Forever Werewolf: Forever WerewolfMoon Kissed (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Michele Hauf

  “The princess here says my food made her sister sick.”

  “I didn’t say that, exactly.” Lexi caught Sven’s lifted chin. He eyed her narrowly, and she could read his thought process. He knew she suspected. His werewolf had found her in here just last night. But she had nowhere else to turn, no other option than to just lay it all out there and let the chips fall where they may. “Every time after father has eaten, he gets worse. Maybe it’s poison?”

  “You think so?” Sven’s jaw worked, tightening the muscles in his neck. “And you think Lana was poisoned? She looked fine this morning.”

  “Did she go out with you last night on a run?”

  Sven’s shoulders stiffened. “What’s it to you?”

  “I think she stayed in her room because she still didn’t feel well. Poison is the only option I can come up with to explain Father’s illness.”

  “Yes, maybe.” Sven rubbed his jaw, giving the impression he was thinking hard thoughts, but Lexi suspected differently. “Ever since that damned outsider came to Wulfsiege.”

  “No, Trystan did not arrive until—”

  “That’s it! It’s the outsider!” Sven stomped out into the hallway and declared to the wolves walking by, “He’s poisoned the principal!”

  “Hell.” Not the way she’d wanted this to go.

  * * *

  Despite her arguments that her father had been sick before Trystan Hawkes had arrived at Wulfsiege, half the pack, group-minded, followed Sven’s orders to locate the outsider wolf. They’d dragged Tryst from the snowplow that Liam had pulled out into the courtyard, and into the dungeon—yes, a real dungeon lurked in the bowels of the castle—and chained him up in a cold, dark cell that hadn’t been swept in centuries.

  Lexi clung to Tryst’s body, his arms stretched out to the side and wrists secured in manacles. They weren’t silver manacles, but still, the iron hinges fit his wrists tightly. Despite her position as chatelaine, she had not the authority to go over any male’s head and demand Tryst be released. Nor did she have a key to the manacles.

  “I won’t let them kill you,” she said.

  “Kill?”

  “I don’t think they’d do that.” But with Sven heading the vanguard, she couldn’t be sure.

  “Just make sure you find who is really poisoning your father,” he said. “We both know it’s not me. That means the culprit is still out there and your father is not safe. My bets are on Sven. Have you spoken to the principal?”

  “Not yet. I’m headed there next. But I don’t want to leave you. I can’t. Oh, Tryst.”

  “I’ll be fine. If they keep me chained down here and don’t get a mind to slice off my head, I’ll just be bored.”

  She kissed him, lingering at his mouth because she wanted to take his breath into her and know him with every breath she inhaled. To somehow steal a part of him to keep forever.

  “Don’t do that. It’ll only remind me of what I can’t have.”

  She kissed his chest and smoothed her palm over his stretched abs. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You might be seen coming down here. You’ve got to sneak out of here, as it is. Lexi, be smart, for your father.”

  She nodded, but stepping away from him—chained for no reason—was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do. She hated Sven, and all the males in the pack. Finally she had found her birthright, and had become unbroken, and, as usual, the pack spoiled it all. Her sister was right: they were literal prisoners here at Wulfsiege, destined to live out their lives under the control of the pack males.

  Tryst shifted his feet and the manacles clacked. Thankful they were not silver, she suddenly had a thought. “Silver?”

  “What did you say?”

  “Silver in his food? It’s possible. If a very small amount were administered.”

  “You’re thinking about your dad’s meals? It would have to be microscopic. Lexi, if silver enters our bloodstream it would tear us apart.”

  “Unless the killer wanted to do it slowly, make it look like something else, such as poison. A minute amount of silver, if not completely pure, might not have such an immediate and catastrophic effect. I have to look into this. I love you!”

  As she topped the final stair and stepped out into the hallway, Lexi walked right into Liam. He growled at her but stepped back, putting distance between them. Reaching for her sunglasses, she fumbled them out of her pocket and they dropped to the stone floor.

  He quickly bent to swipe them up, and just as he was going to hand them to her, he said, “Look at me.”

  She shook her head, still looking aside.

  “Princess,” he said firmly. “I know he didn’t do it.”

  “Then why didn’t you stand up for him?” She looked him directly in the eye and he gaped at the sight of her eyes. So let him look. She didn’t care anymore. She wanted to shout to everyone that she belonged to Tryst and that he was the only wolf in the castle capable of making her whole.

  “You’ve shifted?” he asked.

  She nodded. “It was Tryst. He—”

  He put up a palm to fend off further explanation and handed her the glasses. “Put these on. Now would not be the best time to let that secret slip.”

  “Be happy for me, please.”

  He nodded. “I am. Hawkes is a good man. I’ll…do what I can to see he is treated justly. Not sure what that is, though.”

  “We both know Tryst is innocent. I suspect Sven is poisoning Father, but not with what we’d think of as poison. I asked in the cafeteria, but the chef was tight-lipped. And then Sven barged in and now Tryst is in chains. But Lana is the only one who has been bringing Father his meals.”

  “Have you talked to your sister?”

  “Not yet. She would not be involved, Liam. She was sick last night after eating Father’s meal. Do you think it could be silver?”

  “Hell.”

  “Administered in minute doses to make it look like poison? Or something that had trace amounts of silver in it? No, Father would notice, yes? Silver should react more violently in our breed. Oh, I have to figure this out. For Father’s sake and for Lana’s. She’s not safe with Sven. He could be using her to deflect suspicion away from him.”

  “Sven can make your sister do anything. Hell, if only I— No. The guy is no match for me.”

  “Don’t say that, Liam. You’re a match to any wolf in this pack. You could take Sven down easily.”

  “Yes, but you know I prefer nonviolence, Princess.”

  “I would never ask you to act against your morals. Let me talk to Lana and see if she’ll tell me anything. Will the pack leave Tryst alone? I worry that Sven will go after him and kill him.”

  “I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. We do not mete out justice with death, you know that.”

  “Thanks. I need to see my father before I find Natalie.”

  “Sven has put a guard at his door.”

  “I can be let in to see him.”

  “I’m not so sure. Be careful.”

  She put on her glasses and then squeezed his hand. “Thanks. I know who I want my father to name as the pack scion.”

  He smiled, but it was forced. “Right now we need to concern ourselves with getting to the bottom of your father’s illness. He’s the principal, and we must protect our own.”

  * * *

  His horribly out-of-tune whistles echoed off the cold stone walls, so Tryst stopped about halfway through the Metallica tune. Just made the atmosphere creepier, anyway. But the silence wasn’t helping, either. He couldn’t hear anything above, or sense anything beyond the chilly frozen ground that hugged the thick castle walls. Not an insect skittered the lonely cell; nor did he sense anyone would bring him down a nice hot lunch.

  He could break out of the chains with ease. Just needed to shift to werewolf and the iron manacles should pull free of the wall, but he decided against that. Until he was prepared to take on Sven and had real proof the wolf had act
ually poisoned Lexi’s father, his raging against the pack would do no one any good and probably see him dead.

  Silver? He couldn’t imagine it could be administered in such small doses as to slowly kill a wolf, but he was no expert. He just knew he avoided the metal—all werewolves did—for fear of death.

  “Wonder what Dad would think of me now?” he muttered.

  His father would likely laugh at Tryst’s situation, then urge him to break out of the chains and try to talk to the pack. Rhys always went for the talk before the talon. Not that he wouldn’t defend his own with all his might, especially in werewolf form, which found his vampire mind controlling his thoughts and stirring him to a vicious aggression.

  Tryst had inherited his father’s common sense and innate desire to make all things right. Nothing wrong with that. But he still liked a good fight.

  But it worried him that Lexi was up there, on her own, with no one to stand beside her for protection. In his aggressive state, Sven could do anything. And if he really was poisoning the principal, Tryst wouldn’t put it past Sven to kill him and have it done with. If he had enough pack members on his side, they would support him.

  Tryst wished he’d had a chance to talk to Liam. The wolf was Tryst’s only ally, yet Tryst believed Liam was a pacifist. What a waste of that man’s muscles.

  He whistled a few more bars of the heavy-metal tune and wondered how long he could stand by and let the world fall down around him.

  “Not long,” he muttered, and gave the manacles a testing yank.

  Chapter 15

  Lexi spied Lana’s perfect swish of hair and grabbed her sister by the arm, pulling her down the hallway and into her room. She pushed her sister against the wall.

  “Whoa! Lexi, what’s the deal? Don’t be so rough. I still don’t feel well.”

  “Well enough to hang on Sven, as I just saw you doing while he preached to the pack about how the evil outsider needs to die. Talk to me, Lana. You know the truth.”

  “You are acting wild and erratic, sister. It’s a good thing they’ve got the outsider chained up. He’s making you crazy.”

  “Trystan Hawkes has nothing whatsoever to do with my anger right now. Nor has he a thing to do with poisoning Father. You know well that Father was ailing long before Tryst even arrived at Wulfsiege. He brought an elixir with him from Rhys Hawkes that Father believed could heal him.”

  “That’s not how Sven explains it.”

  “Sven is an arrogant asshole that you don’t even love. Why do you allow him to influence you, Lana? You’re so smart. Think for yourself.”

  Lana shoved roughly past Lexi and paced over to the window. “I do think for myself. I’m just not like you, so independent that you chase away any man who will look at you.”

  “Please, Lana, don’t even start. You know why the pack wolves avoid me.”

  “Because you’re broken.” She spun, hands on hips, chin lifted triumphantly.

  And in that moment, Lexi could no longer endure her sister’s snide comments and demeaning treatment. Lana thought she was the cold one? Lana had mastered cold cruelty in spades. And Lexi put most of the blame on Sven.

  With a frustrated sigh, Lexi took off her glasses and tossed them onto the nearby bed. “I’m not broken. It just took me a while to come around.”

  Her sister’s eyes widened, her mouth fell open in a gape. “Your— Ohmygod. How did that happen? You’ve shifted?”

  “I found my mate,” Lexi said. “The one man who could make me whole.”

  “The outsider? Father will kill him!”

  She gripped Lana’s arm to keep her from running out and rushing for Sven. “You will not tell Father a thing while he’s doing so poorly. Don’t you even care that he’s suffering and any stress will only make him worse?”

  “You’re the one who slept with the man who is poisoning our father!”

  “He did not— Oh!” She yanked her sister’s arm, hating herself for the angry reaction the moment she did it, but it startled Lana, who backed up against the wall, palms to it. “I’m so sorry.”

  Lana didn’t say a word. Her look stabbed into Lexi’s thawed heart with the tip of an icicle.

  “Listen to me,” Lexi said softly. “I love you, Lana. I hate seeing you bullied and controlled by Sven. He’s…changed you. And I think he’s involved you in something so heinous that you wouldn’t believe it even if you knew the truth.”

  Lana shook her head, rubbing her arm. “It’s not fair. You get the nice one. He’s so damned kind! And helpful, and respectful. And look at who I’m saddled with.”

  It was the first time Lexi had heard her sister confess her true feelings for Sven. And about time.

  “Listen, Lana, you were sick last night because you ate Father’s food. You know that is truth. It had been poisoned, or tampered with in some way. And you know who’s doing it.”

  She tilted her head down, avoiding Lexi’s eyes.

  “Lana. You suspect, don’t you? I know he’s involved you, but I don’t think you realize it. Has Sven access to silver?”

  Lana gasped. Her hands started to shake.

  “Oh, sweetie, it’s not your fault.”

  “But it could be. I don’t know anything about it, Lexi, I swear it to you. But, I think you could be right. He’s been so angry lately, and he really wants to be principal. I saw a vial of some silver liquid in his room the other day and asked him about it.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said it was real silver, and he keeps it as a reminder of what could kill him. I thought that was so twisted, but then, knowing all he’s endured in the past, it made a weird kind of sense. You think he’s been putting silver in Daddy’s food?”

  “I can’t be positive. A few others suspect Sven. I want to talk to Natalie to see if she’s aware of a means to deliver silver to slowly kill.”

  “Oh, my gods, Lexi!”

  “We need to prove Sven’s been poisoning Father, and if we can, he will be ousted from the pack. You don’t love him, Lana. Just tell me that and I’ll make sure justice is served against the real criminal.”

  Lana nodded, a simple confirmation. Lexi pulled her into a hug. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “Daddy is going to die,” she said on a sniffle. “And it’s my fault. I brought him his food!”

  “It’s not your fault,” Lexi rushed out. “In fact, you getting sick may have been the catalyst to helping him. We may have never suspected if that hadn’t happened. But you need to help me now. We need to learn the truth about Sven.”

  “I don’t know if I dare. He’s rough, Lexi. He’ll kill me if he suspects I’m going against him.”

  Unfortunately, Lexi believed Lana’s fears. And she couldn’t allow that to happen.

  “Then you won’t go against him. You’ll just be the pretty, loving fiancée you’ve been to him. We can do this without you. I’ll figure something out.”

  Lana pressed her palms to Lexi’s cheeks and studied her eyes. “So you really shifted? Because of Tryst? How?”

  “We were having sex and it just happened.” Lexi took her sister’s hand and nuzzled into the palm. “He’s the man for me. I love him.”

  Her sister hugged her tightly. “I hope you get him.”

  * * *

  Reese said Natalie had gone out into the forest. She collected tree sap and ground mushrooms, and all sorts of odd things to use in her healing concoctions. So Lexi headed to the south tower. The wolf standing outside her father’s door put back his shoulders and lifted his chin as she approached.

  “Step aside, Harris,” she said, not slowing her pace. He was one of Sven’s closest friends. “Where is Rick?”

  The wolf, who had grown up alongside Lexi yet had always hung with the pack males, took a step to the left to block her entrance. “Sorry, Princess Alexis, I’ve been told no visitors. Only the doctor is allowed past this door.”

  “He’s my father. I will see him.”

  He put both hands to her shoulders
and squeezed in warning. It was apparent he wasn’t going to physically take her down, but he was following his orders seriously.

  “Harris.”

  “Alexis, please, I’ve been ordered.”

  “By whom?”

  The door opened and Sven stepped out from the conference room. The Nord towered over Lexi and used that height to his advantage. “By me. I’m assuming Vincent’s role as scion while your father is sick. He’s not in his right mind to make important decisions now.”

  “Not in his right mind? I just saw him this morning. We had a conversation. He knew exactly what he was talking about. If he’s gotten worse I must see him.”

  Sven’s block was rougher than Harris’s had been. He pushed Lexi against the wall and held her there with a hand beneath her neck. “I’m doing this for your own good. You’re emotional, Princess. It’s not good for your father to see you like this.”

  And if Sven had a hand in her father’s illness then he wouldn’t want anyone to get past him now. She couldn’t allow this to happen.

  Lexi kicked high, and managed a knee to the inside of Sven’s thigh.

  “Grab her,” Sven growled, and Harris went for her legs.

  Lexi kicked madly. She was able to ram an elbow into Sven’s jaw before freeing herself and stepping away from both males. Supporting herself with her hands to the wall behind her, she huffed out frantic breaths. She’d never get past the door now. If only her father would use a cell phone, she could call him, but he preferred landlines, which the avalanche had taken out.

  “You can’t keep me from my father,” she said. “I’m going to find the doctor.”

  “Doctor’s in the room with him. You run along and check the wounded in the keep like a good little girl.”

  She flipped him off with a flick of her fingers beneath her chin, and marched away. Now, more than ever she needed to gather help for her father. But all she could do was imagine crushing Sven’s head. A task she was incapable of accomplishing.

  Anger tightening her fists, Lexi stomped through her bedroom and peeled away her shirt and kicked off her shoes. If Natalie were still out in the forest, she would find her and get to the bottom of this. Heading out the door, she trotted down the steps and through the courtyard. She was so angry right now she needed to release some of it before attempting a calm conversation with the herb-hunting witch.