Only then did I say what I had come there intending to say.
“I’m resigning.”
The words altered the room more than shouting could have.
Thoren rose slowly.
“No.”
There was no anger in it.
Only refusal.
I frowned. “That wasn’t a request.”
“And I’m not accepting it.”
Something cold moved through me.
“I killed my own mate while doing this job,” I said, hearing the steel enter my own voice. “Explain to me why you think I should continue in it.”
He came around the desk then, but not as king confronting subordinate.
As brother confronting a man trying to punish himself.
When he stopped in front of me, his voice had lowered.
“You saved Nevara.”
I looked away.
He continued.
“You reacted exactly as I would expect my Beta to react when a threat moved toward the queen.”
“Threat,” I s
