Chapter 6 Royal
ROYAL
THEY’RE brOTHERS
Valor is assembling firearms with a couple of pack members when I find him at the warehouse. “What now?”
“You know, for a guy who just got a new wife, you’re grumpy. Shouldn’t you be on a honeymoon or something?” I poke back at him before turning to our cousin, Gavin. “Has he been this pissy to everyone today?”
“No, just you.” Gavin laughs as he keeps assembling.
His laughter goes up in a puff of condensation into the cold air of the warehouse. The recent cold snap has left everything down below freezing.
“Well, shit. Sorry to break up the party.” I try to step into the line. My fingers brush the cold metal surface of the table before I pick up a frigid piece and start putting in a firing pin. “I see the heat isn’t any better here than last winter.”
Valor snatches the work out of my hands. “Stop. What do you want?”
“Ugh, you never let me play with your toys.” I moan and groan, but it’s mostly to rile him up.
“I swear to God, I never wanted a younger brother. Why was I cursed with one? What do you want, Royal?” He turns to face me, and we lock eyes. His wolf rises to the surface to meet mine.
“Gimme five minutes and I’ll let you go back to playing with your guns.” I gesture back to the door I came from.
“Go.” Gavin shoos us with his hand. “We’ve got it from here. We don’t need you involved with literally every shipment.”
Valor draws a calming breath. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Gavin.”
He and I don’t speak on our way out of the warehouse, but once we’re outside, it’s like Valor is a different person.
We brush shoulders as he asks, “So what did you really need?”
“I received a call today from a person of interest.” I lead the way back to one of Valor’s many offices.
Valor waits until we’re inside the office with the door locked before pushing me for more information. “Oh?”
The heating in the offices is much better than the freezing warehouse, and I start stripping out of my winter coat so I don’t die from overheating.
“Mmhmm.” I nod, sinking down into the worn pleather chair. The green vinyl is cracking and old but really insanely comfortable.
“Are you going to tell me who it was, or are you doing this ridiculous make-me-guess game?” Valor pinches the bridge of his nose.
“Yes, I’ll tell you. Though you’d never guess who.
Not in a million years.” I scoff, taunting him, but he doesn’t try to guess anyway.
I give it another second of pause before letting the information out.
“Leticia D’Medici called, and we had a lovely chat.
She’s coming to your house for dinner. You’re to message her with a day that works for you and Antonella. ”
Valor’s jaw drops. He closes it and shakes his head as he starts to shrug out of his peacoat. “How did you manage that?”
“She called Clark Enterprises and managed to find a way to talk to Margret, who patched her in with me.” I shrug, wishing it had been more exciting than it was.
“And she voluntarily wanted to come to dinner at my house?” He cocks his head to the side like I’m the one who is insane.
“Literally, that was almost the entire call.” Shit. Almost slipped. I don’t try to backpedal, hoping he misses it.
“And what was the rest of the entire call?” Valor leans forward, pressing me for more information.
Busted.
“We talked about how she used jargon to confuse Margret to get to me. I clarified that it had to be at your house and not a restaurant. And she insisted that it had to be with you and Antonella for dinner.”
“So you were flirting.” Valor rolls his eyes and leans back.
“Was not!” I scrunch up all my features. “I would never. She’s a fuckin’ rival family’s princess. She’s a significant bargaining chip at a table I’d never be invited to, and I’m the second son of the alpha. We’re not the same. And she’d never see me as worth flirting with.”
“Mmhmm.” Valor digs his phone out of his pocket. “What’s her number? I’ll set it up. But you were totally flirting. You’re probably just bad at it.”
“Are you done being mean to me, or do you have more?” I pull my phone out to give him Leticia’s number. I have it memorized, but I don’t need him to know that.
If he knows that, he’ll know I was up late doing some stalking with her cell phone number. Which is the fastest way for my brother to figure out that I have a new person to obsess over for a little while.
It happens. Valor’s wolf is built for the kill, and mine is built to stalk. It comes out in our everyday personalities. He’s scary, and people just know he’s a killer. I’m personable, and when the wolf and I latch on to someone, or something, it’s not easy to just let it go.
Valor takes the number and sends a text before answering me. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be such a dick. I’m . . . Don’t get married to a stranger. She’s so fuckin’ nice and agreeable all the time. It’s messing with my head. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”
“You realize you’re complaining because you like your wife, right?” I scratch my head for emphasis.
Valor scrubs his hands down his face. “I know. But I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t some dark secret going on. Is it a trap?”
“Well, I mean, dinner with her cousin will probably open up some more information. Like if her cousin shows up with another D’Medici in tow, there’s reason for alarm . . .” I pause for effect. “Or maybe, you married a school teacher who is a genuinely good person.”
Valor doesn’t even acknowledge that last bit. I knew he wouldn’t. He’s so used to looking for something to go wrong that he won’t ever settle into the happiness of something going right.
“How often does Antonella text her cousin?” Valor slides his phone back in his pocket, not having gotten an answer to his text right away.
“Some. Their communications are frequent but inconsequential.” And because it’s who I am, I read them fourteen times, looking for some hidden meanings and couldn’t find any, so I’m fairly certain that I’m right about them being inconsequential.
“Were we able to recover the messages from before the wedding?” He immediately jumps into the next question.
Deny. My wolf immediately raises his hackles. Protect her.
“No, I didn’t get all the message history.
However, I get the feeling these two are close but that Leticia probably doesn’t know anything about what happens in our lives or even really inside the D’Medici home.
It’s not like Mom and her being into everything.
” I pepper enough information into that sentence, hoping somehow he doesn’t ask more questions.
“I don’t remember the last time I had humans in my house,” Valor grumbles.
“Other than your wife?” I huff a laugh.
“That’s different, she’s stuck with me.” He heaves a massive sigh. “I have to get Kerrianne prepared to behave. What do we even talk about at dinner? Couldn’t this have been like coffee, or I don’t know, some sort of outing where we’re not confined to the dining room?”
“You have a built-in distraction with my favorite niece. She’s practically a whole night’s worth of conversation. I don’t think you’ll have an issue getting through a single dinner being civil.” I try really hard not to invite myself to dinner.
I need to keep my distance from Leticia. Even if our circumstances were different and I could explore my attraction to—and my wolf’s obsession with—her, this level of attachment to someone I barely even know is unhealthy.
What’s a little stalking? My wolf is obsessed already.
“No,” I say aloud to scold my wolf, and it cuts off Valor before he even starts the next question he was going to ask.
“You don’t even know what I was about to say.” Valor raises an eyebrow at me.
“I know you well enough to know you were about to ask me to spy on Leticia and figure out what angle she’s playing, and I know enough to tell you no. That you need to be open to the merger of the families. It happened. Get over it.” I hope my stab in the dark is in the right direction.
It was because Valor folds, slouching further. “Fine.”
“Tell my niece that I’m ordering the last pieces for her robot. So we can do that later on during break.” I get out of my chair before I can do something stupid like mention to Valor what’s going on in my head.
“You know she’s obsessed with building robots, right?” He laughs.
“Oh, I know. She messages me all the time asking if I think a robot could do any number of things. Surprisingly, though, she’s never asked if it would do her homework.” I smile.
“She really likes Antonella as a teacher,” Valor muses, and I can feel the undercurrent of something more.
My brother and his kid are falling in love with his new wife. The arranged marriage isn’t as bad as he keeps trying to make it out to be.
Maybe an arranged marriage wouldn’t be so bad? Mom and Dad have always left marriage up to me. But even the second son could have some pull for an alliance.
My wolf walks away, disgruntled, thinking of Leticia.
I’ve always wanted everything I’m not supposed to have. Why wouldn’t I want her? It’s just that this time, I can’t have her.
Probably.