“I didn’t know for sure,” she admitted. “I was planning to start that conversation with questions, not accusations, but you handcuffed me to a steering wheel!”

“Yeah. Just how mad about that are you?”

“Less so now than I was before I shredded your driver’s seat, kicked in your dashboard, and slashed your tires.”

I thought she was joking until I glanced past her at the space where I’d parked. How the hell was I going to explain that to my insurance guy? “Are you going to be this destructive every time I piss you off?”

“Did you not listen when the council warned you about my impulse control issues?”

“Not closely enough, apparently. Speaking of shocking revelations, why do you know how to pick open handcuffs?”

Robyn took Spencer’s keys and pressed the lock button. A Corolla halfway across the lot beeped and flashed its lights. “Instead of answering that, why don’t I show you how I acquired the skill…?” She pulled the cuffs from her pocket and dangled them in front of me with a wicked smile.

“You think I’m going to wear those?”

“I think we won’t be even until you do.” She backed toward the parking lot, and the sun glinted off the metal cuffs as she swung them. “Why? Is the big bad Alpha afraid to relinquish control?”

“To you?” I snorted and snatched the cuffs from her. “Hell, yes.”

Robyn turned and took off for the Corolla, then called over her shoulder. “You should be…”

TWENTY

Robyn

The plan was to go back to Justus’s place and take a nap before we had to head to the zoo. Titus was exhausted—he couldn’t have gotten much sleep the night before—and he’d hardly eaten a thing all day. And with each mile we drove, he retreated a little more into his own head, until his eyes glazed over and his responses to my questions devolved into distracted grunts.

But the moment we stepped into the apartment, his bearing changed. Every muscle in his body tensed and his jaw clenched.

I glanced around the front rooms, expecting to find an intruder or some other danger that had triggered his internal alarm. The kitchen and living room were still trashed, except for the couch we’d put back in order, but the apartment was unoccupied, as far as I could tell. Titus’s gaze locked on the guest room, which stood open and as empty as we’d left it. And finally I understood.

He wasn’t bracing himself against a new threat. He was still battling the last one. “I failed him. Blum is dead, and I was supposed to protect him. Maybe I should have handcuffed him to something.”

Well, hell. No wonder he’d been so determined to keep me in the car. He blamed himself for Leland’s death, and he couldn’t stand the thought of the same thing happening to me.

I pushed the front door shut and put the chain on the hook, because the deadbolt was still busted from the break-in. “It’s not your fault.”

“Bullshit. I swore to protect them. I accepted oaths of loyalty in exchange for that promise. I told them I would lead them, and teach them, and defend them, and Blum got killed on my watch. Because I left him behind.”

“Titus, we had no idea he was in danger. We took him to his dorm specifically to protect him. You can’t blame yourself for this.”

He sank onto the couch and bent forward with his elbows on his knees, his head cradled in his hands. “There’s no one else to blame.”

“Blame the killer. Tonight we’ll find Justus, and we’ll figure out who infected him. And who’s trying to make sure you go down for the strays he’s infected.” Those had to be the same person.

“Does any of it matter? I’m a liability to the Pride, but without the weight of my position, I might not have the clout to help Justus.” His expression cracked, exposing the pain beneath his anger. “Robyn, I can’t let my brother wind up like Leland Blum. I can’t let some psycho kill him, and I sure as hell can’t let the council execute him.”

“That won’t happen.” I took my new coat off and draped it over the arm of the couch, flinching as my boots crunched over glass ground into the carpet from the shattered coffee table. Then I sank onto his lap, straddling him. “You may not have the clout to make sure of that, but I do.”

His hands settled onto my hips and he met my gaze, and for the first time since we’d left Spencer’s, he seemed to be truly with me in the moment. “What are you talking about?”

“The council wants me back. You said they’d be willing to start a war to make sure that happens. Which means they’re desperate, and desperate people are always eager to negotiate. So I’ll agree to return peacefully—sparing everyone this ‘war’—in exchange for Justus’s clemency and the recognition of your Pride. With you as Alpha. Drew’s doing the best he can, but you are best equipped to lead them.” That much was obvious in the lengths to which he was willing to go to protect his brother.

“Robyn…” The objection was clear in his tortured expression, even if he hadn’t found the words.

“I am the most valuable bargaining chip we have. I know you’re willing to do whatever you can to keep me here, but the truth is that that’s beyond your ability right now. Drew’s in charge of the Pride, and he’s too new to risk pissing off the council. But I’m the one whose life is being run by committee. If I have to go back, I might as well get something good out of it.”

“I don’t want you involved in this,” Titus said. “Not any more than you already are,” he amended, with a glance around the destroyed living room.

“Whatever. I brought war to your doorstep.” I leaned down to kiss him, pressing as much of myself against him as I could while his grip on my hips tightened. “I owe you,” I whispered against his stubble-rough cheek when the kiss finally ended.

“No.” Titus’s gaze burned into me. “You don’t owe me anything, Robyn.”

“Including obedience. This is my decision. And I’ve made it.”

I tried to stand, but he held tight to my hips, and I saw myself reflected in his eyes. “You are the most fearless woman I’ve ever met. If it had been up to me, I wouldn’t have locked you up. I would have set you loose upon the world and watched you soar.”