I picked through the various items around the cottage seeing very little of note. “Granny doesn’t have personal connections. Anyone around her is expendable.”
“Begging your pardon, sir,” Niven said, “but that’s true of anyone around herin the city. She could be hiding a relative away in this forgotten place.”
“Forgotten?” Sixten huffed. “This place isn’t forgotten. It’s secludedness has been orchestrated. Don’t you remember learning that Granny shut down all trade routes of the neighboring villages and forced those people to move nearer Ridge Town or starve? I’m not convinced she didn’t kill a few people off to make the situation a threat, as well. That woman is ruthless. Then she fortified the territory boundary and populated the outer forest with demon beasts, magically kept to the area. I mean, for all intents and purposes, she made this town an island. She cut these people off from the outside world.”
“And then people forgot about the village, yes,” Niven said patiently. “I figured we could all surmise thehowof it and skip to the important points.”
“Like?” Sixten pushed, her attitude hard to manage when she was healing from a wound.
“Like the fact that there is a scent in Granny’s personal space that we don’t recognize from the city. The owner of that scent has been stashed in this territory for safekeeping, and she could be the key to this whole operation.”
Silence rang in his wake. It was a succinct summary and my insides felt like they were shriveling in response to it.
She could be the key to this whole operation.
She could be enemy number two, second-in-command behind Granny.
“Let’s see what Granny was hiding,” I growled, leaving the cottage, needing air. The idea that my true mate could be responsible for the largest, most expansive drug trade in the magical world and the horror it had brought to so many sickened me. Her connection to me sickened me. The gods were punishing me—it had to be. Karma had come back around for the part I’d played in this very kingdom, stealing people, ripping apart families. How fitting that my true mate would be doing the same thing with the new-found blessing of the crown.
“Wait—dang that axe! I’ll meet up with you—“ Sixten was cut off as I slammed the door shut behind me.
Tanix in wolf form loped up in the quiet. None of the night creatures made a sound. They clearly felt danger in their midst, as they had last night, at least until the woman and I had been thoroughly engaged. Then they’d crept back in, the glow bugs lending an ethereal quality to the moment.
I shoved the memory from my mind and started walking in my human form. Tanix shifted immediately from a gray wolf to a brawny man with red-gold hair worn tight to his head, low eyebrows and a mean expression. He fell in at my side. I noticed his glance down at my rigid cock.
“You didn’t seem surprised,” I said.
“In the cottage, I recognized her scent from last night when you came back from checking things out. I’d figured you’d killed someone and didn’t feel it necessary to let me know. When she came in, though, I knew it had to be something else. Something more... dire to explain your loss of control.”
Dire. That was the right word for it.Very astute, Tanix.
He’d served time in the demon dungeons with me. He’d followed me to the dragon kingdom and stayed with me there,challenging to become my next in line. Not a lot got past him where it concerned me.
Just this once, I wished that wasn’t the case. I didn’t want him knowing my struggle to keep her at a distance, and I definitely didn’t want him nervous that she would prevent me from doing my duty. Those were two things I badly wanted to hide from the pack.
“Last night I had been blindsided by her,” I said by way of explanation. “Today I recognized her for what she almost certainly is—the creator. One of them, at any rate. We’ll protect her until we can get her back to the dragons. Then we’ll hand her over. They are not a forgiving breed. She’ll see her justice.”
Bile tasted acidic in the back of my throat. I swallowed it down. I would do what was necessary, regardless of how it affected me. That was what it meant to be an alpha, second in the kingdom only to the king and queen.
He was quiet for a moment. “Understood,” he finally said. “For now, she’s secure with Hadriel. I filled him in on the situation while I was tying her up. She might be fast, but she doesn’t have the strength to break the ropes. She’ll be there when we get back.”
Damn it, I couldn’t read his tone. What was he suggesting, that I wanted her there for personal reasons? Intimate, sexual reasons unlike any I’d ever experienced? To use her maybe, until I had to give her away, knowing she’d be using me in the process. She’d probably try to loosen me up, to work on my primal desire to protect her so I’d let her free.
Heat boiled my blood. I didn’t care why, I wanted her to use me. It was a testament to how desperately I craved her. The last time I was used, it was against my will, my body languishing in a dungeon. I never thought I’d willingly give up that kind of control again. Yet here I was, wanting her to take what she desired from me, as many times as she wanted, drawing out herpleasure as she bobbed on my cock and then struggled to take my knot.
Butterflies filled my belly, but I shoved those thoughts away. “For questioning,” I said firmly.
His pause was brief. “Exactly. For questioning.”
This time I could read his tone all too clearly. He hadn’t been thinking of anything more than our duty.
Fuck. She was so thoroughly in my head that I was even questioning those most loyal to the cause. He’d never want anything but to turn her over or kill her on the spot. I knew that. She’d been responsible for the death of his sister. He probably worried I’d grow weak and set her loose, allowing her to continue in her dangerous profession.
I didn’t know what to say to secure his confidence, so I said nothing. I’d have to show him I would remain loyal to the cause, regardless of this trial. This punishment from the gods.
“One thing, Alpha,” Tanix said.
“Go on.”
