Chapter Thirty-Five
Icalled downstairs. “Jora?”
“Hey Amy, what can I do for you?”
“We need to go to the superstore off campus.”
There was a pause. “For…”
“I need to get supplies I thought I had for-”
“Dinner.” Wendy interrupted me and I smiled, giving her a thumbs up.
“You’re cooking dinner now? It’s nearly eleven.”
“Jora, we are wolves. Sometimes you just have to eat a full chicken roasted with fresh herbs.” His laugh let me know I had him.
“Fine. But next time, I’m expecting some of the chicken.” There was some rustling. “Meet me down at the van. We will have to make this quick.” I nodded like she would see it.
“Of course.” I hung up, and we ran out the door. “That was surprisingly easy.” Toya and Wendy both snorted. “What?”
“They love you here.” Toya looked at me from the corner of her eye.
“Not only do you treat them with the respect they deserve. You are an Alpha who isn’t in their pack and still treats them with the status and respect they deserve.” Wendy pointed at me with her finger.
“And you genuinely care about them. You ask about their families, their pups. You get them gifts.”
I turned to face them. “So do you guys.” But the two girls shook their heads.
“Honestly, it wouldn’t have occurred to me.” Toya lifted her shoulder. “I would have been respectful. But I wouldn’t have gotten to know them.”
Wendy nodded. “I honestly would have just given them polite smiles. They are way above me in rank and my momma always told me to be silently supportive. Be nice, and unobtrusive.” The elevator opened onto the basement parking garage and Jora was waiting.
He smiled, his orange red hair was shaggy in this weird growing stage, and I nearly laughed. His green eyes were bright and his freckles stood proudly on his pale skin. “Come on, ladies.” He called as he slid into the driver’s seat as we walked over.
I opened the passenger door, and the girls slid into the back. “You are really committing to the long hair, eh?”
He threw back his head and laughed. “When you say it like that, Aim, you make it seem like I don’t look devilishly handsome like my mate tells me.”
I cracked a smile as I waved my hands around his head. “It’s in this weird in between stage that looks-”
“Horrible.” Toya giggled and Jora slapped a hand to his chest.
“You wound me, Toya.” He turned in his seat. “I’ll have you know I can just make the tiniest of ponytails.” All of us lost it. He scowled as he turned back. “What can I say? My mate asked for long hair. I’ll grow the long hair.”
I nodded. “As any good mate would.”
“It works for the king.” Toya pointed out and I felt my stomach flutter.
Jora pulled out of the garage and he headed toward the store. “Clair told me he had to silence his phone for the time being.”
“Who?” Wendy leaned in.
“Rowan, the king, apparently he has email after email coming in nonstop all day. And normally, while he would usually become more and more agitated with each passing notification, this time his smile got bigger and bigger.” Jora turned to me. “Know anything about that?”
“Who’s Clair?” She asked again, and everyone else turned to look at her.
“The elite personal warrior to the king?” Jora dropped his head.
“The most badass woman in the history of women.” Toya grabbed her shoulder. “Wendy, you have to have heard of Clair.”
She just shook her head. “She is the best female warrior there is.”
Toya turned to me. “I think you might actually give her a run for her money.” I scoffed, but she shook her head. “We know you hold back during training.”
“Well, I’m stronger than you guys.” I turned back and shook my head. “Anyway, the emails made him happy?”
Jora howled. “Very much so. The council was all confused, asking why he was receiving so many emails so quickly. But then they got a call from someone and the council mood shifted.”
“Shifted how?” Toya leaned between the seats.
The smirk on Jora’s face said it all. “Every email that came in, Rowan would smile and then would frown. By the end of the meeting, they were asking the king to give them access to his personal email so that they could handle them.”
I rubbed my forehead. “Please tell me he said no.”
Jora shook his head. “He told them to go fuck themselves. That this was his personal email and they wouldn’t get access to it ever.” I felt the knot in my stomach loosen.
“Good.”
“They tried to argue. Said they had the right to see all applications. But the king just told them they were getting half of the applications and already have to deal with those. The ones emailed to him. He would handle himself. That way, he was a part of the process.”
We pulled into the super store parking lot and hopped out.
But Jora just kept talking. “The council then tried to argue that it would be unnecessary for him to be that involved in the process so that every girl has the same starting point, but the king disagreed. He turned on them. Clair sent me a video.” We were walking into the store when Jora handed me his phone.
He clicked the play button and Toya and Wendy crowded my back to watch.
Rowan was just turned to face the mob of men behind him, and you could tell he was agitated.
“What do you mean, I shouldn’t be involved in the selection?
It’s my fucking mate we are choosing here.
” Clair had to adjust her body, I am assuming, to keep the phone hidden.
“Why should I let you all choose my mate without any of my input? Did you think I was just going to fall in line? Did you assume I would just accept any woman you choose that is under your thumb and happily make her my queen?” Rowan turned and walked away from the trembling men.
You could tell they were pissed that he wasn’t falling in line.
“You can’t do this.” One councilman screamed and Rowan turned.
“You keep forgetting this is my life. I am king. You are just my council and I am getting really fucking tired of you trying to control everything I do. It is not your job to control me, it is your job to counsel me and the fact that you all keep pushing the envelope is making me seriously question if you are still necessary.”
A stillness settled over the group of men. “What are you saying?” I could hear the threat in the words.
“I’m saying you were put in place in case the worst happened to my father when I was too young to figure things out. And it did. The worst happened. My father passed away and I was left alone with you guiding me. But…”
“But what?” One of them stepped forward, and Rowan’s eyes tightened.
“But I am no longer a pup confused about how to rule my kingdom.” Rowan turned and left them speechless. The video cut off, and we were stuck there wondering what we just watched.
I was the first to break the silence. “Stupid man.” I handed Jora back his phone as panic wrapped around my throat.
“What?” Jora tucked his phone away and followed us.
“He just put a target on his back. Bigger than it was before.” Toya wiped her face. “They will gun for him harder now.”
“Exactly.” Wendy confirmed, and the panic felt like it started to strangle me.
“How did he do that?” Jora followed behind, like a good guard.
I wiped at the sweat that had beaded on my forehead.
I had to calm myself down. Before I could worry about Rowan, I needed to handle my attack.
“He is challenging them. Showing his intention early.” I hurried towards the vegetables.
“Now what we have to decide is if he did it on purpose to pull the attention away from something, or if he allowed his anger to speak for him.”
Toya and Wendy stopped dead. “Do you think he would do it on purpose?”
I bobbed my head back and forth. “He might feel like they were getting too close to finding something out he wanted to keep hidden, or to pull attention away from someone. I could see him doing that because he was worried. But…”
Jora came closer. “But?”
“But I can also see him getting so angry that he said it without really thinking it through. He is a Lycan, and while they are obviously not immortal, they are stronger than the average wolf. And Rowan is the strongest man I have ever met.” Toya caught up with me as I stopped in front of the herbs.
“But he isn’t stupid.” She snatched some of the rosemary.
“No…no he’s not.” I grabbed some thyme, and we grew quiet. Rowan was keeping things secret and now I had to figure out a way to protect him.
But first, I needed to figure out what was killing my wolves. I looked over at Toya. “Grab everything. I don’t know when I will have to make another chicken.”
Wendy perked up. “I had an idea on our way here.”
We all turned to her. “What?” I dropped things into the cart Jora went and grabbed. “Thank you.” He smiled and nodded.
“My mate always forgets the cart and then gets more than she expected.”
“Why don’t we get you a countertop herb garden?” Wendy pulled out her phone.
“A what?”
“Here.” She handed me her phone to show a photo of a product from the store.
It was a small plastic tray with small holes down the length of it and an expanding arm that suspended a light over the tray.
“Each hole is for a small cup of soil. It will grow an herb in each hole and you will have your own supply whenever you need it.”
“This is actually genius.” I handed back her phone. “Now we just have to find it.”
“Actually, the store made it easy.” She scrolled for a minute. “This location has it in aisle twenty.” She led the way to the aisle. “And now that we are here, we can hit this button.” And she pointed to a flashing tag halfway down the aisle.
“That’s convenient.” Toya laughed as she ran over. She grabbed a box and brought it over while reading the box. “It says it comes with everything, including the seeds and soil.”
“That’s actually amazing.” Jora walked over. “My mate would love this.” He looked down and then whistled. “Nevermind.”
“What?” I pushed the cart closer.