Chapter 7: Break the Rule

My hand shot out and caught Pia's wrist before I knew I'd moved.

The champagne glass tipped in her fingers.

"Don't," I said, very quietly.

"Wills, you're hurting me."

I wasn't, and we both knew it.

"If you go near my son," I said, "I will end you in front of every wolf in that house."

Pia looked at my hand on her wrist, and her eyes filled with tears.

"I would never hurt a child," she said. "I only meant I know where you'd run. I want you to stay here, where it's safe."

She said it so gently that for one second I almost doubted what I'd heard.

I let go.

I walked back through the glass doors and across the great room without looking at anyone.

Rhys was by the front hall in his coat, and he saw my face and didn't ask.

"Take me back to the hotel," I said. "Now."

He didn't say goodbye to his father or to his pack.

The Alpha of the Satterthwaite wolves walked out of his own gala with me, and every head in the house turned to watch us go.

In the car, I told him what Pia had said.

His hands tightened on the wheel until the leather creaked.

"I'll put two men on the school tomorrow," he said. "And two on the hotel tonight."

"She'll say it was a joke."

"Then I'll say I didn't laugh."

We didn't speak again until the fourteenth floor.

The hallway was dim and quiet, with one wall lamp lit by our door.

Hattie's snoring came faintly through the wood.

I stopped with the key card in my hand, and found I couldn't make my fingers use it.

"He's right behind that door," I said. "She knows exactly where he is."

"I know."

"I couldn't do anything. I stood there and she smiled at me."

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