Chapter 21 Back in the Wolf’s Den
Wynn
Adelaide is a creature of habit. Being Alpha hasn't changed that. So I head to the most likely spot to find her, the training barracks.
She’s in the back, a powerhouse in motion as she lifts at a weight bench.
Pumping iron with such ferocity, her growls echo through the gym.
It's likely no coincidence that the machines surrounding her are empty.
I watch long enough that she senses my presence.
She stops mid-rep and slams the barbell onto the rack with a crash that makes the entire bench shudder.
The closest shifters flinch and shuffle even farther away.
Wow. Not much scares these wolves, but a pissed-off Alpha does the trick.
I wait by the bench as she towels off. She's more composed when she finally focuses on me, but her shoulders remain rigid and packed with tension.
“You’re back sooner than I expected,” she says evenly as she views me.
“Yeah, I… I came back early.”
Whatever explanation I prepared promptly fled my mind. These other wolves were right to give her a wide berth. She has so much anger simmering under the surface that I feel about as tough as a newborn deer facing a hungry beast.
"It’s funny,” she tells me. “You spent most of your life running away from us and now you can’t stay away."
“Is that funny?" Neither of us is laughing.
“The smart thing to do was to stay gone. Our situation hasn’t improved in your absence, and the escaped prisoner is still at large.” Her eyes lock onto mine. “But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
"W-what, what are—" I will my voice to stop trembling. "What are you talking about?"
Oh god, what? She knows?!? How does she know? My throat constricts, tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth as I struggle to form words. I pray she can't hear the frantic beat of my heart or smell the fear radiating off me.
Standing there fighting off sheer terror must take several years off my life. The unbearable tension threatens to suffocate me. Then Adelaide's harsh demeanor softens. The hard line of her mouth twitches, then cracks. A sound bursts from her that I barely recognize—a laugh.
Not just any laugh, but a full-bodied roar that makes her powerful frame shake. She keeps going, her hand slapping against her thigh as she doubles over.
Okay, this is worse than suspicion. She’s never done this before, not even the year she let people call her ‘Addie’ without punching them.
"Oh, that was fun," she says, gasping for breath. "You should have seen your face. I needed a good laugh. Is this why people make jokes? Should I make jokes more often?"
What the actual fuck? My mouth drops open as I stare in bewilderment. Her teasing instead of being truly suspicious is good news, but… She’s not acting quite like herself. The prisoner escape must really be weighing on her.
Recovering from her fit, she claps a heavy hand onto my shoulder. "Relax, Wynn. I know you're not involved. Brighton sent the worst detective to find the fugitive. He's even more serious than my father. He thinks the timing of things is a little suspicious."
"And what about you?"
She scoffs. "I’m the one who told you to take a vacation in the first place."
"That's true."
"Look, we don’t really understand each other and certainly have our differences, but you'd never betray your pack,” she says without any hesitation. “Even when you disagree, you're loyal."
Ouch. That hurts. It really hurts. Almost as much as an uppercut from one of her impressive fists.
"Besides…" She looks around before lowering her voice. "I think the detective is a douchecanoe. Did I use that right? I heard Bane say it once."
"Um, I don't, I don't even know where to begin," I say faintly.
Adelaide lifts her water bottle and finds it empty. She motions for me to follow her toward the drinking fountain at the other end of the barracks.
"Have you seen the detective yet? He was insistent on talking to you."
"No, I just got back. Haven’t even unpacked.” The words feel hollow and wrong. I try to sound casual as I continue, “You going to tell him I’m here?"
“Nope," Adelaide says, not at all concerned.
Well… not expecting that. It does make some sense, since Adelaide doesn’t seem to be his biggest fan.
"See him when you see him," she continues. "There's no hurry."
"Are you sure about that?"
“He’s been breathing down our necks. Couldn’t they have sent a detective who wasn’t another Alpha? Make the bastard wait.”
The drinking fountains we reach offer some privacy. The distance isn't enough to prevent any determined wolf from overhearing our conversation, but it gives some cover, especially with weights clanging and a group sparring behind us.
“It’s not entirely Harper’s fault,” she sighs. “It's mine. He’s only trying to fix our screw-up.”
"Hey, that's not fair,” I protest.
"Really? A murderer escaped our custody."
"Alleged murderer."
"And we were holding him in cells hundreds of years past their prime when he’d already escaped once."
Okay, that sounds sketchy, but she had every reason to believe the cells were secure. "You had witches fortify the walls. With the same spells that held up against an Alpha werewolf.”
"For all the good it did,” she grumbles. “I should have had the prisoner transported to the jail in Concordia."
It sounds like she's been beating herself up about this. I feel like the worst cousin ever.
“We suspect Maddox made it to the mountains,” she continues. “The fool might have gotten himself killed trying to navigate the peaks since there’s been no sign of him but who can say for sure?” She scowls. “The detective says he isn’t ready to rule anything out yet, whatever the hell that means.”
“Adelaide…” I wish there was something I could do. Something to help her while still protecting Marlow. But I’m not sure there’s enough magic in Concordia to make both those things possible at the same time.
“You don't need to worry,” she assures me. “We have it under control.”
I'm not so sure. It doesn’t sound like she believes herself.
~
Wynn
I step out of the training barracks and stumble to a halt. Leaning against the wall, I drag in a breath, but the vice around my chest only tightens.
That conversation gutted me. Not because Adelaide doubted me—quite the opposite.
You'd never betray your pack. Even when you disagree, you're loyal.
Adelaide trusts me more than I deserve. She's my cousin, my Alpha, and I'm lying straight to her face. I was naive to think she’d escape the blame, foolish to believe this wouldn’t rattle her. I wanted to bear the responsibility for Marlow on my own but my family is facing the consequences anyway.
And what am I doing? Sharing beds and playing house with a fugitive. Worse, I'm enjoying every second. The way his smirks keep turning into smiles these days. How he strokes my hair when he thinks I'm asleep. How I’m getting used to waking up with a gargoyle nestled between us.
I'm falling for him and it's going to destroy everything. For fuck’s sake, we still haven’t even confirmed whether we’re truly mates.
When I open my eyes, I immediately do a double take. “Iggy?” I hiss. He’s right there, out in the open.
The tiny gargoyle floats lazily over a vibrant flower bed, drifting down to sniff the blooms. If the rocky creature were nestled in between the flowers, he'd be easily mistaken for a lawn decoration. But flying above them, wings flapping, he isn't fooling anybody.
A surge of panic shoots through me. “What are you doing?”
"You needed backup," the gargoyle replies.
A mini gargoyle stopping to smell the flowers in the middle of a wolf pack's territory isn't a normal occurrence. People can't start asking questions.
"Iggy, you gotta hide, they’ll see—"
A pack member exits the training barracks, a burly guy with red hair. Iggy darts away, flying in front of the man, waving his stubby little arms and flitting around his head.
"Hello, how are you? Yoohoo, over here!" Iggy calls out, flipping and twisting in the air. "Hey there! You can't see me but I'm fabulous!"
The pack member doesn't even glance in Iggy's direction. He simply strides past, completely oblivious to the tiny gargoyle's antics. Iggy zips back over to me, landing on my shoulder with a satisfied huff.
Oh right. No need to panic. Iggy’s presence is invisible to everyone else.
“Did Marlow send you?” I ask.
Iggy falls silent. At first I think he doesn’t want to answer. Then he pounds on my shoulder with his fists. Oof. He’s only trying to get my attention, but he might leave a mark.
“Over there! I sense something. Something close.”
Iggy points and leads me around behind the barracks.
I follow, cautiously peeking around the corner.
The low murmur of voices reaches me. Adelaide’s standing behind the building.
She’s with a short man dressed all in black, eyes darting around wildly, and he screams “up to no good.” I don’t recognize him.
"You're sure this will work?" my cousin asks.
"—Exactly what you asked for.”
“Better be, for the price.”
“Underworld merchandise isn’t common. Necromancers—”
Snippets of their conversation reach me. I could pick up more if I tried, but it’s hard to focus. What the hell?
Adelaide reaches into her pocket and pulls out several bills. In return, the shady guy produces a small velvet bag from inside his jacket. They make the exchange and then he’s gone, heading in the opposite direction from where we're hiding, disappearing back into the shadows where he came from.
Adelaide loosens the drawstring on the velvet pouch and pulls something out just enough to examine it. I catch a glimpse of what looks like a dark coil of leather.
"Underworld energy," Iggy mutters. “It isn’t from this plane.”
What would she want with something like that?
My mind races through possibilities. Adelaide doesn’t collect magical items or use any herself. She prefers to solve problems with her fists.
Oh god. What if Adelaide doesn't need this underworld artifact for herself? What if it's meant for the killer Marlow has been tracking? He believes the culprit hides in the heart of the pack. What better place to hide than with the one wolf no one else has the right to question?
Is Adelaide protecting whoever Marlow’s hunting? Is she hiding a killer?