by Unknown
The brute hung his head. That he would receive punishment was definite and understood.
Dierk's gaze darted over me. "Sophie, he has hurt you."
I looked at Thorpe and saw the whites of his eyes. He stared over at me like I'd become his lifeline—and he knew he'd all but severed it.
With a single word, I could condemn him. I could end him. One single word would find the king's ear and resolution would be swift and severe.
I had real power over that man, the one who had backhanded me and hurt Toby for no good reason. If I wanted vengeance, it would be mine. All I had to say was one single word.
That realization frightened me more than the Were's cruelty.
"I am unhurt." I wiped my nose as surreptitiously as I could. Tough to do when the whole room was watching.
Dierk closed the distance between us and seized my hand, prying open my fingers and displaying the blood I tried to conceal. "People do not bleed when they are unhurt."
He released me and stalked back towards Thorpe. His chest rose and fell with each breath, his nostrils flaring. His voice dripped lower, coiling and angry, rage in each word. "I should like to see how he will fare against me, now that he's proven himself against a young wolf and a woman. Fair matches, no?"
"Please, Dierk—" My chest tightened, a hum of kinetic energy stretching me to capacity. I had to do something. This was my fault—if I hadn't come here, the confrontation would never have occurred and Dierk wouldn't be at the edge of his self-control. My mouth ran dry and the words faltered in my throat, unspoken.
Dierk gave me a quelling look and signaled to his men, who stepped forward. Stohl and Olberich each grabbed one of Thorpe's wrists and twisted, joint-locking him and driving him to his knees between them. "This doesn't concern you anymore, Sophie."
I didn't want to see this. The Were were capable of terrible things, the same as everyone else, but their culture operated on a totally different level. The Leni may have tied me to Dierk forever. I couldn't stomach seeing him resort to savagery, common or royal, just because some asshole slapped me.
There was only one way to stop this madness. I put my heart, my fear, my desperate wish for peace into my voice and I cried out the only word that could stop him from being the thing I feared worst: "Majesty!"
The word disarmed Dierk, every muscle stiffening. Dierk abandoned his predatory stance and stood straighter, taller, even though he never moved his glare from the man on the floor. It was as if he had suddenly remembered his nobility. Up until this moment, he had been a man championing his mate.
Oh, God. It wasn't an act. Dierk really thought of me as his own.
"Majesty." I spoke in a low voice, trying to sound unshaken. Hard to do when I knew I had to make my words carry. "Please. He was only doing his job. He didn't know."
"It is no excuse for his loathsome behavior."
"It was instinct. This is their place. He didn't know I have business with you. Spare him." Dierk crossed his arms but I couldn't let him block me out. I went over to him, sank down to my knees, and reached for his hand. "Please, I beg you."
He looked down at me, still angry, still intent on punishment. "He wouldn't have spared you."
"No one should ever pay the ultimate price for a mistake."
Long moments passed. The brute looked crazy nervous, his eyes darting back and forth, perhaps desperate for a clue as to the manner of his fate. He wouldn't find it looking at Dierk, whose expression was difficult to read.
Dierk looked off-balance, as if he had to find a new definition for me. He took my hand in his and helped me to my feet, then bowed from the neck, granting my boon. This wasn't an act for him.
"Tell your man to learn diplomacy." Dierk jabbed his finger at the chest of the skinny guy in the cap before striding back through the doors of the bar. Olberich and Stohl flanked Toby and me, and we followed behind.
Once inside, Toby and I were taken to a table at the back of the pub, which was uncomfortably full of Were. All those voids felt like a vacuum, and my Sophia struggled to breathe. It felt stifled.
Is this what I would feel like forever, denied the mental touches of the DV? I sat amongst the laughter and sounds of clean bar fun, the muffled sounds of the pool hall, the steady thump of the jukebox, and felt completely isolated.
Dierk was somewhere close by, judging by my level of comfort, although I couldn't see him. Seeing no other alternative, I took the chair that seemed furthest from the others and dug a mirror out of my purse.
Toby stood awkwardly to one side.
"Hey," I said. "Why don't you sit?"
He grimaced and shook his head. Crap. I'd forgotten. Dierk said they'd hurt him. I dropped the mirror and went to examine him. "Is it bad?"
He shook his head, but I noticed the odd angle at which his arm hung. "Elbow or shoulder?"
"Shoulder," he replied. "It's jammed."
"Let me see." I lifted his collar and slid his jacket down, trying to avoid moving his left arm. His shoulder looked oddly square. "Dislocated. You need to go to a hospital."
"No, I don't. It'll right itself."
Right itself, my Aunt Fanny. While I didn't doubt werewolves had some genetic advantage when it came to moving limbs around, I was fairly certain that, when it came to human shoulder injuries, I was still the expert. "You'll need an X-ray to make sure it's back in."
"Ah." He looked apprehensive. "X-rays are expensive. I'll heal. I patch up really quick."
"Not on your own, you won't." I rubbed the back of my neck, knowing what I had to do. Damn. I'd assisted with closed reductions plenty of times when I still practiced nursing, but never in a bar and never on a friend. "I have to unbutton your shirt."
Dislocated shoulders are creepy to look at. The knob at the top of his humerus was a visible bump near his collar bone and his shoulder looked like a bony ridge more suitable on a gargoyle. I gently pressed my fingers to the bend of his elbow, the underside of his wrist. Pulses felt okay, so I figured there was no vascular emergency. Still. It had to be fixed. "Stand against the wall."
I lifted his hand and bent his arm at the elbow, studying his face. Although I knew Toby had a high tolerance for pain, a doctor would have loaded him with a heavy dose of opioid first. He closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose, his jaw tightening as I maneuvered his forearm. I paused, waiting for the spasm in his arm muscles to stop before continuing. He endured a few starts and stalls until I got his arm in the position I wanted. Now the tough part.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, then bounced up on my toes to kiss him on the mouth. His eyes went wide with almost horrified shock and, before he could recover, I rotated his arm. The head of his humerus slid back into place.
Toby cried out once before biting it back. After a moment, he bent his arm, flexed his wrist, rolled his shoulders. "Hey. It's in."
"Stop that." I quickly re-buttoned his shirt before taking off my belt, wrapping it around his chest and upper arm. Tight fit, but it was the best I could do. "It needs to be immobilized. And I still think you need an X-ray. Something might be fractured."
"That's less than nothing to worry about." He looked down at me, the signs of discomfort nearly gone. "You ain't half bad, Soph."
"I have my moments." I dropped into a chair and opened my purse. Time to tend to the disaster that was my hair.
"Sure do. By the way…" He licked his lips and grinned. "Is your lip gloss cherry or strawberry?"
I stuck my tongue out in reply.
"See?" Dierk's voice came from behind us. "Sophie is a compassionate and talented caregiver. A fine choice for a king's mate."
"Knock it off, Dierk." I rolled my eyes so that only Toby could see, but he'd become stiffer than a back brace when Dierk walked over.
"What happened to Majesty?" He drew up a chair next to mine. A waitress set several glasses and a pitcher on the table.
Oh, hell. I reached for a glass. "We were in public."
"This is public."
I glanced around
and saw faces of his entourage people, interspersed humans. Cacilia stood away from the group, speaking with strange girls who looked scarier than she did. Great. More bitches. "No, it's not. Anyways, you're their king, not mine."
"Perhaps now. The moon is two weeks away. What will you call me then?"
"Long-distance, I hope." I took a big mouthful. Ugh. Lager.
He chuckled, apparently enjoying the banter. "You are all right, young Wolf?"
Toby nodded, but didn't look at Dierk. He kept his gaze on the table.
"I'm okay. Sophie took a wallop, though." He pointed to the side of his nose. "You need a tissue there."
I had forgotten about my bloody nose. Checking my mirror, I saw the sticky blood smear and rummaged for a tissue.
"Come, let me see." Dierk called out in German, and one of the girls from the bar brought him a cloth. When he touched it to my skin, I shuddered from the icy dampness. Gently he wiped away the blood and, after folding the soiled edge inside, pressed it once more against my nose.
His other hand cupped my jaw, his thumb stroking the side of my face. I wanted to rip him apart because it was exactly the touch I needed after that ordeal. I felt better being in the same room with him, being cared for by a man who made me a priority. Little things like that made it increasingly hard to remember the great big thing I hated about him.
His voice was mild, as deceiving as his half-smile. "When I saw you on the ground, the blood on your fingers, knocked down by that Hurensohn…"
"Shh." That word didn't sound like a nice one. "I appreciate your chivalry and what not, but hurting him wouldn't make things better."
"I am der König. My judgments are fair and well-deserved."
"Right. And Toby will live here after you take your royal behind back to Europe. I don't think you can mandate those guys to treat him nicely for playing the King's favorite."
His brows scrunched, making horizontal lines across the bridge of his nose. "That is why you begged me to spare him?"
"Partly." I drank again. The lager really wasn't as bad as I'd originally thought. It had flavor, unlike the light beer I ordered out of habit. I just hadn't wanted to be the first one to order a Silver Bullet in front of a bunch of lycanthropes. Who said I wasn't insightful? "And partly because I saw how mad you were. I didn't want to see how much madder you can get."
"You dislike violence."
I set my jaw and gave him a curt nod. "Very much so."
"Even if it is part of nature?" Dierk glanced up at me through his cinnamon-colored lashes. He ran his finger along the base of the pitcher, toying with it. Toying with me.
Too bad for him, I had a long-standing grudge against nature and its deviant behaviors. Wouldn't accept it from a Demivamp, so there was no way a Were would get away with it. I expected better. From everyone.
I frowned and crossed my arms. "Especially, then."
"Sometimes violence, like nature, cannot be avoided."
"And sometimes people use nature as a convenient excuse to do shitty things."
Dierk blinked and reached for a glass. "Granted. But some things can only be cured by using violence. It teaches harsh lessons."
"Unfortunately, you talk about teaching people who don't want to learn."
He poured a drought but didn't drink. Instead, he drummed his fingers on the table, the cadence keeping time with the tension I read in the lines around his eyes. "I wouldn't say that about everyone. But yes, I agree. Many do not learn. And that's what frustrates me so much."
"Why? I thought you were Mr. Traditional."
Dierk reached for a third glass, pouring before holding it out to Toby, who had been leaning against the wall. Toby took it, but remained standing apart from us, clearly uncomfortable about approaching our intimate conversation.
"Traditional," Dierk said. "Yes. But even I do not deny that we can better ourselves. Better what we can. It is slow progress."
"I believe it." I patted my nose with a clean tissue, but the bleeding had stopped. "Especially with jerks like that."
"How do you civilize a man who has a beast inside? The Were have vast limitations. I am not a preacher, and I am not a politician. I am only me. God made me king, my heart made me a bard, and my intellect tells me I don't have to settle for less."
His statement had a profound effect on my opinion of him. It was as if another veil had been lifted, allowing him to come into better focus. However, not every man was born a king. One man's ideals didn't flip hearts over like a line of dominoes. "They weren't always animals. Once they were just men. They were men until someone changed that for them."
"Not all," he said.
I shook my head. "But lycanthropy is spread—"
"Mainly by bite, yes, but not only by bite."
"How then? By sneeze?"
Dierk tilted his head back and laughed, a wonderful sound that moved his entire throat. He loved to laugh, I could tell, because he was so good at it. "Fortunately, no."
"There's a relief. I can't imagine what the world would be like if a pandemic ever hit."
He took a long swallow seeming to think that over. "You don't think a world of Were would be a better place?"
"Are you seriously asking? I think it would be horrible. Not that there's anything wrong with you all," I amended with a no-offense kind of shrug. "I'm more of a people-people person. And considering my connections to the DV, I like variety, too."
"You wouldn't have so much variety if the Leni binds us." His expression stilled. "My court is not as diverse as you might hope."
I scowled and looked away. "All the more reason to hate you for dragging me into this mess."
He leaned forward on his elbow and reached for my chin, tugging my attention back to him. His brown eyes, rimmed in espresso, contained starbursts of champagne, giving them a golden light. Those eyes danced with mischief as he peered into mine. "So, if you despise me so much, why are you here?"
"I brought her." Toby startled me when he spoke. "She don't feel good when she's separated from you. I wanted her to have some relief."
I snorted. "Some relief. I get to listen to his Highness over there."
"And is your head still pounding? Still feel like you're gonna throw up? Still feel like every piece of your body is being pulled like taffy?" Toby leaned forward and leveled a stern gaze at me, humbling me with this unaccustomed show of forcefulness. "You're a stubborn lady. I didn't bring you here so you can fight and get more miserable. I brought you here so you can get a little peace. Now get it."
"It's a risk he took, bringing you here. He ventured into a literal den of wolves." Dierk's gaze flicked toward Toby, who lowered his head under the scrutiny, forcefulness forgotten. "Do you always put your beloved in danger like this?"
"Toby isn't my beloved. He's my friend."
Dierk's expression darkened, his half-smile taking on a condescending slant. "He smells of your lipstick."
"So?" My cheeks grew hot. At least Dierk didn't accuse me of ripping open Toby's shirt and pawing at his bare chest. "I had to distract him from a painful procedure."
"You cherish him," he insisted.
Nothing wrong with that. "Sure I do."
"Then he is beloved." Dierk shook his head, idly fingering his glass. "Americans have a habit of confusing sex and love. No wonder they forget things like honor and loyalty."
I wanted to argue but couldn't. "I'd never put him in danger."
"But you have. His loyalty to you and his concern for your well-being encouraged him to pass scent boundaries and tread onto no-trespass lands, as it were. Had I not come out when I did, that pack would have destroyed him. You too, after they finished with him."
I grabbed Toby's hand. "Did you know that? I didn't—I had no…"
Toby pulled his hand free but wouldn't look at either of us now. "Yeah, I knew what could happen. I was sure it would work out. And it did."
"Toby, you can't do stuff like that," I said. "You can't put yourself in harm's way. You're still getting use
d to your pack. You're still learning the rules."
"So, what. I should ignore you? You couldn't even get out of bed. Rodrian's a wreck 'cause he can't even see you or do anything about it when you're up in your room. I had to do something."
"Toby is your protector." Dierk's half-smile crept into his voice, setting off warning bells even though I hadn't the faintest clue why.
"No, I'm not." Toby's reply was quiet but firm, his eyes fast on the floor.
"You take risks, make choices for her. That is assumption of dominance."
I didn't like the look on Toby's face, or the odd shade of pale it had become. He obviously understood the point Dierk was prodding at, but I was still in the dark. "What's going on, Dierk?"
"Nothing." He cleared his throat and reached for his glass, draining it. "Your friend won't be bottom rank for long. I think your damsel-in-distress act has borne a knight."
I huffed a breath through my nose. "Tobe. What's he trying to say?"
His voice sounded like there were two fists around it, squeezing. "He's saying that I think I'm ready to go and fight my way out of the bottom ranks. But I'm not. I'm still getting used to my new family. They were nice enough to take in a stray, and I'm not out to bite the hand that feeds me."
"Your actions speak clearly, Wolf," Dierk said.
"Then something got lost in the translation. I can never be Sophie's protector. I can never dominate her." Toby raised his head to meet Dierk's eyes, holding his gaze without wavering. "She is second only to the moon."
Dierk opened his mouth but shut it again without saying a word. He only nodded, once, and released Toby's gaze. The younger Were's exhalation was audible, even in the ruckus of the bar.
The waitress brought a fresh pitcher, interrupting their cryptic exchange. Dierk motioned toward the corner where several of his entourage circled the lone pool table. "You've been watching them. You are free to join them, if you'd like."
Toby's expression lifted at the prospect, but darkened again when he glanced at me.
"It's okay, Toby. I'll behave." I stole a glance at Dierk. "You should get to have a good time, considering the trouble you took to bring me here."
"If you're sure…" He shrugged out of my make-shift sling and placed my belt on the table.