Page 15

Chapter 15

The Prince and Me

KEENAN

“D oes she mean sex?” Vanessa asks faintly, leaning away from Sarina.

I intervene, breaking Sarina’s hold and pulling Vanessa against my side. Addressing Vanessa, I say, “Yes, she means sex. She spent two hundred years as a wolf and isn’t used to human sensibilities.”

Sarina growls, “I’m just fine as a human, it’s them who need to learn fewer sensibilities.” Sarina has been in a huff with the humans since she made the mistake of asking the United States President if her human baby was born without a tail or if it fell off later.

Vanessa grins. “I agree with Sarina, humans need to be less sensible. And no, we haven’t had sex yet. We’re waiting for the right moment.”

Sarina nods and takes Vanessa’s arm, walking with her toward the vehicles. “It’s much better on a soft bed of moss in a nice little wooded glen. I know of a place north of Wolf-Haven. I can show you…”

“Are they going to be okay together?” Lock asks, his gaze on his wife. It’s not his wife he’s worried about. Sarina’s wild side is part of her charm, but she could be dangerous to a human if she becomes offended and forgets who she’s talking to.

I shrug, unconcerned. “I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t get along with Vanessa. They’ll be fine.”

“Good,” Lock says grimly, striding after the women. Rush and I fall into step with him. “We’ll be busy while you’re here. There’s been a development involving Lennox.”

I’d hoped to spend time with Vanessa showing her around Wolf-Haven during our short break but apparently my brother has other plans.

We take two vehicles to the castle, arriving without fanfare. I’m glad for it, though Vanessa would have loved all the pomp and ceremony. Perhaps one day I’ll convince Lock to bring out the royal trumpeters and red carpet so she can enjoy the experience.

We regroup at the castle entrance.

Lock is looking grimly at his phone. “I apologize, Vanessa. I’m going to have to borrow Keenan while Sarina shows you where you’ll be staying.”

Sarina grabs hold of a startled Vanessa, yanking her to her side. “We’ll be fine. I’ll show her everything.”

“Not everything,” Lock says sternly.

Sarina frowns. “The whole castle is interesting. I’m sure she’ll want to see all of it. Right, Vanessa?”

“Yes, I do,” she promptly agrees.

Lock shakes his head, but his expression softens as he looks at his wife. “Stay out of the dungeons, Sarina.”

Her eyes widen and I suspect she forgot about the dungeons. I notice she doesn’t promise to stay out of the castle prison as she drags Vanessa away.

Looking over her shoulder with a grin, Vanessa blows me a kiss before disappearing.

“I can see why she’s an actor,” Lock murmurs. “She’s lovely.”

“Agreed,” Rush grumbles. “Seems decent for a human.” A high compliment coming from my oft ill-tempered brother.

Under different circumstances I might be jealous, but Lock and Rush are happy with their mates and would rather cut off their own cocks than stray.

“Follow me,” Lock says, his expression hardening once more. “We have a developing situation that needs to be discussed.”

Rush and I hurry to keep pace with our oldest brother. “More fallout from Fallon’s reign?” I ask.

When Lock deposed Fallon and took over, he inherited a broken kingdom. Over the years he’s worked tirelessly on bringing Wolf-Haven out of the dark ages and fostering relations between humans and shifters.

He shakes his head. “No. Closer to the Pendle incident.”

“Shit,” I mutter.

Rush adds, “The situation is starting to get out of control.”

Pendle had been a strictly human town hiding a dark secret. It harboured a facility designed to institutionalize, experiment on, and exploit non-humans. Rush’s witch mate was arrested in Pendle and taken to the facility where she was tortured until Rush arrived to break her out. He was killed in their escape attempt, but Magdalene’s grief was so powerful it turned her into a Rage Witch and she was able to bring him back from the dead.

Since then, Lock and Rush have been investigating the network of anti-shifter, anti-witch humans.

“You’ve found something?” I ask grimly.

“More than something,” Lock replies cryptically, and I fall silent.

He leads us to his war room, a modernized version of the round table that occupied the room for centuries. It was where my brothers and I met with the old council and where, after the Human-Shifter war concluded, the castle and all of Wolf-Haven was gifted to the five Wolven-North brothers.

We sit at the table, still round, but now made of black marble with tablets at each seat. I sit in my designated seat while Lock takes his at the head of the table and Rush sits to his left. Though Rush should be on his right, we choose to leave the seat empty in case Fallon ever regains his senses and is able to resume his place at the table.

Speaking of our brother. “How is Fallon doing? Is he still at the tower?”

“Yes,” Rush grunts, leaning back in his chair, his arms crossed. “Better than bringing him here. Still a lot of ill-will toward him from the shifters in the area, despite it being the curse that addled his brains.”

“And for good reason,” Lock interjects. “He caused a lot of damage in Wolf-Haven and beyond. It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t aware of what he was doing. His reign cost lives and livelihoods.”

And nearly cost Sarina her life. Lock may have spared Fallon’s life, but I don’t think he’s forgiven him.

“And now we’re setting it right,” I say, attempting to keep the peace between my brothers. Rush is the crankiest of us and Lock is brusque; they frequently rub each other the wrong way, despite working closely to set Wolf-Haven on the right path. “Tell me why you wanted me to come back so bad after going to the effort of uniting me with my mate?”

Lock catches the hard edge in my tone and has the grace to look guilty. “You were never going to make a move. Thorny simply helped you along.”

“At your behest.”

Rush smirks.

Lock changes the subject, picking up a remote control from the table and turning to a large screen at the front of the room. “Lennox sent this to me earlier. It’s body camera footage from a crime scene he attended.”

I turn my chair to watch, frowning when I see nothing but smoke for several seconds. Soon, I’m able to pick up the sound of Lennox coughing and the crunch of his shoes on what sounds like gravel or glass.

“I’m entering the building now,” he says, then some rustling. “Putting on my mask.”

“Lennox is documenting the scene for further investigation. He was sent in shortly after the fire was put out,” Lock explains.

“I thought he was a police detective with the shifter division. I don’t remember him joining the fire department,” Rush growls. “What’s he doing at the scene of a fire?”

“They found a body.” Lock continues the video clip.

The smoke clears enough that we’re able to see what looks like the charred interior of a warehouse.

“Where is this building located?” I ask.

“New York,” Lock answers. “The meatpacking district.”

“Meat?” Rush asks, his tone shifting to intrigued. “There’s an entire district catering to meat?”

I start to salivate and quickly calculate the last time I ate a meal. Three hours. I could go for a nice, rare steak with a side of sausage links and a frothy mug of beer.

“Focus,” Lock says impatiently, catching the image in my brain. “We have a lot to talk about before we leave here. The meatpacking district is an upscale commercial zone in New York that houses shopping and restaurants. The warehouses used to be meatpacking plants, hence the name.”

Picking up on his subtext, I muse, “The fire happened in an upscale neighborhood, and a body was found at the scene. Did anyone see anything?”

Lock shakes his head. “It happened in the middle of the night and no witnesses have come forward.”

“Has the body been identified?”

He waves my attention back to the screen. Lennox is making his way steadily through the building, commenting as he goes. “The heat and spread of this fire destroyed a lot, but not everything.” He kneels on the floor next to a spray-painted message, brushing soot and ash away with his gloved hand.

The message is in big bold red letters. SHIFTERS WILL KILL US ALL.

Lennox pans his camera and we’re able to see similar messages sprayed across the walls.

Lennox continues to make his way through the building. His voice becomes urgent as he approaches something. “We have a body.”

“Fuck,” Rush mutters.

It’s a male wolf. Not a wolf but a wolf shifter who died in wolf form. The singed fur is black with streaks of grey. Lennox moves the camera around the body, getting it from every angle. It’s a gruesome sight. The wolf’s teeth are pulled back in a snarl and its eyes are open and glassy, as if it’d been in mid-attack when it was killed.

“No shifter did this,” I mutter, queasy as Lennox leans over the body, examining it.

Lock agrees with me. “The throat is intact.”

What’s not intact is the chest cavity. It’s a gaping empty hole.

“The heart was removed after death,” Lennox comments, his tone professional. “The chest cavity is clear of blood.”

Lennox is my twin. Even though his tone is cool, I can sense the boiling rage beneath it.

“Hey you!” A voice off screen catches Lennox’s attention and the camera shifts to capture a woman storming up to Lennox. “What are you doing contaminating my crime scene? Who let you in here?” She’s tiny next to him, smaller than the average human female, almost child-like next to our brother. Her small black brows are pulled into a frown. Her hair is black with bright blue bangs.

At first, Lennox says nothing, then asks, “You’re the fire investigator?”

There’s something in his tone. A breathlessness, like she’s punched him, but she’s standing several feet away.

“I want to see some credentials,” she demands.

Lennox fumbles and then shows her his badge. “Detective Lennox Wolven-North. Precinct 9, Shifter Division.”

She raises a brow, studying his badge. “Must be pretty quiet in your division. We don’t get a lot of shifter-related crimes around here.”

“You’d be surprised,” Lennox says, again in a tone I can’t quite pin. It’s like he’s forcing the words out through a constricted throat. “And you are?”

“Inspector Charlie Lopez. Fire enforcement.”

Lock pauses the video. “There’s not much else. When he sent the clip to me, he said he’s partnering with the fire inspector. She’s trying to discover the cause of the fire while he works on how the body got there.”

“She’s cute,” Rush comments. “For a human.”

Ignoring Rush, Lock pins us with a serious look. “Did you recognize the wolf?”

I shake my head and look to Rush who frowns. “Show me again. He does seem familiar.”

“He should.” Lock rewinds the video and pauses on a shot with the wolf’s face and body visible.

Rush is right, he does look familiar, but I can’t place him.

“Greystone Boulder-Wolf,” Rush says, his frown deepening. “A lesser advisor to Fallon. He disappeared during your takeover.”

Lock nods. “We figured he left to avoid prosecution for the crimes he committed under Fallon.”

I hadn’t spent much time at the castle after Fallon descended into madness. Too often, he’d have his people arrested for very little reason, and Greystone had readily complied, locking them up for their imaginary crimes. When I could, I’d intervene to help them escape Fallon’s wrath, which was about as fleeting as his memory.

Before we can take the conversation further the door is flung open and Sarina bursts in, her expression frantic.

“Vanessa is hurt!” she shouts. “There’s blood everywhere!”