Page 30 of Dewpoint
I moved my hand to his chest and was glad when he backed away. “Thank you but—”
“Please don’t shut me out,” he begged.
I met his gaze. “It’s hard to trust this. I’m dealing with a lot and—you really upset me. Can you not push?”
He swallowed loudly and nodded. “I’m sorry. I know I’m being pushy and a dick. I just… You’re struggling and all I want is to comfort you and I fucked that up. I did comfort you once and—I’m so sorry. Please, this is real for me.”
I nodded that I heard him, but he blocked me when I went to leave. “Let me go.”
“Tell me what I can do. Let Myriam or Treena rake me over the coals, but they’ll know I’m being truthful when I say all I want is you, not to be prince or play games.”
“Maybe,” I mumbled and was glad he backed off. “I have so much else going on.”
“I know and I’m a dick for pushing, but if we could—I could help if you gave me time to fix my mistakes. If you at least knew I wasn’t playing with you or this wasn’t about winning over fucking Kole.”
I nodded I heard him and left. That was actually fair and smart.
I got ready for the day, glad when I heard from Treena that Thorn didn’t make an issue but said he hoped she would pass along that he wanted to talk to me. I nodded but left it alone.
“You deserve to be upset and he’s—men are stupid, but I will tell you he was being sincere. The regret and upset off of him were real.”
I snorted. “Yeah, he can feel bad he hurt me, but that won’t fix how he feels or he shouldn’t have done what he did to mess with me.”
She grabbed my arm. “I agree. Full stop. You’re absolutely right. I just wanted you to know he felt bad, not just he didn’t care.”
I guess that made it better?
The tension was unreal when I walked into the meeting. I could about feel the headache I knew would start after they told me whatever was going on. “Spit it out.” I did a double take when I saw it wasn’t just Darren on the video call, but my father’s siblings. “That good, huh?”
“You’re going to want to sit for this,” my uncle Fraser confirmed.
I frowned when I saw Treena tense. “You know?”
“I just learned when your uncle did and—let him—I’m sorry, Sagan.”
What the fuck was going on?
I looked over the file given to me and then listened to the details. I nodded along and let out a slow breath when it was done. “Are we sure nothing was intentionally tampered with?”
“No, we can’t know that until we question them,” Fraser answered. “But there’s nothing so far that says that was what happened either. The elders said they had no knowledge of it and their objective was to hide the nepotism and neglect.”
I sat with that a moment and then glanced at Myriam. “How much more do you sense? More than Treena, yes?”
She shot Treena a quick glance and licked her lips. “Wolves are better at sensing what’s off in a room or danger. They are very in tune with their surroundings.”
“It’s true,” Treena confirmed. “Tigers are better one-on-one and most are prey to them, or even in these sorts of instances they are like laser missile locked on the person.”
“What are you thinking, Your Majesty?” Benson asked, his tone tense. “They were questioned by truth dragons as is procedure.”
“Yes, and too much has slipped past even with truth dragons,” I replied easily. “I’m not chastising or—we can always do better. Look how fast Myriam and Treena have been helping in the castle alone. I think for somethingthis importantwe have extra help and layers.”
“Agreed,” Aunt Maple said firmly. “And even someone—there’s no reason you can’t have an aide that’s an investigator just reporting to you in these instances, Sagan. It’s not against the Alphas, but that person is your eyes and ears inside when it’s aboutyour parents. Or trying to control you. You need more information from someone of your choosing.”
“Agreed,” Fraser and Darren said together.
Good.
“Davian can go for now—” Treena started to say, but I cut her off.
