Page 51 of Ascendant King

I ignored him. He wasn’t here. He was just in my head.

“Tell her that we should stick with our original plan. Everyone comes in by foot; the drivers keep the cars close for when we take House Bartlett.” I glanced at Cade, whose expression had gone still before he finally nodded.

Nia tapped out an answer, then set the wolves who were with us into strategic positions around us, keeping Cade and me safe until the rest of the pack arrived. Justin had finally stepped back, sitting cross-legged and accepting cuddles from the other pups.

I crouched down. “Hey.”

I wasn’t sure what else to say. I had been thinking about the pups often since they’d been taken, worrying about them when Cade and I had enough worries ourselves. Everything in me wanted to apologize, but I wasn’t sure how to say the words.

Finally, I settled on, “I wish I had done things differently.”

Justin was already shaking his head. “No, this… I know that I said some mean things to you, but the people here are so nice. There’s a bunch of them, halfbreeds and some mages who don’t practice like everyone else, and just… everyone here doesn’t fit, so wedo. You know?”

I raised my eyebrows. “I still should have done better.”

“Alpha, you did what you could,” Justin said, his eyes older than the rest of him. “And now we’re here, we’re safe. We get food, and Redbud is making us do online school. One of the people, he got us identification, and they said we can leave anytime we can prove we have somewhere safe to go, but”—one of the pups nudged Justin under the chin, and he batted her away—“we won’t. Not for a while. Because it’s nice here.”

Leaning in, I met his eyes. “Are you sure? I have a pack now, I have a place for you to live, and you could be safe with us, if you wanted.”

Justin hesitated, his brows drawn together. Finally, after the same pup nudged him again, her face going to bliss when he scratched under her chin, he said, “No. This is a good place.”

Heavy footsteps vibrated, and Redbud came back around the corner with armfuls of clothes. Justin took his shirt and pants with a sigh, and the rest of the pups whined but shifted back into human form.

As Redbud dealt with the chaos, Justin grabbed me in one last hug, nearly knocking me off my balance where I crouched. His lips near my ear, he whispered, “Alpha? Be careful. We’re safe, but I don’t thinktheyare. Everything isn’t right here.”

His words were barely a breath, and even Cade, standing right next to me, didn’t seem to hear them. When I looked up, Cade was squinting, mouthing something, as he counted the wolves that had come through the forest road. He looked down as though he’d felt my eyes, and his own gaze softened before he turned away.

“Is everyone here?” I asked, standing.

Redbud rounded up Justin and the rest of the pups, nudging them toward an open front door, her words about dinner andonly getting dessert if you eat all your vegetablescarrying over the crowd.

“Emperor,” a dryad said, walking toward us.

This was going to get old fast. “Just call me Miles, please. Everyone can just call me Miles.”

The dryad nodded his head, and with the motion, I recognized him as Oak, one of the dryads who’d visited the house with the elder.

“The elder has arranged accommodations for everyone. Do you know how long you’ll be staying?” His question was entirely neutral, but there were some teeth in it. They were an isolated village; I doubted supplies and food were something easy to bring this deep into the forest.

“Just one night and day. We plan to move on House Bartlett tomorrow night.”

Beside me, Cade shifted but didn’t say anything. Oak let his eyes move between us. “This way.”

He led us through the town, and I saw a few meeting areas—a covered patio with benches and an outdoor amphitheater. Most of the town was houses, though, without any fences to separate yards. Oak led us to a house on the edge of the town, right next to the enormous wall of trees.

“Those are to keep the wolves out?” I asked. “The elder said Ghost Pack had burned a few dryads.”

“Yes.” Oak nodded. “Although wolves aren’t the only predators we’d keep our people safe from.”

Walking up to the front door, Oak raised his hand, but someone opened it before he could knock.

“Prince Bartlett,” Siobhan said. Cade froze, his breathing hitching at the sight of the chef from House Bartlett. “Welcome.”

Chapter

Seventeen

Iblinked, then looked at Cade, whose whole face had gone pale. I waited for him to speak, but his shoulders tightened, his spine going straight. He said, “Siobhan.”