by Leia Stone
“And I totally understand,” I told her, my voice breaking. Her arms wrapped around me and we held each other for a long while, until we finally pulled away, wiping our eyes.
“Do I look like a racoon?” she asked, wiping at some smudged mascara.
I grinned. “Just a little bit racoon.” I reached out and wiped some more black off of her cheeks.
She sighed. “That was heavy, but I feel better.”
I laughed. “I agree, we need ice cream immediately.”
And with that we joined everyone else in the main room. Sage ordered ice cream sundaes for all of us and I sat next to my dad, leaning into him so he could wrap his arm around me. When Sage was showing my mom and Raven something on the TV, I leaned in closely to my dad and whispered in his ear. “I’m so lucky you’re my father. I love you so much, Dad.”
He swallowed hard, a tear slipping from his eye as he pulled me in for a hug. “I love you too, kiddo. You and your mother are my whole world.”
I tried not to think about Curt banishing my mom and how unfair that was. I tried not to think of the nice Paladin man who got beheaded because of me when I fell down the mountain. I really tried not to think about what Sawyer would do if he found out what I was. I just let my dad hold me, and pretended everything was going to be okay.
After seeing my parents and Raven out to a car that Quan was driving, I thanked Sage for the surprise and slipped back into my apartment. Sawyer asked me to come over after, but I couldn’t; I needed to absorb the fact that I was half Paladin, that I was born of the blood of Sawyer’s family’s mortal enemies.
I looked down at my phone. I wanted to text him or PM him on Insta, but he wasn’t big on technology and social media. His WolfDude_4 profile only existed to like and comment on my photos.
Taking a deep breath, I called him instead.
“Hey, beautiful. You coming over?” he answered and I smiled.
“Actually I’m kinda wiped out emotionally. I was just calling to see if tomorrow was okay to meet up instead.”
“Are you okay?” His voice was suddenly protective and alert.
I nodded, and then remembered he couldn’t see me. “Yeah. Just some heavy stuff with my mom.”
“Oh,” he sighed. “I thought you would like having them here. Otherwise, I never would have gotten it approved.”
“No, I do. I have a really good relationship with my parents. It’s just…” I really wanted to tell Sawyer, but I didn’t think he could handle this and still love me, so I told a half truth. “Do you know why my mom was banished?”
His sharp intake of breath told me everything I needed to know. “Yes. She had a love affair with a Paladin during my father’s selection year.”
I winced. When he said it like that, it sounded bad, but hearing my mother tell the story was different. His words were true, but it wasn’t my mother’s fault she loved a kind man who she’d known since childhood.
“Sawyer?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do you guys hate the Paladins so much?”
He was silent a moment, then he breathed into the phone long and deep. “You know that story I told you about the curse that witch put on my family one thousand years ago?”
My heart threatened to jump out of my throat. “Yes,” I croaked.
Don’t say it. Don’t say what I think you are about to.
“Well, that woman was half Danai and half Paladin wolf, their alpha.”
Fuck. The Danai were the dark witches…
“So the Paladins are … like the Ithaki? Hybrids? They have female alphas?”
I’d never heard of such a thing; my head spun. Ithaki were fey hybrids, and Paladins were wolf ones. Holy shit.
“Yes. But the witch bloodline has obviously diluted over a millennium. Should I come over? We can talk about this more.” He sounded concerned.
My mind spun with all of this knowledge, but I shook my head. “No. No, I’m tired, I just want to process this and sleep.”
“Okay, yeah. See you at breakfast?” He sounded hopeful.
“See you then.”
When he hung up, I looked down at my hands and wondered if there was a way to see if I had any witch blood inside of me.
Obviously not. Oh my God, Sawyer would never marry me if he knew what I was…
My mind shuffled through all of this information until about one a.m. when I finally passed out from exhaustion.
I awoke to a blaring siren. My eyelids snapped open and my phone rang.
“Hello.” I was groggy and out of it. What time was it? Why didn’t the siren stop when I answered the phone?
“Stay in your dorm. Don’t leave no matter what,” Sawyer told me, and hung up.
What the…? It hit me then that the siren was the vampire attack siren.
I bolted upright and looked at the clock. Three a.m.
Rushing to my closet, I threw on jeans, and then did a ten second teeth brush and tied my hair up in a bun. Why was I getting ready? I had no idea, but if the freaking vamps were here, I wanted to be ready for anything.
Someone banged on my door and I froze. Were they coming for me again?
“Open up!” Sage yelled, and relief rolled through me.
I pulled open the door to see her gripping a samurai sword in one hand, and a gun at her hip. Throwing stars and stakes were tucked into her belt.
“Whoa. What’s going on?” I backed up into the room and shut the door behind her.
Sage sighed. “They’re here to arrest Sawyer.”
It was like time stopped. My mouth went dry at her words. “What! Who?”
Her hands shook. “Well, I assume so. My mom just texted me that the Drakes are here investigating the murder of their son.”
Oh shit, shit, shit. As much as I loved Sawyer for avenging my honor or whatever, and wiping that douchebag off the face of this earth, killing the prince of the most powerful vampire coven in the country was not smart.
“At three a.m.!” I shouted.
She shrugged. “It’s day for them. Vampires, remember?”
Duh. I knew that. The vampires at Delphi had to take special pills to keep them awake in order to go to school, and then another set of pills to be able to sleep at night and adapt in the human world. Contrary to fantasy stories, they could go out in the sun, it just wasn’t natural for them. Their circadian rhythm was all off.
“Where are they holding him?” I moved for the door and she reached out to stop me.
“In the registration building, but you can’t go. The alpha is sending guards to keep an eye on you and I. They know we will try to interfere.”
I chewed my lip. “Well, why are you armed to the teeth if we can’t help?”
She paced my carpet. “I dunno. In case they attack.”
I froze, a thought coming to me: “The alpha is sending guards to watch over us?”
She nodded. “My mother said to behave.”
“How much time do we have before they get here?”
My wolf stirred under my skin, ready to protect Sawyer.
“Seconds. Maybe a minute. Why?”
I swallowed hard, hoping this didn’t hurt our friendship in the future. “Look, I’m sorry I never told you, but … I’m a split shifter and my wolf is about to walk out of my body and separate from me. Don’t freak out.”
Her face screwed up like she’d sucked a lemon. “What?”
Then it happened. My wolf appeared before me, a white mist crawling off my body. Sage stumbled backward in shock.
“What the fuck!” She looked at my wolf wide-eyed as she materialized into a solid form.
“It’s okay. It’s my wolf. We can separate,” I told her, hands out before me in an effort to calm her.
“This isn’t happening.” Sage closed her eyes and then opened them, shaking her head.
There was a knock at the door and my wolf tensed.
“Coming. I’m getting dressed!” I shouted, and ran for the living room window. Sage stood there in sh
ock as I opened the window and let my wolf slink out into the dark night. “Protect Sawyer,” I told her, and she nodded. We were one, but we were also two people. It was hard to explain, but one thing we agreed on was that we loved Sawyer, and he should be protected no matter what.
I shut the window and Sage was still frozen beside me. “How far apart can you go? How is this possible?”
“Tell you later. Promise.” I pulled her from the window so it wouldn’t look suspicious and then went to open the door.
Two giant guards I didn’t recognize pushed their way into my apartment, silver stakes at their side. “There’s an emergency on campus, Miss Calloway,” the one with a shaved head said. “We need to make sure you’re safe.” He slipped into my room and checked the bathroom and closet. Seemingly checking for vampires.
“I’m keeping her safe,” Sage growled, gripping the sword in her hands.
I zoned out of what they were saying and concentrated on my wolf. She was running in the shadows, through the quad and toward the admin building where I’d gone the first day. The campus was crawling with security, but my wolf was agile and quiet; she moved behind bushes and through shadows. Sage spoke with the security guards while I walked toward my bedroom.
“I’m just going to lie down. It’s late and I’m tired.” My voice trailed off as I kept my attention with my wolf.
“Leave the door open,” one of the guards said.
“I’m gonna lie down too.” Sage fake yawned. “So tired.”
She followed me into my bedroom.
I sat on the bed and lay on the pillow, keeping my sight with my wolf, who had just reached the closed doors of the admin building. The lights were on inside, so there must be people in there. There were two guards there; my wolf stood in the bushes just to the right of them. Damn. I was kind of hoping for a door left open like in the movies.
No such luck.
“They said murder charges,” one of the guards said and I grew still.
“That’s kind of badass,” the other said. “The vampires have been messing with us for too long. Sawyer will be a good alpha. He won’t take their shit like his father.”
The first guard scoffed. “You can’t be an alpha from Magic City Jail, bro.”
“Whatever.”
Magic City Jail?
Shit. I knew there was a city for each race, and as a whole they were all a part of Magic City but … I didn’t know there was a jail.
Backtracking, I slipped along the side of the building, in the dark, trying not to crunch on leaves or make any noise to alert the guards.
Sage pulled me from my wolf’s reality. “Can you like … feel her still, or talk to her?”
I nodded. “She’s at the building, looking for Sawyer.”
“Holy shit,” Sage breathed. “Tell me what happens.”
I nodded again and focused back on my wolf.
What was she doing? She had gotten really close to one of the dark tinted windows, so close her nose was fogging it. I felt a tug at my navel like she was pulling something from me. Before I could try to figure it out, she went all translucent like she did before she jumped back in my body and … walked through the glass door, coming out on the other side in an empty conference room.
“Holy shit,” I breathed.
“What’s wrong?” Sage gripped my hand, but I kept my eyes closed, because it was the only way I knew how to concentrate.
“Nothing. I mean … my wolf just walked through a wall but … nothing.”
“That’s not normal,” Sage whispered, and I didn’t really have anything to say to that, because she was right. It wasn’t.
My wolf solidified and then peered out into the hallway. Immediately voices carried to her. She slinked down the hallway to get closer to them.
“We have security footage showing two wolves, gray and black, crossing the south side of our border two days ago,” a male voice said as my wolf listened on.
“And now my son is dead!” a woman spat.
My wolf crept closer, standing just beyond the doorway.
“Half of our wolves are gray or black, it’s the most common coloring.” I recognized the alpha’s voice.
“And your son happens to be a gray wolf, does he not?” the woman hissed. I recognized her voice, it was Vicon’s mother, the queen of all the vampires in Vampire City.
“Are you saying you think my son killed yours?” It was the first time I’d ever heard Sawyer’s mom speak in a threatening or strong tone; she was always so soft spoken and polite.
“Well, if he didn’t, then why the fuck is he grinning like an idiot right now?” Queen Drake spat.
“Because I hate your kind.” Sawyer’s voice could cut glass and my wolf went very still.
“And I want you off our land. Now.”
Silence fell over the room and my heart leapt into my throat as my wolf stepped inside.
‘No!’ I hissed to her mentally, ‘You’ll be seen!’
Wait … why was no one looking at me? My wolf walked right up to the table and I was shocked to see a lot more people there than I’d thought. Sawyer, his mom, Curt, and then Vicon’s parents, King and Queen Drake. I knew them from when my parents made the complaint. I’d met them for all of five minutes, but they weren’t two people you’d forget. There were also two men in suits, one sitting on each side … they looked like lawyers. The person at the head of the table shocked me the most.
Prime Minister Locke. Were the light fey like Switzerland in these situations? Maybe they were a neutral third party.
“We want a full investigation, Curt.” Vicon’s dad slammed his flat palm on the table and glared at the alpha.
Holy shit, he looked so much like Vicon it made the hair on my wolf stand up. His dark hair was slicked over to one side, and it looked wet but was probably a shitload of gel. He wore a crisp black satin suit with a black shirt and black tie. All of this was in stark contrast to his paper white skin.
Sawyer suddenly turned his head, very slowly, and looked right at me, eyes widening a little, before looking away quickly. Vicon’s mother did the same, following Sawyer’s gaze, but seemed to look past my wolf, and then away like she couldn’t see me.
What the hell?
“Of course. We will conduct an internal investigation and hand over our report to you when it’s complete.” Curt interlaced his fingers and set them on the table, giving the vampires a cold hard glare.
Sawyer dropped his hand underneath the table and wiggled his fingers, as if beckoning my wolf. She trotted over to him and he sank his fingers into my fur.
“Internal investigation?” Queen Drake barked in laughter. “The prince of Vampire City was brutally murdered. We have DNA wolf hair from the scene that we will be crosschecking with all of your wolves.”
Mr. Hudson went very still then, his eyes flashing yellow as he stood. “Over. My. Dead. Fucking. Body,” he growled.
Whoa. Our normally reserved alpha had finally lost his shit.
King Drake stood, glaring him down. “That can be arranged.”
The table erupted into shouts and the prime minister clapped loudly. “That’s enough!” he screamed, causing everyone to fall quiet.
Prime Minister Locke looked at the Drakes. “Your vampires have been sticking their noses where they don’t belong lately. The wolves have had two attacks on campus—”
King Drake tipped his chin up. “Without our knowledge!”
Yeah, right.
Locke shrugged. “Nevertheless, you are not wholly innocent in all of this.”
“So my son deserves to be murdered?” Queen Drake slammed her fist on the table. “I want some fucking justice!”
Locke looked to her and nodded. “Absolutely. So we will let the wolves conduct their internal investigation and bring forth the wolf or wolves responsible, but asking for an entire DNA database of their pack is unreasonable.”
Queen Drake hissed, looking feral, but sat down.
Curt gave a smug smile to his wif
e and then looked at Locke. “Thank you for mediating. I think it’s time our guests left. The sun is coming up soon after all. They must be very tired.”
The Drakes narrowed their eyes at the alpha and he and his wife and stood. Their useless lawyer who hadn’t spoken the entire time glared at Prime Minister Locke. “We will be filing a petition with the Magical Creatures Council to have the DNA sample crosschecked with the wolves brought forward from their internal investigation.” He patted his maroon leather briefcase to indicate the sample was inside.
Locke nodded. “Sounds like a reasonable request.”
Sawyer stiffened slightly, his fingers still in my fur. Was that his DNA hair sample in there? Obviously…
As the vampires reached the door, Sawyer spoke: “What’s the consequence in Vampire City for brutal rape?”
My wolf froze at the same time King and Queen Drake did. The entire room froze at that actually.
Queen Drake’s voice was like a loaded weapon. “Why do you ask?”
Sawyer shrugged carelessly. “Just curious.”
Awkward silence descended on the room as King Drake’s jaw clenched. “If found convicted, brutal rape carries a death sentence in our coven.”
Sawyer grinned, the cockiest fucking grin I’d ever seen, and my wolf practically purred. The queen lunged for Sawyer, darting halfway across the room, but the lawyer was faster. He zipped in front of her, grasping her by the shoulders.
“Save it for the courtroom,” he hissed.
She looked over the lawyer’s shoulder and pinned a feral gaze at Sawyer. “I can’t wait until you become alpha next year.” Her grin was practically as maniacal as Sawyer’s, and a stone sank in my gut. It was a promise. A promise of revenge?
“I’ll escort you out.” Prime Minister Locke cleared his throat and left the room with them.
The wolf lawyer stood then, looking at the open door for a moment, until he was sure it was clear. “A witch owes me a favor…” His voice was barely a whisper. “I’ll see if she can change Sawyer’s DNA for a while. If not, we need to break in and steal that briefcase.”
Holy shit, okay, so everyone at this table knew Sawyer was guilty.
“Thank you, Phineas.” Mrs. Hudson stood and escorted him out, leaving Sawyer and his father staring each other down.
