I raced out of the guest house and into the palace. I had a feeling I was on a short deadline. Ignoring my building sense of anxiety, I slunk into the library where I found Cecil with his nose in a book and his guard dog Fluffy laying silently beside him. To my surprise, Elian was in the library, too. Both of them looked tired and frustrated before they raised their heads and saw me.
Cecil smiled. “Seb! We—”
I raised my hands to quiet them both. “Don’t make a fuss. I don’t want anyone to know I’m here.”
Elian frowned. “What happened? Did you let your precious Rocky go?”
His question confused me. His tone sounded both petulant and concerned at the same time. I knew he felt at least neutral towards Rourke, but now he seemed almost fond of him. But I didn’t have time to discuss that right now.
“I need you both to listen carefully,” I said. “First, Father is acting strangely. Be on your guard around him.”
“Ididsee him stomping around in the halls earlier,” Elian commented. “He didn’t even stop and scold me about my rolled-up sleeves.”
“He didn’t say good morning to me either,” Cecil mumbled, lowering his gaze. “He usually does…”
I realized that to make them understand the gravity of the situation, they needed to know the truth. I took a deep breath, lowered my voice, and said, “Listen. Rourke and I are in a serious relationship.”
“Yeah, we know,” Elian said as he absentmindedly picked another book off the shelf.
I stopped. “What? How?”
“We talked to him a few times when he was in the kennels,” Cecil chimed in. “We were worried because we overheard you fighting, and you said you weren’t going to feed him…”
A pang of guilt made my stomach twist.
“Then he sent us on a mission to find out about fated mates,” Elian said. He groaned and dropped the book he was holding. “But we can’t find anything in these stupid books.”
Cecil scowled and snatched the book before it hit the floor, shoving it back on the shelf. “We found one, but there’s pages missing, even though Iknowthey weren’t before.”
My heart leapt. “Let me see the book.”
Cecil pulled it out and handed it to me. My chest felt like it was going to explode. It was the same book Woods had given me. I quickly put them both on the floor and compared the missing pages. Sure enough, the ending was ripped out of Cecil’s copy.
Cecil gasped and pointed excitedly at the pages of Woods’ copy. “There! That’s the ending to the story I remember!”
“Father,” I muttered. “It must have been him.”
A cold sweat broke out over my skin. What possible reason would he have to purposely rip pages out of a story?
Unless…
I shoved the good copy into Cecil’s arms. “Take this. Donotlose it.”
“I won’t,” Cecil said seriously.
“Seb, are you okay?” Elian asked.
“No,” I said. “I believe Rourke and I are in danger. He already took Rourke away. I don’t know where he is.”
Both their eyes flashed with genuine concern. Apparently, my brothers cared more for my alpha than I realized.
“Father is planning something,” I went on. “He—”
I paused, wondering if I should tell them the whole truth. I looked Elian in the eyes. Could I really trust him to help me? My younger brother, who had constantly teased me about usurping the throne?
But the apprehension in his eyes when I mentioned Rourke was real. Elian might have been a snarky, sarcastic brat, but he was never as skilled as me when it came to hiding his feelings.
I gathered myself and took a breath.
