Page 10 of Ascendant King

The words refused to come.

“If you accept me as your alpha, I don’t need a promise. Promises are empty. They only have value if there’s trust.” I offered over my hand. The Pineridge alpha blinked at me. “Do you trust me?”

After a long moment, he extended his hand, and we pressed our forearms together, the scent of our skin mixing together.

“I trust you, Emperor,” the Pineridge alpha said.

“Then I accept your loyalty.”

A swearing of loyalty was done from above, the alpha standing tall, the pack member on the ground groveling. This was something new.

Another alpha came forward, and we clasped our arms, his forearm warm against mine. As all of the alphas came together, the scents mixed further. This was entirely new, and when Mayra came close, last in line, she raised an eyebrow.

“No oath?” Her words were low, but we were all wolves. Everyone left in the clearing could hear her.

“I’d prefer loyalty given from trust. Without trust, an oath is just words.”

“You abide the old ways, but not the ones that leave our power unimpeachable,” she pointed out.

“Do you trust me?” I asked.

“Yes.” She grasped my arm.

“Then we have that in common.” I leaned forward. “I look forward to your counsel.”

“My counsel is to go home,” she said. “And get your house in order.”

“I will,” I said. “I’ll find what remains of my mother’s pack and bring them home.”

She nodded, her eyes still holding the challenge of her words. With that, I had the support of half the West Coast packs. They spread out into the night, shifting and running. I heard a few talking to each other in the dark, and then they were gone.

“Are you ready?” I asked Cade.

The mage lights lit his face from above, the shadows making it impossible to see his blue eyes. I wanted to see if they were still hot with fury or if they’d faded back to chilliness, if the fear he was masking so carefully was visible in his gaze.

“Yes,” he said.

His magic swirled around us, wrapping tighter and tighter, and when it snapped closed around me, I thought,He could kill me like this.

But just as it occurred to me, the magic fell away, and we were back at the Bartlett oceanfront property.

“Were you serious?” he asked.

In the electric lights of the house, I could see his chilly eyes, a disorienting feel of plunging into arctic waters after the warmth of finding wolves who would support me.

“Yes,” I said.

“How’d it go, boss?” Gabe asked, coming down the stairs. He hadn’t even changed into pajamas.

“Tomorrow, we leave for Flores.” I looked at Cade, his eyes going even colder. “I’m going home.”

Chapter

Four

The Bartlett house we were staying at was close to Big Sur, and if we took the 1 back north, we’d pass straight through Flores, a dusty nothing of a town. We’d taken a different route to get to Big Sur, driving around the area entirely. No one had asked me why on the way down, and no one asked why on the way back north.

The caravan was only two vehicles, a black SUV we’d found in Declan’s garage and a sleek town car that Rick had given me when I called him to tell him who was now in charge in Los Santos.