ran to Leah’s room with tears on her face. Her hands shook so badly she missed the latch twice. Leah opened the door first and pulled her in.

“Slow,” Leah said, arms tight around her. “Breathe first. Then talk.”

Leah held her and counted breaths in a steady rhythm. “In,” she murmured. “Out. Good. Again.” When Cordelia could speak, Leah heard the story out: the hall, Daniel bleeding, Dante’s face, the fight between them, how Cordelia tried to break them up, but Dante read the wrong implication into it. How he almost hit her when they were alone.

As she listened, Leah felt the shape of it settle in her mind. The timing. The audience that arrived just late enough. Silas’s prints were everywhere. She did not let that horror show.

“You’re safe here,” Leah said. “He did not strike you. You left. That was right.”

Cordelia nodded and sagged with the release. She managed to fall asleep under Leia's gentle rocking in her arms. Leah eased her onto the bed, loosened her laces on the dress, drew a blanket to her chin, and sat until her breathing evened.

Enough, Leah thought. This ends.

She slipped into the corridor and found Nella. “Sit with her,” Leah said quietly. “If she wakes, tell her I’m close.”

Nella nodded and took Leah’s chair. Leah crossed the yard to the pump.

Daniel stood there, shirt clean, knuckles raw. The wolves healed quickly, but his face clearly had better days. He straightened when Leah approached.

“We need to talk,” she said. “Now.”

She was Silas's mate. She felt something sinister, but she told herself that her senses were heightened by the changes in the pack. She didn't like change. She wanted to believe that Silas had really changed, as he had promised her all those years ago. She told Daniel everything without embellishment.

Disbelief moved over Daniel’s face and left quickly. His jaw hardened. “He’s been cutting at us since the hearing,” he said. “Small hooks. Rumors. Always a gap for someone to fall through.”

“It ends today,” Leah said.

“We tell Dante the truth,” Daniel answered.

They went first to Dante’s room. Empty. The hall below was empty too. At the back door, snow showed two sets of prints leading into the trees. Daniel crouched. “This is Dante,” he said.

“We should go,” Leah said.

They took the garden gate and the narrow path behind the wall. The forest drew them in. They did not need to change fully; fear already sharpened everything. Dante’s scent lay thin over the trail. They smelled another scent: Silas’s lay stronger, fresher, a quick, crooked line off the main track.

Silas stepped out from a pine before they could call his name. Blood striped his cheek and sleeve; his eyes were bright and flat.

“Honey, are you hanging out with traitors?” he asked Leah, mildly.

Daniel moved a step forward, placing himself between them. “You’ll speak to her through me,” he said.

Silas' mouth shaped a smile. "You look better," he said. “Cordelia healed, or have you now got caught up in my Luna?”

Something old rose in Daniel— his breath deepened; strength sat close to the skin. He crossed the space in a rush.

He lunged at Silas and slammed his weight into the tree behind him. The blow was so precise and quick that it knocked the air out of Silas' lungs. Daniel caught the wrist, turned it, and felt the joint. Silas struck with his free hand; Daniel took it on his forearm and answered with a short, clean shot to the throat to break the balance, then a hook under the ribs, then another. Silas tried to fight back; if he had had enough space for a second, he would have broken free. But Daniel, with a cold expression on his face, ignored his attempts to break free and inflicted more and more blows, not giving him a chance to take a breath.

With a death grip, he clutched Silase`s neck with her hands. Leah stood frozen, torn between stepping. Her lungs were burning just as well. “Enough,” she started.

Silas’s eyes flicked to her; it seemed he realized that she shared his pain.

Daniel felt the line cross. He used everything—weight, angle —squeezed his hands on his neck until it crunched. The body jolted, sagged. Silence told him more than sight.

Leah’s scream tore the space. She dropped to her knees, hands to her chest, as if something had broken from the inside. The bond had been a thin, invisible knot; now it was two ends in the air. Pain flooded her throat.

Daniel turned, shock draining the heat from him. She was gasping for air with her lips, helplessly, like a fish on dry land, her dark skin looking gray, her eyes so wide they looked like they were going to fall out. Her nails were scratching at the thin skin on her chest, as if trying to get at the fire that was burning her from within.

Branches cracked to their left. Dante ran into the clearing and stopped. He took it in with one hard look: Silas at the foot of the pine, still; Leah folded and gray with pain; Daniel standing over the dead body.

Shock hit first. Anger rose after, ready to do the easy thing. Confusion stood between them and would not move aside.

“What did you do?” Dante asked. His voice was rough.

What did he do? The question hung heavy in the air. Daniel looked up from the woman, who was bent over in pain so that her forehead was touching the ground. He looked at the body lying at his feet in a strange position. What did he do?

Leah screamed at the ground, barely holding on so as not to fall completely. “The bond—” Her breath stuttered.

Dante’s jaw shrank. Part of him wanted to lift Leah. Part of him wanted to tear at the shape in front of him: a dead friend, a broken mate, a brother with blood on his arms. He chose the only order he could find.

“Run,” Dante strained through his teeth. “When I come back to the pack, I will give the order to kill the traitor.”

Daniel flinched. He looked at Leah, then at Dante, and knew this was the only door left. He wasn't guilty. He didn't start this...he was defending himself! Despair screamed in his head, demanding justice, but fear was greater. He broke into a run.

Dante quickly closed the distance between him and Leah. She was trembling, trying to curl into the smallest possible ball. Her nails scratched the skin on her chest to the bled. She was still trying to scream, but no sound came from her throat. Dante found a position and took her in his arms. She was burning all over. Her body was numb with pain. He walked confidently towards the house carrying her in his arms, leaving the cold body behind. He would definitely come back for him, but for now, he chose to pity the living. At least he hoped that she would stay that way after the connection was broken.