CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED & NINETY EIGHT
Talia’s POV
“Fine. I’ll have him tell everyone in the receiving hall,” I said. “Then, you will be escorted to the border where you will never come back.”
“No, that won’t work,” Jason responded.
“What do you mean? I agreed,” I shot back. I was already agreeing to what he demanded. What more did he want?
“I trust you, Talia, but not them.” Jason pointed to Nolan and Solon. “Your father has to do it at the border, not under the same roof as everyone who wants me dead. Think of it as a way to ensure my survival in all this. I’m sure you understand.‘
My wolf growled within me, ‘We can not trust him. Every word he speaks is a lie.‘
Jason was smart to ask for this. He was right to believe that they would go back on their word. Alpha Landon and Colin were two wild cards who would kill him given the chance. On the other hand, my father was still in the ER, hooked up to tubes. His condition was fragile; any attempt to move him even a short distance meant risking a sudden drop in blood pressure or him going into cardiac arrest before we even had a chance to use the potion. Moving him now could kill him faster than the poison in his veins.
“I cannot agree to that,” I said. “You said he only needed to publicly do it.”
Jason smirked and said, “Talia, you don’t get to set the terms. You want something from me, so we’re going to do it my way. He can do it from a chair. He can do it from a stretcher, for all I care, as long as he does it in his own voice and in front of enough people that the order cannot be walked back. Once it is done, you get the potion.”
“And if he cannot speak?”
“Then, no deal, but I’m sure he will speak. The alternative is dying. Neither of you will allow that if you have any choice.”
Solon stepped forward. “How do we know you won’t destroy the potion the second we sign off on this? You hand the vial to Leslie, my father drinks it, and we find out an hour later that it was water or worse. You’ve walked out of Silverfang tomorrow never to be seen again until the next time you decide to set fire to one of our packs.”
Jason smiled at him. “Solon, do you really think I went to the trouble of getting this potion just to pour water on a table?”
“I think you would do anything if it meant that it would save your miserable hide.”
“Your hesitancy to agree does bring up a good point. I haven’t done anything to make you believe I am being honest,” Jason said. He tapped the table for a few seconds as he thought it through. Then, he smiled as he leaned back in his chair. “Here’s how we do this: I stay here until your father drinks the potion. Surround me with as many guards as you want. The vial stays right here until your father clears me. If anything goes wrong, kill me on the spot. How is that?”
Something in the way he watched us stuck with me, made me uncomfortable. Jason sounded so reasonable for someone talking to the very people who got his father killed. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Jason was putting himself at risk because he knew he was going to win in the end. Even with my reservations, it was a good plan. On the surface, it looked like we had the upper hand, and I prayed that it stayed that way.
“Done,” Solon agreed.
Jason smiled, the calm one I had been watching him use all night. Something in my chest stayed tight when I
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looked at it. He had agreed too easily.
We left
Leslie barely got down the hall before turning on us. “How can you agree to this?”
“We don’t have a choice,” I said.
“That son of a bitch knows exactly what he is doing. The King cannot leave the bed, Talia. He cannot stand long enough to clear that bastard’s name. Jason is asking your father to die in front of an audience,” Leslie argued.
“Leslie. Stop.” Nolan stepped in. “He will be surrounded by guards. He’ll stay in the chair, say what needs to be said, and be back in bed within the hour. Conditions are set. If Jason moves, he’s dead. If anyone touches the Alpha King, they’re dead. We’ve done everything to make this safe.”
Leslie looked at him for a long moment. Her shoulders dropped a fraction. “Fine. Fine. But if he gets one degree warmer in that chair, you bring him back. I do not care if Jason has been cleared or not. You bring him back, Nolan.”
“I will.”
By the time we got to the hospital wing, Solon and Nolan had made a plan, Elite warriors would take Jason to the border the next day. If rogues tried to rescue him, the warriors would kill him before they got close. If Jason tried anything, any signal or move toward a weapon, they would kill him.
“What if he keeps his word?” I asked.
“Then we have to honor the deal,” Nolan said. “Your father gave his word in front of every Alpha at the Gathering. We don’t break it. But the second he is out of Silverfang, then the bounty can be placed back on his head.”
We came around the corner into the hospital corridor. I tried to step past Leslie toward my father’s door. She caught my arm.
“Talia. Let him rest. He needs every minute of sleep he can get tonight, and you standing over the bed is not going to help him. He will wake in the morning.”
“I just want to see him for a minute.”
“Talia. Please, do you trust me?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then, let him rest.”
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