25. Weston
Chapter 25
Iknew she was gone before I even opened my eyes. I could smell her delicious scent, but it merely lingered, the source no longer by my side.
My heart ached and I rolled onto my back. I finally opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling. I didn’t want to see her empty place in my bed. It was a hole that no one else could ever fill, I knew that as surely as I was breathing.
“You did the right thing,” my wolf told me. It was the first time he’d spoken to me in days.
“I know,” I replied, “but it hurts.”
“At least you got to hold her and feel her. You got to speak to her and learn about her. She is in your memories. I never got to meet her wolf. You denied me that.”
“You know why. Would you have us put her in more danger? Do you have any idea what the royalty of this kingdom would give to have someone with her power? They’d rope her in and try to breed her immediately, aiming to create another one like me.”
He didn’t respond, conceding that fact. Without me to protect her, without a pack to support her, she was vulnerable. I hadn’t been lying; a lone wolf of her stature was always in danger. I’d preyed on them in the past.
Thanks to Aurelia’s journals, we had a few leads—names we recognized but that we hadn’t found any other information on. Granny had hidden those connections a lot better than she’d hidden Aurelia. That had to be by design.
As I laid there mulling over the situation, I thought about getting up. But we didn’t need to hurry anymore. We were back to searching for the creator of the dangerous drugs stamped with Granny’s name. Aurelia had designed their base, that was clear, but we needed to find who was altering them.
Speaking of Aurelia’s product, I felt fucking amazing. I hadn’t slept well since starting this journey, concerned for both my pack and the kingdom. If the royals of this kingdom caught us, it would pull the dragon kingdom into debt or war, and I would very likely be killed in the crossfire. The royals of this kingdom would make sure of it. They’d been trying to get rid of me since I walked away all those years ago. They hated that the dragons had me in their employ.
The sleeping product had lulled me into a deep slumber for the whole night. I felt utterly refreshed. My body had been able to heal from various aches and pains completely, and then fill up my cup, so to speak, with the needed downtime.
I finally let my head fall to the side, my gaze lingering on the empty space beside me. My heart constricted.
What if she needed me and I wasn’t there?
What if I never saw her again?
“Knock, knock.” Hadriel called out to me from just outside the tent flap. “Rise and shine.”
After a pause where I still said nothing, his head slowly pushed through the flap. His gaze darted around the interior before he stepped in, slipping the flap back down behind him.
“I’m going to pretend I am waking you up now, yes?” he whispered, moving into the space. “We have a duty to this pack and to Aurelia. We need to play this off. You have to feign outrage at being drugged and we have to storm the town to look for but not find her. I have no clue how we are going to pull that off because she is not great at being sneaky, but I’ll come up with something.”
“How’d you know it was a sleeping agent?”
“I had a little listen at the side of the tent, obviously. I wanted to be prepared for today and also make sure no one else was eavesdropping. Come now, up we get.”
I didn’t move to get up. I couldn’t be bothered.
“Sir, you need to keep up pretenses. Doing so will help protect her.” He nudged my arm.
“Is this what you do to the dragons? Annoy them until they do what you want?”
“Yes, but it is never what I want, it is what is necessary. I often worry their tempers will flare and one will bite something off that I love, like my cock. They’re spiteful like that. You’re a wolf, though—a calmer, more balanced species that can see the duty he must perform and doesn’t explode in a temper when asked to perform it.”
“What if she gets in trouble?” I ran my hands through my hair, gripping the roots in frustration. “What if she needs me and I’m not there? It feels wrong to let her go.”
“That woman is also a wolf, right? And your true mate? She is certainly a balanced sort of lady who is only prone to explosions when incensed--by you, usually—but I have no doubt she’ll rise to the occasion as necessary. She has lived through some extraordinary circumstances and survived despite terrible odds, through both her childhood and Granny’s reign of terror. She will prevail, and if she needs help, she’ll ask for it. She’ll find you again, sir. Give her a chance to clear her name and then she’ll find you again, I know it. At the very least, she’ll find me. I was the favorite, obviously. She and I have a connection, you see. She’ll definitely seek me out when she’s ready.”
I didn’t know why, but that last part was actually reassuring. Even if she hated me, she might still find him. Given he served the same court I did, it was quite possible I’d see her again.
Gods, how I wanted to see her again! I’d been awake mere minutes and already I missed her fiercely. I’d rather her be by my side and hating me than forgive me and not be here. It was selfish, but there it was.
I sighed and sat up.
I wouldn’t allow myself that luxury at her expense. Her happiness was the most important thing, and she hadn’t been happy here with me; she’d made that abundantly clear.
“There we go.” Hadriel stepped back. “Fantastic. A wonderful start to a dismal day. It could be worse—you could be back in the demon dungeons, being loaned out on a nightly basis.”
“Do not bring that up again.”
He shivered at my release of aggressive power. “See there? I proved my point. It could be worse. Like the terror shart I might’ve just released. Not ideal to shit oneself right before we cause an uproar about a missing prisoner. I’m going to go ahead and check things out, probably change my knickers, and then I’ll be right back. You just roar and growl and wander out there in your fabulous nudity and get the show started. I’ll be back momentarily.”
He dashed out, holding his ass. He was such a strange wolf, but he did know his stuff.
Stopping myself from reaching for my clothes, I then conjured up faux frustration and anger and stormed from the tent.
“She’s gone,” I shouted, gathering everyone’s attention. “She drugged me. Aurelia left sometime in the night.”
Tanix jogged up with his brow furrowed, Sixten with him. Nova stood from a crouch near the breakfast station where Sylvester was chopping fruits, the cook not looking up.
“Start getting the camp broken down,” I told Tanix in curt tones. “Get everyone ready. I’ll send a few people into the nearest town to hunt her down. The rest of us will continue on our path slowly, waiting for the hunt to return with her. She’s not worldly—she shouldn’t take long to recover.”
They nodded and jogged away, shouting instructions. Nova grabbed something off the table and walked right, her gait unhurried. Ordinarily that would cause me to yell after her, something I’d never had to do before. Something I didn’t do now. She was incredibly good at reading the situation, she must know something was up. Given she went through the motions anyway meant she was playing along.
The woman was due for a promotion.
“Alpha.” Dante jogged over to me as I ducked back into the tent to grab some clothes. He stepped into the tent with me, the flap closing behind him.
I glanced at him in confusion. He didn’t usually enter my living quarters unless invited. “What is it?”
“I thought I should inform you that I saw Aurelia last night,” he murmured, his voice too low for anyone hurrying outside to hear.
Pants on, I turned to give him my full attention. “What’s that?”
“The woman has absolutely no sense of direction. She was angling my way instead of toward the town, making enough noise to rouse the dead.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “I pointed her in the right direction and then shadowed her for a bit to make sure she got there. She went off course again—she has literally zero sense of direction and is apparently hard-pressed to follow straight lines—so I guided her until she was close to town and then drifted away.”
My face was a hard mask to hide my surprise. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“You guided her?” I finally asked. “Why?”
“The same reason the dozen or so people she must’ve passed didn’t stir as she tramped by and are currently feigning surprise at her disappearance. She’s had a hard fucking life, Alpha, you must see that. We needed her journals and her knowledge of her products but she’s no more at fault for what’s going on than that gardener poet or anyone else in that village. She was a product of her environment, trapped there like everyone else. She didn’t know what was going on outside the village and she doesn’t seem like a person who would be okay with what her product has become. She’s not one of them, Alpha. She’s one of us. She doesn’t deserve to be on trial for Granny’s sins—she deserves a fair shake at a life that isn’t so gods-damned depressing. How can that woman find it in herself to smile, you know? Her stories have given me nightmares. I kinda hate hearing about her life. What a shitty existence.”
“Who else knows you helped her escape?”
He shrugged, looking uncomfortable but determined. “I didn’t see anybody else. Not sure if anyone noticed I wasn’t at my post for a while.”
I pulled on a shirt and grabbed the few things I’d need for the day’s ride. “You’d do best not to tell anyone else. There are a few people who would not understand. They want justice. The memory of their loved ones makes them irrational.”
Dante half bowed. “Yes, Alpha.” He hesitated in leaving, tone still quiet. “You let her go, correct? The weak sentry line was on purpose. Right?”
“Is that why you’re telling me of your involvement? Are you insinuating I played a part in her escape?”
His shoulders straightened, his head high. “No, Alpha. Of course not.”
He knew that I’d let her go. I assumed he also knew I couldn’t admit it. Only Hadriel would ever hear that confession, because I knew he’d keep it to himself for her sake. There was no one more trustworthy than Hadriel when he was helping someone he cared for.
“I would never relinquish my duty. Our kingdom is counting on us.”
“Yes, sir.” Still, he hesitated. “Just so we’re on the same page, in case no one says what they’re thinking... Going after the actual problem and not the decoy is your duty. Letting Aurelia go is doing your duty. We’d just be wasting time looking for her. Her journals are the sum total of what she knows, and we still have those. I see one just there. She can’t help us by being here anymore.”
“Thank you for your input, Dante. You may go.”
This time he did leave, and I heaved a sigh of relief. Ordinarily, no, letting her go was not part of my duty. The dragon royals had initiated this assignment and they should get the final say on Aurelia’s fate. As their commander, though, I had to be allowed some liberty to determine which leads to chase. As her true mate... I couldn’t stomach the idea of them hurting her, for any reason. She wasn’t evil, I was sure of that. She should not be punished for what were ultimately Granny’s sins.
The camp was pulled down and ready to go in no time. Those who’d go into the nearest town to look for Aurelia had been chosen, Hadriel among them. With him was Dante and Nova and a few others who held positions of power but had softened to Aurelia’s plight. Hadriel would tell them the goal and ensure Aurelia was not found.
To keep her safe, this was my goodbye.