The boy had a sack of something on his back, but a hulking Alpha was trying to take it from him. “Gimme it, ya little shit! Gimme them jewels!” I could smell the man all the way down the street, the reek of stale urine and tobacco clinging to his ragged clothing and grubby skin. He yanked at the sack, which bowled the prince over, causing the opening to gape and a shower of hard candies to spill out over the cobblestones.
“Get off him, you son of a bitch!” I yelled. Lanterns were being lit in the windows near us, and the man whirled around to face me. When he saw me with my twin daggers, though, he spat out a curse word and ran off. I stopped at the prince’s side to help him up, though he shook off my hand. “What are you doing out here, Prince Dashiell?” I asked, when I’d made certainhe wasn’t bleeding. “It’s late, you have no guard and… Do your parents have any idea where you are?”
The boy speared me with a look he must have learned from King Rigol. “What I’m doing is none of your concern, Lord Zellum. Thank you for your assistance.” He muttered, “Though it wasn’t needed,” and began scooping the candies up.
Some of them were unwrapped, and most of them had broken, but I moved across the street, trying to help him rescue any that were still salvageable.
He didn’t thank me. Or even look at me. “Damn that fellow. Now I have to sneak out again.”
“Sneak out? Why?”
His narrow shoulders slumped. “There’s a surprise party happening on the Solstice. A goodbye party as well.” When I held out a handful of sweets, he held the pack closer to his torso, as if I were planning to take it. “That’s all you need to know.”
He wouldn’t share any more than that, and I escorted him back to the castle, him dragging his feet, while my impatience grew. We were only a few streets away from the main gate, when one of Ratter’s sisters came rappelling down the side of the castle wall, her eyes snapping fire as she reached us. She glared at Dash, nodded her thanks to me, and had him by the ear and halfway through the gate before I could wish her luck.
I ran back to the jeweler’s, forced to take a few detours when I spotted some more of Ratter’s crew on rooftops. I didn’t want them asking what I was doing in the neighborhood.
The night was fully dark when I reached the shop, hoping the proprietor would still be at work, though I would break in and liberate the dagger if needed. But the door was open when I reached it, and the silver-haired Beta jeweler was inside, trussed up like a Solstice bird, with a rag in his mouth.
I didn’t untie him, but did take the rag out. Although I drew my daggers, he started talking before they’d even cleared thesheaths. “Listen, I’ve told every one of them little shits. I don’t have the dagger. I sold it.”
“The obsidian dagger?” I held my knife at his throat, but he rolled his eyes.
“Listen, the knife at my throat business was scary the first time. It was scary the second time. But it’s gotten old. I need my sleep, and at this point, I’d settle for sleeping in a graveyard if it would get you lot to leave me alone.”
I put the knife away, wondering what exactly had happened here. I wanted to kill someone, but I needed information. “My apologies.” I untied him, helping him to a chair. “I’m afraid we’re all after the same thing.”
“Yes, I know. The perfect Solstice gift. Goddess only knows why everyone wants a knife for their sweetheart.”
Sweetheart?I fought for calm. “The dagger that Ratter sold you. I wanted to purchase it.”
“You and everyone else. I told that girl she ought not to sell it. It’s cursed.” He had no idea how right he was.
“Do you know what she needed the money for?”
“Leaving, ain’t she? At least that’s what her little boyfriend said. Why he wanted to buy it back, so she could take it with her on her trip out of Rimholt.” Caution flashed in his eyes. “Don’t be tellin’ she’s on her way out, though. She works for General Vilkurn, young Ratter does. And if I get on his bad side, I’d wish for a quick death, and not receive one, I know that for sure.”
“Boyfriend?” I blinked, rage clouding my vision. “Who? I need a name.”
“What for?”
I should have paid more attention to my tone, but a red cloud had descended over my thoughts. I paced back and forth across the shop, broken glass and bits of wood crunching underfoot. I wanted to rage, to kill, to run after Ratter and make sure she knew she was… I breathed through my nose slowly, fighting tosuppress my Alpha nature, though the shop had begun to smell like the bloody maw of Alldyns Vug.
Fuck.I’d been an Alpha for less than a year, my rut spent suspended over a pool of lava, as was tradition… but the fire of jealousy that ignited inside me anytime I thought of anyone else touching her made me feel on the edge of rut, of murder, with each beat of my heart.
She was not mine. She could never be mine, or any man’s. She had been born for a far greater purpose. I knew this as surely as I knew that I could not drag her back to the island.
But if I left her here, she would turn to some other man, someday. Some other Alpha, even, who might press his teeth into her slim neck, ease his cock inside her willing heat…
The world turned red again. I fought for a grip on reality, but it slid away like water in a sieve. Was this Alpha madness? I’d never experienced it before, but I felt as if I’d slipped into a fog.
“Give me his name, so I can kill him.”
The shopkeeper had risen, his eyes wide, alarm etched on his features. “No.”
My daggers were at his throat instantly, and the scent of his blood filled the room. “His. Name.”
“I will not,” he said, though the scent of his urine reached my nostrils. “Go on and kill me, but I’ll not give you his name.” He closed his eyes, fully expecting to die.
