*Maddox*
We land at the port late in the evening. After several days of being on the water, I am ready to get home to the castle. I need to make sure that Isla is safe. Even though Mystica has been looking over her the entire time we’ve been on the boat, I’m not sure I trust my royal healer anymore. Recently, she’s made some dangerous decisions. I think it’s time to get Isla back to the castle and find someone else who can check her over. I have lots of healers on my staff; one of them has to be trustworthy.
The moment I step off the boat, Isla’s arm wrapped around my own, I see one of my commanders coming toward me. “Commander Vember,” I say, wondering why he has such a serious expression on his face. “What’s the matter? Why are you at the port in the middle of the night?”
He makes the sign of respect, touching his right hand to his left shoulder, and then says, “Alpha, we’ve got a serious problem back at the castle. I didn’t want to tell you the situation through the mind-link while you were out to sea and couldn’t do anything about it, but several of the Alphas whose daughters were sent back from the Luna consort are angry. They’re threatening to storm the castle and claim the throne.”
“Son of a bitch,” I mutter. “I was only gone for a few days. Where the hell is Beta Seth? Where’s Trinity?”
He shakes his head. “Beta Seth is trying to negotiate with them. He has the castle surrounded on the inside by every available soldier who was able to get back there, all but the ones that are here making sure you landed safely. Trinity is in the castle, and she’s tried to negotiate as well, but the other Alphas are simply saying she’s there as a pawn, trying to get the throne for her uncle or father.”
“And what of Alpha Charlton and Alpha Jason?” Would Rebecca’s father and Trinity’s father, two Alphas who are supposed to be there to support me no matter what, be ready to lead the charge against me since I hadn’t chosen Trinity—nor had she decided to follow through on their plans and kill me.
“They aren’t part of the contingency that’s surrounding the castle, but they haven’t done anything to help either,” Commander Vember explains.
With a deep breath, I continue on my way to the waiting car. I’m not about to let Isla stand around outside when there is a possibility we could be attacked at any moment. The rest of our party piles into a second SUV, the small amount of luggage we have tossed into the back. I get into the front seat with Isla in the back seat next to one of the guards I trust. Commander Vember gets behind the wheel himself.
“Tell me who the attacking packs are,” I tell him.
“Swollen Creek, Mystical River, Mountain Pass Run, Rolling Hills, Silver Stream, and Ocean Tide, Alpha,” he lists off for me. “They’ve got about thirty thousand warriors assembled around the castle. We won’t be able to get back there. Our plan at this point is to take you to the summer home in Granite Canyon until we can determine what needs to be done.”
Dragging a hand down my face, I think about that solution. I don’t like it. Isla is ready to give birth any moment now, and she needs to be home for that. At the same time, we can’t risk her getting hurt as we force our way back into the castle either.
I should’ve made the announcement about my son earlier. I shouldn’t have waited so fucking long. If everyone had known I was having a child with a Luna—a Goddessdamn princess, for that matter—maybe they wouldn’t have had the balls to try to force me into something I didn’t want to do in the first place. If it wasn’t for that fucking curse, I wouldn’t be going through any of this.
My hand automatically goes to the pocket of my pants where I’d slid the Diamond of Faith earlier in the day. It is wrapped in a piece of satin and secured inside of a small satchel. I need to get it to the right location to officially break the curse. Having it back home won’t do us any good. It has to be placed in its rightful position for the curse to break.
As if reading my mind, Isla speaks from the back seat. “I don’t understand. We have the diamond now, right? Shouldn’t the faith in the crown be restored?”
Shaking my head, I turn to look at her. “It’s not that simple. It’s not enough just to have it. More has to be done.”
“More?” she echoes, obviously confused. She doesn’t know the details. As usual, Isla assumes the simplest solution to a problem will do the job, but in my experience, that is rarely the case. It’s always something complicated, something deadly.
“Yes, that’s right,” I tell her, but then I return my attention to Commander Vember who has asked me a question.
“You found the diamond?” he wants to know, clearly shocked. “I thought it was lost forever.”
“Isla found it on Maatua,” I explain. “She broke the curse that had it hidden on the island, and we were able to get it back. But I’m afraid that’s not the only curse there is to break.”
Once again, I turn to look at Isla. I can see that she’s confused and doesn’t know what to think of any of this. She likely expected everything to be fixed the moment the diamond was in my possession or as soon as it returned to the kingdom. Unfortunately, that’s not how any of it works.
I notice we are driving out into the country toward the southwest, rather than heading toward the castle. This is the right way to go to get to the house that Commander Vember has mentioned to me, but I don’t like it. How can I be anywhere but the castle while this is going on?
“I have an idea,” he says as he drives along. “I think, once you get Isla to safety, you can gather warriors from the packs near where she’ll be staying, and you can approach the castle and let these Alphas know the situation, that you’ve chosen a Luna, and she is about to have your baby. Hopefully, that will be enough for them to back down. At the moment, they are saying their daughters were excluded from being considered for the Luna position, but no one knows about the baby still.”
I listen to his words. He makes good sense. All six of the packs that are currently attacking the castle were involved in that incident where Isla’s life was threatened in the library. It makes sense to me that their fathers would be upset about the circumstances in which they were asked to leave, and who knows what they’d been told by their daughters who likely didn’t want to admit to causing problems, but I would do it all again just the way I had, even knowing this war would be the result.
“All right,” I agree with Commander Vember. “We’ll do that. But then the truly difficult part of the journey begins—returning the diamond to the temple.”
*Isla*
The rocking of the car must’ve caused me to fall asleep. When it stops, I find myself blinking and realize I’m leaning on the shoulder of the guard who’s been asked to sit next to me. Embarrassed, I blink up at him. “Sorry.”
“It’s no problem, Miss Isla,” he says with a small smile. I don’t recognize him, and I’m leery of trusting any guards after what happened with Private Wylie, but I have to be polite since I’ve been sleeping on him for who knows how long. I sit up and continue to smile, though it’s the last thing I want to do.
I don’t recognize the place we’ve pulled up to. Turning around, I see a gate behind me and a lot of warriors in their wolf forms. We must be at that house Commander Vember mentioned before. I check the place out. It’s lovely, sort of like an estate house, not a castle. It looks to be hundreds of years old and maybe about half the size of the castle. I wonder if this is where I’ll meet my son.
He kicks me in the hand, where my palm rests on my belly, like always, and I know that he’s answering my question. Well, as long as he’s safe, that’s all that matters. Mystica is here with us in the other vehicles, so I trust he’ll be safe. I think of that poor girl who died giving birth to baby Maddy and wonder for a brief second if something like that could also befall me, but I shake my head. No, I’ve already been dead once. I’ll be fine.
Maddox gets out and comes around to open my door. I get out, taking his hand. He slips his arm through mine and helps me across the uneven ground. “This is just temporary,” he tells me.
I nod, thinking he looks a bit like an angel with the dawn of a new day spreading across the sky behind him, the golden rays spanning around his head like a halo. He would say he’s anything but an angel, but I would disagree. He’s always been there for me when I needed him, even when I didn’t think I did, like on the island. Although, lately, I’ve done my fair share of saving him, too.
That thought makes me question the problem with the diamond. I understand now that it’s not enough for it to just be in the possession of the Alpha King. He has something he has to do with it, and I’m not sure what that is. But I’ll do whatever I can to help him do whatever it takes to mend the problems with the packs.
As we walk in through the wide double doors out front, the scent of cleaner hits my lungs. Someone has been scrubbing this place down. I wonder when it was last used. I want to ask Maddox when he was last here, but I don’t.
“Our room will be up the stairs to the left. I’ll take you, but then I have to meet with the commanders,” Maddox explains.
Nodding, I say, “Did you get any sleep at all?”
He shrugs. That means no.
I hear voices behind me, mostly Poppy whose voice echoes through the halls. “It’s a nice place,” she is saying.
“Nice? It’s hardly nice.” That would be my cousin, Antony. “I shouldn’t have come.”
Maddox whirls around. “You can go right back to the island for all I care, Commander Pepelos.”
Antony glares at the king. He feels entitled now that he has been made the ruler of Maatua. My brother steps between them. Ben says, “Let’s not fight. Alpha King Maddox, is there a phone here? I’d like to call and check on our parents.”
Maddox backs down only slightly before he nods and says, “In the Alpha’s quarters.”
Ben takes my arm. “I’ll find it. Come on, Isla. Let’s go call Mom.”
I go with my brother, letting Maddox get to what he needs to do. For the first time, I’m scared. What if someone came after our parents because they know about me?