Chapter 31 Maddy
MADDY
Seeing the dead body in the back of the SUV had been one of the most shocking things I’d ever seen. His dead eyes had stared out and seemed to be staring right at me. The sight should have been horrifying, but my wolf took pleasure in it.
I recognized him immediately—his face had haunted my dreams for months. Knowing he and all the others who’d attacked me were dead filled me with a strange combination of happiness, relief, and sadness.
I’d heard Nico agree to work with Javi, and I agreed. It made sense to have more help. I didn’t get out of the car, though. Making a deal with the devil didn’t mean I needed to cozy up to him.
Nico called Felipe and Sebastian, who’d been pushing their car to the limit to get here in time.
He explained what was happening, and once they arrived, he put them with Javi to start making plans.
Nico even called his dad and gave him a heads-up.
When we finally pulled away, Felipe had Nico’s father on speaker phone and all four men were deep in discussion on how to protect both packs.
“Do you think we made the right choice?” I asked once we were a few miles away.
Nico shrugged. “I hope so. We need as much help as we can get. Plus, Javi has women and children in his pack just like we do. Even if Javi is a dick, those people deserve help. We’ll have to wait and see. The guys and Dad will make sure things go smoothly.”
I couldn’t imagine how difficult it was to be a pack alpha. There were so many decisions and things to worry about. I was glad Nico was in charge. At least he’d make the best choices to keep everyone safe.
The rest of the drive to the airport was spent in silence. I could tell that Nico was thinking about something. I could almost sense his anger. When we got to the private airstrip and got our bags loaded, I finally asked him what was wrong.
“I can’t stop thinking about that story. About Javi’s pack going down south to that orphanage.”
When I’d heard the royals had ordered the murder of three babies, my own blood had boiled.
The shock, disbelief, and anger had been almost more than I could stand.
I nodded. “I feel the same way. I mean, I know it’s incredibly distant, but those kids are my relatives.
They’ve been targeted simply for existing.
They’re just babies. How could anyone think they were a threat?
” My tone kicked up a notch with each word I said.
Nico put a hand on my shoulder as we walked up the stairs to the plane. “Stay calm, Maddy. Remember what I said about the plane. Not a good place to have a stressed-out wolf.”
He was right. As the plane took off, it was like my skin was too tight.
My wolf and I had come to an agreement, a happy truce.
Even then, the flight was rough. My anxiety was high and my senses were at an all-time high.
It was an exhausting flight. Thankfully, I finally fell asleep after three hours of dealing with it.
I didn’t wake up until we landed in Sweden. The thump of the landing gear hitting the pavement jolted me awake. I rubbed my eyes and glanced outside, chuckling softly. I was actually in Sweden. It wouldn’t to be a fun trip, but it was still a pretty cool moment.
“What’s so funny?” Nico asked.
“I’ve never been to Europe. It’s kinda neat. Even though we’re on a life-or-death mission.”
A car waited for us on the tarmac. Nico had arranged it beforehand.
The keys were hidden on one of the tires.
After we loaded the car up and got in, Nico punched in the coordinates that Kenneth had given him, then the next leg of our trip began.
It was midafternoon there, and already the jet-lag was dragging at me.
It didn’t, however, stop me from checking out all the sights as we went.
The safe house was a four-hour drive from the airport, and for the first hour or so, things were fine.
But the deeper we got into the countryside, the more anxious I became.
It was different from what I’d experienced on the plane.
This was more intense, a bone-deep worry.
My wolf was pacing and whining inside my head, pushing my anxiety even further.
Nico must have noticed. Two hours into the drive, he finally said something. “Maddy, are you all right? You seem…I don’t know.”
I nodded, continuing to stare out the passenger window. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” I said, hiding the anxiousness. I tried to calm myself and my wolf down, but it wasn’t working.
After stopping for a snack, we continued to follow Kenneth’s directions and turned onto a smaller country road that took us deeper into the mountains.
I closed my eyes and pretended to nap, but in reality, I was just trying to hide my building anxiety.
It felt like an eternity before Nico finally pointed out the window at a cabin up the road.
I sat up to look and saw that the thing was like something out of a storybook.
It was flanked by a distant waterfall and completely surrounded by old growth trees.
The sky was barely visible through the canopy, giving the place an early evening look.
It was so shrouded in shadows that I had a hard time making out just how big it was.
The trees seemed familiar. I frowned and looked around as Nico pulled the car up and put it in park. The entire area seemed familiar. I’d never been here before, so why would this piece of property jog something in my memory?
My eyes snapped wide open. I knew where I’d seen all this before—in my dream about the moon. This looked just like the forest I’d walked through in that dream. Instead of calming me down, the realization made me even more nervous.
Kenneth stepped out onto the porch and waved us in. We grabbed our luggage and walked up the steps.
“Glad you all made it,” Kenneth said, taking one of the bags from me.
He hurried us inside, closed the door, then quickly locked it and set what appeared to be an alarm panel. I gaped at it. “How the hell did you get that installed way out in the middle of nowhere? I didn’t even see any power lines running to this place.”
Kenneth grinned. “You learn a lot of things over the years when you’re trying to stay hidden.”
He surprised me by dropping the bag and enveloping me in a massive hug.
I stared over his shoulder at Nico. His eyes were wide, and he had a shocked grin on his face.
“Uh…nice to see you, too,” I mumbled as he set me back down on the ground.
But before he released me, I returned the hug. He was my uncle, after all.
“Sorry. You start to miss human interaction when you live alone like this. Plus, I miss your father, and you remind me of him.”
“It’s okay,” I said.
“I was just getting some food ready for an early dinner. Hope you like Swedish food. Smoked fish, roasted potatoes, and of course meatballs. I made a bit of everything, I wasn’t sure how hungry you’d be.”
Other than some dill-flavored potato chips and a Swedish chocolate bar, we hadn’t eaten anything since leaving America. Nico and I both dived in, devouring everything Kenneth had put together.
After eating Kenneth’s entire spread, the three of us sat and relaxed by the fireplace. Nico and I on the couch, Kenneth on a recliner.
“Well, we have news about Javi,” Nico said as he sipped a cup of hot chocolate Kenneth had made for us.
“Is he dead?” Kenneth asked hopefully.
Nico shook his head. “Even crazier. He’s allied himself with us. He turned his back on the royals after they ordered him and his pack to kill three eighteen-month-old babies in El Salvador.”
“Eighteen months old?” Kenneth said in horror. “Because they have some shred of the old blood in them?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Javi had to…eliminate some of his own guys who wanted to go along with the plan.”
Kenneth slapped his thigh in anger. “Those baby-killing sons of bitches,” he hissed. “Those kids are…well, hell, they’re our family, right?”
“That’s what I told Nico,” I said.
“They’re sick. This has to stop somehow. Maybe you’re the one to do it,” he said, pointing at me.
“Why me?” I asked, taking Nico’s hand for comfort.
“Because,” Kenneth explained, “your dad was a full-blooded shifter. I’m not sure that he ever brought his wolf out—the blood had diluted so much over the centuries, he’d probably need to meet his fated mate or drink Edemas’s blood to do it—but he was a full wolf by blood.
You are an alpha, Maddy. You might be able to take the throne.
The true throne. Not this…whatever the royals have been playing at for three centuries.
” Kenneth sat back and sighed. “Well, I guess the term royals is just a name they use now. They don’t run a country, they don’t have a real throne.
They just use the fortune they’ve amassed to fund an army of child butcherers.
They have power because they have money.
There are God knows how many politicians, authorities, and journalists in their pockets.
It’s part of the reason why they’ve manage to stay hidden so long.
” Kenneth pointed at me. “That fortune is one you have rights to.”
“I don’t want money, Kenneth. I want them to stop murdering people. Killing kids? Having this awful shadow government? It’s all got to come to an end. Until they’re stopped, no one with even a passing relation to Edemas will be safe.”
“That’s why we need to find that vault. Get the vial of blood. Force their hands,” Kenneth said. “It’s the one thing that will give us leverage. Make the royals back off.”
“Right,” Nico agreed. “Once we get that, we might have a shot.”
They both sounded so confident, but I had doubts.
It couldn’t be that simple. Finding one simple thing wouldn’t be enough to make them throw up their hands and say, “You got us. All done. Enjoy your life.” If they’d held power for so many years, even having that secret weapon wouldn’t be enough to stop them.
I opened my mouth to mention my worries, but I froze. The words were already forming on my lips, but I couldn’t speak. My entire body was racked with sharp, shooting pains. I almost gagged because the pain was so bad. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and bent over, letting out a hiss of pain.
“Maddy?” Nico said, his voice laced with concern.
His hand was on my back, but I barely registered the touch.
All I felt was pain. Finally, I managed to suck in a breath.
Instead of telling them I was all right, a scream erupted from my throat.
A scream of agony and torment. It was like my skin was trying to split apart, like I’d swallowed glass, like every cell in my body was trying to explode.
I sank to my knees as a cold sweat broke out all over my body, dripping off my nose onto the floor.
“What’s happening?” Nico shouted.
“Christ, I don’t know!” Kenneth yelled.
I gritted my teeth and felt my wolf rising up inside me.
She was right there. I could almost feel her breath on my neck.
She was so close. As close as she was, it still felt like she was a thousand miles away.
She was in pain—I could feel it. Her pain and mine were melding, making it even more agonizing.
Something was pulling at us both. A magnetic tug that was trying to rip us in two.
“God,” Kenneth whispered. “Look. That’s got to be it. I didn’t even think about it.”
I managed to lift my eyes to see what he was talking about. Anything to figure out how to stop this pain.
Kenneth was gesturing toward a window. It looked out on the waterfall in the distance. It was the only opening in the entire forest canopy. The sky was already dark.
Sitting there in the sky, casting its glow down on us, was a milky white full moon.