I bristled again. “Why don’t you tell me your version?”
“My version?” Her tone turned a notch shriller. “You mean, the truth?”
Although we hadn’t penetrated the forest, we were following the tree line fencing the great lawn from the wilderness beyond.
“Yes.” There was no point debating whether her truth was the same as everyone else’s.
“Something in the mountains made us sick, and when we came to the Aspens for Sillin, which is one of the only drugs that work on wolves-”
“I thought it only helped us if our blood came in contact with silver?”
Her eyes thinned a little. “It has lots more properties than voiding our magic.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You don’t seem to know much about werewolves.”
I bristled. “That was uncalled for.”
She didn’t apologize. “Do you want to hear the rest of it?”
What I wanted was for her to stop disparaging me. Fearing how childish it would sound to voice this, I grumbled, “Go on.”
Cassandra observed me a protracted instant before pursuing her tale. “When we went to the Aspens for help, they turned us away. They had stocks of Sillin yet wouldn’t share a meager amount. We’d even offered to pay an exorbitant amount for the drug. A month went by, and so many of us died that my grandfather, who was Alpha at the time, attempted a new negotiation with the Aspen Alpha. Again, they told us we should’ve taken better care of our supplies and offered us nothing. My little sister and I, we snuck onto their property and into their stock. We took only what we needed. She was caught and executed instantly. I got away, and then we ran and hid. Only five of us survived. Well, six . . . Aidan never lived among us, so he wasn’t subjected to the poisoning.
“Four years ago, when I took over the Aspen pack, Julian Matz visited the compound to meet with me. At least, he claimed that was the nature of his visit. My father, who was so sickly he could no longer shift, was found dead the following morning. The pack doctor said he’d stopped breathing. I believed he’d been asphyxiated, but for the sake of diplomacy, I let it go. I let Julian go . . .”
A chill skated over my skin, which had nothing to do with the tall shadows that stretched like fingers over Cassandra and me. “What poisoned you?”
She watched the loamy earth squish between her bare toes. “There was a toxic waste site on our land. It polluted our main water source.” Her gaze scraped over my face with such intensity that her eyes felt like claws. “Do you understand now why Sillin is so near and dear to me? I liken it to my security blanket; I may never need it again, but I can no longer live without it. I learned the hard way what lack of foresight brings about, and I will not let this happen to my wolves.”
I wasn’t going about getting what I wanted from Sandra the right way. “Thank you for sharing your pack’s history with me.”
She dipped her chin into her swan-like neck and scrutinized me from underneath her stubby lashes.
“I’ve always felt you were smart, but now I see you’re a sensible woman.” The words burned on their way out. “So I have to wonder why you won’t offer us the deal again. I swear I’d make Liam keep away from you.”
Her lips twitched, and then a bark of laughter burst out. “You’d make him? Oh, honey,” she tittered, “Liam may appreciate your looks, but he doesn’t respect you. Men like him-so conceited and chauvinistic-they don’t take advice from a gender they deem inferior.”
“You have a skewed vision of Liam. He’s nothing like his father. Besides, he listened to me when I told him not to duel you the day you killed Julian.”
Her smile turned broader. “He listened to get you into his bed.”
Heat splashed my face. Why did I have to go and blush now? “That’s not true.”
“Ness, let me tell you a little something about myself that very few people know. My sister, she was mute, so I learned to read lips at the same time I learned to talk.” Her shoulders were pulled back as straight as a rake. “That day beside the pool, I saw what Liam asked you . . . to break up with your new boyfriend. August, correct?”
The shock of her revelation made my footing falter. Cassandra shot out her arm to steady me, and it felt like a wooden bat against my sternum.
“I also know y’all think I cheated to win and you’re desperately tryin’ to figure out what I did. One of the reasons for your trip to meet with the Rivers, if I’m not mistaken?”
I kept silent.
“Let me save you some time and headaches. I did not inject Julian Matz with any substance.” She glanced at the deck where more Creeks had arrived. Although most were busy eating, many gawked at us. She returned her attention to me and canted her head to the side. “So, have you picked a date yet?”
“You didn’t even want to fight before. Why so adamant about it now?”
“‘Cause I want to go home, and you have nothin’ I need or want anymore.”
“We have Sillin. A lot of it.” I had no clue if the amount we had constituted a lot.
“I have enough to tide me over for a couple years. Besides, if I beat Liam, I get your pack’s stock, and the Pines’, for that matter.”
Icy fingers climbed up my spine. She knows it’s hidden . . .
“So it’s a win-win for me.”
“If you lose, you get nothing.”
“If I lose, my pack still gets the Sillin.”
“You mean to tell me, you’re doing this for your pack?”
“Everything I do is for my pack.” Her gaze tightened on me. “I didn’t ascend to the highest tier for a title; I did it to better the lives of shifters.” She gestured to the terrace. “Please, be my guest, Ness. Go around and ask my people what they think of me.”
I was most definitely not going to ask a bunch of shifters what they thought of their Alpha in front of said Alpha. No one would ever tell me the truth. I thought of the Rivers’ contact then-Avery-about how he’d said many were rooting for Liam, which meant Cassandra was either delusional or lying.
“No one visits us for a week, and now two Boulders in a day.”
Her voice made me follow her line of sight. Lucas was glaring at me while descending the stairs two at a time.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“That one’s particularly insufferable, isn’t he?”
I didn’t answer her, just started striding toward Lucas before he could cause a bigger scene than I had.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Clark?” he spat out as I joined him in the middle of the lawn.
Cassandra was still standing in the shadows of the evergreens, and the rest of her pack had remained on the terrace.
I pursed my lips. “How did you even know where I was?”
“Liam wanted to speak with you, so we drove over to your house. Jeb said you were at the campus bookstore, but the campus bookstore doesn’t open at the ass crack of dawn, so I’m not sure how he fell for that. He probably assumed you went to see your boyfriend.”
“August isn’t my boyfriend,” I said, making sure my mouth was visible to Morgan. I wanted her to know this. Even though she hadn’t threatened August, it couldn’t hurt to get him off her radar. “And I’m here because I was trying to get her to put the peace treaty back on the table.”
“You think Liam’s changed his mind because of the-” I stepped on his foot so hard that he grumble-shouted, “What the hell’s wrong with you?”