Filed to story: The Wolf Prince’s Fated Love
I knew without Gael’s direction where my father-no, his body
-was. Some sixth sense led me there, my feet traveling without my permission. But I didn’t hesitate at this threshold, the sounds of low voices and furious growls reaching me as we turned the corner and arrived at his suite in the lodge. I tuned out the small crowd of my closest pack mates and my father’s security, homing in on the scene, my wolf’s keen senses looking for any clue of who did this.
The oversized sleigh bed, which I’d carved myself, stood steadfast against the wall, royal-blue covers undisturbed. Most of the room looked exactly as you’d expect. Fastidiously clean, nothing missing or torn to indicate this was theft driven. My stomach turned to curdled milk when I saw him, and I snarled again, overcome by the urge to kill.
To hunt and tear and rip to shreds whoever had dared strike down my father. Because nothing could ever prepare me for the sight of his body, on the floor in front of the wingback chairs under the reading lamp in the corner. His right hand was curled into his tunic, half-shifted, the wolf’s claws keeping it there even in death, his face tinged with blue and his eyes glassy as they stared at nothing overhead. There was an open decanter of bourbon and a half-empty cut crystal glass on the small table between the chairs, and no blood or other obvious disturbance to the room.
Brielle made a soft sobbing sound, and it snapped me from my horrified staring. I turned and gently set her on her feet near the door, blocking the grisly view with my body. Gael was there in an instant, looming protectively.
“Take her to her friends, please. She’s not to be left alone, not for a single minute.”
“Kane, no. I’m not leaving you alone with this,” she argued, but I ignored her.
This was no place for her, not now. My wolf was on the very edges of my control, and the drive to protect her had risen above anything else. I couldn’t think clearly, not with her arousal-saturated scent permeating the air and our bond incomplete. It killed me to send her away, but I was likely to tear out someone else’s throat if I didn’t.
“Kane, I’m serious. I’m a doctor. Maybe I can help figure out-“
“No.” She flinched back from my hard tone, but I didn’t have room in my head or my heart to speak softly, not standing in the same room as my father’s corpse.
“I understand, Alpha. I’ll send my best men-“
“No,” I snarled, my fangs lengthening in my mouth and making speech impossible. It took three ragged breaths to calm myself enough to pull them back. “You. Stay put on the door and check on her every fifteen minutes until I say otherwise.”
“Yes, Alpha.” He bowed his head deferentially, but I didn’t miss the sorrowful look he cast toward the scene. I was sure he was itching to continue his investigation, but Brielle’s safety was the most important. I wouldn’t accept anyone less than my best man, not when there was a killer in our midst.
As the soft sounds of her footsteps trailed away, I turned back to the scene.
“Who found him?” The words were a whip cutting through the room, and everyone froze.
“Me, sire.” Dimitri’s voice was a low rumble, angst etching the simple words and making his accent thicken.
“Walk me through it. Tell me what happened.”
“I was on post outside the door, as he’d said he needed to call your mother, update her on the day’s progress.” He swallowed hard but soldiered on. “He was only inside about fifteen minutes before I felt something sharp in the bond, and then I heard him fall. He didn’t answer when I called for him, so I shouldered my way through the door.”
He pointed, and I followed the direction of his fingertips to the door, which was indeed splintered as if hit by a freight train. It hung crookedly off one hinge, the other two dangling uselessly in the air.
“He was still breathing, and I called for Sergei to get the healer, but he faded in front of me, Alpha. It was seconds. Mihaela’s name was on his lips when he passed.”
My wolf was clawing angrily at my insides, raging to come out and shred this room with claws and fangs, but I locked him down with iron will.
“I want the Russo Alpha found and brought back immediately. This reeks of Russo cowardice. Send out three enforcers.” I gave the order to no one in particular, but the sound of running footsteps assured me that it would be carried out.
I would kill the bastard who did this, and I wouldn’t lose control a second before. My wolf would have his revenge, sate his bloodlust with his fangs in the throat of the man who dared strike the high alpha of Pack Blackwater.
THIRTY
Brielle
My hand shook on the knob to Shay and Leigh’s bedroom. I shoved it open, not bothering to knock.
“Is that Brielle? I need all the details on your time at the hot springs!” Leigh practically purred from the bathroom, but I couldn’t respond. I was in shock, and sad, and my head was spinning. It felt like I’d been strapped into a roller coaster of emotion tonight, and I was not in the least prepared for it.
The highs had been incredible, but the lows… I couldn’t compute the lows yet. The look on his face when he saw his father’s body and the moment when he pushed me away, sending me off like a kid with a scary babysitter were currently warring for worst moments of my life.
Shay stood from her spot huddled behind her Mac at the small desk tucked in the corner, worry creasing the skin between her eyebrows as she pulled her headphones off. “Brielle? What’s wrong?”
The sobs came before the words, and she rushed to me, wrapping me in her arms as she called for Leigh.
“What? I told you she was going to come back smelling like sex and sin-” Leigh’s whole demeanor changed when she came out of the bathroom, hair half-curled. “Oh my Goddess, if he hurt you, I’m going to kill him
!” she snarled as she wrapped her arms around me too, right over Shay’s. “You have to tell us what happened, sweetie. Did he hurt you? Push you? Try to make you bond with him before you were ready? I don’t care who he is, I’m going to rip off every toenail and shove them up his nose before I take his asshole head off!”
I shook my head, trying to get her to stop. “No, Kane was amazing. It’s Alpha Kosta. Somebody killed him.”
Shay gasped, the sharp inhalation blowing against my damp hair and making me shiver in their arms. “That’s terrible. What happened?”
“I don’t know yet, but I didn’t see any blood, so it didn’t look like a physical attack. Maybe poison? There was an open drink on his side table, and no signs of an intruder, though I didn’t look around long.”
“What a coward’s way out. Who else would poison the high alpha but someone who couldn’t challenge him in a fair fight.” Leigh was vibrating with anger. Wolves might have been natural-born hotheads, but we respected a fair fight. Strength led in the wolf world. She pulled back a few inches, studying my face, before urging me to the end of her bed.
“I don’t know, I really don’t. But whoever it was, they got away.”
Three days.
It had been three days since I’d seen Kane, and I was losing my mind. The three of us had been cooped up in this room, Gael and Reed perpetually on guard, with them being the only ones to bring us food or speak to us.
The announcement of Alpha Kosta’s death had rocked the gathered wolves, howls tearing through the air the next morning, when word spread. The activities had been called off immediately, but no one had left, at least from the little Leigh had managed to wheedle from our guards. Gael seemed to have a soft spot for her, despite the fact that they fought like enemies. Or lovers, though Leigh would never admit if she was attracted to him. Right now, she was cussing him a blue streak after pounding on the door until he got tired of the racket and opened it.
“You can’t just keep us locked in here! This is insane, and I want to speak to our Alpha!”
Gael stood solid and immovable in the doorframe, his shoulders filling it solidly and leaving no room for an escape attempt around his crossed arms and rock-hard chest.