Page 36 of The Girl in the Forest

“I said no.”

His voice had deepened, perhaps from the cognac, but then he snuffed out the emotion the way he’d snuffed out the forest fires I’d started, and my chin jerked up.

“I’m not afraid of witches.”

He refused to answer, and frustration cramped my hands—gods, what was wrong with him? Why was he fighting me from every direction, when yesterday, he pushed muddy hair from my face like we were friends?

Even if his wolf sigil didn’t twitch, the thrumming from the Green Man’s runes made me jumpy, and a burst of uneasiness drove me toward the vase of roses centered on the table. I stroked one red petal; the flower withered while all three alphas watched. Then I reversed the energy flow, and the flower shimmered into full bloom. It was the most control I’d had since leaving Aine’s wrinkle.

Perhaps wanting to provoke Grayson made a difference.

“Nice trick,” Fallon said.

Mace muttered something like, “Fuck me.”

I glared at Grayson’s now smoldering expression and said, “You and I have a bargain, so unless that bargain is as broken as your rune, we’re going to see the witches—or I’ll ask Anson Salas to take me. I’m sure he’d be accommodating.”

“Shall I drag him here for you, Noa?” Grayson’s voice flattened in a way that should have warned me, because his next words were an attack. “You can tell him about the book and the secrets it holds, how he could use those secrets to protect his pack. You can be his faille. He’ll probably fuck you out of gratitude.”

All I could think of was the Night of the Beacons, when I’d offered to sleep with Grayson to protect him, and he’d walked away.

Because offering to protect him meant offering my sigil, which he did not want. He’d made that clear enough.

But I could meet animosity with bitterness as easily as he could, and I didn’t care if his seconds were watching. Together, we were volatile. There was no getting around it. The dread lord and the faille. A conflict that played out with other couples over the eons, so why should we be any different?

I tipped my glass toward him, then swallowed a gulp. “At least he’d follow through on the fucking.”

The stunned silence was almost laughable. Fallon blanched. Mace crossed his arms. I slid my tongue across my lips, an impulsive act of defiance as I licked cognac that still reminded me of Mosbach.

Grayson’s lip slowly pulled back, then resettled with fierce control.

“It changes nothing, other than his blood will be on the floor. Our bargain still stands,” he added. Such a soft, soft threat. “I protect you. No one else.”

I aimed for the jugular with what I had—a slow smile. “Which is another way of dictating.”

“You chose to come back, Noa,” he growled.

“And you’ll never let me forget it.” I was surprised the room hadn’t already burst into flames. So much for civility, or going back to the way we were, with our bargain meaning what we said it meant. It meant what he decided while I had nothing to say about it.

My hands curled into fists.

My breathing elevated.

Shadows drifted, and Grayson’s glowering expression scraped across my skin. He might as well have used a claw to draw blood. We were the two opponents we’d been on the day we met, clashing now as if a circle struggled to close against adamant stone.

A vein throbbed in Grayson’s throat. Ice firmed in my spine.

Mace growled low in his throat. His full attention was on me while Fallon shifted her weight. I wondered what they worried about. What they thought I’d do next.

“Noa.” Fallon said, stepping close enough to brush my arm, but keeping her hands at her sides. “Look at your feet.”

I glanced down. A ring of glowing embers charred the rug while bands of gray shadows came from Grayson as he doused the heat.

“Gray.” Fallon moved on as if everything was normal and I wasn’t starting fires while Grayson snuffed them out. “What if we ask the Green Man for help instead of the witches?”

“No.” My jaw ached. “If he had answers, he wouldn’t have sent me to Aine. Besides…” My gaze scraped around the room. “Wolves visit the witches every day and survive. You did it when you were teenagers. I shouldn’t be any different.”

“You will not leave Azul,” Grayson ordered. I’d never heard an edge so sharp as the edge in his voice.

---