Chapter 17 #2
“Not yet. That’s what we’re hoping to reap from the surveillance.
” I run a hand through my hair. The Dark Suns, as they named themselves, is the rebellion group once led by Adrik Solis.
Now, a mere fraction of the size they once were, they haven’t really been active for decades.
However, we’ve reason to believe they may be planning something and gathering support.
We worry Lena somehow factors into their plan.
But we don’t know if she’s cooperating with the Dark Suns, either willingly or under duress.
“We were able to confirm that neither Luke nor the magica who hired him have a connection to the Cross-Kingdom Council.” So at the very least, the Council isn’t involved and we still have more information than the rest of the court.
“Keep us updated,” Kian directs, and I nod before he turns to Boden. “How have the other students received her?”
Boden gives Kian a dry look that silently and sarcastically screams “How do you think?”
“Most students are wary,” Cal steps in, the tempered voice of reason in our group. “Some are frightened of her, a few are hell-bent on revenge.”
“Faculty, too,” Nik adds.
“Boden’s moratorium on interacting with her has seemed to prevent some of the students from messing with her outright,” Cal adds with a grateful look toward Boden.
“Not that it’s stopped her from getting herself in trouble.” Boden crosses his arms, his expression petulant.
Callum playfully pokes Bo in the side. “She’s got a smart mouth and a lack of awareness of when she’s in danger—a bit of a hazardous combination.” Callum’s pretty chuckle dissolves the tension for a moment and gives me the room to breathe in fully.
Nik cuts in, “She’s a conundrum, just like her scent. Roses and frost. Pine, I think.” He tries to show off his vampire senses, which are great, but everyone knows wolf shifters have the better nose.
“Juniper,” I correct. “And smoke.”
“Like whisky and gin,” Nik mumbles into his drink, too low for the others without our superior hearing.
It’s like I can smell her here now. My nose twitches.
I search around the room for her scent. I realize it’s wafting from the other end of the sofa: Boden.
I don’t like him smelling like her. I don’t like it at all.
The start of a growl begins to rumble in my chest. I quickly shut it down.
However, not before Kian and Nik pinch their brows in concern.
“Everything alright, Ariki?” Kian probes.
“Yeah.” I purse my lips. I don’t want to talk about Lena anymore. Stars, I need to get her off my mind. Chances are I won’t even see her that often. “It’s just the pressure of the Challenge Epoch getting to me.”
“That’s understandable,” Kian says. “But you’ll likely go unchallenged. Our teams have run polls and conducted copious amounts of research. You are well-liked, the head alpha of the largest, most prestigious shifter pack. It should, by all accounts, go smoothly.”
“Well-liked is an understatement.” Cal reaches over from their chair and rubs my forearm. “You are beloved in every kingdom, Big Guy.”
I give their hand a small squeeze. Cal can be stingy with their compliments, so anything they say I trust wholeheartedly.
“You have nothing to worry about.” Boden takes a sip of his beer. “Cal, Nik, and I on the other hand—we might have some complications.”
“The noble houses will get in line,” Kian growls.
There’s been some contention amongst different insignia across all four kingdoms. A handful of noble families have recently shared misgivings about Cal’s and Boden’s lack of experience, while others have lamented Nik as too academic and unprepared to step into his mother’s place.
The noble houses could make a challenge to their thrones when the time comes, especially in the case of Boden and Cal, who have had regents in place for the last two decades.
“Astor did impart his opinion that stabilization would be a byproduct of firming up our lines of succession.” Boden curls his lips.
“Because he wants you to marry his daughter.” Nik tosses back his drink and focuses his attention on the book he was studying before our meeting began.
Boden rolls his eyes. “I’m not marrying Katri.”
“Does she know that?” Cal laughs.
“I worry that some of the regents have gotten a little too comfortable,” Nik muses.
“Some have become complacent in their roles,” Kian agrees. “He’s not wrong, though. Marriage alliances have their advantages.”
Here we go again, the same conversation about solidifying power through the production of heirs.
None of us planned on taking the throne.
As a second born, Kian was ‘the spare’ and really the only one who was prepared to lead.
I was third born and only eleven when our families were killed, young enough for it to shatter my world and old enough to remember.
Sometimes I envy Bo and Cal for being too young to have memories of that night.
Nik and Kian were adults, young by magica standards, but grown nonetheless.
I often feel like I’m on my own island. I can see them on land sharing similar experiences, but I can never really reach them.
I try to shake off my melancholy…I need some pack time.
I think I’ll drive up to the compound in Maine tonight.
“How about you get married first, Kian, and then we’ll follow your lead?” Nik says, without looking up from the book propped up in his lap.
“You’re certainly mature enough,” Boden chides.
“Ha ha,” Kian says, feigning a laugh. “Last I checked, I’m the only one of you fools putting in any effort with a serious partnership.”
Cal and I pull up to Havard Hall. Having their steady presence at my back and their hands wrapped around my waist was the exact type of relaxing force I needed to calm my nerves and steady my heart.
My agitation blew away with the wind. Cal has always had that effect on me.
They climb off my bike, handing me back the helmet they borrowed.
“You’re going to be fine,” Cal whispers. “We’ve got you. I’ve got you.” They kiss my cheek before striding up the entry stairs. I sigh. Maybe in a different lifetime…
The pack compound is only three hours away, but it’ll be late by the time I get in. I tuck the spare helmet into my saddlebag. The breeze shifts, and I’m hit with the luscious scent of smoky roses and frosted juniper.
“That’s exactly what I imagined you’d ride,” a sweet voice hollers from the dorm doorway. A flush-faced Lena strolls down the stairs.
“Isn’t it past your curfew?” I swing my leg over the seat and dismount.
“Are you going to tell on me?” She winks, offering me a flirty smile.
“That remains to be seen,” I tease. “What are you doing out and about?”
“Thinking, mostly. I was going to go for a walk.” She tips her head to the woods past Havard Hall. “Want to join me?”
“Don’t you know that that forest is full of things that go bump in the night? You shouldn’t be walking out there alone, especially without any known abilities.” I pry for information, hoping she’ll let something slip.
She just raises her shoulders again. “Shifter lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my…” she sings.
“All of which can be found in there, too.” She points her thumb over her shoulder toward the residence hall.
“Actually, are shifter tigers a thing? Anyway I need to get out of my room for a bit and away from all of…that.” She gives me a little mischievous smirk that sends my heart fluttering like one of the Amethyst Woodstar hummingbirds Cal talks about. “I’m sneaking out.”
“You probably shouldn’t be wearing reflectors if you want to keep a low profile.” But she does look adorable in her neon-green hoodie and hot-pink running shorts.
She glances down at her outfit and scrunches her charming little nose.
“Trust me, it’s not my choice. I’m a dark monochromatic kind of girl.
Throw in the occasional jewel tone and I’m happy as a clam.
This…” She points to her outfit. “It’s someone else’s miscalculation.
” She squints, her eyes flashing with fury in a way that’s somehow simultaneously adorable and terrifying.
Postponing my trip up north another twenty minutes won’t hurt anything. “Lead the way.” I smile, following Lena onto the path.
She looks up at me as we walk, pushing her curls behind her ear. “So…what are you doing on campus?”
“Dropping off Cal. We had a meeting today.” I hold out my arm, stopping her from tripping over a downed branch.
Well, that would exclude any Shifter Insignia; the girl can’t see in the dark at all.
Not that there is any chance of her being a shifter since her dad was a seraphim and that match would be practically unheard of.
“Ah yes, a super important meeting of princely minds?” she teases.
“Something like that.”
“I heard this is a big year for you,” she comments coyly, navigating through the brush.
I hold back a sigh. “Don’t remind me.” I blink up at the stars between the branches.
“Not looking forward to becoming king or whatever?” she asks, ducking under a low branch. “Is that why you put it off?”
I pull the branch out of the way and follow her through. “Why do you think I put it off?”
“From my understanding, you could have ascended to the throne when you finished school, like what, a decade ago? How old are you? Sorry! I know that is rude to ask.” She rushes through her blunder.
“Anyway, I get why Boden and Callum aren’t crowned or whatever.
They’re in school.” Stumbling over her words, she adds, “Sorry, there were a lot of assumptions and questions in there. You’re just approachable in comparison to your…
What are they, brothers, cousins? Friends? Prince pals?”
I chuckle. “Royal collaborators? Not brothers, I mean, you don’t have the occasional wet dream about your brothers.
” I wiggle my eyebrows as her loud sweet laugh rings through the trees.
“And I’m thirty-three. I could have started this whole running-the-kingdom thing seven-ish years ago.
Usually, the next two in line, the heir and the spare, receive about twenty years’ worth of focused royal education before the heir takes the throne.
Even though I was only eleven when my family died, I was playing catch-up from that point.
Not to mention I have additional responsibilities,” I explain.
“Unlike the other princes, I also had to step into my role as alpha of the Bardawulf pack when my dad passed. So I spent time focusing on that.”
She hums in response, seemingly thinking over my rationale. The path travels through a small clearing, and the moonlight streaming through the canopy causes her skin to glisten like one of Cal’s pearlescent moonstones.
“I don’t know if this is the right thing to say,” she starts. “But I didn’t know about my family’s history until a few days ago. I’m sorry for the pain some of them have caused you and the others. The things they did…”
“It’s okay.”
She stops abruptly. “No, don’t say that. It’s not. None of what happened is okay.” She shakes her head. “I just…I understand the pain of losing the people you love. Of feeling alone, of being alone.”
I’m caught in her sad, beautiful eyes.
“I’m not my family. I’d probably not be able to pick another Solis out of a crowd…”
She’s lost a lot—just as much as we have, maybe more.
I don’t understand Boden’s and Nik’s ire toward her.
Even Kian, levelheaded as he may be, has anger simmering under the surface.
Shifters have the unique ability to sense others’ feelings through the subtle changes in their scent and temperature.
Even though Kian is stone-faced in discussions about Lena, I know his feelings are strong.
I just don’t know how any of them could look at this little spitfire and think she’s a lying self-righteous zealot like her father.
“Teariki?” Lena touches my arm, pulling me back from my thoughts. Stars, her touch is good. A warm tingling sensation spreads out from her fingertips. I shake my head, brushing off the thoughts clawing at my insides.
“Sorry. I see you’re right about doing some thinking out here.
” I look down at her as we stand still, like the oak trees surrounding us.
She tilts her chin up, and the moon’s luminance reaches for the curve of her cheek.
My fingers itch to do the same, like the moon is daring me to touch her—in the same way it calls to us wolves to shift.
I clear my throat. “What I mean to say is, thank you for understanding, for your words. They probably weren’t easy to share.”
She gives me a small empathetic smile, and we continue our trek in comfortable silence. I keep glancing at her out of the corner of my eye. The breeze ruffles her hair, and I breathe a deep inhale of her sweet wintery smoky scent.
And I’m instantly hard. I should kiss her.
This absolutely foolish plan forms in my head to throw her on the back of my bike and drive her away from here.
Take her to my house and keep her; cuddle her tightly in my lap; bathe her and wash her hair; and feed her breakfast in bed. No! Bad wolf! Get a grip!
“Uh, I have to go,” I say quickly, and rush back to my bike. Moons, I really need to go running with my pack. I’m starting to lose it. Lena Solis is very much off-limits. I adjust my boner while I climb on my bike before driving away. Very bad wolf!