Chapter 5

Rayne's arm loosened by a fraction.

I felt it and drove the point in.

"You didn't bring a medical officer. You didn't read me the charge. You didn't let me contact counsel. You locked me in a cell and used silver on a wounded recruit."

Rayne turned me around so fast my shoulder struck the bars. His body blocked the cell door. One hand planted beside my head. The other still held my wrist.

His face was inches from mine.

"You think a legal phrase will scare me?"

"No. I think the tribunal will scare you."

"The tribunal answers to frontier command."

"And frontier command answers to every pack funding this warcamp. Blackridge isn't the only pack watching you."

His eyes went flat.

I kept my voice low. "Put me on trial without a witness, and I'll tell them you detained me over a personal claim. I'll tell them you used silver because you wanted to break your mate's resistance."

The guard behind him shifted.

Rayne's jaw tightened. "You'd lie."

"I wouldn't have to. There's a guard, a camera crystal, and your handprints on my throat."

"I never touched your throat."

"Not yet."

That landed.

His gaze dropped to my mouth. My breath caught before I could stop it.

For one reckless second, neither of us moved. His chest brushed mine with every breath. Rough wool scraped the leather at my ribs, and his scent curled under my skin until my wolf went silent to listen.

Rayne's grip slid from my wrist to the chain. "You use your mouth like a weapon."

"It works better than your needle."

"I could make you beg."

"You could try."

His eyes darkened.

The bond pulled again, hot and vicious. My knees weakened. His thumb pressed into the inside of my wrist, and I hated that he noticed.

"You're shaking."

"You're standing on my foot."

He glanced down.

My boot was trapped beneath his. I kicked hard.

He released me before my heel connected. I stumbled into the table and dragged air into my lungs.

Rayne turned away first.

Not because he was finished. Because he needed distance.

That was the first thing I'd won since entering Ironfang.

I leaned against the bars. "Question me all you want. But if I die in this cell, your illegal witness hold goes public."

Rayne looked over his shoulder. "You won't die."

"You don't know that. Cole's order gives you cover. You can claim I resisted. You can claim I attacked a guard."

"I won't kill you."

"You already said you didn't know whether I was a spy."

"I know now."

"What changed?"

He came back to the table and braced both palms against it. "You kept taking the silver."

I stared at him. "That proves I'm stubborn."

"It proves the pup matters more to you than your own pain."

"Yes."

The answer stopped him.

I lifted my chin. "Now you know the truth. Do what you want with it."

Rayne studied me, then reached for the extradition order.

"You want a temporary hold?" he asked.

"I want protection under frontier law."

"That law doesn't protect fugitives."

"It protects witnesses to pack crimes."

"You haven't given me evidence."

I tapped the armor over my chest. "My scar is evidence."

His gaze dropped to it. "You haven't shown me the scar."

"You saw enough."

"Not enough to bind my command."

"Then make a choice. Send me to Cole and let him finish what he started, or keep me here and find out why he wants me dead before the tribunal does."

"You think I care what Cole wants?"

"I think you care about your camp. If he comes through your gates for me, your soldiers will stand between his army and the border."

"He won't attack Ironfang."

"He already sent an order. Men like Cole don't send paper when they can send bodies."

Rayne's fingers tightened against the folder.

I watched the calculation cross his face. He wanted a way to use me without admitting I'd forced his hand.

So I gave him one.

"You don't need to trust me," I said. "You need to verify me. Keep me under guard. Take my statement. Check the order. But if you hand me back to Cole before you do that, you'll never know whether you delivered a witness or a weapon."

His eyes narrowed. "You're offering cooperation."

"I'm offering a controlled exchange. You stop treating me like a prisoner, and I stop making your guards choose between following orders and breaking the law."

The guard shifted again.

Rayne didn't look at him. "Leave us."

"Commander—"

"Outside the door. Keep the crystal recording. No one enters without my order."

The guard hesitated, then obeyed. The cell door clanged shut behind him.

Rayne slid the extradition order across the table. "One hour. You stay in this cell. You answer every question about Cole. You don't leave the compound or contact anyone outside command staff."

"And the pup?"

His mouth hardened. "You don't tell me where it is."

"You won't search for it?"

He held my gaze. "Not for one hour."

"Swear it under command law."

"I swear it."

"In writing."

His mouth twitched. Not a smile. Something sharper. "You really don't trust me."

"You have me chained to a wall. What do you think?"

He reached for the folder without releasing my cuffs. The movement forced us close again. His knuckles brushed my hip, and the wool of his shirt dragged over my cheek when I turned my head.

Heat pressed through my armor. He smelled too good.

That was the problem with fated mates. The body didn't care who held the weapon. It didn't care who had been rejected, hunted, or sold out. It only knew the person standing close enough to ruin you.

Rayne tore a blank strip from the order and uncapped a black pen.

"Read it aloud," I said.

"Sera Vaughn is held under temporary frontier witness protection. No soldier will pursue or remove the protected witness for one hour without my direct order."

"Add the child."

The pen stopped. "No."

"Then I don't sign."

"You don't have to sign."

"I do if this is a contract."

His gaze lifted to mine.

"Fine." He pressed the pen to the paper again. "The protected witness will not be separated from any dependent under her care during the hold."

"Better."

"You sound pleased."

"I'm alive. It makes me charming."

Rayne finished writing and pushed the paper toward me. "Sign."

"Release one hand."

"You could attack me."

"I could attack you now."

His grip tightened around my cuffs. "Don't tempt me."

"I'm not tempting you. I'm making sure your promise survives if you change your mind."

He stared at the signature line, then at me. For the first time, the decision wasn't about forcing an answer out of me.

It was about putting his command behind my protection.

Rayne drew a small key from his belt and unlocked one cuff.

The sudden freedom burned through my wrist. I rubbed the raw skin and took the pen.

"If this is forged," I said, "I'll use the camera crystal to prove you threatened me into signing."

"You never stop, do you?"

"Not when someone has my child."

Something shifted in his face at the word.

Not anger. Not suspicion.

A question he still wasn't ready to ask.

I bent over the paper. "One hour starts when I sign."

"It starts now."

"Then you're already wasting it."

His eyes flashed. "Where is the pup?"

I smiled thinly. "Ask me about Cole first."

For a beat, the cell held only the scrape of my pen against the paper.

Then Rayne's command bell rang once from the corridor.

His head snapped toward the door. The pen stopped a hair above the signature line—