Interesting evening…
Quite so.
…and never,nevermentioned again.
King Athon and I would rather it be forgotten, tucked away in a place of vagueness like most youthful mistakes.
Shifter wine, a new power, and horny bones do not make for an entertaining evening, no matter how often one uses downed tree limbs to send a grabby-handed, hip-humping skeleton into flight.
Shockingly so.
Thankfully, my loyal friend hadn’t killed me on the spot when we were a mere seventeen years old, having grown up together thick as thieves throughout our childhood years. But, had we not, and had he learned of this vast power that rivaled his own, outside the constraints of true friendship and devotion, I would be nothing but a bloody mix of organs and brain matter inside the Shifter Kingdom’s forests by his own hand.
Instead, he’d taught me how to hone it.
As if it were a true royal power.
And now? I wasn’t a youthful gorilla shifter any longer. I knew how to work my power and get shit done—however it needed to be.
I enjoyed the screams before the blood the most. They were tantalizing to the ears and made me smile. Except, this time, secrecy was necessary.
King Athon’s current task for me in this dreadful kingdom: obtain any and all information on the elf, Caspian.
Duly noted, there was somethingoffabout him, an elf so closely linked to Princess Trixie, the heir to the Elf Kingdom. Caspian had been hidden by the elven crown. So much so that no one knew his truth. All information thus far acquired was mainly useless.
Nothing about this situation was casual, my king justifiably cautious where his soul mate, Princess Trixie, was concerned. Not only was Caspian close to Princess Trixie, but he was important to King Traevon, the King of Elves.
And when someone was significant to a king?
You found out why.
Picking hay off my shirt, I flicked it aside, smirking when it materialized, released from my invisible power, and tapped by the light breeze, caught on an elf woman’s face. It startled her so severely that she flinched and rammed into another elf passing her, blue apples from her basket spilling onto the ground and rolling amok on the cobblestone street.
When my stomach growled in anger, I snatched one up off the ground, wiped it on my filthy, stinking attire, and bit into it, letting the sweet juices coat my tongue as I marched onward toward my destination.
The gorgon spy, Malid, had indicated Caspian frequented an outdoor eatery in the center of Gatlin Grove nearly every day; there was a particular fare he favored there, his brunch of tea and crumpets just so. The elf sounded high fucking maintenance to me. But I tried not to judge too heavily where food was concerned, seeing as I could eat anyone under the table—and I was fairly picky, too.
With the last bite of my treat chewed and swallowed, I tossed the core of the blue apple aside and grinned as it rolled under the unsuspecting foot of an elf merchant carrying an armful of books. Then, with a quick swat of my right hand, I helpfully completed the downward fall of said books to the dirty pathway.
A chuckle caught in my throat as I kept walking, an elven accent heard, filthy curse words following in my wake.
All in all, it was an agreeable day—aside from sleeping with the pigs on King Traevon’s castle grounds last eve, the best place for resting and spying when necessary.
There was much chaos to be had when this assignment was done. So many elves to bother and delight in their misery.
Mayhap I could make a few bleed before returning to my own kingdom. That would be Fae damned divine and righteous.
With that pleasant thought in mind, I slipped into the shadows out of habit, watching the elves move to and fro for the midday rush of customers, finally finding my destination.
Sunset Teas was a bizarre name for a breakfast establishment, but where elves were concerned, there wasn’t much that made sense. Everything they did was ass backward and meant to fool the senses.
Lies upon lies with subterfuge their game showed even in the simplest of forms—whereas shifters were in your face blunt, mainly with claws and fangs showing.
The fact that my king now had an elf as an illegal soul mate did not bode well on any front, much less his sanity.
I did not envy him. Not one bit.
But if the Fae came for his crimes…
