Page 143 of Ascendant King

Nia reached her paw forward and placed it on my knee, scratching slightly.

With a sigh, I stood. The chaos around us had faded with the fighting, and all that was left was a Zoo that now ate part of the city. In the distance, I heard sirens and helicopters.

Soon, we’d have to explain this. Soon, we’d have to figure out if the political weight of House Bartlett still had any meaning when House Bartlett was disbanded.

I extended a hand to Cade, and he used it to pull himself up. He was still smiling as he stared up into my face.

“Let’s go home, and I’ll show you how wolves lick our wounds,” I said suggestively.

“And is that newinkon his neck?” Rhys was speaking rapidly to Nia, who nudged them to their feet. “I’m definitely staying here until I get all of the news.”

Chapter

Forty-Seven

“The Pineridge Springs alpha has arrived.” Coral stood in the doorway, breathless.

I closed my eyes, rubbing my face. “How many does that make?”

“Twelve. It looks like he brought his entire pack.” She tried to collect herself, keeping herself steady until she had her breath under control.

“Twelve.” I stood, walking to the window. I could feel Cade’s eyes on me, and I looked out toward the gate, although I knew that the packs were beyond it, beyond the high hedges that Declan had grown for his own privacy, but now prevented me from getting any sort of tactical information.

“What did he say?” I asked, although the information wouldn’t mean much. They all wanted the same thing.

“He said he’s here to challenge the wolf claiming to be the emperor.” Coral was staring at me when I turned around.

I turned to the other people in the room. Cade was staring at a tattoo that hung in the air between his spread fingers. He didn’t look up, but I could feel his anger coming off him. If I lethim loose, he would happily annihilate all the wolves that had come.

Part of me wanted to let him, as a show of my own strength. Challenge me, challenge my mate, the mage who single-handedly destroyed the mage house system.

With mage houses collapsing, the control of the ley lines gone, all they had left was their money, which gave them enough of a political leg up that they weren’t fully down for the count. But it also left a lot of infighting as they jostled for political reassurances that even without magic on the scale they’d once enjoyed, they’d still be relevant.

In the weeks since Cade had severed the ties to the ley lines, the human government was tensely waiting to see which mage houses had enough money and assets to weather the coming storms. Even in Los Santos, the mayor and a few city council members had made pilgrimages to see what Cade wanted and if he still had enough money to get it.

But the instability meant that mages were contracting their power, centralizing. They cared less about physical territory and more about political power. Which left a gap that werewolves were happy to fill.

After all, wolves knew how to control territory and if the mages didn’t care about land anymore, we were happy to take that off their hands. Which meant no one wanted a single wolf leader, not if that meant he might decide theydidn’tdeserve the territory they saw ripe for the picking.

I supposed it was one thing to let me be the Emperor Wolf when I was trying to be king of a pile of manure. But now that I was standing on a mountain of gold, everyone wanted a piece.

“Thoughts?”

My betas immediately looked at Mayra, the alpha of the Indio Pack. She had been the only one from the Council of Alphas that had immediately come to my side, and I trustedher judgment more than anyone else’s. Almost anyone else’s, I realized, my eyes returning to Cade.

“Yes,” Mayra said, “you could let your mate kill them all.” My eyes snapped back to her, and the smirk on her face was clear. “But it’s more efficient to do what your mother would have done.”

“And what would my mother have done?” I asked.

“Talked,” Emilio answered, even though the question had been directed at Mayra. “She was always good at that. That’s how she got most of her allies. She only had to scuffle with one or two alphas, and they were all younger. A good alpha, asmartalpha, listens.”

I nodded my head, accepting his advice. “Talk. I’m not very good at talking.”

Evelyn started. “You got all of us to be your betas through talking. You can do it, boss.”

Exhaling a long breath, I tried to keep control of my panicked feelings. Then I straightened. “Might as well get this over with.”

I strode out into the hall, only to be brought up short by Rhys pacing. They immediately stopped me, hands up. The wolves that had been following me stumbled to a stop.