“Why?” Aaron asked from the back of the room. “What were you hoping to gain?”
Julius hesitated. Something about that question seemed to have thrown him off. His fingers curled over his knees. “Respect,” he said. “Power. A better position than I have now.”
All true. I bit my lip. Nothing he was telling us was any use, no matter how honest he was being.
I tipped my head toward the door. The alphas filed out, Marco lingering to shoot one last glare at his rival. I followed them. Marco closed the door behind us.
“Are we taking him outside so you can work your dragon magic on him?” West asked in his usual gruff voice.
I shook my head. “It wouldn’t do any good. He’s not lying to us. He’s not being very clear, and there’s something strange about the way he’s answering, but the things he says he doesn’t know... He really doesn’t know them. Unless he’s somehow strong enough to confuse my impressions when not even the four of you can manage that.”
Marco smiled crookedly. “That hardly seems likely.”
“It doesn’t,” I agreed. “But where do we go from there? He’s admitted to working with the rogues, even if he doesn’t seem to be half as involved as Orion thought. He seemed sure there was a feline calling a lot of the shots.”
“Orion wasn’t really in a position to give you many details,” West pointed out.
“I don’t like the idea of that one walking free,” Nate said, jabbing his thumb toward the door. “If you simply banish him like a regular failed challenger, of course he’ll go straight to the rogues. And who knows what plans he’ll make with them then? He knows your estate; he knows your people. He’ll tell them everything.”
“There are other considerations,” Aaron said.
“Like what?” the bear shifter demanded.
“Like how much I want to tell my kin about Julius’s involvement with the rogues,” Marco put in. “If I imprison him instead of banishing him, I’ll have to explain it somehow. And they might not even believe it. For all they know, I’m making up an excuse after the fact to justify tormenting him further. Which won’t exactly do wonders for morale around here.”
Shit. I hadn’t thought of that. I crossed my arms over my chest. “So what’s our best option?”
Marco sighed. “I don’t know. I can keep him confined a little longer without too many questions, but I’ll need to make some kind of official move soon. Now would be an excellent time for my feline cleverness to kick in.”
“We’ll all think on it,” Aaron said.
Unlike on Nate’s estate, the holding cells on Marco’s weren’t in a basement but a separate building off to the side of the main mansion. When we stepped out, Kylie and Alice were waiting for us.
Kylie bounded to my side, but her face still looked a bit drawn. She’d been quieter since the challenge fight yesterday. That was part of the reason I’d wanted her to stay out here while we did the questioning.
“So what did you find out?” she asked, her gaze flicking back toward the building we’d left.
“Not much,” I said. “We still have no idea whether the rogues are going to attack us here, and if they are, how.”
“Was he really helping them?”
“It seems like it. He admitted to it.”
Kylie cocked her head. “What happens to him now, then?”
I spread my hands. “From what the guys have told me, usually a failed challenger would be banished. His kin mark would be stricken, and they’d mark him on the forehead where anyone could see to show his new status.” I gestured to my own forehead. “Any kin who saw him anywhere near kin territory would have license to kill him. And...”
My voice faltered when I noticed Kylie’s expression. Her face had taken on a slightly sickly cast that clashed pretty awfully with her pink pixie cut. She glanced at me in my sudden silence and smiled, but her mouth wobbled.
Here I was talking about people getting killed like it was nothing. No wonder she was feeling ill.
“Are you okay?” I asked. “If you need anything...”
Kylie laughed awkwardly. “No, no. I think I’ve just had enough shifter brutality for a few days. I didn’t sleep that well last night. Maybe I’ll take a nap.”
“I can see you back to your room,” Alice offered. I was about to jump in and say I would, but I caught myself. Maybe it was me Kylie needed some distance from as well as the rest.
I looked around with a knot in my gut. My mates had ambled toward the mansion too. Marco had fallen a little behind the others, his expression uncharacteristically solemn. He didn’t look worn down exactly, but his usual sly energy had dulled.
The challenge yesterday had clearly taken more out of him than he liked to admit.
I caught up with him, slipping my arm around his elbow. He brightened when he looked at me. “Hello, princess.”
I tipped my head against his shoulder. Suddenly all I wanted to do was wrap myself up in his warmth. Revel in the fact that he was still here, living and breathing, not lying broken under that tiger shifter’s paws.
“I feel like we both need a little more recovery time after last night,” I said. “Is there somewhere on the estate we can at least pretend to relax? Maybe that’s what you need to get those cleverness juices flowing.”
The corner of Marco’s mouth quirked up. “Actually, I know just the place.”
Chapter 19
Ren
With all the commotion yesterday, I hadn’t gotten the chance to explore much of the house yet. When Marco opened the door into the vast greenhouse I’d only seen from outside, my breath caught.
“Wow.” I stepped onto the stone path that wove into the thick tropical underbrush. Overhead, trees jutted limbs in an arching canopy. Artificial cliffs had been carved out of rock here and there along the walls, offering climbing ledges at various levels. The air was warm and humid but not stifling. A floral perfume drifted around me.
“It’s like your jungle gym back at the New York house, only ten times bigger,” I said.
“That’s the idea.” Marco took my hand, and we headed together down the path. “The climate might be warmer here in Florida, but the winters are still cooler than many of us prefer. And this gives us space to exercise our feline natures without any worries about being observed. A wolf or a bear can get away with running around in the woods without too much caution. A jaguar or a lion? That’d draw some attention if any humans spotted us.”
No kidding. “I don’t suppose there’s a really big one of these out at the dragon shifter estate?” I said. “Because if a big cat is noticeable...”
Marco chuckled. “Your home base is in an isolated enough spot that you can fly near there without any problems. The dragon shifters have accumulated a lot of property in the surrounding area to keep humans at a distance.”
The temperature hadn’t felt too warm when we’d first stepped in, but a sheen of sweat was forming on my skin now. I rubbed my arms. “Too bad you can’t turn the temperature down if you need to.”