90
Knightly
“It’s not up to her. This is one thing all the houses agree on. Xochtl is also under investigation for what happened with Ayrie. We still don’t know what the repercussions of her wolf manifesting so earlier will have on Aizen. You should have them examined.” Vy nods.
“I asked Phoebe about letting my father’s practitioners take a look at them, and she started crying.”
“Someone poisoned Ayrie, Knight. Make sure you and Arnold are in the room with her this time,” Perry sighs. “We’re all so fucking cooked it’s not even funny. I have to go. Let me know if you guys need help getting to Magique.”
“Be careful,” we all say before she logs off.
“I’ll send you the info on the apartment.” Vy says,
“My dad has places in Magique. I’ll run it by them when they get back. I’ll let you know what happens.”
“All right, well, Ima dip too. Rome, pizza’s in the oven. The baby should be getting here in twenty minutes. Don’t let her cut the pizza. She’s stupid as fuck,”
“Yuh,” he agrees, but he’s completely fixated on the program Perry sent him. “This has hella layers. What the fuck? I’ll call you guys back. I’m gonna call Tempie.”
“Who the fuck is Tempie?” Vy asks, but it doesn’t stop him from hanging up.
“Temperance from Nova. She’s not a tech girl, but she has friends.” he talks about her
all the time,
“That kid is going to be an issue, Knight. Nova wolves are weird. Her mom is from
Jalisco.”
“She’s a hellion?”
“I don’t know. You know those things hide what they are. The triads are the only ones that have formed an alliance. We don’t know anything about them. She’s got the alpha‘ s pups on their territory now, and they’re huge guys. Both the alphas and the betas. Two sets of triplets.”
“That makes sense. That’s exactly what the triads are. Three mates to the one female. Luna Miller and her two mates lost an alpha during the rogue raids. Don’t worry about them just yet. They’re pups. We have three to four years before they’re old enough to take their packs, and Temperance isn’t the alpha of Nova; her brother is. Focus on Magique and Barnes.”
“He’s not cooperating. He doesn’t understand,” she says quietly. “I don’t have anyone to talk to about this.”
1/4
90
“You can talk to me.”
“Okay, just not now. I have to pick up Pepper from training. I’ll see you later.” She hangs
- up.
“Later,” I say to myself, looking down at the bento box.
I open it to find cookies in the first box, heart–shaped strawberries and kiwis in the second box, and brown rice with thick chicken breast slices on top in the bottom one. It smells and looks amazing. I’ve never let anyone but my mother cook for me before.
I shut down the computer and go over to the table to bring up all the security footage from this weekend. I think better when I can see all the points at once. My father was gone for less than eight minutes and this fuck took out all of guards with four other wolves. Arnold took them out one by one while Phoebe held off her uncle.
I can’t figure out how the fuck he got on the beach unnoticed. Arnold and I can’t pinpoint the location, and we were out there all night trying to pick up on his scent. None of the servers were hacked. The video footage is live, and at no point was it looped. It’s like he spawned in the middle of the beach.
Maybe I’m overthinking it. Garrett was a royal guard. The only thing I can think of are the shadow wolves, but for him to learn their tricks, he’d have to be mated to one. If he was, that’s high treason against the King. Shadows aren’t welcomed at court after they took the King as an infant.
Savage crossed a line, and he knows it. There’s a difference between a little fire and sending in an assassin. Things could have gone badly if Midnight hadn’t thought Phoebe could take care of the problem without them shifting. Our pups could have been injured.
My hands are tied at the moment. I can’t go into this Rogue King shit by picking a fight with the youngest king we’ve ever had and that little asshole knows it. It took everything in me not to swing at him in his office, and it became much worse when I saw Phoebe in cuffs.
When my father gets home with my family, he waits by his car for me, knowing that I’m always watching. I save my work and shut everything down before going out to greet him. I hate this piece of shit, but Phoebe is right. He’s been so helpful since he found out about the twins. Even now, with Phoebe’s training.
“I’m headed home to rotate our location. You good for tonight?”
“Yeah, we’re good.” I hold out a USB for him.
“What’s this?” he takes it./
“Every file I could get on Garett. There’s some interesting shit you might like on there regarding his pups‘ genetic mutations,”
“Is that right?” his eyes take a glossy shine to them and I hate that fucking evil smirk on his face.
2/4
90
“I’m thinking about heading toward Magique and taking them with me,” I add.
“That’s not a bad idea. I’ll look into a place big enough for all of us.”
“Thank you for everything you’re doing for us,” I almost fucking choke. When he doesn‘ t say anything, I take a deep breath and turn away to go back inside.
“You’re not joining the packlands, are you?” he asks. I stop and try to think of a way to get out of this without him attacking me. “How? What are you doing to secure that?”
“I don’t know yet. I don’t want to be an alpha, but I can’t keep pretending to be a civilian anymore. My family needs me with them.”
“You’re going to settle for a spot on the council even after everything Savage has done to her?” he growls.
“She is the only reason why I would even consider doing anything.” I turn around to face him, doing my best not to lose my composure. “Without her, you wouldn’t have an heir. You’d have nothing but a bunch of false inheritants.
“One act of kindness is not going to erase a lifetime of malice, Arnold. You fucking ruined me. This isn’t strength, asshole. I will never stop hating you. I can’t. You need to know that you’re the reason I know I’m not good enough to be her mate. The reason why I’m probably going to be a half ass father and why I’ve missed so much of their lives.
“You and all the fucking shit you drag along behind you like some trophy. You’re here because she wants you here and no other reason. Whatever I’m doing is none of your fucking business. I know what you’re playing at, Father. She doesn’t. We’re just little pawns on your board, aren’t we? Now you have the missing piece. Everything you can ask for in the Queen you wanted your heir to have.”
“Phoebe is a natural–born leader. Just like you. It’s in her blood. The fact that you’re mated to her is proof that I’ve always been right,” he sneers.
“And that’s all that matters to you, isn’t it? You don’t give a fuck about the shit they did to her in that house. You don’t care that she’s been alone her entire life. You don’t even see that our stories are so a like because you’re no better than that murdering fucking cat. The vision is all that matters to you and fuck whoever gets trampled on your way
to it,”
“We’re not that different, son,” he says sternly.
“You fucking better believe we aren’t, you piece of shit. I want you to remember that for the rest of your life,” I scoff and turn around to leave.
When I get to the steps, he asks, “What changed? This isn’t about the training.”
“It changed when you ordered me to kill my mother. You didn’t give me that order to make me strong, Dad. You gave me that order out of your own weakness. You’ve always been in love with her. You knew that she was the one obstacle in your way that you couldn’t remove yourself.”
3/4
90
“You flatter her,” he scoffs angrily.
“I’ve been away from the ranch for a long fucking time, old man. You’ve had countless opportunities to kill her and her family, but you can’t stand the idea, can you? A world without Maria in it is a world you don’t want to live in. She looks just like Kambira Azul, doesn’t she?”
“If you ever say that name again. I will fucking end you,” he loses his temper.
“Yeah, that’s what you’re going to do.” I laugh. “You s
