“I’ve never been to Europe. It’s kinda neat. Even though we’re on a life-or-death mission.”
A car waited for us on the tarmac. Nico had arranged it beforehand. The keys were hidden on one of the tires. After we loaded the car up and got in, Nico punched in the coordinates that Kenneth had given him, then the next leg of our trip began. It was midafternoon there, and already the jet-lag was dragging at me. It didn’t, however, stop me from checking out all the sights as we went.
The safe house was a four-hour drive from the airport, and for the first hour or so, things were fine. But the deeper we got into the countryside, the more anxious I became. It was different from what I’d experienced on the plane. This was more intense, a bone-deep worry. My wolf was pacing and whining inside my head, pushing my anxiety even further.
Nico must have noticed. Two hours into the drive, he finally said something. “Maddy, are you all right? You seem…I don’t know.”
I nodded, continuing to stare out the passenger window. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” I said, hiding the anxiousness. I tried to calm myself and my wolf down, but it wasn’t working.
After stopping for a snack, we continued to follow Kenneth’s directions and turned onto a smaller country road that took us deeper into the mountains. I closed my eyes and pretended to nap, but in reality, I was just trying to hide my building anxiety. It felt like an eternity before Nico finally pointed out the window at a cabin up the road.
I sat up to look and saw that the thing was like something out of a storybook. It was flanked by a distant waterfall and completely surrounded by old growth trees. The sky was barely visible through the canopy, giving the place an early evening look. It was so shrouded in shadows that I had a hard time making out just how big it was.
The trees seemed familiar. I frowned and looked around as Nico pulled the car up and put it in park. The entire area seemed familiar. I’d never been here before, so why would this piece of property jog something in my memory?
My eyes snapped wide open. I knew where I’d seen all this before—in my dream about the moon. This looked just like the forest I’d walked through in that dream. Instead of calming me down, the realization made me even more nervous.
Kenneth stepped out onto the porch and waved us in. We grabbed our luggage and walked up the steps.
“Glad you all made it,” Kenneth said, taking one of the bags from me.
He hurried us inside, closed the door, then quickly locked it and set what appeared to be an alarm panel. I gaped at it. “How the hell did you get that installed way out in the middle of nowhere? I didn’t even see any power lines running to this place.”
Kenneth grinned. “You learn a lot of things over the years when you’re trying to stay hidden.”
He surprised me by dropping the bag and enveloping me in a massive hug. I stared over his shoulder at Nico. His eyes were wide, and he had a shocked grin on his face. “Uh…nice to see you, too,” I mumbled as he set me back down on the ground. But before he released me, I returned the hug. He was my uncle, after all.
“Sorry. You start to miss human interaction when you live alone like this. Plus, I miss your father, and you remind me of him.”
“It’s okay,” I said.
“I was just getting some food ready for an early dinner. Hope you like Swedish food. Smoked fish, roasted potatoes, and of course meatballs. I made a bit of everything, I wasn’t sure how hungry you’d be.”
Other than some dill-flavored potato chips and a Swedish chocolate bar, we hadn’t eaten anything since leaving America. Nico and I both dived in, devouring everything Kenneth had put together.
After eating Kenneth’s entire spread, the three of us sat and relaxed by the fireplace. Nico and I on the couch, Kenneth on a recliner.
“Well, we have news about Javi,” Nico said as he sipped a cup of hot chocolate Kenneth had made for us.
“Is he dead?” Kenneth asked hopefully.
Nico shook his head. “Even crazier. He’s allied himself with us. He turned his back on the royals after they ordered him and his pack to kill three eighteen-month-old babies in El Salvador.”
“Eighteen months old?” Kenneth said in horror. “Because they have some shred of the old blood in them?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Javi had to…eliminate some of his own guys who wanted to go along with the plan.”
Kenneth slapped his thigh in anger. “Those baby-killing sons of bitches,” he hissed. “Those kids are…well, hell, they’re our family, right?”
“That’s what I told Nico,” I said.
“They’re sick. This has to stop somehow. Maybe you’re the one to do it,” he said, pointing at me.
“Why me?” I asked, taking Nico’s hand for comfort.
“Because,” Kenneth explained, “your dad was a full-blooded shifter. I’m not sure that he ever brought his wolf out—the blood had diluted so much over the centuries, he’d probably need to meet his fated mate or drink Edemas’s blood to do it—but he was a full wolf by blood. You are an alpha, Maddy. You might be able to take the throne. The true throne. Not this…whatever the royals have been playing at for three centuries.” Kenneth sat back and sighed. “Well, I guess the termroyalsis just a name they use now. They don’t run a country, they don’t have a real throne. They just use the fortune they’ve amassed to fund an army of child butcherers. They have power because they have money. There are God knows how many politicians, authorities, and journalists in their pockets. It’s part of the reason why they’ve manage to stay hidden so long.” Kenneth pointed at me. “That fortune is one you have rights to.”
“I don’t want money, Kenneth. I want them to stop murdering people. Killing kids? Having this awful shadow government? It’s all got to come to an end. Until they’re stopped, no one with even a passing relation to Edemas will be safe.”
