Page 171 of Resurgent

Every detail of the gown was made to flatter and disarm. Noble enough to pass without question. Daring enough to invite the attention of a potential suitor, just like every single lady out in society will be out to do.

Locking everything back into the safe, I touch up my makeup using just a few of the extensive options already set out for the makeup artist tomorrow, and decide to walk to the restaurant Barney recommended.

Chapter fifty-one

Annalise

Waking up this morning, I feel energized.

Tam’s place was everything I needed last night: incredible food, great music, and the loveliest staff—who just so happened to be Kam’s mom and sister.

They had already heard all about our ride and they told me Kam would have been there to meet me had Barney gotten his way, but Kam was stuck at work, preparing for the Royal Engagement Party.

Securing my hair into a ponytail, I tuck my burner phone into my leggings pocket and put just one headphone in.

This morning’s run is as much for my own sanity as it is for my mission. I need to run as close as I can get to the castle in one direction, and then run back another, scouting for all of the possible backup paths I can take to get back to the hotel, should something go wrong.

“Not that it will,” I assure Tyr, who has already started grumbling in my head this morning.

I make it all but half a mile from the castle before I meet the blockades and have to turn away, plans already shaping and reshaping in my mind.

A half-mile run before disappearing into crowds would be easy if I were in workout gear, but I will be in a gown and heels, I’d be easy to spot if I run at all…unless there is another catastrophe that would cause everyone to run away from the castle—an explosion of some sort?

“Did you become a bomb technician, and I missed it?” Tyr chuffs.

“Point taken, no bombs. Maybe a fire, though?”

“Maybe we just skip all of this, and you let me take us home.”

“Not this again…you know, when I bonded the fierce Alpha, I thought you were going to be gung-ho about missions like this.”

“First, never use gung-ho and me in the same sentence again. Second, I’m an Alpha who likes to be in control and fights when I need to. This is a stupid assignment with little gain and you to lose. So no, I don’t like this mission.”

“How is the hunting on this side of the border?” I change the subject, something I know Tyr doesn’t miss.

“Delicious. The mountain goats and snow leopards even put up a bit of a fight, which makes them all the tastier.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to.”

The back-and-forth continues until I’ve mentally mapped all of the paths I could take, and get back to my room.

Our bond is so strong after all the time spent together after my attack, and now riding every day since the gala, that we only fully disconnect when we want to. Which, for me, is usually only when Hunter and I are messing around. The rest of the time, it’s as though we left each other on speaker phone while we go about our business away from the phone. Quiet background noise, but able to listen in when we want to.

My glam squad shows up just after I’ve showered and eaten an early lunch.

They pull out all of the stops—essential oils to smell for relaxation, cucumbers on my eyes while my nails are painted.

Meanwhile, I listen to them talk about everyone expected to be in attendance.

They give me the rundown on all of the single nobles and the slimy cheaters to look out for. Men who are known to come to these events and leave their wives at home so they can enjoy other women's company for the night.

When they’re each a couple of glasses into the champagne they had brought for me to enjoy, the gossip turns from the attendees to the guests of honor themselves.

“I would kill my own sister to marry him,” the woman doing my makeup sighs wistfully. “She really is the luckiest woman alive.”

“Oooh, I heard luck had nothing to do with it. Those two have been destined for each other since birth, not surprising with how gorgeous they both are…but I heard that a month after the last time she went and spent “intimate” time with him on the front line, she found out she’s pregnant!”