Caspian’s POV
The formality grated.
My jaw tightened.
“Explain why a werewolf under consideration for rank attacked two human women.”
Surprise showed before Galen covered it.
Around us, the other wolves began pretending to exercise again.
Not one of them had stopped listening.
He swallowed and looked down.
“One of them is my mate.”
“Was.”
The correction came sharply.
Something deep in me recoiled at hearing him claim her.
“She rejected you.
Explain that.”
His jaw worked.
“There was a misunderstanding.”
I moved closer and lowered my voice beyond the room’s audience.
“About Drusilla Parker?
Your son?
Or your plan to use a human mate to improve your standing, then get rid of her?”
Anger quickened my pulse.
Galen’s head jerked up, disbelief plainly visible in his amber eyes.
“How do you know—”
“Why did you hurt her today?
And why her friend?”
My fingers curled at my sides.
I was running out of patience for anything that wasn’t an answer.
He shifted uneasily.
“I lost control.
Rejection is painful.
You know what a mate bond—”
“Don’t explain bonds to me.”
A growl roughened my voice.
My vision sharpened around the vulnerable line of his throat.
Had a child with another woman.
Now you expect sympathy for the pain of losing her?”
“I love Drusilla.” His voice was strained.
“Human mates are often for appearances.
Other wolves do it.”
For an instant, gold broke through my vision.
Galen dropped his gaze immediately and exposed his neck in submission.
“Five years,” I said.
“Five years pursuing someone you didn’t mean to honor as a mate.
And you endangered your career and standing in the Pack for what?
A physical arrangement?”
Disgust made the question harder than I intended.
“It’s more than that.
I care about Drusilla.
She’s my true mate, not Danae.
What I feel is real.”
“And what did you feel for Danae?”
The roughness in my voice was less easy to explain this time.
He hesitated.
“She’s human.
Ordinary.
There’s nothing special about her.”
Something in me twisted.
I saw her defiant green eyes, remembered the honeysuckle and rain that had haunted me since the hotel.
Heat moved under my skin.
My muscles tightened with a possessiveness that made his careless dismissal almost physically difficult to hear.
“Your strategic ability is why you’re a Delta candidate,” I said coldly.
“Yet you’ve risked everything on an affair you couldn’t even manage discreetly.
Disappointing.”
“If you’ll let me explain—”
“I’ve heard enough.
Garrick will handle it from here.”
I turned and left.
The silence followed me through the training center, all those listening wolves suddenly making very little effort to disguise themselves.
Outside, I drew in fresh air.
It should have cleared my head.
Instead, I kept searching it for a scent that wasn’t there.
In the car, concentration remained out of reach.
I held the wheel too tightly and couldn’t seem to regulate my breathing.
Her face returned every time I tried to think of something else: expressive eyes, stubborn chin, the softness of her mouth.
Then her skin against mine.
Awareness jolted through me.
My wolf paced beneath my control, impatient to claim what it already considered ours.
Danae Ashgrave affected me in ways I had never experienced with another woman.
I couldn’t deny it anymore.
The truth was exhilarating.
It was also frightening enough to make me want to resist it.
My hand dropped.
I opened my trousers and began stroking myself, caught in the memory of her face, her innocent gaze, the warmth of her beneath me that night.
I clenched my teeth, trying to hold on to composure.
Her name escaped anyway, low and rough.
“Danae…”