13. Knox
Chapter 13
Knox
T he beat of the song drowns out Stefano’s excited voice. I pull the phone away to check the time. My brother has been going on about his newest discovery in the lab for thirty-seven minutes. No doubt he could go another thirty-seven.
I press my hand over my ear to try to dampen the club noise around me, shouting as I cut into his rambling, “The high-dose darts, Stef, focus.”
There’s silence on the line, almost as though he forgot he was talking to someone, then a resigned sigh. “Right… hold on. I wrote a note about it somewhere because I knew you would ask.” There’s the rustling of paper, a yelp, and a curse, more rustling. I think he drops the damn phone, then he’s back. “Note says: High-dose darts, idiot-proofed for Knox.”
“Fuck you very much, Stef,” I say with a huffed laugh before I end the call. Typical. I’m not even stupid; I’m just not an alchemist like he is.
The dancer on stage blows glitter from her hand, and her pink smoke floats through the dark room, feeding back the lust she’s eating from the crowd. It’s a cotton-candy feeling, like floating in a sea of whipped clouds and sugary sex. It makes the human men in the room go wild just in time for the side doors to open. The scantily clad dancers weave through as men in suits beckon them closer, drinks sloshing about as they toast one another and the club bunnies climb onto their laps.
Donovan, the lead member of my small crew, steps from the shadows, signaling to me from the door that leads to our tunnels under the casino.
I pocket my phone and join him, waiting until the music dies before speaking. “The shipment arrived?”
He grunts in acknowledgment.
“Stef says we should know it when we see it.”
We dart into the hallway, circling the underbelly of the giant hotel before taking the stairway that leads to the casino floor. The floor is busy for this early in the night.We cut a path through the crowded tables, popping into the kitchen and out of the dry dock where the produce truck is waiting.
I leap onto the back, opening the first crate and double-checking that the box has twenty-five dart vials. This shipment is double the last, and I quickly check the other crates, but it’s Stefano’s lab crew, so the shit is nice and orderly.
I jump down from the back, looking at Donovan. “Where is it?”
He lifts his chin, pointing toward the front.
Inside the cab is a white box labeled “These” with two large vials inside. The box and the note weren’t necessary because the vials glow—one a bright purple and the other pink. I don’t know why the hell the wolves need a super dose when the regular knocks out anything that moves for days, but whatever they’re after must be fucking big.
I pocket the vials and toss the box, signaling to the crew of three. “Load up and keep your shadows ready. We’re going past the border tonight.”
Donovan rolls through the lifted guard gate and around back of this rickety-ass fort at the edges of shifter territory. We could have shadow-walked this whole thing. Five minutes in the Alpha King’s estate. Done. Instead, we’ve been driving all night to the middle of fucking nowhere to the edge of wolf country.
The Alpha King has yet to grace us with his presence or allow us into his city. He’ll take our weapons and has even tried to sell us his own people, but he won’t risk being seen dealing with the serpents.
At least my people admit what we are. We’re Loki's descendants, the spawn of havoc and chaos. Our legends say he made us hungry for greed, lust, and power. That’s it. We have no great purpose like the wolves claim about their making. Though if this is how the great wolves protect their people, I don’t know how we ended up the bad guys.
The story goes that the serpents never got a seat at the table of shifter power, and when the first shifter world went to shit, the serpents were the ones lighting the match. Who knows if that shit is true? There are whispers of others. Big-ass dragons. Huge water monsters.
No one has ever seen one in my lifetime. It’s only ever been the wolves looking down their noses at us while they do the same fucked-up shit and the constant wars from within the six serpent families to control human territory to feed from.
The councilman my mother arranges the handoffs with steps out the back door, signaling for Donovan to pull up. I climb down and let him get to it, jogging toward our contact.
“Jesup, would you like to see them?” I ask.
“No. Lady Sasha said it was ready.”The older wolf looks more haggard than usual, his sleeves rolled up and his greying hair tousled by nervous fingers. Doesn’t stop his upturned nose or the scowl of loathing on his face.
“Unload them,” I call.
Donovan joins Push and Killian in the back, lifting the crates and handing them off to a wolf waiting at the door.
“I’ll transfer the money now.” The councilman looks around us nervously, but there’s no one out here but my crew and the wolves my shadows can feel watching from the tree line.
I’m not worried. It’s less than ten wolves. Any of my crew could take out all of them before the councilman realized what happened.
“Then it was nice doing business with you. Good luck hunting, wolf.” I toss the dog his bone and watch as he leaps for the glowing vials, barely catching them before they crash onto the forest floor.
Does it make me a dick that I enjoyed that? Probably, but what the fuck do I care?It’s clear the tug I feel isn’t coming from here.
We haven’t even returned to the city before my brother Bash calls.
“I see you managed not to fuck up,” he says by way of greeting. He’s the second oldest, the enforcer of our territory, and a royal dick. His singular mission in life seems to be to remind me that I’ve spent most of the last few decades dodging the family business in favor of fucking my way along the West Coast.
I mean, if you’re gonna do it, commit.
Donovan steals a glance at me, but I wave him off. “If the deal went smoothly, why the fuck are you calling?”
Bash’s boisterous laugh sounds. “Because Mommy wants her precious snakelet home. She’s got a job for you. Better remember to get yourself a flea collar before leaving.”
I hang up on his obnoxious laughter and seriously consider chucking my cell and taking off for my usual feeding grounds. I haven’t fed in days, and I have a bad feeling that I’m about to be sent into exile.
“The Lady has summoned,” I warn Donovan before I slip into the shadows, walking the blur to my mother’s tether.
Lady Sasha is my mother. Together with my three fathers, she rules the serpent’s Western Territory. It is the home of the coveted borderlands, housing two large human cities within close proximity to a nature preserve that cloaks the entrance into wolf lands. She is vicious and ruthless, and I love her dearly.
She lifts her head as I slip in from behind the curtain, emerging into her office.
“Dearest,” she coos, “well done.”
“Yes, dearest. You can go from point A to B without getting lost.” Bash snickers, crossing his bulky arms and staring me down. His forehead and eyes are edged with the deep veins of his recent feeding, and I wonder if all he ever eats is his own bitterness to have such a shit mood all the time.
My oldest sibling, Sloan, our only sister and the heir apparent, elbows him. “I notice that we haven’t seen you venture into wolf country. At least Knox has actually gone up against them. You just talk shit.”
I may be a fuckboy, but Bash tries and still manages to fuck up. That’s the reason he has it out for me. Beyond enforcement, Bash is always scheming to try to prove he can handle the second seat—selling weapons to the wolves was his brilliant idea. He’s afraid the family will give second seat to the comeback kid, so he constantly reminds us that I’m a flake. He should know by now that I don’t want the seat, but he can’t seem to let it go.
My fathers ignore our bickering, poring over a map on the screen.
Mother rounds the desk, her shadows greeting me, and I unfurl mine, allowing them to say hello. The black smoke-like bands circling over her suit dress weave with mine for a moment as we hug. The contact, though brief, allows me to hear her request.
Snakelet, I need your shadows. The wolves have a proposition for us. We have been asked to attend their Wolf Council meeting in their territory. I can’t send Sloan somewhere so unstable without backup. This will be her first true test, and I need someone I trust with her.
I look back at Sloan. “I guess this means we’re roomies.”
My brother looks between the two of us. “She’s sending both of you? Why would the heir go to the wolves?”
Sloan ignores him, her front fangs glinting as she grins at me. “Rumor is we’re there to induce an orgy under the full moon.”
My brows lift, this whole exile sounding a little more my speed. “Now you’re talking. Tell me what you think we’re up against.”
I join my family at the maps, my brother scowling at the periphery.