Chapter Twenty-Two
DON'T DO IT. DON'T even think of it. Just leave.
It was the right thing to do, the only way to show his wife that he wouldn't stand for her interference.
So stop thinking about her, dammit.
And yet, he found this impossible to do.
He kept seeing her face in his mind, and she wasn't...she goddamn wasn't shining the way he always thought of her.
He would be talking to his generals, and he would still see her.
He would be going through the final checks of their mission, and her face still wouldn't his mind.
And not once, in all the minutes she lingered in his thoughts, not fucking once did she shine.
Even when he had walked back to the house just to have a moment alone, one moment to close his eyes and try to imagine her shining—-
It just wouldn't fucking come.
Almost as if a part of his soul had sensed all the light going out of her.
The thought was terrifying, and he was suddenly moving, bounding up the steps as his heart beat madly against his chest. When he reached the tower room, the guards posted outside the doors had a stoic look on their faces.
"What is it?" he asked curtly.
"The princess..." The younger man swallowed hard. "She's been crying, Your Highness."
Ah.
His chest clenched hard. God. His fingers tightened around the knob.
Let me not hurt her again. He closed his eyes.
Please. It didn't matter if this thought made him weak.
Didn't matter that it meant risking history to repeat itself.
He loved her. Both beast and man loved her, and once this battle was over, he would find a way to make things right.
He would—-
The knob under his fingers rattled, the doors being pulled open from the other side.
A moment later, and she was standing in front of him, beautiful and regal, with only the faintest trace of tears marring her pale cheeks.
It was just like his Star, Lysander thought painfully, to come out and face him...even though both of them knew she had to have heard what the guard said.
"Your Highness."
Her voice was achingly soft, but what made him jerk was hearing the way she addressed him. She had always called him by his name, and his jaw clenched against the urge to demand why she couldn't do so now.
"Have you come to say goodbye?"
Lysander's nod was taut. "We'll be leaving as soon as I join them."
"I see."
"The twins will remain here for your protection."
"Thank you."
Her short, generic replies frustrated the hell out of him, and the walls that she suddenly had up in her mind even more so. Did this mean she could've always hidden her thoughts from him if she wanted to? And if so, did it mean that the thoughts she showed him were all deliberate?
For that to be true, it would mean having to think of his wife as cunning and deceitful, but he couldn't - just fucking wouldn't accept that. She was young and misguided. That was all. But the Star he first met was still in there, and he would do everything possible to have her shining again.
"We'll talk when I get back," he heard himself say.
Silence.
Lysander's jaw clenched. "I know there have been a lot of misunderstandings between us, but we'll fix it.
" His voice became fierce. "We can and we will fix it.
" And when she still didn't say a thing, he cupped her chin, leaving her no choice but to lift her gaze to his.
"We can fix this—-" The unexpected touch of her lips put an end to his words, with Estrella suddenly raising herself on her toes and curving her arms around him.
She had never initiated contact like this before, and he was stunned and perplexed.
Worried even. He tried to pull away, but her lips pressed harder just as she started rubbing her breasts against his chest. Please.
You know we need to do this. You need a clear mind later.
Her hips pushed against his erection as she spoke, Estrella grinding her pussy against his crotch.
Shit.
His control was gone in a flash, his hands ripping her clothes away in the next moment. But she didn't murmur a single protest, and as he pushed her to bend down and shoved his engorged cock into her from behind, he found his wife already wet and quivering for her possession.
Their coupling was fast and furious, his grunts and her pants the only sounds in the room. In moments, both of them were cumming, his fingers dipping into the silky flesh of her hips.
He was breathing hard as he slowly pulled out of her, but the moment he tried to turn her to face him, it was then her tears scented the air, and Lysander immediately became agitated.
What's wrong? his wife only shook her head and instead threw herself at him.
His arms went around her, just as she pressed her face against his chest. "Just p-please come back safely—-" Her voice caught, and it was only then that he realized how much she was struggling to keep her tears in check and not make him worry.
Take care of yourself. Please. She fought hard to keep him from hearing her shame.
Making love to him no longer felt right, now that she knew the truth, but she also knew she could never let him go without any contact.
The man in him might never have loved her, might never have chosen her, but none of those things would matter to the beast inside of him.
Lysander could feel that something was badly wrong, but time was running out on him. In the end, all he could do was look at her. I'll come back. Wait for me.
She gave him a wobbly smile. Waited for him to go before she let herself answer.
I can't.
It was time for her to leave.
****
FORSYTHE INDUSTRIES was an old and abandoned factory, its existence deleted from human history because of its remarkable similarities to the many failures and casualties associated with Chernobyl. It made a lot of sense for the vampires to establish its base there...except for one thing.
"As Alain had pointed out," Domenico said, "Ivy had eluded capture all these years by avoiding places frequented by her kind.
From what we know of her, she's also a creature of habit like most of her race is.
For her to suddenly change M.O.s is highly suspicious to say the least, hence the joint operation between my pack and the Faes. "
At the Lyccan prince's nod, Alain stepped forward to take over.
"While surveillance footage by our spies did confirm Ivy's presence at the site, the ease in which such footage was obtained was also similarly suspicious or questionable at the very least. The possibility of this means that we either had another traitor in our midst or one of our spies' covers was blown.
For this, we approached the Moretti pack to launch a parallel investigation into the matter. "
"Observe, do not engage. Retreat if necessary. Those were my exact rules for the Lyccans we've assigned to the job," Alessandro enumerated, "and we've made it explicitly clear that they were only to join in the action and offer aid if and when either Alain or Aluin Fournier requests for it."
The debriefing ended several minutes later, and as the soldiers filed out, Estrella found herself alone with her brothers and the Fournier twins in the war room.
"Estrella..."
It was the first time Domenico had directly addressed her since her return, and she unconsciously tensed.
"Yes?" Save for a brief glance at the telltale marks of tears on her face, her big brother had only welcomed her back with a nod when she arrived at the family compound and told him her marriage to Lysander was over.
"What do you wish us to do?"
Estrella was stunned and confused. "You're asking m-me?"
"Who else is more uniquely qualified? You are my sister, thus a princess of this pack. But you also wear the crown of the Faes. It must be you who'd decide if our pack members are to join in this fight...and for what purpose."
Oh. All at once, she realized that Domenico had already figured out what went down between her and Lysander - and Fina, too. He had always had the uncanny knack of analyzing and deducing things, and now he was putting that skill of his to give her a choice.
Did she want to take revenge and have the Lyccans act exactly as Fina had so brazenly lied about? Tonight's offensive wasn't just about capturing Ivy. It was also to show the Faes' strength to the L'Alliance and disabuse the world of any notions about their race being an easy target.
If the Lyccans were to join in, she could use her pack's strength to defeat both vampires and make the Faes appear weak and ineffective.
"Let our spies remain and keep an eye on the battlefield," Estrella said finally. "Unless the tide drastically turns against Ly-—against their favor, it's best that they win this on their own merit."
Domenico simply nodded. "It shall be as you wish—-"
The doors to the war room suddenly burst open. "Your Highness," the soldier gasped. "We've captured one of the vampires—-"
They all came running out, but by the time they made it to the gates, it was too late, and the vampire had already killed himself with poison.
Domenico swore under his breath. Vampires used to be low-functioning monsters, unable to think of anything beyond sucking the blood out of their victims. But ever since Danilo had taken over, the vampires had changed. They had started acting smarter—-
What the hell?
Estrella had suddenly dropped to her knees as she started doing a body check on the vampire's corpse. "Remember when I fought against them at the Miller Mine, I told you all about scraps of papers we found in their pockets?"
Aluin frowned. "They were nothing but torn pieces of receipt—-"
"I still have them with me," Estrella answered without looking up.
"I've analyzed them in every way. Tried to see if there was any hidden message until I realized those papers weren't meant to be seen.
They were—-" Estrella stopped speaking when she finally found what she was looking for: a scrap of plastic this time, torn out from what could've been a coffee cup.
"They were meant to be sensed in a different way," she said shakily as she rose to her feet. She held the scrap out to Domenico, who was probably the only one among them whose abilities to hunt by smell could match the newly strengthened powers of vampires.
Domenic bent his head. "Vampire blood. His, I take it?"
Estrella nodded. "But there's something else." She watched her older brother frown as he attempted to take another whiff.
The Lyccan prince reared back a moment later as recognition struck. Shit. His head jerked up. "The second scent...it belongs to the spymaster."
The Fournier brothers appeared stunned, and Alain said slowly, "I will be the first one to admit that Fina is many things, but to suggest that she's betrayed us—-"
Estrella quickly shook her head. "It's not that, but I'll explain on the way. We need to get to where Lysander and the others are before it's too late."
With people's lives on the line, no other questions were asked. Domenico had his younger brothers rally all the able packmates they could find to join them while the Fournier brothers instructed their men to get ready.
Inside the car, Estrella quickly explained her theory about how their brother, now a Sceleri, was able to still keep vampires in line even when he wasn't present.
"He's been extremely cunning with these little scraps.
They're easily overlooked because the dominant scent you'll get from it is the vampire's blood.
But that blood isn't just for show," she said tensely.
"I have a feeling all these vampires have been tortured, and that blood is to remind them of what they'll suffer if they dare disobey him. "
"And Fina's blood?" Aluin demanded. "If you say it's not there because she betrayed us, then why—-"
"It's a basic reminder of who not to kill," Estrella answered.
Alessandro had been quietly digesting the information his younger sister was feeding him, and at her last words, everything finally became clear. Fuck. He glanced up and saw the same fears in Estrella's gaze. "You're saying Fina's cover's blown."
"Y-Yes." Estrella could feel herself paling even as she forced herself to nod. "And worse - I think they've been on to her from the start, and Ivy was just bait to lure Lysander to their trap."