Page 63

Nox

I leave Fawn with Eiden, knowing I would have done things; consequences be damned, if I had stayed near her a moment longer.

The last person I fell this hard and fast for was Eiden, and he was a broken, feral thing who brought out an unexpected side of me.

I’m highly dominant.

Eiden is highly submissive.

Yet I had never felt so fiercely protective of someone the way I did Eiden the day we met.

Fawn brings out similar feelings but layered with a heavy dose of possessiveness.

I am not normally possessive. I have watched Eiden fuck men and women and was only interested in the gratification of the moment. My feelings for Fawn have taken me by surprise.Perhaps they are an extension of my love for Eiden and how much he already adores Fawn.

But I don’t think so.

No, I think these feelings are all mine and all for her.

Only Fawn is not submissive, not entirely, and there is definitely something else lurking under her shy persona that I want to explore.

I find Seven in the Constable’s room, where he’s reviewing today’s reports. The old constable—a human alpha who mated not one, but two does, and who has more gray than brown in his hair, twitches his nose.

Alphas have an impressive sense of smell… much like wolves.

“Her scent is all over you,” Seven says bluntly.

Deer shifters do not have heightened senses when in human form, so clearly dousing myself in the lake did not fucking help. “We did not fuck her,” I offer. I believe he reads between the lines because he maintains his unwavering stare—I try changing tack. “Where is Jude?”

“I asked Gideon to give him a tour of the barracks.”

“And he went?”

“He seems resigned.” Seven hands the scroll he was reading to me.

I glance down and skim over the information with increasing rage. “How confident are we of this report?”

My gaze shifts between Seven and his alpha constable, Ambrose.

“Very,” Ambrose says. “The tavern they were seen in is a known place for shady dealing. We keep watch as often as we can without drawing suspicion. This was the second time one of them has been noted there.”

My brows rise. “We have seen more than one?”

“Yes.” Ambrose nods. “Two of the three surviving brothers on separate occasions. Both in Wormwood. They probably think we do not have eyes there.”

Fucking Wormwood. A broken portal let a scourge into the city many centuries ago. With the help of the fae, it was closed, but we were left with a horde of monsters of every flavor, including the human kind. We should have razed it to the ground in my opinion. Instead, they walled it off, and left them, hoping they would just kill one another.

They didn’t.

Which leaves us living with the legacy.

There is some access, strictly monitored, in and out. But if there is trouble anywhere in the city, you can bet it originated there.

“They were exiled,” I say. “They dared to set foot, not just in your kingdom, but in the capital city. We would be within our rights to kill them on sight.”

“We need them all,” Seven says, taking the scroll from me and handing it back to Ambrose. “Otherwise, whoever we leave will just dig in somewhere and seek revenge at a later point.”

“You think that is what this is? Revenge? Has it got anything to do with the attack on the patrol where Eiden turned feral?”