Chapter 23: Disloyal Weregirl

I throw my feelings at him, letting my grandfather see, feel, and smell my fury, taste the defiance I embrace. Yes, my king. My words mean nothing, platitudes.

"Our thanks to you," Oleksander says to Caine while I gag on his change of heart. "I had no idea."

Caine bows his head to my grandfather. "You are so quick to judge," he says, looking straight at me, "but we, too, care for the honor and glory of our werenation. We may have different ways of being, have been raised to alternate laws outside the embrace of those who rule our people, but we, as a pack, long only for the good of all werewolves."

His pretty speech doesn't fool me, but I feel my grandfather soften next to me. "Your observations of the Dumonts?"

"Merely in service of you, my king." Caine's eyes meet my Oleksander's. "I took from our initial meeting, they are old enemies. It is best, in my experience, to understand those who oppose us, first hand."