Page 169

I could only imagine what kind of “punishment” he had in store for Marlowe, and it made me nauseous. I couldn’t let him get his hands on her again.

“Y-yes, Your Majesty.”

“Off with you then, I have a shifter rebellion to quell.”

She got up quickly and scampered out of the room, grabbing the dress that had been torn off her from the floor on her way out.

“Now,” he said, getting up from the chair. He paced the room with his hands behind his back. “Ezra, before you depart to retrieve your sister, you are to instruct the troops to follow me. I will prepare myself in my room and expect them fully addressed and my alderbeast saddled by then. Are you both clear?”

Nivardi and I looked at each other. I had met the male a fewtimes over the years, but it wasn’t until this visit that I had known anything about his relationship to my parents. Between my mom leaving him at the proverbial altar and his wife openly insulting him and screwing the king, I was surprised he wasn’t more bitter or openly hostile than he seemed.

We both turned back to the king and bowed. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

We left the room and headed towards the assembly yard, our steps clipped.

“And what do you plan to do with your sister once you’ve found her?” he asked quietly as we exited his house.

I arched a suspicious eyebrow. I felt bad for the male for everything he’d gone through, but I couldn’t trust him. I couldn’t even trust my own mind to keep me safe from defying the king’s orders.

I decided to stay silent, but he didn’t.

“I did love your mother, you know, and had done what I could at the time to save her from becoming another plaything for the king. She may not have chosen me, but the feelings I had for her have extended to the two of you.”

I kept my mouth shut, allowing him to continue.

“Canna will be kept here, by the way. I pride myself on the integrity of this keep, but it seems omegas have a way of slipping through the cracks when a certain monarch is searching for them.”

My shoulders relaxed enough for him to know his message had been received.

“Do what you can, alpha.”

I didn’t respond, as we’d arrived at the head of the waiting soldiers.

They stood like statues in perfect lines, scarcely moving as they awaited orders. Their shields glinted in the cresting light, the leather from their armor creaking slightly from their breaths.

“Alphas!” I barked. All eyes snapped straight to me. “King Alaroth leads you today. We are shifters, we are alphas! We respect power and dominance above all else. Remember this as your allegiances are tested today on the battlefield. Remember who and what you are.”

I shifted to my wolf, raising my muzzle to the Moons still visible in the dawn sky and howled. They might not have been able to shift, but they howled back, the instincts clear and running through them unimpeded by the silver around their wrists.

I chuffed at the fae, and then left through the front gate to find my litter mate and her pack.

71

MARLOWE

With our plan in place, we trudged through the fae forest, making our way towards the shifter haven.

The pack had all transformed into their wolves, and while I desperately wanted to join them, I figured it would be better to keep my human consciousness intact so I could continue going over the plan in my head. They’d managed to remove the silver cuff, thankfully, so I could still shift in an emergency, at least.

My wolf sighed in relief as we regained our connection, and I gave her a few reassuring pats in my mind.

Wasabi offered to let me ride her, and then Kian bounced between the ground and tree tops, keeping an eye out for any scouts or other secret forces that might be lurking in the shadows.

Every time I saw him, I had to do a double-take—his coloring and build were so similar to Mike’s. It made my heart jump whenever a flash of dark hair and pale skin entered my periphery, and I knew he had noticed and was trying to stay out of sight.

Poor guy. If my pack, my “we’ve-hated-vamps-since-the-day-we-were-born” pack, could get over their prejudices and become friends with Kian, I really should be giving him a chance, too.

The next time I felt his presence behind me, I spoke up. “So, tell me a little about yourself.”