by Leia Stone
Her little mousy brown hair formed a curtain around her face. She nodded, making it shake, then her chin snapped up and her blue-eyed gaze held mine. “Arrow was right. The city has poisoned the heir of Running Spirit, granddaughter of Red Moon.” She spat the words at my face, and then burst into tears, running off through the mall.
“Astra!” I shouted, taking off after her and then stopping. What was the use?
How did I get to this point? A few months ago I was a banished wolf living in the human world, and now I had a giant rock on my finger, engaged to the alpha’s son.
“What was that about?” Sage asked.
I blew air through my teeth. “Can I borrow your phone? I need to call Sawyer.”
She nodded and handed me the phone. Sitting on the bench in front of the fancy dress store, I rang my future husband and prayed he would be kind to a people I knew deep down he’d grown up hating.
He picked up on the first ring. “My answer is yes. Buy that beautiful woman whatever she wants.” Sawyer obviously thought it was Sage calling.
“Hey…” My voice cracked. I could have used our bond for this, but that felt weird. I’d rather talk it out and not internally jump on him.
He picked up on my mood immediately. “What’s wrong?”
I sighed. “Remember the little healer Paladin that saved Walsh’s life?”
Yes, I was reminding him of that fact in the hopes it would butter him up.
“Don’t tell me she’s in my house too?” he growled.
I winced. “No… just your mall.”
“What now?” he asked.
“Sawyer, they’re starving. The Paladins. She looked… like skin and bones. Sick. They need food and blankets. Something about their alpha dying has sickened their land or something. I don’t know, but we can help them, right?”
He was silent for a long moment. Too long. So long that I had to pull the phone back and look at the screen to make sure the call hadn’t ended.
“The entire reason there is a mating year and you had to date me with fifty other women is because of the Paladin wolves, you understand that, right? They cursed my family so horribly that we are all at risk of death every time we choose a wife!” He growled the last word and I knew it wasn’t anger at me but at them.
I nodded. “I understand, and I’m… asking you to forgive them. Extend this olive branch. Send some rice and smoked meat and clothing and do the right thing.”
“How many people need to be fed?” His voice was laced with annoyance, but underneath it, I heard a small hint of compassion.
Arrow had said they had over ten thousand the other night, but I knew that figure would shock the shit out of Sawyer and also might make him fearful to keep them alive, because I was pretty sure he had no idea there were that many of them.
“A couple thousand,” is all I said.
Silence again. “You know this isn’t just up to me? I can do a lot without my father’s input, but sending thousands of pounds of food to our sworn enemy is not one of them.”
Shit. “But he hates them even more than you do. He’ll let them starve!” I yelled into the phone. After what my mom was caught doing with Run during Curt’s mating year, he would never throw the Paladins a kindness.
“This is asking a lot, Demi. When do they need the supplies by?”
I swallowed hard, thinking of how thin she looked. “Tonight. Now.”
He sighed. “I’ll call and ask my father and then call you right back.”
I didn’t want this to be a strain on our relationship, but I didn’t see how I could let an entire people starve and not ask my fiancé for help when I knew he could give it. “Thank you. Oh, and Sawyer.”
“Yes, Demi?”
“That Paladin wolf at the base of Waterfall Mountain who died trying to help me… that was the Paladin alpha, my grandfather. I’m here, right now, marrying you… because of him.”
I was going to layer this guilt trip really thick.
Sawyer sighed. “Got it. I’ll do my best to convince my father.”
“I love you,” I told him.
“I love you too, Demi, most of all your giant heart.” Then he hung up.
I sat there for ten minutes, telling Sage what Astra said and bopping my foot up and down waiting for Sawyer’s call.
“She did look ill,” Sage commented, frowning.
I nodded, wondering what I would do if Curt said no. Before I could think on it, the phone rang.
“Hey.” I picked up quickly.
“I’m sorry, Demi. He said no. But next year I’ll be alpha and then—”
“No?” I stood, shock rushing through me.
He breathed into the phone. “He hates them, Demi. He said they could starve to death and die for all he cared. I tried to explain that politically it would be good to do the Paladins a favor, but—”
“Let them starve?” My voice went into a high-pitched shrill range.
“Demi, our engagement party is in four hours. You need to focus on—”
“I’ll see you at the hotel.” I hung up and turned to Sage as anger at my future father-in-law rolled through me.
“Take me to the alpha.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“You heard me. I need to speak to my future father-in-law. Now.”
“Uhhh, I don’t know where he is. He could be in his office, or at a meeting, or—”
I sped across the mall to where Eugene and Walsh were watching me with concern. “Where is the alpha right now?” I asked Eugene. “I need to speak with him, and I know you have his schedule.”
His eyes narrowed. “He’s busy getting things ready for your engagement party.”
“Where? At the hotel, then?” I asked.
“Demi, what’s this about?” Eugene looked worried for me, and I hated that I had to play coy, but I wasn’t sure how many people I should drop the Paladin alpha bomb on.
I shifted my stance. “I just need a word with my future father-in-law. It’s a surprise for his son.”
He checked his phone, tapping something out. It dinged with a response.
“He’ll see you. Come on.” Eugene started to walk away out of the mall and into the parking lot where my Range Rover was parked, next to an identical one that Sage and Walsh drove.
So he texted him? And he said he would see me? Under the grounds that this was a surprise for Sawyer? Surely he wouldn’t have believed that after Sawyer just called him and made my request.
I guess I was about to find out.
I drove across campus and out of the Sterling Hill gates before heading into Werewolf City. Eugene sat shotgun as I passed the tall downtown buildings and made my way to the Hudson Plaza Hotel.
My driving was getting better, or so I thought, until I saw Eugene white knuckling it as he grasped the edges of his seat.
“Oh calm down, I’m not that bad of a driver,” I scoffed just as a passing car honked at me.
Jerks.
Eugene chuckled. “You see that white dotted line?”
I nodded.
“You’re supposed to stay on the inside of it.”
I knew that. Obviously. But this was a damn SUV and sometimes that was hard. I swerved a little, bringing it back inside the line, and his fingers relaxed.
The hotel came into view at the end of the street then, and it was breathtaking. Over a thousand wolves had RSVP’d tonight and I was told even more would come to the wedding. That was like a small country. I didn’t even know a thousand people, but Sawyer did. He knew them all. By name.
“Don’t tell him what you are,” Eugene said out of nowhere and I froze. “He knows you’re part Paladin. Sawyer had to tell him after you were taken. But don’t tell him you’re their alpha.”
My breath hitched in my throat. “Sawyer told you?”
Eugene shrugged. “I said I wouldn’t protect you unless I knew everything. I don’t like secrets. Secrets get people killed.”
He was probably right. I’d asked him to stick his neck o
ut for me and he didn’t even know who he was protecting. “I’m sorry. Should have told you everything.”
This man was going to be protecting my family, our future children. I didn’t want there to be anything unsaid between us.
He waved me off. “You are right to guard this secret. Especially from him. That man hates Paladins more than he hates his own mother-in-law.”
I grinned, because it was a funny reference, but I knew he was serious.
“You play the angle that you befriended this little Paladin girl, she saved Walsh, and now this is a political repayment. Got it?”
Damn, he knew exactly why I was going. I couldn’t get anything past Eugene. “You were eavesdropping at the mall,” I stated as I pulled into the valet stand at the hotel.
He shrugged. “My job. I didn’t know if you were going to get emotional again and run off, only to be kidnapped by vampires.” He reached out and clasped my hand. “I took your disappearance personally. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.”
A lump lodged in my throat as I threw the car in park. Eugene was in the ICU for four days. That’s like four weeks in werewolf time. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”
I squeezed his hand, but he shook his head. “Agree to disagree.”
My door opened and it shook me from my emotional moment.
Eugene blamed himself for my disappearance? I had no idea. Before I could say anything more, the man who opened my door bowed his head to me. “Alpha Hudson is waiting to see you, Miss Calloway.”
Oh crappers.
I stepped out and followed him through the giant double doors while Eugene lingered behind me, his eyes flicking left and right like a hawk.
This place was insanely stunning. Everything looked like it was made of gold; it dripped elegance and refinery. Sawyer had taken me here two nights ago to check it out as a possible wedding venue. When I told him I loved it, he said good, because it was our engagement party venue as well. It was the only place able to hold over a thousand wolves. The party would be split with about four hundred in the main ballroom and then another four hundred on the outside patio and two hundred on the lawn.
The man who was leading me took a left down the hallway and then an immediate right into the giant ballroom, which was being decked out with white roses, floating lanterns, and hundreds of circular tables.
Sawyer’s mom was in the middle, barking orders at a dozen servers who were ironing tablecloths. When I’d told her I wasn’t really into party planning and just to do whatever she’d wanted, she’d hugged me and told me it was probably for the best considering my wardrobe.
My gaze fell to the corner of the room. Mr. Hudson wore a black tux and leaned up against a wall, tapping out something on his phone.
“Demi! You’re so early and you’re… not ready.” Sawyer’s mom trailed her gaze over my messy mall hair and jeans and t-shirt.
I laughed nervously. “Got the perfect dress and I’m about to get my hair done, I just had to ask Mr. Hudson something…”
I looked over at him to find that he was watching me with an unreadable expression. He tipped his head to a back room. I swallowed hard and followed him.
“Don’t be long! That hair needs help,” Mrs. Hudson called after me cheerily.
That woman was a 1950s housewife, I swear. The man who had been leading me through the entire hotel now stopped and just let me walk into the room alone while Eugene took watch outside the door with another man I didn’t recognize. There were so many guards now, it was hard to keep track.
I shut the door behind me and readied my speech. Mr. Hudson seemed like a reasonable man and—
“I already told Sawyer no. We are not helping the Paladins. They can starve and do us all a favor.” He continued to tap on his phone without looking up at me.
My eyes went wide at his nonchalant behavior over the situation.
“But, sir—”
“Is that all? Because my answer is final, and I’m very busy getting everything paid and set up for tonight.”
So he was going to play the money card? Try to make me feel bad that I couldn’t afford to pay for my own wedding? That stubborn bastard. I strode across the room and ripped his phone out of his hands, forcing him to look up at me in shock.
“I’m sorry I’m poor and can’t pay for all of this,” I growled. “Maybe if you hadn’t banished my mother she could have provided a better life for me.” Immediately I regretted my temper.
He looked at me with a mixture of pride and anger. “God, you’re just like her. You look just like her too.” He looked at the wall before meeting my gaze again and I realized he was talking about my mother. Is that why he barely ever looked at me?
“Sir, please. They are starving,” I pleaded.
He chuckled.
“Good. Karma for cursing my family with a death curse for the past thousand years!”
“Exactly!” I yelled, matching his tone and not even caring that this shitshow had completely gone off the rails. “It was a thousand years ago! Get over it!”
He barked out a laugh at my bold statement and then shook his head at me. “Listen, Demi. I am still in charge for the next year or so, and I will make it my last order of business to make sure that no help ever goes to the Paladins from my hand.”
I dropped his phone on the desk and put my hands on my hips. “You would let thousands die because you’re still pissed my mom loved a Paladin before she even met you?”
Rage threaded into his eyes, yellow and orange bleeding through his blue until I was staring at his wolf.
“Your mother is my Meredith,” he said, and I frowned.
“What?”
He took in a deep breath and then released it, the colors in his eyes going back to blue. “She publicly humiliated me, just as Meredith did to you, and I’ll never forget that feeling. I… loved her. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and if she didn’t want that, she should have dropped out of the mating year.”
Ouch. I knew what he was saying but he was wrong.
“Meredith didn’t humiliate me. Your son did. And you’re right, my mother should have dropped out, but she was poor and you dangled a free education carrot right before her nose. What did you expect?”
He looked at me like I was some wild beast who’d come in and attacked him. “People don’t talk to me like this.” He sounded flustered.
I imagine they didn’t. Everyone was scared of the alpha, even a timid one like him.
“I’m not afraid of you, sir. I want to have a good relationship with you. I want us to be a happy family. I want to give you grandkids and watch you play with them and invite you over for dinner without unsaid words between us. I want to be authentic around you. But you’re wrong on this. The Paladins aren’t your enemy.”
He opened his mouth to speak and I stopped him with my hand. “They’re not. Some old half witch from a thousand years ago is. They’re weak, they’re starving, and they’re paying for a thousand-year-old mistake. We have extra food to spare. I cannot sleep at night knowing that a few miles away, thousands of wolves are slowly dying when we could help them.”
He sighed. “I’m glad Sawyer chose you. He’ll need a strong woman to keep him in line if he is to be a successful alpha during these precarious times.”
I was going to take that as a compliment. He reached up and rubbed his temples. “You had to dangle my future grandchildren in front of me, didn’t you?” He grinned.
A smile pulled at my lips. “Just keeping it real, sir.”
“That healer Paladin must have really made an impression on you.”
Astra. Oh yes. That’s why he thought I was so passionate about helping the Paladins.
I nodded. “She’s barely sixteen and skin and bones. She risked her life to save Walsh in the dark fey lands.”
He rubbed at his face some more. “If I do this, it sends a message to our people. I cannot cover up this big of an operation. The food trucks, the military presence needed,
it can’t be covered up. People will think the Paladins are no longer our enemy.”
“Well, sir, last I checked everyone else was against us. Maybe we have enough enemies? Maybe it’s time to make allies.”
He groaned, “Alright, Demi. Just this once.”
I flew across the table and hugged him with a squeal of happiness. His entire body froze for a moment, like he wasn’t sure how to hug someone, and then his arms came around me.
“Okay, okay. Go do the girly things while I work on this.” He let me go and I pulled back with a grin.
“Thank you, sir.” I turned on my heel and all but skipped out of the room. Hopefully, this would hold off the Paladins for a week, maybe two, until they could figure out another solution.
“Demi?” Curt called from the desk.
I looked over my shoulder at him and he was smiling. “I’m glad it’s you that my son is marrying. Since that first day at Delphi, when Sawyer told me he’d fallen in love at first sight with a blond goddess, I knew it was your mother’s daughter. She was the only wolf I’d outcasted in my entire term as alpha.”
Love at first sight? He told his dad that?
Swoon.
Curt continued: “I was so worried you’d hurt him, that you wouldn’t love him back and he’d be thrust into a marriage of convenience for the sake of the curse.”
Ouch. Is that what it was like for him? He was always super nice to Mrs. Hudson, but did he love her? Maybe not like he’d loved my mom.
“Unrequited love is no good for anyone,” he muttered.
Damn, his face looked like a lost little boy in that moment, and I fully understood how badly this curse had hurt his family. For generations, they were forced into marriages that wouldn’t have naturally occurred.
He shook himself. “Anyway, I see you two together and I know you will have a long and happy life together.” He smiled.
It was actually one of the sweetest things he could have said.
“We will,” I assured him. “As long as he understands happy wife, happy life.”
I pointed to the custom t-shirt I was wearing that Sage got me.
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Get outta here.”
A grin pulled at my lips once more. “Thanks again.”
