EIGHT DAYS LATER
I walked behind my father's coffin and kept my chin lifted, knowing that if I collapsed, this pack would eat me alive. The whispers from bystanders started the moment we reached the stone-paved road.
"There she is… the cursed heiress."
"Lost her father and her pup on the same day. The Moon has turned her back on that line."
"That girl has always been cursed."
"Her mother died birthing her."
"The Goldbane line is finished."
When it was my turn, I stepped forward and placed my father's ceremonial blade atop the coffin, pretending I didn't hear all the judgmental gossip.
"May the Moon guide you. May your wolf run free." I sniffed.
The earth covered him and just like that, my father was gone.
It hadn't been two minutes before Elias, the Gamma's assistant, came sprinting through the crowd. He reached the Gamma, whispering into the man's ears and I immediately stood at alert.
The Gamma's eyes went wide before he turned to Gideon. "Alpha, we have uninvited guests at the perimeter.
"Guests?" Gideon repeated with a creased forehead.
"Yes, Alpha," the assistant quickly replied. "They arrived at the outer gates moments ago."
"Who?" I asked.
The assistant swallowed. "They appear to be rogues. They say they're here on business."
That forced a squint out of me, but Gideon exploded, barking and turning fully now. "Rogues? You're telling me rogues had the audacity to step foot into Lupin territory during my father-in-law's burial?"
Murmurs rose within the crowd, making the elders and warriors stiffen.
"How dare they," Gideon continued, anger overtaking him. "This is an insult! A provocation. If they think they can disrupt an Alpha's funeral…"
"Gideon." I placed a hand on his arm.
He looked at me with blazing eyes, and as I stared into their depths, I saw, for just a second, uneasiness and fear in my husband.
"This is not the time, Elowen," he shrugged me off.
"It's exactly the time," I replied calmly.
The elders turned their attention to me.
"Rogues don't just request meetings. And they don't arrive openly unless they want to be seen."
I met Gideon's gaze without blinking. "If they came today, of all days, then they want something particular."
There was a pause before the Beta cleared his throat. "She's right."
The Gamma nodded. "Unusual doesn't always mean hostile."
Gideon exhaled, clearly displeased. "Fine," he said at last. "But they'll be received under guard."
I inclined my head. "Of course."
******
The atmosphere in the high-ceilinged room was tense. I sat at the head of the table, Gideon to my right, fuming. The Beta, Gamma, Delta, and three Elders sat in stone-cold silence.
The doors swung open and two men entered. They didn't look like the desperate rogues our stories described. They were built like tanks, wearing tactical gear.
"You have three minutes! State your business before I have you slaughtered." Gideon growled.
One stepped forward and bowed. "We thank the Lupin Pack for granting us an audience. Our timing is regrettable, but unavoidable."
"As I said, you have one chance to explain yourselves," Gideon coldly barked again.
The rogue nodded. "We are envoys. Here to announce the arrival of our king."
Their king? My brows raised in curiosity.
I couldn't even proceed with my shock when the Gamma sprang up in pure stupefaction. "The one and only tyrant rumored to have cunningly and diplomatically destroyed even the biggest supernatural leaders? That same rogue king?!"
"Yes, the one and only." With a faint smile touching his lips, the second rogue answered as if hearing his leader being called a 'tyrant' was a compliment,
I repeatedly tapped on the armrest of my chair, shocked and curious thoughts running through my mind in quick succession. 'Surely, these could just be con-artists.' I thought inwardly. The rogue king couldn't really be inside the walls of our Lupin pack.
"Jarek Ashthorne," the first envoy continued. "Ruler of the black market. Sovereign of the underworld. King of the rogue territories."
OH! I almost gasped out loud. It was really him!
I watched almost all the elders stiffen. Even Gideon's hand curled slowly into a fist.
The doors groaned open and then he stepped through.
If power had a physical form, it was the man currently walking toward us. He was tall—impossibly so—with shoulders that seemed to eat up the light in the room. His dark, shoulder-length hair was swept back with a few rebellious strands framing the most beautifully dangerous face I had ever seen.
But it was his scent that hit me first. That Bergamot, cold night, and rain-drenched earth scent. My heart began to thump fast in my chest, and in the heat of that moment, I felt my vision blur into the memory of a mangled car, the smell of gasoline, and a deep, baritone voice telling me I wasn't dying today.
No, I screamed internally, my nails digging into the armrests. No. It's a trick. It's the grief.
Gideon had already convinced me that the man from the accident and hospital was a hallucination. A phantom born of trauma and blood loss. He was a guardian angel my mind had invented to keep me from slipping into the dark. He couldn't be Jarek Ashthorne.
Beside me, the Beta, the Gamma, and every Elder rose to their feet as if pulled by invisible wires. Only Gideon remained seated, but even his own face carried a sickly shade of gray.
Jarek walked straight to the foot of the long table without looking at anyone. Then, he stopped, lifted his head, and those storm-blue eyes of his directly found mine.
The world ceased to exist.
The silence lasted a second, then ten, then a full minute. It was so intense that the Elders shifted uncomfortably. He was staring at me with an intensity that felt like a brand, as if he were reading every ounce of grief I'd tried to bury.
Deep inside the frozen, wounded core of my spirit, Nyla moved for the first time since the accident.
My wolf suddenly let out a silent purr, stretched, and opened her ginger eyes in the darkness of my mind.
"Him, Elowen! The scent... it is HIM."