Chapter 200: Bold, Coming From The Pantsless One

"Do you think I wanted to do that?" Derek’s voice dropped, wolf scraping the edges. "I didn’t. I had to. You don’t know the first thing about what actually happened."

"That’s a yes." Landon rolled past it without flinching, already loading the next round. "Were you also trying to bomb the arena? Answer me."

"What?" Derek’s head reared back like a man who had been slapped by a sentence instead of a hand. "Obviously not. That is the single stupidest thing to come out of your mouth since you walked in on me marking MY MATE."

The High Luna looked at Derek the way a teacher looks at a student who has raised his hand with confidence.

"Stupid is a strong word, dear. Bold, actually, coming from the one who refuses to put on pants. The defense was undermined by the presentation."

Neither brother seemed to hear her. The line went uncollected, like luggage circling a carousel that no one was waiting at. The High Luna made a mental note to bring this up at every family gathering for the rest of their lives.

"Then explain the bombs," Landon demanded.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Oh, I think you do." Landon stepped forward. "You’re lying to me, Derek. I can hear it."

Derek’s head cocked to one side. "Sure. Let’s play this game. What if I told you there were five bombs in that arena and I spent the entire morning trying to disarm them so that ten thousand innocent people didn’t get turned into a crater. What if I told you I got four of them, and someone else pulled the fifth out of the jumbotron for me, because they were looping too. What if I told you Starborne was the only pack that didn’t have pups in attendance by design because they were planning to attack in wolf form in the middle of the ceremony, so I got the whole pack blackout drunk on triples to slow them down. And what if I told you I happened to put ninety thousand of yours and Tavian’s combined tokens down on the woman paired with the number one draftee of the Moonfire to win the whole thing, a slave, so the odds of that happening were almost zero, and the two of you walked out of that arena richer men. You’re welcome, little brother. Now get out of my way. Keep your fangs out of my mate. And shut the hell up about something you have ZERO idea on."

Tavian went very still. His mouth opened, then closed. Something was assembling behind his eyes in real time. His hand drifted to his own chest, then dropped. He looked at Landon. Landon was not looking at him. Tavian looked back at Derek.

"If there were actually bombs, Derek," Landon replied, his voice hard. "A scheduled attack by Starborne is something you would have informed me of and we would have evacuated innocent people."

A sound left Derek’s throat. Not a laugh. Adjacent to one. "Yeah. It’s not that simple. Every time I tried to tell you, they went off. You have no idea what I did to save your goddamn life, Landon. None."

"Dramatics," the High Luna pronounced, with the weary certainty of a woman who had heard her grandsons exaggerate their entire lives. "Yes, yes. Bombs. Dying. Fate. We’ve all had a trying week. If either of you had bothered to court her like a civilized person instead of biting her while she was unconscious, we would not be standing in semen water at midnight arguing about whose fangs go where."

"Here’s what I know, Derek." Landon took another step. "You abducted Nova in the middle of the night. I know it was you. Someone slid something under your chamber door here in Thunderfang. I have it on holo-feed. They left her photographs. I have those too. She went to meet that person because they promised her information on who took her. And they trapped her. In the east wing. The night of the fire."

"Oh, you mean the night you called me to the war room for an ’emergency’ that turned out not to be an emergency at all?" Derek fired back.

"It was an emergency, Derek."

"Emergency my ass. You didn’t want me with Nova. Admit it."

"No. It was an emergency. And tell the room, Derek, when she wakes up, are you going to tell her the truth?"

"You don’t know what you’re talking about, Landon."

"I know exactly what I’m talking about. You’re the one standing there sounding insane, Derek."

"I sound insane?" Derek’s voice climbed. "YOU TOOK YOUR BROTHER’S MATE. WHILE HE WAS IN A COMA. SHE’S MY MATE."

"Derek, dear," the High Luna called over. "If you say she’s my mate one more time you are no longer my favorite grandson."

Landon stepped forward and the step was the step of a man crossing a line he couldn’t uncross and the crossing was happening and nobody in the room could stop it.

"You took my fated mate. You marked her AFTER I marked her. You get one mark in your life, Derek. One. And you used yours on a woman who already carried mine."

"Here we go again with the fated mate." Derek’s laugh had no humor in it. "You didn’t say she was your fated mate at the Moonfire, Landon. You didn’t say it once in that arena. You didn’t say it to me a single time when I brought her home. Awfully convenient, you remembering it now."

"You didn’t say it either, Derek. And you’re conveniently claiming it now too."

Tavian stood frozen against the wall, eyebrows at his hairline, scanning the room for a single other person experiencing what he was experiencing, deep in thought.

The High Luna chose that moment to speak, and whatever Tavian had been thinking was immediately and permanently replaced by what she said.

"Put on pants, Derek. The ding dong has had more screen time tonight than either of your faces and I am over it." The High Luna sipped her drink, serenely.

Neither brother acknowledged the comment.

"At this rate, the Emberclaw boy is going to come back and take her and she’s going to go with him because you two are high maintenance," the High Luna added. "When that happens, I will need a bigger glass."