Chapter 5

Isla pushed herself off the crate.

"I'm here!"

She struck the pantry door with her good hand, hardly feeling the sting. Beyond the kitchen, Melinda was speaking to the man at the front entrance.

"Mrs. Vale? There's no one here by that name."

"My instructions are to collect her at this address."

"Then someone gave you the wrong address."

"I'm in the pantry!" Isla shouted.

Hilda kicked the bottom of the door.

"Shut up."

At the front of the house, Melinda's voice sharpened.

"I've told you there's no Mrs. Vale here. Good morning."

The front door slammed.

Isla kept her palm against the wood, listening for another knock.

None came.

She hadn't expected relief to hurt, but losing it was worse. For a few seconds, she'd been able to picture herself stepping outside, climbing into a car, and leaving without anyone catching her arm.

Now she couldn't hear anything beyond Hilda's retreating footsteps.

She sat on the crate again, holding her wrist against her chest. The man had the right address and her message. Surely he wouldn't leave without checking.

She was still telling herself that when the lock turned.

Cassian opened the door.

"Come out."

Isla stood, searching his face for some sign that he finally understood.

"Where's the man who came for me?"

"Gone. Fix your collar."

He reached toward her blouse, and she moved out of his reach.

For a moment, his expression hardened. Then he stepped aside.

"There's someone waiting."

Isla recognized Reid's Beta before he turned from the fireplace.

He had attended the winter gathering with his Alpha, standing behind Reid's chair while the older man drank and watched the younger women pass. Two men in the same dark green jackets waited near the window.

None of them looked as though they had come to help her.

Cassian walked past Isla and offered the Beta a smile.

"Sorry to keep you. She's had an upsetting few days."

The Beta looked at her cheek.

"She's hurt."

"A disagreement," Melinda said. "Nothing serious."

Hilda appeared with Isla's bag over her shoulder and dropped it onto a chair.

"Try not to hit this one with a bottle."

The Beta's eyes returned to Isla.

She picked up her bag and slid the strap over her shoulder.

"I didn't agree to this. I'm not going with you."

"She's embarrassed," Cassian said before the man could answer. "You know how these things are."

"No, he doesn't. Tell him what you took money for."

"Enough."

The word cracked through the room. Isla's shoulders tightened before she could stop them, and Hilda smiled.

Reid's Beta checked his watch.

"Alpha Reid is expecting us before lunch."

"Then tell him there's been a mistake," Isla said. "I'm married to Logan Vale."

The man's hand stopped over his watch.

"When?"

"Last night."

He looked from her to Cassian, who gave an exhausted sigh.

"She's been saying that since things ended with Coel. Apparently, she thinks the name will frighten everyone into leaving her alone."

"There's a certificate," Isla said.

"There's a piece of paper."

"It's registered."

Hilda folded her arms.

"She was planning her wedding to Coel yesterday morning. Now she's supposedly married the most powerful Alpha in the country, and nobody's heard a word about it."

The Beta studied Isla.

It was the first time anyone in the room had hesitated, and she stepped toward him before her father could speak again.

"You can check. My certificate is here somewhere, and the registrar will confirm it."

Cassian moved between them.

"I'm not having her dragged through another humiliation because you're entertaining this nonsense. Coel rejected her, and she's trying to save face."

"I rejected him."

"Listen to her," Hilda said, laughing softly. "Everything has to be the other way around."

The Beta glanced toward the front hall.

"Vale's marriage would have been announced."

"Not if it happened last night."

"She's wasting your time," Cassian said. "And Reid's."

Something closed in the man's expression. He straightened his jacket and nodded to his men.

"We've wasted enough time."

Isla stepped back, her bag knocking against the chair.

"You don't have to believe me. But you know I haven't agreed to go with you."

"Your father has made the arrangements."

"Then take him."

Hilda let out a sharp laugh, quickly swallowing it when Cassian turned.

One of Reid's men approached Isla with his hand extended.

"Come along."

"Don't touch me."

He caught her upper arm anyway.

Pain shot through the bruised muscle. Isla twisted out of his grip, but the Beta blocked her path to the hall and caught her other arm.

"Stop fighting."

Cassian picked up her phone from the mantel.

"Take this with you. She can have it when she's learned some manners."

Isla planted her feet as the Beta pulled her toward the door.

Then a crash shook the hall.

The front door struck the wall, and the man holding her turned so abruptly that his grip tightened.

Two men entered first, moving aside as Logan stepped through behind them.

His gaze found Isla.

"Let go of my wife."

The Beta's fingers opened.

Isla pulled her arm against her chest, watching the color drain from his face. He took a step away from her, then another, his mouth working without producing a sound.

Cassian stared at the broken lock.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Logan crossed the room without answering.

Up close, he looked first at Isla's cheek, then at the scarf around her wrist. She tried to straighten the knot, suddenly aware of how badly she'd tied it.

He reached toward her, and she flinched.

His hand stopped.

For a second, neither of them moved. Then he lowered it, offering his palm where she could see it.

"Come here."

She placed her good hand in his.

His fingers closed around hers, firm enough that she could finally stop checking where everyone else was standing.

Behind him, one of his men retrieved her phone from Cassian.

"This is private property," her father snapped. "You can't break into my house and start giving orders."

Logan glanced at the man who had first grabbed Isla.

"Outside."

Reid's guard looked toward his Beta, but the Beta was already backing away, one hand trembling against the seam of his trousers.

He gave a hurried nod.

Hilda's smile had disappeared.

Cassian stepped forward.

"I don't know who you think you are, but she's my daughter. Nobody takes her anywhere without my permission."

Logan drew Isla beside him, leaving no room for her father to approach.

"You took money to put her in another man's bed."

Melinda made a small, indignant sound.

"That's a disgusting way to describe a perfectly respectable arrangement."

Isla felt Logan's grip change, his thumb settling over her knuckles.

"Did you agree to it?" he asked her.

"No."

"Then we're finished discussing it."

He turned toward the door, taking her with him.

Cassian followed.

"You don't get to decide when I'm finished in my own house. If my daughter needs discipline, that's my business."

Logan stopped.

Beside the fireplace, Reid's Beta lowered his head.

Isla's father finally noticed. His gaze moved between the two men, and some of the certainty left his face.

Logan looked back at him.

"You sold my wife, Spencer. Did you think I'd come here just to take her home?"