Chapter 96 Now We Have A Chance

Chapter 96 Now We Have A Chance
Cassandra's POV

The whistle was gone.

I didn't know when I'd lost it, somewhere between the wall and Roman's hand closing around my throat and the realization hit me hard.

Roman leaned in and smelled me again, slowly this time. "You're Kiara," he said. Not a question. A verdict.

He released my throat and stepped back, and the smile that crossed his face was the most dangerous thing I'd seen him wear yet. The smile of someone who has just realized the situation has shifted entirely in their favor.

"You made a tremendous mistake coming here," he said softly.

"I– um– I don't know what you're talking about."

He reached forward and grabbed the pins from my hair.

He yanked them out in one motion. The curls fell to the floor, revealing the full length of my white hair which is far longer than Tiara's, and Roman stared at it for a moment before the look on his face shifted into something genuinely terrifying.

"I've been waiting for a chance to finish what I started," he said. "You just freely handed me one. I'll bury you in these woods and no one will ever find out."

I looked at him.

My throat still ached. My hands were shaking slightly. And I was genuinely impressed at how thoroughly he knew Tiara, the perfume, the necklace, the exact length of her hair. If she hadn't tried to kill me, I might have felt something adjacent to pity for a man who loved someone that precisely.

"You must be joking if you think I came here alone."

He looked around immediately, the smile vanishing.

Liam kicked the door open.

Cam came in directly behind him and Roman tried to shift instantly, but Liam was already on him with a blow to the chest that stopped the attempt cold.

Roman snarled and swung.

Liam moved like he'd seen it before it happened, ducking under the arc and driving his elbow into Roman's ribs with a crack I felt in my teeth. Roman staggered, recovered faster than anyone had a right to, and threw himself at Cam.

"Cam, watch out–" I called but it was already too late.

Cam hit the wall hard enough to shake the lantern above the door. His head connected with the stone and he slid down and went still.

"Cam!" I crossed the room and dropped to my knees beside him. He was breathing, I could see the shallow rise and fall of his chest but his head was bleeding and he wasn't moving. I pressed my hand against the wound and looked up.

Liam and Roman were in the middle of the floor.

Roman kept trying to shift. Liam wouldn't let him, he kept hitting the same points, disrupting it, refusing to let the transformation complete, and there was something surgical about it that told me he had done this before and knew exactly which strikes took a shifting wolf apart.

Roman was strong. He was trained. He fought with the reckless energy of someone with nothing to lose and that made him genuinely dangerous.

For a moment I was afraid, then I remembered exactly why Liam was the Alpha, and I held my peace.

He caught Roman's arm, drove him to the floor and didn't stop. The sounds were terrible, bone and impact and Roman's attempts at sound that kept getting cut off and I turned my face toward Cam, kept my hand on his head and breathed through my nose.

Just then Roman collapsed and Liam bent down and said something close to his ear.

I couldn't hear it. I didn't need to.

He straightened and hit him once more and Roman stopped moving entirely.

The room went quiet.

"Liam, is– is he dead?" I trembled.

"He's not dead," Liam said. He was breathing hard, his knuckles split in two places, a cut above his eye running freely. He looked at Cam first, then at me. "How is he?"

"Breathing. His head is badly injured." I looked up. "How are you?"

He crossed the room, I stood and walked into him, his arms came around me and I held on for a moment with my heart still hammering against my ribs.

"I'm sorry we didn't come in faster," he said quietly against my hair. "We had to let him say enough."

"I know."

"Are you hurt?"

"No." I pulled back and looked at his face, the cut, the blood on his hands, the bruising already forming along his jaw. I touched it lightly. "You are."

"I'm fine."

"You're bleeding from your face."

"It's nothing." He caught my hand briefly. "Trust me, I'm fine."

I heard footsteps outside, multiple sets moving quickly.

"Can you hear that?" I asked.

"Yes. I already called the soldiers." He straightened and rolled his shoulders.

The door opened and soldiers filed in, bowing as they entered. Liam moved to meet them, giving orders in a low and efficient voice, how to move Roman, where to take Cam, which route back, who was to know and who was not.

I stood to the side and watched the room transform from a scene of wreckage into something managed and purposeful, and felt the adrenaline slowly begin leaving my body, replaced by something quieter and steadier.

We had Roman.

We had his confession, the embezzlement, the weapons, Harlan's network of hidden accounts. All of it spoken in this room, with Liam and Cam close enough to hear every word.

"Stop being so emotional about the scene," Liam said, appearing at my side.

"I'm not, honestly."

"You've gone pale."

"I'm fine."

"You look like you're about to– why are you this squeamish? You're the Luna."

"I said I'm fine." I straightened and looked at him. "I'm not squeamish."

He raised one eyebrow, which was fair.

"I'm slightly squeamish," I admitted. "I really hate situations like this."

He almost smiled. "You'll be fine."

"Are you not dizzy from those injuries?"

"Not at all. I'm fine. As an Alpha, fighting and protecting my people is what I'm built for," he said.

"I know. But that's not a reason to pretend you're not hurt."

"I don't need you to–"

"You're fine," I said. "You're very impressive. Your muscles are extremely functional. Are you happy?"

He stopped arguing and held out his arm.

I took it and we walked toward the carriage waiting at the end of the lane. I held him tighter than was strictly necessary and he didn't say anything about it.

Behind us, the soldiers were already moving efficiently with Cam and Roman, following orders.

We had Roman's confession. We had Harlan's plan. Things felt different now from how they had felt this morning.

"How do you think we should approach Harlan given everything we now have?" Liam asked, stopping to look at me.

"Leave that to me," I said. "Let me sleep and wake up first.”