LOGINI paced the room as the media crew finished setting up the equipment. The deadline for Osric was closing in. If he didn’t call, which no one expected him to, we would be announcing to the world that he was responsible for the death of my father. We were going to expose his darkest secrets. I should have had doubts. I should have felt some amount of guilt about destroying my own grandfather’s reputation, but I didn’t.Every time I was forced to remember the carnage of the battlefield… Every time I felt the burn of those missing tethers… I became more determined than before.“Calm down, princess,” Lucas told me, stopping my pacing. “We have this all planned out.”“But Hank isn’t here yet,” I replied. “We still don’t know how Osric will react. Or Anders and Nomi for that matter. You heard Raphe, he stressed about how important timing is for the plan to work. If Anders leaves the capital, we lose this advantage.”“It’ll be okay, Sutton,” my father assured me. “Soloman just spoke with Hank
“Thank you, Lana,” Raphe said. “That will be all for now.”Raphe stood and walked to the conference room. Lucas and I followed, telling Tarvyn to keep an eye on Lana.“Is that the information you needed for this plan of yours?” I asked.“Yes,” Raphe replied. “It’s what I expected. I couldn’t imagine Alpha Derion even entertaining the idea of working along side my father.”“Did I hear someone mention Alpha Derion?” Luna Kimo had entered the room with Korinna. “What does he have to do with anything?”“Good morning, Luna,” I greeted.She almost seemed nervous at the mention of this mysterious Alpha’s name. We gave her a quick update as we waited for the other Alphas to arrive.“Alpha Derion and I have crossed paths before,” Kimo told us. “He’s a brute of a man who was less than impressed to find out I lead my pack alone. He, in so many words, made it clear he believed I was the downfall of our kind and that a male should put me in my place. I was worried for a time that he would try to i
I woke from a deep sleep as the first rays of sunlight started to creep through the window. For a few short moments, all that ran through my mind was the feel of Lucas at my back and his arm draped over my waist. But all too soon, reality of the day came rushing back. I had to admit, it wasn’t as overwhelming as it had been the day before. The cry had done some good. So had my time with Lucas. The memories still hurt, but they weren’t as heavy.I gently lifted Lucas’ arm and slid to the edge of the bed. Throwing my feet over the side, I sat up and stretched out my very sore muscles. Wincing when the motion tugged on the scabs along my side and chest. I yelped as an arm shot around my waist and yanked me backward back onto the mattress.“Not yet,” Lucas growled, burying his face in my neck.“We can’t,” I told him. “We have to meet Raphe and the pack leaders. And we both could use a good shower and clean up.”Lucas grumbled.“You sleep a little longer,” I instructed. “I’ll shower first.
Whatever Raphe had in mind included Korinna, who wasn’t in the apartment. And I insisted that whatever plan we came up with would include the other pack leaders. It was already so late at night and everyone was mourning the loss of their pack members. So, I put my foot down and told Raphe and Soloman we would pick back up in the morning. After they left, Sutton didn’t seem too pleased that I had kicked them out but I didn’t care. Even Rhonen’s possessiveness and protectiveness had him ready to put her in her place.“Princess, you need a break,” I told her. “You need to sleep.”“I need to finish this,” she argued. “I need to get a plan in place. I need to stop Osric before anyone else gets hurt.”“You can’t do that if you’re running on empty,” I replied. “You’ve barely stood still in the last twenty-four hours. You aren’t doing anyone any favors by running yourself ragged.”“I can’t sleep,” Sutton snapped, her voice shaky as tears started to well. “If I sleep… if… if I stop, then I see
I set the cup of tea down in front of Sutton. I got her back up to our apartment but she still refused to sleep. Not until we figured out how to get to Osric. So, now we sat at our dining room table, waiting to hear about Raphe and Nomi.“We met near the northern border,” Raphe began to tell us. “After my mother died, I had a hard time being in the palace. I started to travel the country. Convincing myself I was getting to know my people so that when the time came, I’d be a good king. But in reality, I was drowning. Avoiding dealing with my mother’s death.” He paused to take a sip of his tea. “I was with a hunting party in the Hollow Moon Pack.”“Hunting party?” Sutton asked. “What were you hunting?”“Rogues,” Raphe clarified. “There is a strip of land along the base of the mountains where the rogues from the northern territories congregate. They had been hassling the local village. So, I was helping some of the pack warriors scare them off. But instead of rogues, we found an injured
“I… I need some air,” I announced to the room.My feet started moving on their own. My thoughts going in a dozen different directions.“Sutton, wait,” Lucas called, rushing to get ahead of me. “Come on, princess. Let’s just go home. You need to get some sleep. We both do.”“I said I need some air,” I snapped back. “Just give me some space, Lucas.”I pushed past him, feeling guilty about snapping but not enough to turn back. I did need some space. I did need some air. But more importantly, I needed to do something. I needed the truth.I needed to talk to Raphe.I left the packhouse and shifted the moment I caught my uncle’s scent. Nova followed it toward the woods. The light of the surrounding city seemed to hover over the trees. It was cold. Making every scent seem stronger. We could see our breath as we stopped to get our bearings.Nova could tell we were closing in on him. We kept our eyes pealed for movement among the brush as we kept moving. Suddenly, a massive wolf leapt out in
It felt like time was moving at a snail’s pace. Korinna tried to help by talking about Mom, but my heart just wasn’t in it. All I could do was pace to keep from going stir crazy. My mind kept going to Soloman and the council, praying they would make it out okay. Then back home to the Ironpaw Pack a
Lucas was evasive about the phone call he took. I knew he spoke to Soloman, but all I could get out of him was that Osric was upset that I had left. That wasn’t anything new. That may have been all it was about, but Lucas was on edge about the call. More than I would have expected.Still, I wasn’t
Luna Kimo walked out of the room before I had the chance to express my frustration. To make it worse, Korinna also stood, finishing her drink as she gave me a wink and a grin before following Kimo out the door. I stood with my mouth open as they left. Lucas’ hand pressed against the small of my bac
“What… I can’t. We’re on our way to chambers now,” Soloman told me frantically. “What’s going on?”I was already up off the couch, hand pushing through my hair as I tried to figure out what to do. Which was nothing. There was nothing I could do from this far away.“You said there was no way they wo







