About two weeks after the Donatello interview, most of us were home, having a farewell dinner for Tiago. He was going home to witness his son’s alpha ceremony. He’d only been acting alpha until they could do a full change-over ceremony.
Nico raised a glass of wine to our new friend. “Brother, you come back any time. You’re always welcome on the Lorenzo pack lands.”
The rest of us raised our own glasses, bottles, or cans to join the toast. Tiago smiled. “I hate to leave. You’ve been good to me. It goes both ways, Nico. You’ll always have an ally with me and my pack. You call, and we come. You have my word.”
“I appreciate that,” Nico said. “Now eat those damned ribs. I spent twelve hours smoking the meat.”
The rest of the night was a party. It was nice to have everyone hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. Over the last few months, the only time we got together was to discuss some new horror the royals had sprung or to orchestrate a plan to get out of some sort of trouble. It was nice and pretty relaxing just to relax and have fun. Sebastian wasn’t there, of course. He stayed away any time Abi was going to be around. I really hoped they’d figure that out soon.
After dinner, Nico and I went outside to watch the stars and enjoy another glass of wine. He nudged me after we sat down. “How’s it feel?”
“How does what feel?” I asked.
“Being free. Or at least freer than you’ve been in almost a year?”
“Good, I guess,” I said with a shrug. “I still don’t think I’ll sleep well until they find Viola.”
Before Nico could respond, the door opened, and Sinthy walked out. She pointed in the general direction of the front gate. “Hey, just for your information, there’s still a few of the anti-shifter people out at the gate.”
“Ugh,” Nico sighed. “When are they ever gonna give up? I may call the cops tomorrow. This is ridiculous.”
The number of protesters had dropped significantly since the story broke. Though not all of them were giving up. Instead of a couple of hundred people, there were close to two dozen who showed up each day.
“Right,” Sinthy said. “I was letting you know that I altered the wards around the gate. You know… after what happened yesterday?”
She’d strengthened them the morning before, and when one of the protesters had tried to climb the fence, he’d practically been electrocuted by Sinthy’s spell. He hadn’t died, but an ambulance had been called, and the protesters got more riled up at one of their members getting injured.
“I remember,” Nico said. “Did you make it less powerful?”
Sinthy gave a slight shake of her head. “No, I altered it a little bit. No more electrocutions. Now they’ll bounce back. Like a rubber ball. I only wanted you to know in case you saw a guy getting thrown back onto the dirt on the security cameras.”
Nico chuckled. “Okay, cool. I appreciate it.”
“Thanks. I’m gonna go back in. Do you all want anything? I think your cousin Eliza is serving dessert.”
“We’re fine. Thank you, Sinthy,” he said.
Once she was gone, Nico and I sat in silence. A question had been bouncing through my mind for a couple of days. I didn’t really want to voice it. If I did, it meant that the relaxation we’d been experiencing wouldn’t last. That there were still some dark things to deal with.
“What do you think is coming next? It doesn’t seem like it’s over. Even with everything on the news, I still think there’s another shoe that has to drop.”
Nico sighed and was quiet for a few minutes. He took a weary breath before speaking. “I think there’s a war coming. The royals only know one thing, and that’s to fight. We’ve taken away their facade, and that means we’ve pissed them off more than before.”
My chest tightened as he voiced the one thing I’d been afraid of. Viola had money somewhere. Some hidden fortune that was untouchable by all the governments in the world. Hell, she might have a bunker full of gold coins for all we knew. What he’d said rang true in my mind, and she probably still had the power to do it.
“That’s what I was afraid you’d say,” I whispered.
“Viola’s a known criminal now. As bad as she was before, the curtain has been pulled back. That’s both good and bad. Now, she doesn’t have to toe the line. There’s no mask to maintain anymore. I feel like that makes her more dangerous, not less. At least before she had to worry about keeping her company’s name out of the mud.”
“Right. I think there’s also this weird legacy to maintain. At least in her own mind. She’s too proud to stay in hiding long. And she hates shifters too much to stomach seeing us win. I hadn’t thought she’d go quietly into the shadows, but a girl can hope, right?”
He chuckled. “Yeah.” The smile slowly faded from his lips. “She’s going to want blood. The only thing that will give her any kind of peace is revenge. After this? She’ll want it in the worst possible way. We won the battle—hell, we won several—but the war isn’t over. I think it’s just getting started, sadly. We aren’t totally safe. While she’s still breathing, no shifter is.”
109
NICO
It had been two months since Donatello had told the world about the dark secrets Viola and her corporation were responsible for. Eight weeks of hunting and searching by every law enforcement agency in the world. After all that, none of them were any closer to finding Viola. If anything, the trail she left was becoming more and more bloody.
