Bree couldn’t speak for a moment. When she finally found her voice again, she stammered, “W-what?”
Cerelia looked a bit awkward, as though she hadn’t wanted to be the one to deliver this news to Bree, but continued anyway. “That’s why Dallas brought you back here. He wouldn’t have ever delivered a witch to our castle if there wasn’t something else going on. Plus, the way he talks about you—”
“He talks about me?” Bree asked. “What did he say?”
She immediately blushed, feeling like a schoolgirl with a crush, but her eagerness to learn what Dallas apparently thought about her was greater than her embarrassment.
Cerelia just chuckled slightly before she continued. “Dallas doesn’t say much, especially not to his little sister, but he’s been complaining about you for days.”
Bree was disappointed. “Oh.”
“That’s the thing, though,” Cerelia explained. “If he didn’t care about you, he wouldn’t talk about you at all. And now it’s like he can’t shut up. Even if it seems negative, you’re still on his mind at all times.” She smiled a little, shaking her head. “I’ve never seen him like that with anybody.”
“It doesn’t sound very romantic, though,” Bree muttered. Then she realized what she said. “I… I mean, I don’t want it to be romantic. I don’t even like him!”
Cerelia didn’t seem surprised, or insulted by Bree’s hurry to distance herself from Dallas.
“That’s fine. You don’t have to want to do anything. I’m just asking you to give Dallas a chance.”
“Why should I?” Bree said, a little huffily. “He hasn’t done anything but drag me around and tell me what to do since he brought me here.”
“I know he seems cold and tough,” Cerelia said sympathetically. “But there are things you don’t know about him.”
“Like what?” Bree asked, curious despite herself.
Cerelia bit her lip, drawing back from Bree a bit, as though caught between two enemies, both of which were prepared to attack her.
“He’s… had a hard life, to say the least. It’s not easy being the Alpha, and Dallas had to go through a lot to get to where he is now.”
“What does that have to do with me, though?” Bree pressed her.
“It’s not you, specifically,” Cerelia murmured, her hands fidgeting in her lap. “Any witch is going to be hard for Dallas to be around.”
Bree rolled her eyes. “He’s like that? I didn’t expect him to be prejudiced against an entire species.”
“That’s not it,” Cerelia insisted. “We…”
She took a deep breath.
“We lost our mother to a witch attack. A long time ago. There’s a reason why he’s so hostile towards them.”
“Oh,” Bree said.
So that was why Dallas hated witches. She hadn’t imagined it could stem from trauma. That didn’t make it right, but she understood his animosity far better now.
And she wondered, with a pang, if he would ever be able to see a witch differently—to see her differently.
“I didn’t know,” Bree added quietly.
Cerelia rolled her eyes a little bit, smiling. “Don’t worry. You wouldn’t have. Dallas would never have told you himself, even if you are his mate.”
“Wait,” Bree said, “How can I be his mate? I thought that only werewolves could mate with each other.”
Cerelia shrugged helplessly. “Trust me, that’s what we’re trying to figure out, too. Something like this has never happened before. That’s why Dallas is keeping you here; he doesn’t want other people finding out about you before we know what’s going on, or there could be trouble.”
“Cerelia,” a voice growled from the doorway, and the two girls looked up to see Dallas standing there.
Bree felt a little bit like hiding, intimidated by Dallas’ intense stare and gruff voice, but Cerelia just walked up to him as though she hadn’t a care in the world.
“You really should try explaining yourself sometimes,” she told her brother. “It would probably help your interpersonal relationships.”
Dallas wrinkled his nose at her. “I don’t have to explain anything.”
Cerelia looked back at Bree as though to say, See? He’s impossible.
Bree laughed a little, and Dallas glanced her way, a strange look crossing his face. If Bree hadn’t known any better, she would have said that he looked almost fond.
“I’ll let you two chat,” Cerelia said, giving Bree a small wave.
Before Bree could protest, not wanting to be left alone with Dallas, Cerelia had already slipped through the door, disappearing.
Bree and Dallas stared at each other for a moment, the air a block between them. Bree kicked her heels against the bed frame, not looking at Dallas, unsure of what her next move should be.
Luckily, Dallas decided to speak up first. “Do you… like this room more?”
Bree glanced up at him. “It’s nicer. Less of a prison.”
Dallas frowned. “The other room wasn’t a prison.”
“Then why was I locked up?” Bree challenged him.
“Because there’s nowhere else for you to go,” Dallas said stubbornly. “If other wolves find out that you’re here, things are going to get way worse for you, trust me.”
“I think they’re pretty bad right now,” Bree said. “Are you going to at least let me leave the room this time?”
“No,” Dallas snapped. “I can’t let you go anymore. Siri will deliver your meals, like usual.” He gestured to the television set in the room, and the enclosed bookcase on the far wall. “There’s entertainment. You’ll be fine.”
“That’s not the same thing as freedom,” Bree argued. “You can’t keep me in here forever.”
She blinked in shock when that got a small huff of laughter out of Dallas.
“Is that a challenge?” he asked, a hint of playfulness in his tone, and suddenly, Bree could see what Cerelia meant when she had said that Dallas wasn’t all bad.
“It is if you make it one,” she retorted, enjoying the light conversation they were having, wanting to keep it going as long as she could. “Locking me up will just make me want to escape more. I got out once. I’ll do it again.”
Dallas’ face suddenly became cold once again. “You can’t,” he said bluntly. “It’s not safe.”
“Because I’m a witch?” Bree asked. “Or because I’m your mate?”
Dallas inhaled sharply, his entire body going stiff. “Who—Cerelia.”
“Don’t be mad at her,” Bree said. “She was right to tell me.” She paused for a moment. “So… is it true?”
Dallas stared at her for a moment. Then he sighed, his shoulders slumping and his face tilting towards the floor.
Just a slight change of posture, and Bree could clearly see how stressed out he was about the whole situation. It must have been hard for him, suddenly thrust into a relationship that he didn’t want, with someone he was supposed to hate.
Bree waited patiently.
Finally, Dallas said, “Yes. During the attack on your village, my bond sense went off, and it led me to you. That’s why I saved you, and why I brought you back here. Something in the universe decided that we’re meant to be together, and I… I can’t resist that.”
Bree sat for a moment, going over his words in her head. “How is that possible, though? I’m a witch, not a wolf. How can we be together?”
“I don’t know,” Dallas said, and Bree could tell that that was what was bothering him the most; the inability to figure out exactly what was happening, and why. “But… I’m trying to figure it out.”
The words made Bree frown, but before she could really figure out why, she was already speaking.
“We’ll figure it out, you mean.”
When Dallas looked at her in surprise, she gave him a small smile.
“We’re mates, right? That means we should work together to solve any problems that we have.”
Dallas gave her a long look, clearly unsure of how to respond.
Bree was just about to say something else and release him from the obligation of trying to respond to that, when, suddenly, the door to the room was flung open again.
Bree jumped, and Dallas turned around swiftly, but it was just Cerelia, one hand on the door frame as she panted, looking at the pair of them with wild eyes.
“Cerelia?” Dallas asked, going to his sister, concern apparent in his voice. “What’s wrong?”
Cerelia took a deep breath. “It’s one of the pups,” she said. “They’re hurt. Bad.”
Dallas’ eyes went wide, his shoulders rolling back, and once again, Bree saw the Alpha in him. “Show me.”