Adolph followed Eden’s lead through the city, trying not to flinch at every fearful whisper. He wondered if the werewolves of the kingdom feared him this much or if their fear was lessened by the fact that they were under his rule.Maybe they did fear him in their way. His blood aura had that effect on all werewolves except for Laurel. He supposed it was because she was the white wolf to his black. The thought of her made the gloom seem a little lighter in his heart and he sighed. He was only going to be here long enough to get things mostly settled before he would return to her. How long could that take? A few weeks? A month? He didn’t want to be away from her for a month. The thought of it made him nervous and his wolf angry in a way he hadn’t expected. He figured it was just because a month from now could be after his unborn child came into the world. He’d been on the battlefield when Basil had been born. He’d felt Olivia’s passing like an afterthought, but he’d felt it and eve
Gavin was surprised to get an invitation to a private meeting with Laurel. Didn’t the girl have any sense? Inviting him to tea was like asking him to poison her outright, or at least giving him a chance to whisper into the ears of the people that she surrounded herself with. With Adolph gone and her so far along in her pregnancy, she was uniquely vulnerable. Anything could happen. When he arrived at the palace, was escorted to her private parlor and smirked down at her as she sat quietly, already sipping tea. Well, she wasn’t so stupid as to make him wait. That was something. He sat down and shook his head, “If only my Olivia could see–”“She’d probably be pulling her hair out in frustration,” Laurel said. “How could a poor country girl be the true mate of the Goddess-Blessed King when she was just his wife?”He scoffed, “A second mate at best. My Olivia—”“You can drop the act,” Laurel said, swirling her tea. “Adolph told me everything about her pining away for him during the war
Gavin would make her pay with her life for the insult and making a fool of him, but he only had a certain amount of time to do it. Based on his sources, Adolph wouldn’t be back for a while yet, but how long wasn’t clear. He had to be quick.With any luck, the man he’d made an appointment with would be on time. “Sir, your appointment is here.”Gavin looked up as he entered. He’d arranged for them to meet in this squalid little townhouse on the worst side of town for the sheer ease of it. No one would suspect that he would meet anyone here and as it didn’t belong to him, it would never be traced back to him. The man entered, hooded, and didn’t sit. He was taller than Gavin and rather broad beneath his cloak. He wanted to see the man’s face, but as he didn’t plan to reveal his face, he couldn’t ask an assassin to reveal his identity. No smart man would have agreed anyway.“I hear you’re someone who can get rid of a problem for me.”“Depends on how much of a problem and what you’re wi
Gavin remained at the home when the attack happened, under the full watch of his staff so there would be ample witnesses. He’d sent a small group of his servants to the capital, just to pick up a few things and wait for their return. As he sipped his whiskey and made plans for what he would do first, he looked through his records. His monetary trail had been covered up well enough. The gold he’d given to the assassin and the rogues who were staging the attack had come from privately held vaults nestled in a small bank at the edge of his territory. It was so obscure that no one would be able to trace the money back to it unless they could break the code on his logbook. Basil was off on the border learning to be a soldier when he should be learning to be a king, so by the time Laurel was murdered and Adolph could even try to return, Gavin would fully be in the clear. “Minister Mirabelle, Jacob has returned from the capital,” a servant said, huffing and puffing with shock. “He said th
Adolph turned to look at Eden down the hall, seated in an open window high above Adolph’s head, silent and still. He hadn’t even noticed Eden there. How had he gotten up there? Could he fly?How had he been so silent? It was as if he was dead with no heartbeat to mark his presence or the whoosh of his breathing. Unnerving and dangerous. He eyed Eden. “Oh?”“When she was a girl, there was a garden down there,” he pointed out to where Adolph had assumed a garden had been. “The flowers were the first to die… then the trees… Then the rock turned black and the canals of blood began to dry up.”Adolph shuddered, “Canals of blood?”Eden nodded, “They feed the base of the protections on the castle. I think in Crystal Castle the protections were fed by the people who lived there.”Adolph frowned, “The living werewolves?”Eden nodded and his lips twitched, “Morrigan’s plan to rot the werewolf kingdom from the inside started long before Delia arrived.”“... is this a part of those memories you
Adolph stood aside as Eden walked to the center of the room. A stone platform lifted him into the air. The air stirred as Adolph watched the thick, black pool ripple and flow through the cracks in the stone platform. “What is he doing?”“It’s a blood cleansing ritual,” Caedan said mistily. “It will release every spirit trapped in the pools and cleanse the reservoirs.”Adolph looked at the man, “Including you?”He smiled and nodded, “Including me.”His voice turned to a whisper and his form vanished into a swirl of light that broke against the dark stone, clearing the darkness. More streaks of light jumped from the flowing liquid, blasting the darkness out of the stone until it turned a glowing silver like moonlight. Adolph watched stone turn silver beneath his feet. The door gleamed behind him and opened. He followed the rushing light and silver back up the stairs until he reached a window and saw that dawn was breaking over the citadel. Had they been down there that long? It hadn’t
It took longer than he anticipated to get back to the capital city. The escort didn’t tell him anything and as he entered the city, he only grew more nervous. What could Laurel possibly want from him? The knights escorted him into the castle with little fuss and straight to the throne room. Laurel was seated on her throne and practically glowing. Her stomach was larger than it had been when he’d left. For a moment, he regretted the sight of her. Laura could have been glowing and pregnant with his child if he had been a good man. His wolf growled, *Laura was not our mate.*He still wasn’t sold that they had found their mate either, but he didn’t want to get into the argument with his wolf right now. After all, they’d had a marked mate bond with Laura. Then, there was Delia who was barely a marked mate, and now, his wolf was making such a fuss about a woman he barely knew. His wolf grumbled, *If you had listened to me before, you wouldn’t be so wary about the possibility now.* He c
Basil went with the search team and went around the house revealing all the telltale signs of a hidden safe. There were several hidden throughout the mansion and with a few looks at the logbooks, he gave them every code he could. He had the servants detained and opened every hidden door and passageway with burning red eyes. The knights who had gone with him reported back that it was a bit like working with a less frightening, though far more angry, version of Adolph. Adolph wasn’t surprised that Basil was taking the lead in the investigation. It was probably a deeper wound than he realized yet to know that his family members had been stabbing him in the back all these years. After all, Basil was a Mirabelle, but above that, he was the heir to the throne. Every act of treachery could have jeopardized that. “Will he be okay?” Raven asked over lunch. Laurel grimaced and swirled her tea as Adolph shook his head, “I can only let him prove what he needs to within reason… But no. I don’t