"I was ashamed."
"Did you enter the treasures room without permission to look through the sacred ancient text?"
"Yes."
"Were you captured by Bio-Chrome?"
I'd so hoped that they wouldn't go there. My gaze jumped to the flat screen, before settling back on Elder Wilde. "Yes."
He gave a nod. Elder Mitchell twisted around in his seat and pointed a remote at the TV. It came on and in the next instant, Connor and I were back in the cage right after the cougar attack. I was holding him in my lap, yelling at Mason.
My first thought was that I looked terrible' My hair was a tangled mess, my eyes had a wildness in them, my face was smudged with dirt. How could Connor have stood holding me?
It was painful to hear me bargaining with Mason, even more painful to see Connor lying there so still and pale.
The scene abruptly cut to the white and black room. I was freshly showered. I looked like a traitor.
Standing in the council room now, I fought not to squirm as I watched Mason peppering me with questions that I answered in a flat, emotionless voice. My eyes even looked dead. Having to endure all this again was cruel and unusual punishment. Where was Amnesty International when I needed them?
The video rolled along until it reached the worst part of my ordeal.
"Come on, Mason. Let me go back. I told you everything I know."
"Everything?"
"Everything."
"Then what do you have to bargain with? "
I'd looked panicked when I thought I'd appeared so cool and in control. I could see my mind searching for something, anything. I knew by the slump of my shoulders when I found it. Then I straightened on that stupid white sofa.
"At some point, you're going to need to test your serum or whatever it is on a human."
He grinned. "Are you volunteering? "
I swallowed. "Yeah."
"Let me make sure I have this right—if I take you back to the cage, when the serum is perfected, you'll willingly let me inject you with it?"
"Yeah, as long as you don't talk, because I'm really getting tired of hearing you talk."
"I'll want a full report of everything you experienced, everything you felt."
"You'll get it."
Watching the victorious grin of satisfaction that crossed Mason's face, I saw again on the screen what I'd recognized in that stupid room—I'd given Mason exactly what he'd wanted all along. A human guinea pig.
Thank goodness the TV suddenly went black. The torture was over. Everyone knew that my lying about being a Shifter was the least of my transgressions. I couldn't look at Connor. I just couldn't. I'd never wanted him to know exactly what had happened when I wasn't with him. I'd betrayed everything he and the Dark Guardians were fighting for. To protect their kind.
"Do you have anything to say in your defense for your flagrant disregard of our traditions and rules and your willingness to consort with the enemy?" Elder Wilde asked.
Consort? Who used words like that anymore? I opened my mouth—
"If it pleases the elders, I have something to say," Connor announced.
As one, the three elders turned their heads toward him. "It does please the elders, Guardian McCandless."
Connor stood, his gaze homing in on the elders like that of a predator who intended to intimidate its prey into surrendering. "I've known Brittany a long time." He shook his head. "No, I haven't known her. I've seen her. Working out, running. Taking campers into the wilderness. Not until we were captured by Bio-Chrome did I really get to know her. You've only watched a minuscule fraction of our time with Bio-Chrome. For days we were prisoners, left alone with no idea of what was going on. She never grew discouraged, she never complained. Sometimes she even made me laugh.
"She's courageous. They released a cougar on us to force us to shift. She couldn't. I did. But she didn't cower in the corner. She used her strength and a hell of kick to distract it so I could get the advantage.
"She's resourceful. When Mason attacked us in the forest, I shifted, but again, she couldn't. I had him pinned, but I couldn't finish him off. She kicked me—kicked me—off of him so she could get to him and impale him with a weapon she'd made.
"She's loyal. When they took her away and refused to bring her back, she made a deal with the devil to return to me, to our prison, so I wouldn't be alone. You just saw her interrogation. She didn't tell Mason anything that would have helped him, anything that was a true betrayal to us.
"Yes, we have the ability to shift into wolf form, but we are not wolves. It is our intelligence, our courage, and our willingness to put others first that separates us from the animals. No one is more dedicated to protecting the Shifters than Brittany. Whether or not she is a Dark Guardian, she is my mate. I declare her as such."
I heard a couple of gasps. The loudest of all was mine. "Connor, no' You don't know what they'll decide. They could banish me, they could—"
His gorgeous blue eyes came to bear on me. "I don't care what they decide, Brittany. You told me that there was nothing you wanted more than to be a Dark Guardian. There's nothing I want more than I want you."
I felt the tears burning my eyes.
I will not cry. I will not cry.
"Connor, I lied. There is something I want more than to be a Dark Guardian. You."
He grinned with satisfaction. "I was hoping you'd feel that way. You're my mate—if you so choose."
For the flicker of a heartbeat it looked as though he doubted what my answer would be. I'd never wanted anything more. "I choose you."
His eyes held so much love, warmth, and pleasure that nothing else that was facing me this morning seemed important. They could kick me out, banish me, send me to the moon, and I'd be happy.
"Have you anything else to add, Guardian McCandless?" Elder Wilde asked.
"No, sir."
The elder nodded and Connor sat.
"Have you anything to say in your own defense, Guardian Reed?" Elder Wilde asked.
"I never meant to put anyone in danger. I truly thought I could perform my duties even though I couldn't shift. But I also knew if I told the truth about my situation, that I wouldn't be accepted. I've only ever known life among the Shifters, so maybe I'm not quite as brave as Connor thinks. I didn't want to be kicked out. But I will accept the decision of the tribunal."