Chapter 71
Cassian
I frown at my aunt and cousin and say, “This is a public place. People here know she’s my wife. They are out of line to be
criticizing her.”
Reyna stares at me like I’ve grown a
“What?” I demand.
cond head.
She shakes her head. “This just…isn’t like you, Cassian. You’re letting her get away with stepping all over your family.”
Annoyance surges through me as I walk toward my wife. “Maybe the problem is your perspective, Reyna. Did you ever think about that?”
Then I turn and push through the crowd toward them.
*****
Reyna
I stare after Cassian. There’s a rushing, roaring sound in my
ears.
Did he just snap at me? In public? Over Gemma?
- 1526.
Chapter 71
It feels like the world is spinning out of control beneath me,
He’d never stood up for Gemma like this before, and definitely not where anyone else might hear.
When I first came back, I didn’t think Gemma stood a chance against me. She never had, and she never would.
It was so easy with our father. So easy to turn him against her and make him love me. She was stupid and weak, after all, just like her mother.
I used to think Cassian would be the same. When we were younger, and then in college together, he told me I was the smartest, most beautiful woman he’d ever met.
How could Gemma ever be a match for me when he saw me like
that?
I didn’t even really worry when Gemma married him. I knew that old Alpha, Donovan, had forced him into it. Cassian only married her because he was dutiful to his grandfather.
If I really want to, I can break them up any time.
Can’t I?
But now, as I watch Cassian go over to my insipid half–sister and stand beside her, I wonder if I should have taken the competition a little more seriously.
O/C
15:26
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Despite everything, it seems she’s worming her way into Cassian’s heart.
Gemma
I don’t notice when Reyna and Cassian arrive at first. I’m too busy fending off Sibille and Claire.
The two of them just wouldn’t let go. They kept harping on about me not being able to have kids, and how important bloodline is to the pack, and how if I can’t be the “vessel” to carry on Cassian’s blood, I’m useless.
Vessel? Are they kidding me?
“The Smokewind Pack is powerful, and the Blackwell family is insanely famous and wealthy. If you’re incapable of having children, who is going to carry on the family legacy?”
“Well, we all know it isn’t going to be you, Claire,” I say. “Because you are not the brightest crayon in the box, are you?”
“What does this have to do with crayons?!” Claire shouts.
snort with suppressed laughter as the people around me stare at Claire. Sibille looks like she wants to stick my head on a pike.
Chapter 71
I don’t care. I’m so far beyond caring what any of these people think.
Then I catch sight of a broad–shouldered figure moving through the crowd. They part for him, scurrying to the side like sheep faced with, well, a wolf.
To my surprise, he walks right up to me and puts an arm around my waist, pulling me into his side.
“Cassian, you’re here!” Claire shouts. “Thank goodness, you wouldn’t believe what Gemma is saying to me!”
She starts crying tears that are obviously fake.
I tense and wait for the lecture. Part of me knew this could happen. I would just have to brace until the storm of his displeasure passed, and then…
Cassian gives Sibille a sharp smile. “Aunt. Are you having fun making a spectacle of my wife in public?”
Sibille’s face goes pale as she looks at Cassian, and I think she and I both realize at the same time that he’s not here to rescue her and snub me in front of everyone.
No, for the first time in my life, Cassian is here to save me.
“With the unrest among the families, it’s been my call not to have a child for now,” he says. He’s smiling to soften his words,
Chapter 71
but I see the possessiveness over me on his face and feel it in the way his fingers press against my side.
“And besides, Aunt Sibille, in this day and age, shaming a woman for not being able to have children?” Cassian made a displeased sound. “That’s not very kind.”
Kind. Kind? Cassian Blackwell, lecturing someone on what is kind?
I am going to pass out from shock. Or from his hypocrisy.
I wonder if he’s lost his mind.
Despite the fact that his behavior has left me shocked and dazed, I try to pull together. My verbal fight with Sibille isn’t over yet.
“You see, Auntie? It’s not me. There’s nothing I can do. Besides, we’ve barely even tried!”
Cassian goes completely rigid beside me. It’s like the temperature in the room drops.
And I realize I just said the exact wrong thing.
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