Chapter 124

Kade

They got me into the chair before dawn, so nobody would see.

Ryan on one side and Liam on the other, down the length of the Alpha wing at a quarter to six, with Daphne walking behind us telling all three of us we were idiots. It wasn’t far from my bedroom door to the office. It felt like the length of the valley. By the time they lowered me into the chair behind my father’s desk, my shirt was stuck to my back and my hands were shaking so badly that I had to put them flat on the wood to stop it.

Daphne checked the bandage. Then she checked it again. Then she stood in front of the desk with her arms folded and looked at me the way she used to look at me when I was eleven and had broken my wrist falling out of the big oak by the lake.

“If you stand up,” she said, “I will sedate you myself.”

“I won’t stand up.”

“You’ll want to.”

“I know.” I took a breath and let it out slowly. “That’s the point. They have to think I don’t need to.”