Silver Claws

9. Silence speaks

We're outside and Akela thinks I'm an idiot.

Or in her words, unwise for taking her outside. She thinks she can easily get away now, but I can feel her conviction to leave is getting weaker, cracks spiderwebbing on her resolve. The fear driven need to run away is fading, and in its place the bond is tightening around us. Its coiling, demanding that we touch again. Akela feels it too, and as we stand out of earshot at the treeline, it seems stronger.

I look down at her, she has her arms crossed leaning against a tree. She's turned so her eyes can watch the pack and me, still on guard, still protecting herself. For some reason it bothers me. She barely agreed to come away with me, only when I said we could go outside did she finally nod and follow.

I bit my lip and let it go, taking a deep breath and almost sighing. "We need to keep it to ourselves you aren't a wolf."

She remains expressionless, but the prickles of her fear run along my own skin. "We can trust Trevor and Reed, but Dad can't know." Her eyes narrow and I see the wordless question. I don't even need to read her mind to see the why she asks.

"He's volatile right now, until I become Alpha." I explain, she still says nothing.

"You could take power. And you do not." She says, it almost sounds like a question, but it isn't. It's a statement and she waits for comment or correction. Somehow this seems fitting for her, someone who had to make her own assumptions because she wasn't used to someone answering.

I nod, "I can take power without a challenge, a physical fight. It's difficult and slow, it's hard on him but when the transition is over I will be Alpha without a fight."

"Well Alpha-heir, you say we are mates. I am no ruler of those who sing the night." She shifts her feet and scans the trees, looking upwards and then her eyes dart over the ground, searching.

"You will be. Even if you aren't a wolf. Do shifters not sing the night?" Imitating her tone.

She shakes her head and her eyes return to me, and she checks me out, ignoring sarcasm. I try to hide my smile. Even if I'm not reading her mind she is an open book with her expressions, she thinks I'm hot.

I lean back against a tree, "If you try to leave the bond will pull us back together. It's why mates can't kill each other. Anyway we've marked each other, so it's not like we have a choice."

"I was trying to rip out your throat." She says indignant. "It wasn't my intent, but it was yours. You marked me."

"Well forgive me for not asking permission, it's not like you asked for mine."

She raises her lip to bare her teeth but looks away huffing, her jaw shifting in her annoyance. "Again, not my intention."

We stay silent for a few minutes, the birds trilling above. Sunlight leaks through the trees, sparking down and making her hair wink at me. Her last words fall to the ground at my feet, waiting for me to address them. It stung, I almost feel rejected. Like she would never have marked me on purpose.

I take a deep breath before asking the question I didn't want the answer to, "Why did you take Ryan?" I close my eyes, bracing myself against what I know will hurt.

Instead of answering, she shows me.

The answer unravels behind my eyelids. Her thoughts narrate every action, killing the rogues, feeding Ryan, changing for him, keeping him in the cave, bringing him back. Her motives are explained by her thoughts, emotions color nothing, making her seem robotic. The only thing I feel is her present guilt and regret when I open my eyes.