Page 35 of Ascendant King

I smelled Cade as he came down the hallway, his footsteps as silent as a wolf’s. As soon as he entered, the dining room tensed. He looked around, cool eyes skimming over everyone before he took a seat at my left elbow.

He was going to wait to be served, but no one at the table was going to serve him without my say-so, and I was hesitant to use my power like that. It was too similar to how other alphas ran their packs.Do this because I demand it, not because it’s a good use of your time.

Before I had to command anyone, Gabe stood up, walking over to the middle of the table and taking one of the plates, serving Cade the eggs and sausage, the fruit on the side.

He put it in front of him before retaking his seat and turning back to the wolf who was still holding out her phone, eyes wide. When Gabe glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes, I gave him a nod.

Conversation resumed quietly, the ocean slowly coming back after low tide.

Cade picked at his plate, tilting his head to me, the only indication he was speaking to me. “What’s the plan for today?”

“Pack council. We need to go over what we know.” I frowned. “The chemists need to look at what we found at the dealer’s house.”

“That sap, the poison…” Cade frowned. “If we knew what it was, what itreallywas, we might have a better idea why it’s spreading.”

“I want you at the meeting,” I said. “You and I are the only ones who have interacted with the poison before.”

“And the king gets what he wants,” Cade said, his voice as parched as the desert.

It was so close to what Declan had said last night that I almost startled. Instead, I finished my food, nursing a cup of coffee and listening to the resumed conversations around me.

When Nia came to the door of the dining room, I stood, Gabe jumping up to follow me. Cade was slower to stand, his shoulders going back and eyes cutting across the room, silencing every conversation.

He walked next to me, refusing to follow in my wake. It made for some awkward jostling at the door, but Nia rolled her eyes at us both and jerked her head.

Declan’s office was large enough that we had been able to put the table for pack council in it. We were the first ones there, and the box of evidence we had collected sat in the middle of the table.

As I began taking things out, Nia tapped the table once. Looking over, I saw that she had a pair of blue nitrile gloves in her hand.

Sheepishly, I pulled them on, removing everything else carefully. When I got to the folders, I handed them over to Cade. He skimmed them, and I examined the vials of syrupy poison.

It didn’t tell me anything new, and I turned to Cade, stepping close to read over his shoulder. He shivered, just subtly enough that only I could feel it where my body almost touched his. There was a slight hitch in his breathing when I shifted.

His hands stilled, and I didn’t need to see his eyes to know he wasn’t reading a single word anymore.

When I turned to Nia, I let my arm brush Cade’s and saw his fingers twitch on the folder. A hint of ink showed over the edge of his collar.

“Do we know anything about the Clematis family? Wealthy werewolves living above our mystery dealer.” I dragged my eyes away from Cade’s throat to look at Nia.

She raised an eyebrow but shook her head.

“The dealer is Craig Kaur. He worked at a chemical development company. Zante Tech.” I let the words sink in, and Nia’s eyebrows went down.

“Yeah.” I shook my head.

“Miles.” Cade reached out, brushing his fingers along my forearm. The hairs stood up, my body tensing at the slight motion. “Look at the address of one of his references on his rental application.”

“That’s a House Bartlett address.” I frowned. “So does that mean he was still working for Leon?”

Cade shrugged. “Why does Leon need something else developed? He has a working drug right now with Thorn.”

I growled. But before I could say anything else, wolves began trickling in. A pack council was usually only formed when a pack got too big for a single alpha to control it. Sometimes that meant territorially big—Ghost Pack controlled too large a swathe of the coast to manage it without a council. Sometimes that meant too many members or members who needed too much handholding.

Our pack wasn’t quite either yet, but the intricacies of Declan’s empire meant that I still needed a council.

Nia took the chair next to me, and after a long beat, Cade took the other side. Evelyn, Heather, Gabe, and Joel each took seats based on their rank. Kieran came in last, his harsh breathing indicating that he’d rushed from his apartment in order to make it.

“Thanks for joining me,” I said. “The council of alphas went well. A lot of packs are willing to join us in our attack on House Bartlett.”