Chapter 27 Leticia #2
“I’m a big girl, Royal. You don’t have to spare me the details. Don’t be like my dad.” I want to be strong, but my voice isn’t exactly steady, just pointed.
“Valor strapped her into his work chair. The one where he tortures people. And because she was in that chair, she was hurt by the chair first and then further when Neil attacked her. She couldn’t defend herself, and the only thing they could do to save her was to give her a wolf.
” Royal continues. “Valor knows he fucked up. His blind spot has always been Kerrianne, and I can tell you right now, Antonella is making him pay for his fuckup. But I know you notice —”
“The family secret.” Everything starts falling into place. “We don’t eat people, and he called her pup. Like wolf pup. You’re not cannibals, you’re not human.”
“We’re not human. We’re not cannibals.” Royal nods in agreement.
I stand up and start pacing. Stay calm. I urge myself, but my heart beat is only speeding up, and when I draw deep breaths, they’re shaky and uneven.
“Leticia.” Royal stands and steps into my path, stopping my pacing.
“You’re not human.” I feel like an idiot repeating it, but I can’t for the life of me understand.
“I’m not human. But nothing has changed. I’m the same guy you’ve been getting to know. Antonella is the same person you’ve grown up with. It’s just now you know what makes us different.” He gently rests his hands on my shoulders, reaching his thumb up to brush my jaw.
“Why are you telling me?” I make eye contact with him.
“We knew you’d notice, and Valor promised that he’d let you in on the secret. You’re smart and really in tune with the world around you. If we didn’t tell you, then you’d figure it out. It saves Antonella from lying to you.” He squeezes my shoulders a little. “You’re not in any danger knowing.”
“As long as I don’t tell anyone.” I raise my eyebrows.
“As long as you don’t try to tell anyone.” Royal agrees.
“How would you know if I did?” I look at where I set my phone on the coffee table.
“Uhm.” Royal takes a step back, letting me go.
“Royal?” I try again to infuse my voice with the same tone Antonella uses to get information out of the younger cousins when they’re misbehaving.
“I have live monitoring on your phone.” He drops that information with a guilty wince.
“You what?”
“It’s just a precautionary measure. I wanted to be sure you were safe.” Royal defends himself, raising his voice a little.
“Safe for who?” I argue, my eyes going wide with the question.
“For yourself, for us.” He brings his tone back down, lower than normal, and I can tell Royal is leaving something out. It’s in the way he hangs his head.
“And?” I pressure him for more.
“And because I’ve grown fond of you and wanted to be sure your parents and Berto were treating you alright.
Antonella mentioned to Valor that you don’t get along with your parents all that well.
I figured there was some big change. Some stressors can change .
. . I’m just digging myself a hole and pleading the fifth.
” Royal stops talking, zipping his lips with his fingers.
“You can’t just plead the fifth. You’ve been spying on me?” I want to be mad. I should be mad. “Wait, you said . . . what was it about my grades . . .” I close my eyes and try to think back to the conversation at school before we got in the car. “There isn’t a lot you can’t do without motivation.”
I open my eyes, and Royal has a whole new look on his face — sullen with downcast eyes, chewing on his top lip.
“I’ve been getting this feeling of being watched at home.
Did you hack into the cameras in the penthouse?
I mean, I tried to tell Dad the security company was a Clark Enterprises subsidiary, but he didn’t believe me.
You’ve been watching me.” I’m accusing him and posing it as a question, but my blood is colder than the weather outside.
He doesn’t have to answer because I know.
“I found out we had access at the wedding. But I’ve only been watching you since we started talking. If you had feelings of being watched before that, then it wasn’t me. I can dig back through the system, though, make sure everything is —”
“Stop,” I snap. “The night we —” I swallow hard, trying to hold it together. “The night I . . .”
Royal nods, and his whole body deflates. “I was there.”
“You were reassuring me that most cameras don’t have night vision. But the one in my bedroom does?” I can’t even tell if I’m angry. I feel like I should be angry, but I’m not feeling that fire heat of rage.
“It does. But if it makes you feel any better about this, when I got access to the system, I went in and disabled the feed so no one else could watch you . . . but me. They’d need to be a better hacker than me to crack the encryption on that camera.
” He offers a polite smile with a shrug. “So I made it safer?”
I can’t believe this. I was being watched. This whole time.
I walk over to the couch and flop down, lying flat and looking up at the high ceiling. It’s two stories high with massive windows that let in the glow of the setting sun. Beautiful place to have a meltdown if I do say so myself.
I’ve had a stalker. Sure, he was friendly, but a stalker nonetheless. I didn’t even know. I mean, I thought someone was watching me, but I didn’t KNOW.
“Gorgeous, talk to me. Be mad at me. Just say anything.” Royal sits down on the chair closest to my head, looking down at me.
“I don’t know how to feel. I know I should be mad though.” I turn my head to look up at him.
“Well, you not being mad is kinda good for me, so I’m not pushing you into being mad.” He takes the decorative pillow out of the chair before pulling it into his lap and lounging backward.
“Okay, so you’re werewolves. How long —”
“Wolf shifter.” He’s quick to correct me. “Werewolves, as far as I know, are a fictional beast.”
I snort because here I was thinking that humans who turn into wolves, whatever their preferred term may be, were fictional.
Royal gives me a sheepish smile, likely picking up on what I’m not saying.
But he continues. “I shift when I want and am not controlled by the moon, and silver is just another pretty alloy. Bullets, as you’ve found out, can wound just as much as anything else.
It’s different, and some wolf shifters get really touchy if you call them a werewolf. ”
“Got it, wolf shifter. How long have you all been wolf shifters?”
I don’t know why I’m changing the subject. I only know that I can’t really process him spying on me, on us, and it’s almost laughable that a conversation about wolf shifters being real is easier.
But is it any different from what Dad has sent me here to do? Oh shit, did Royal hear that conversation?
“Forever, it’s genetic, or you can be turned, but everyone in my family has always been a wolf shifter. Well, now excluding Antonella, who was just turned.”
“That’s kinda cool. I mean, not the whole turning her part. I’m glad her life was saved, but it shouldn’t have been in danger to begin with.” I look away from him and back up to the ceiling, taking a deep breath. “She is okay, right?”
“Yeah, she’s okay. We can check on her and Valor later. I promise,” Royal says, preceding the sound of fabric rustling as he adjusts in his seat.
“My dad wants me to spy on you and report back what’s going on.” I wince, afraid of the backlash, even though deep down, I know Royal isn’t the kind to get angry.
“I know,” Royal says softly. “Which is why when they told me I had to tell you this, I questioned it. But I also know you’re a good person.”
“And that you’ve hacked into my phone and can probably stop me from texting them information you don’t want them to know?” I wager.
“I’m hoping I don’t have to, but ultimately, yes.” His voice is lower and somber. “I don’t want to be wrong about you. I hope telling me about what your dad asked you to do means that you’re telling me you’re trustworthy.”
I sit up and look at him. “What happens if I’m not?”
His jaw twitches, and he draws a slow breath before letting it out. “It’s my job to make sure you keep our secret. If that means turning you so that you share the secret and have the equal motivation to keep us all safe, then so be it.”
“Oh.” I was not expecting that. Taking me prisoner and locking me up or outright killing me were the possibilities my mind conjured up.
“For the record, I don’t want to have to turn you. I like you human. Even if you’re so much more vulnerable to the world.” He cocks his head. “Though, I guess all that does is make me want to keep you safe that much more.”
My heart flutters, and I fight a smile and look away before my cheeks can flame. I pretend to be examining the house. “So now what?”
“Well, lunch as promised. I have to feed Captain, and then I thought maybe you’d like to just hang out? That is, if you still want to be friends.” Royal’s voice is pinched, and I turn back to look at him.
The wince he wears, tightened eyes and lips pulled flat, makes me laugh. “Yes, we’re still friends.”