The Wolf Princess: The Wolf PrincessOne Eye Open (The Pack)

by Karen Whiddon

  “As well he should. Someone attacked you inside the royal palace. That’s not good.”

  “He’ll probably place me under heavy guard.”

  Braden knew he would, if he had the right. “I can’t say I blame him.”

  “But—”

  “No buts.” He kissed her once, hard and fast.

  “Come on now.” Pushing himself to his feet, Braden held out his hand to help her up. “I’m guessing it’s close to four in the morning. We’d better get dressed and go find your brother.” He made his tone brisk.

  “Ruben? Why?”

  Hounds, he’d forgotten she didn’t know. The hell with it. Maybe it was time she did. “Ruben heads palace security. Someone broke into my room and the lab as well as yours. The security detail appears to have vanished. This entire incident will have to be reported.”

  “I don’t think I can talk to Ruben right now.” She sounded alarmed, as if she’d rather stay in bed or walk barefoot over hot coals than get dressed and face her brother.

  He couldn’t really blame her. “There’s no way he’s going to know about us. Now come on,” he said lightly, reaching until he connected with her hand so he could pull her up. “You have to. You were attacked and tied up. It’s either Ruben or your father. Your choice.”

  “Ruben, then.” She pushed herself up and disappeared into her lavatory.

  After they’d gotten dressed, Alisa led him to the security offices on the main floor. “I’m not sure if Ruben will be here or not,” she warned him. “If, as you say, he’s in charge of security, I doubt he’ll be here this early. He’s probably asleep in his room. Sven usually heads up security, you know.”

  “I’m sure they’ll summon him.” Of course they would.

  After they made their report to security, he’d have Ruben tell her what he’d told him. She needed to understand that the extremists were real and the amount of danger she was in. The danger they were both in, actually.

  When they entered the security offices, Alisa tugged on his arm. “Wow. My brother actually is here. He must have come right after the party. I wonder when he sleeps.”

  “Hello,” Ruben greeted them. He sounded tired, but relaxed, which meant that he had no idea what had just happened.

  Speaking quietly, Braden told him as concisely as possible. Of course, as Braden had known he would, Ruben locked in on the fact that an intruder had been inside his sister’s room.

  “He tied you up?” Anger simmered in the prince’s voice. “Lisa, were you hurt in any other way?”

  “No, Ruben. Nothing like that.” She kept her tone soothing. “This was the same man who broke into Braden’s room and also trashed his lab.”

  “I’ve already reported this to your men,” Braden said. “I can’t believe they didn’t inform you.”

  “My men?” Ruben sounded bewildered. “We have a skeleton staff on from midnight until six. Most of them have been patrolling the grounds. Who took your report?”

  “There were three of them. Igor, Thomas and Rok.”

  Ruben said nothing, but Braden knew. “They don’t work for you, do they?”

  “Their names are not familiar.” Ruben sounded grim. “Let me pull up the surveillance video.”

  “Does it have audio?” Braden wanted to know. “That way I can at least listen in.”

  “Yes.” The prince moved away. “Let me cue it up. I’ll put it on the big monitor over here.”

  Braden started to move forward, then stopped, realizing that not only had he forgotten his cane, but he had no idea what obstacles might be in his path.

  Alisa slipped her hand into his. “Come on. I’ll show you the way.”

  Since all Braden could do was listen while the others watched, he held himself perfectly still, focusing on the voices. Since the cameras were only trained on the hallways, the sound went silent when the men entered a room as there was nothing to see or hear.

  Ruben uttered a word in the Teslinkian tongue that sounded like a curse. “None of them work for the palace security detail,” he said. “And worse, the man you called Rok was the same one who broke into both your and Alisa’s room.”

  Braden swore. “I knew something was off. That means the entire time I was with what I thought was security, I was actually with men who are part of the extremist group?”

  “It would appear so.”

  “Extremist group?” Alisa chimed in. “Are you really serious about this?”

  Braden stayed silent, giving the other man the opportunity to tell his sister the truth. If he didn’t, then Braden would.

  Perhaps the prince sensed Braden’s resolve. Talking quickly, Ruben told Alisa what the two men had discussed earlier.

  “You’ve mentioned this before, but never with this amount of detail. How long have you known about this?” she asked, once Ruben had finished.

  “A good while.” At least the prince had the grace to sound ashamed. Braden realized he actually respected the other man for this.

  Alisa, on the other hand, sounded furious. “Why did you hide this from me?”

  “I tried to tell you, in a roundabout way.”

  “That wasn’t enough. I don’t understand why you didn’t think I needed to know this information.”

  “Because our father ordered me not to tell you.” Tone steely, Ruben now sounded every inch the heir to the throne. “Even now, I am disobeying him by talking about this.”

  “Honestly?” Now bewilderment rather than anger colored her tone. “What is his reasoning? If I’m aware of the threat, I can better protect myself.”

  Braden’s thoughts exactly, though he knew enough to stay silent. He saw no need to insert himself into this family mix.

  “I’m sorry, Lisa.” Ruben turned away. “At least you know now. I’ve got to make a full report to Father pretty quickly, even if I have to wake him up. We’ve got to find out how those men were able to get into the palace to begin with.”

  “What about the front desk girl?” Braden asked. “She might know something. She’s the one I called when I awoke and found someone in my room.”

  “Front desk girl?” Both Ruben and Alisa spoke at once.

  “I punched zero on my bedside phone.” Frowning, Braden crossed his arms. “Some woman answered and said she’d send security.”

  “The switchboard,” Ruben said. “There were two girls working earlier when you called down there. We need to talk to them. Let me make a call.”

  Braden and Alisa waited while he did. A moment later, he hung up the phone and cursed. “Unfortunately, both of the women who were working the switchboard have gone missing.”

  “Both of them?” Alisa sounded shocked.

  Privately, Braden figured they’d been murdered. And for what? These extremists were trying to steal a secret that didn’t even exist.

  Chapter 12

  Alisa felt brittle, as though made of glass, the kind that might shatter if anyone touched her.

  As she’d predicted, her father had placed her under heavy guard. Two armed men stood outside her bedroom door and accompanied her wherever she wanted to go.

  The dark mood inside the castle felt oppressive, matching her mood.

  If not for the pleasant ache of her body, she thought she might have dreamed the powerful lovemaking she and Braden had shared.

  The events of the prior evening had changed her, shattering her safe existence and making her realize nothing was exactly as it seemed.

  Early in the day, the two missing women were found. They’d been tied up, in a supply closet. They were shaken, but otherwise unharmed. Unfortunately, they claimed to have no idea who had done this to them.

  Now she was on her way to be questioned by his top security officials, at her father’s urging. Her mother accompanied her to the sitting room, her silence telling Alisa how worried she was.

  When she entered the large drawing room, her mother walked to the other side and began talking on her cell phone, too quietly for Alisa to hear. Frowning with wor
ry, King Leo pulled out a chair and waited until Alisa was seated before giving her a quick hug.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I think so.”

  His skeptical expression told her he didn’t believe her. “Your mother is beside herself. Though I’ve asked her not to, right now she’s calling both of your sisters.”

  Alisa groaned. “If you don’t do something, they’ll all come home and surround me like a gaggle of clucking hens.”

  He grinned at her description. “You’ve been listening to me and your brother, haven’t you?”

  “Maybe,” she allowed. “But I don’t want them coming here. The risk is too great.”

  “Exactly what I told your mother. I’ve forbidden any of your sisters to come home until the perpetrator or perpetrators are caught.”

  “Good.” She exhaled in relief.

  “Your mother wants to send you to visit one of them instead.”

  “What?” Alisa sat up straight, opening her eyes wide in alarm. “Please don’t do that to me. With all the guards, I should be safe enough.”

  “I know,” he replied, the twinkle in his eyes telling her he’d twisted words to get her to accept a twenty-four-hour guard. “Now my security people want you to watch some surveillance video.”

  “All right.” She waited while they brought her a laptop, watching as they keyed up a video. While she watched, Ruben’s top man peppered her with questions.

  Though she answered him and viewed the surveillance video at least four times, she knew she wasn’t of much help. Until Braden had come crashing into her room, she hadn’t even gotten a good look at her intruder.

  “I was asleep,” she repeated. “It was dark and then he tied me up and gagged me. I never saw his face.”

  “Perhaps you should speak with the court psychiatrist,” her father said.

  “I’m not traumatized,” she emphatically told him. “I was only a captive for a few minutes. Braden rushed in and rescued me and that was that.”

  When the grizzled security officer expressed doubts about how much help a blind man could actually be, Alisa bristled.

  “He was plenty of help. He charged the intruder and knocked him down.”

  The older man crossed his arms, apparently not convinced. “But he did not detain him?”

  “No.” Appealing to her father, who watched silently, she swallowed. “But he freed me.”

  As she spoke, she couldn’t help but blush as she remembered how wonderfully the night had ended. She and Braden had made slow, sensual, passionate love. They’d connected in more ways than merely physical. That trumped everything else, even her attack.

  Her father squinted at her, reminding her that he had no idea what had transpired after Braden had rescued her. She prayed no one noticed the discrepancy between the time the intruder had gone running from Alisa’s room and the time she and Braden had emerged to call security.

  Apparently, no one did. Comforting her with a bear hug, King Leo peered down into her face. “Are you certain you are all right?”

  “I’m fine,” she said.

  Concluding her phone call, Queen Ionna came over, phone still in hand. “I would feel so much better if you would talk to a counselor.”

  With difficulty, Alisa summoned up a smile. “Thank you for your concern, Mom,” she said. “But I really am fine. I promise.”

  Exchanging a look with her mother, who had already begun dialing another number, King Leo told Alisa she could go. Relieved, she didn’t wait to be told twice.

  On her way back to her room, she couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened.

  She’d been attacked inside her own home. She didn’t care how many guards she had; she wasn’t sure she could ever feel safe again.

  What she didn’t understand was why? Why would anyone want to hurt her? Was this, as Braden seemed to think, tied in to her ability to go without shape-shifting for longer than what was considered normal?

  If so, was she now consigned to spending the rest of her life watching out for the next attack?

  To distract herself, she forced herself not to dwell on it. Instead, she thought of Braden, of making love with him.

  They’d fit together perfectly, like their bodies had been made just for each other. The physical part of their joining had been amazing, transcendent, unreal. Even her wolf had been involved in the act.

  Odd how something so wonderful could come out of something so horrible.

  Even if he had told her he only cared about the research. His body said otherwise.

  Though she had to wonder, how one-sided was this situation?

  After all, if she were to be totally honest with herself, she’d wanted Braden ever since the first moment she’d laid eyes on him. Since shifters couldn’t get STDs, and she faithfully took her birth control pills, she hadn’t worried about protection. Instead, she’d let passion and desire take over. She couldn’t say she regretted that. Even if she did want more.

  If making love with him only involved her body, she’d be in his room every single night, giving herself over to the sensual pleasure of sharing herself with him.

  But this involved her soul. It was way more than just recreational sex. The depth of the emotion she felt toward him frightened her. She couldn’t stop thinking about him or longing to be with him. Not just sexually, but in every way that mattered. She wanted to wake up next to him, to laugh and talk over coffee and breakfast, to welcome him at the end of the day with a full-body hug and a smiling, silent promise of more to come.

  But he didn’t want that. He’d been completely honest about that.

  Could she live with a relationship based on sex?

  Ah, but such sex.

  Vital, hot and furious. She wanted more of that, too. Much more. But she knew if they continually joined their bodies together, expressing physically the close connection they felt for each other, the emotions she felt would just deepen and solidify.

  She would be hurt. More than that. Destroyed.

  And this, she could not allow. Romantic involvement with Dr. Braden Streib would be a disaster of epic proportions on so many levels, just thinking about it made her head ache more than during one of her normal migraines.

  Reaching her room, she went inside and closed the door, still pondering. She fought the urge to pick up the phone and call him on some pretext of checking to make sure he was all right. He’d see through that in a heartbeat.

  Foolish. Then again, part of her wanted him to know, regardless of how he regarded her. Braden was bruised and damaged, broken and battered. He lived in his own insular world, behind walls he’d built himself, inviolate and untouchable. One day, he’d realize he was painfully lonely there in his lofty ivory tower. Alisa knew she could touch his life, even if only briefly. He needed to know she cared.

  Ah, but was she brave enough to tell him? Trusting him enough to share more than her body with him would be a huge leap of faith on her part. Such a thing could be sheer stupidity, a leap into an abyss of such foolishness that she’d regret it the rest of her life.

  But, she suspected, not nearly as much as she’d regret never having loved him.

  Since the intrusion, she now had two guards stationed outside her bedroom door. There were two more guarding the lab and yet another duo outside Braden’s room. With all the intensity focused on the hallway, sneaking into his room at night would be downright impossible.

  During the day, they met in the lab for him to run his infernal tests, so at least she’d get to see him there. Speaking of which…

  Checking the clock, she realized her sentimental musings had made her late again. She’d promised Braden she’d be at the lab right after breakfast to help him get everything back in order. Of course, she’d slept late and assumed he would have as well, considering how they’d both been awake for several hours the night before.

  Ah, well. Scooping her hair back into a ponytail, she ran a tube of lip gloss over her mouth and headed out the door
.

  When she arrived at the lab, she found Braden already hard at work. To her surprise, Ruben was assisting him and had evidently been there for a while, since the place looked almost exactly the way it had before the break-in.

  She stood in the doorway for a few minutes and watched them work. Neither man noticed her. Finally she moved and that caught Ruben’s eye.

  “Well, hello,” he said, smiling. “It’s about time you showed up. Did you get something to eat?”

  Though she nodded and briefly glanced at her brother, she couldn’t tear her gaze from Braden. He’d gone perfectly still, his head cocked in that intent way he had when he was listening. She had the craziest urge to go to him and wrap her arms around him and just hold on. But of course she couldn’t. Not in front of Ruben.

  Instead, she forced a polite smile and moved into the room. “Sorry I’m late. I didn’t sleep well last night.” She directed this last comment to Braden, taking small satisfaction in the way he flushed. “What can I do to help?”

  With a shrug, Ruben glanced from her to Braden. “I think we’ve got it all fixed up as good as new. What do you think, Braden?”

  Suddenly busy rearranging what looked like different-sized test tubes, he barely raised his head. “You can take the day off, Alisa. I’m not going to be running any tests, so I won’t be needing you today.”

  Oddly enough, that stung. She knew what she should do, what the old Alisa would have done. She’d make some sort of mocking joke before sauntering off to do something else.

  If he didn’t need her, she had other places to go. Except she didn’t want to. She wanted to be with him.

  And he obviously didn’t want to be with her.

  Studying her hands while she tried to figure out a course of action, she looked up to find her brother staring at her. “Lisa, are you all right? You look a bit shell-shocked. I mean, with all that happened last night, maybe you should talk to someone, you know?”

  “Not you, too.” She sighed. “I just left our parents and I’ll tell you the same thing I told them. I’m not traumatized. I want to catch those men as badly as you do.”