“And how, pray tell, did a species as traditionally weak and size disadvantaged as the pixies plan to get control over the rest of the supernatural world?”
Alajos shrugged as if he couldn’t give a fuck. “In the beginning, we didn’t care about that. Petró saw them as a short-term ally, someone we could shiv later after we took care of the high alpha and had the juice fromallthe packs behind us. World domination sounds pretty sweet when you’re the one doing the dominating.” He pulled a knife from his pocket, flipped it open, and scraped underneath one of his fingernails before putting it away. “Anyway, everything was going fine until you guys slipped away from us and ran across the world. After that, the pixie bro came and threatened us. Some shit about collaring us too if we didn’t deliver on the high alpha’s death. Petró didn’t like that and decided to buy some insurance, if you will.”
“Collaring you? In what sense?” Valens asked, arms tightly crossed, muscle in his jaw ticking now that the details were coming out.
“Ehh, he claimed they had magical collars. Could force any species to follow their king’s orders once it was snapped on. We never saw proof of it, so I think it was just big talk from little men. You know how it is. Always a dick-measuring contest because they don’t stand a chance against wolves in any way that counts.”
I looked down at the misshapen metal circle in my hands, so heavily imbued with both dwarven and pixie magic, and the pieces clicked into place.
Supernatural disappearances, mostly less physically dominant species so far. Magical mind-control collars. Angry,vengeful pixies who blamed the wolves for their own species’ decline since the war.
They were kidnapping other supernaturals, slapping collars on them, and adding them to theirarmy. It wasn’t a full-fledged theory, but I had a sinking feeling in my gut that I was on the right track.
“Can you tell us anything else about these collars?” Lucien asked, his grim tone completely lost on Alajos.
“Other than the fact that it pissed Petró off and had him spending a fortune on magical protection devices that the damn gnome flaked out on? Nah. That’s it. He died before we had our next scheduled meeting with the pixie, and with no Petró… I didn’t go. Didn’t see the point.”
“When was the meeting supposed to be?”
“Two weeks ago. Why?”
Right when the disappearances started happening in earnest.Shit on a stick.
More and more pieces were filling into my mental puzzle. They had lost their wolf allies to deal with the high alpha—which meant the other species were their plan B.
But if they truly wanted control over theentire supernatural worldKane wasn’t their only problem. There were many strong species with even stronger leaders.
Was there a plot to take out every leader? Kane could just have been the first in line because the vendetta against the wolves was personal for the pixies.
It made a sick kind of sense, if you left all your morals locked in the attic under Grandma’s quilt collection.
“Thank you. We may have more questions for you—and we’ll expect your cooperation with any information we need in the future as we investigate the pixies—but I am a man of my word, and you did provide information we hadn’t yet discovered ourselves. So!” Lucien clapped his hands together, signalingthe end of the discussion. “I’ll have you on the first flight out tomorrow morning, and there is a seat for Jerica, should she choose to go along with you.”
“Wait a Goddess-damned minute. Flight where? You said you’d let me back into the pack, reverse my exile.”
The unscarred corner of Lucien’s mouth lifted in a trite smile. “Actually, I didn’t. I said I’d offer you a solid place inapack. Not this one. The pack that’s willing to take you in is Blackwater, back in their home state of Alaska. Of course, you’ll have to bend the knee to pledge loyalty to the high alpha to join, but given the trouble you’ve stirred up for him in the past, I’d expect a blood oath to also be required. As a way of proving you’ve changed.”
“You motherfucking shit stain! There’s no way I’m bending the knee to that cock-sucking pissant!”
Lucien shrugged. “Take it or leave it, that’s my final offer. I’ll escort you to your sister’s cottage, and you can let me know your decision in the morning. Your flight leaves at six a.m., or you do. But either way, your exile from the Hungarian pack will continue to be strictly enforced.”
Lucien loosed his alpha dominance as he took Alajos by the arm, dragging him effortlessly from the library, even as Alajos cursed and railed against the Alpha’s unfairness.
Personally? I found the whole thing immensely satisfying.
Except the part where the pixies had an honest-to-Goddess plot to wipe us off the map. Or mind-control us with collars like we were pets to be tamed.
That was equal parts terrifying and infuriating.
I held up the melted metal we’d found on clowder land, which was eerily shaped like a melted magical collar. “So, who wants to bet this was a mind-control device gone wrong that exploded and destroyed Leon’s house in the process of him being kidnapped by a pixie?”
Chapter 26
Valens
Alajos may have been a partying, playboy fool, but damn if he hadn’t dropped a bombshell on us. My mind was spinning, even as Lucien hauled him off to be put on house arrest.
I turned to Elodie, my beautiful mate, processing what she’d just said at what felt like half speed. “It makes sense. It’s sick and twisted, the kind of thing most supes live in fear ofhumansdoing to us if they ever learned we existed.”
