Evander
I normally don’t go on runs on bright, sunny days like this, but the swatch of forest beyond the city center is a shaded, welcome relief from the glaring heat as I sprint back into the neutral zone in my fox form.
It’s been ages since I was able to shift into my fox. I can’t do this often in Eastonia. Only me and my mom are foxes. There’s none of us left, from what I understand. My three brothers and two sisters don’t carry the ability, which would have shown up in their early childhood.
Foxes can shift from birth. At least, that’s what Mom assumes. I could shift from the age of two. My wolf abilities came later, in my late teens, like most wolf shifters. I guess having the ability to shift into either form is even rarer than being a fox.
I dart through the trees and across the first paved road I’ve come across for miles. The city rises just down the road, the first gates leading into neighboring pack territories coming into view.
While it’s common to see wolves running here and there all over the city, a fox is another story. I’m sure there are other foxes around–wild ones, not shifters. But one this close to the city?
I’m better off shifting into my wolf form now but decide against it, needing to stretch these powers I normally keep buried deep, deep down.
I edge along a fence that runs along the boundary of the Silverhide until I reach the outskirts of the neutral zone, which is a small neighborhood that borders four packs. A few shops teem with people as I cut through an alleyway. The coffee shop across from my apartment is particularly popular, which is working against me as I debate my next move.
I can’t run out into the open as a fox and dart into the apartment building unseen.
I look up at the fire escape, and the window into the apartment I left open for this purpose, and wait for a group of people to pass on the sidewalk before leaping up, my claws catching on the first rung of the ladder hanging several feet above the ground.
Within a few seconds, I’m four stories off the ground and squeezing through the window.
When I hit the floor, I’m back in my human form, panting, covered in sweat and feeling better than I have in days. Maybe weeks, if I’m being honest.
I shake out my aching, tired muscles and walk into the bathroom to shower, my mind blissfully clear and empty. I needed this today. I needed this emptiness to prepare for tonight.
Another night spent watching Kenna from afar.
The thought of her springs through my head before I can shake it away. I imagine her turning to face me, a book in her lap, her hair falling in soft curls over her shoulders. She smiles at me, and it guts me. I missed her sixteenth birthday, and she had no idea I was coming back to Moonrise to see her, to give her a present I found in Tarsian. A present I carried with me all the way back home.
I can still feel the cool touch of the necklace made from beads of polished turquoise and lapis lupus in my pocket. I can still feel the gut punch the moment I stepped into the shade of the awning she was sitting beneath while reading, and her scent hit me–no, stop. I won’t think about it.
Not today, not ever.
I’m just pulling on a pair of pants when a sharp knock sounds on my door. I freeze.
No one knows I’m here other than General Howard and maybe the Alpha King. Neither would be visiting me. I’m just a grunt, a tool to be used. I’d be summoned if they needed me.
I slowly straighten up, grabbing a shirt off my bed and walking carefully toward the door.
Another knock as I lean toward the door, careful to not make a single sound.
“I know you’re in there, Ev.”
I chew my lower lip and close my eyes, cursing silently as I open the door a crack.
Sydney, the Alpha of Shadowcrest and the Prince of Crescent Falls, smiles smugly at me, clutching two iced coffees.
“Are you going to invite me in?”
“How did you know where to find me?”
“I didn’t. I just happened to be visiting the coffee shop that just opened across the street and saw a fox dangling from a fire escape.” He winks at me, stepping inside uninvited. “Nice digs. Let me guess, this is included in whatever operation you’re performing in my kingdom?”
“Your dad’skingdom,” I correct, closing the door behind him with a hint of annoyance flowing through each word. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to ask you the same thing. I figured you weren’t here to pay old family friends a visit.”
I pull on my shirt, smoothing it over my chest. My skin is already sticky and hot from the unforgiving heat beating down on Crescent Falls today. “What if I am?”
Sydney hands me an iced coffee, his stormy blue eyes locking on my own. “As prince, and heir to my father’s title, I’m privy to more information than you realize. It didn’t take a lot of effort to find out the Ghosts are in town and that there’s a rebel threat. But you weren't listed as active on the mission that took place three nights ago, the mission that took out that illegal breeder auction, which makes me wonder why, exactly, you’re here, and not staying in the warehouse across town where your comrades are hiding in plain sight.”
“I prefer AC,” I grin.
Sydney narrows his eyes.
I slowly bring the coffee to my lips, sipping dramatically from the straw.
“Why are you–”
“Princess Kenna,” I cut in, smiling at the way he bristles. “I’m here to guard Kenna, privately.”
“You could have just said that,” he grumbles, turning to get a better look at the single bedroom apartment. He sits on the couch and stretches out his legs, crossing his ankles on the coffee table. “Does she know?”
“Of course not.” I sit in a chair across from him, thankful for the cold coffee now chilling my veins. “She won’t know about this either.”
“So you’re spying on her.” He jabs a thumb toward the window. “You have a view of Silverhide, I see.”
“This wasn’t up to me at all.”
He leans back, looking remarkably casual despite his smart, freshly ironed white dress shirt and black slacks.
Sydney has always been all business. He’s my favorite of the twins. But he’s also sharp, cunning, and slightly manipulative.
Just like me–which is why we’ve been friends for so long.
It’s also why, now that we’re older and hardened, that we know better than to fully trust each other.
“I haven’t seen your face in years. I thought I was seeing a ghost in the temple,” he murmurs. “I guess I was, actually.”
“I don’t get holidays off, Syd.”
“No, I imagine you don’t.” He looks around again, taking in the sparse furnishings. “How long are you in town?”
“However long Kenna remains in Crescent Falls, I assume.”
“So that's it? You’re just going where she goes?”
“If she’s out in public, yes. I don’t have jurisdiction in Silverhide or the castle where your parents live, obviously. She has more than enough protection when she’s with the family.”
Sydney nods. “Whose idea was this?”
“Alpha King Ryatt, and your dad, I imagine.”
“This has to do with the kidnapping threat.” Sydney looks down at his coffee for a moment, lost in thought.
“That is a rumor, not a confirmed threat.”
“How much do you know about the rebel situation?”
“Very little, honestly.”
He grinds his teeth before exhaling deeply. “So, that’s it? You’re just here to follow Kenna around while she looks for her mate?” There’s an edge to his voice I hadn’t expected.
I lean forward, my mouth quirking into a smile. “You’re not happy about it, either.”
“It’s a fucking stupid idea. Coming here to party and spend a summer with her family, fine. Sure. Coming here to find her mate when she can’t–” he cuts himself off, shaking his head. “She’s vulnerable out there in the festival, which you know, based on what you saw at the ball two nights ago. The first Alpha she came across happens to be a rival, and he’s already started running his mouth about the fact the Royal Princess of Eastonia is here looking for a husband, and now I have every Alpha and Beta from here to Celestoria blowing up my phone asking for an introduction.”
My blood boils, but I ignore it, asking, “And you’re mad about that? This is what she wanted. Now she has options.”
“She might have options, but these men aren’t interested in meeting her because of herbut because of the fact she will one day be queen of an entire kingdom. They only care about her status and future influence. Not Kenna. You know her, Evander. She’s not like us.”
There’s so much fire in his voice. Syd is the kind of guy who was born an Alpha. That kind of dominance radiates off him as he straightens up a bit and continues, “She leads with her heart, not her head. She’s too Goddess-damned nice and has always been taken advantage of for it. I’ve never seen her use her powers besides lighting the occasional candle from across the room. She is prey out there at the festival, and she refuses to acknowledge the position she’s putting herself in.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
Sydney eyes me skeptically. “Did you have anything to do with the Alpha of Emerald Shore’s assault?”
“Of course I did.”
He smiles softly, shaking his head. “Markus has been telling everyone who will listen that Ryan and I had him jumped. I’m sure my dad is ripping into Ryan right now about it. I’m supposed to be there.”
“But you’re here instead.”
“I needed to get my facts straight before confronting my father about the fact the Ghosts are in Crescent Falls, and especially why one was keeping tabs on my cousin.”
I shake my head. “No one can know. You’re not supposed to know.”
“I knew something was up the second I saw you barreling in Kenna’s direction at the ball.”
“That Alpha had his hands on her,” I growl. “That was just business. I was doing my job–”
“He might’ve been the first, but he won’t be the last to try to put himself in her way. And the look in your eyes… no, that wasn’t just business.”
I stare at Sydney. Sydney the Alpha, the heir, my old childhood friend. He knew me back when Kenna and I were close. He knew, judging by the look on his face right now, that my feelings for Kenna went beyond friendship from an early age.
He also knows there’s nothing I can do about it.
I am a Beta’s son.
She is the future queen.
“I’ve known you my entire life. You’ve always been so protective over my cousin. You kicked Ryan’s ass once for pushing her in the waves when we were all in Maatua together–”
“What are you trying to say?” I stand, towering over him.
Sydney remains seated, smirking. “Kenna won’t tell us what happened, but I know something changed between the two of you. Anytime I mention your name, she clams up. Practically curls into herself like she’d rather think about anything else but you. Why?”
“That’s between me and Kenna.”
“Fine.” I grit my teeth as he rises, tucking a hand in his back pocket.
“You might have blown my cover by coming here. Thanks for that.”
“It’s a shitty apartment. I can get you closer to Kenna. Ryan can put you up in a house in Silverhide.”
“This is close enough.”
His eyes flick to mine, narrowing into cat-like slits.
He knows. It’s obvious in the way his nostrils flare, trying to pick up my scent. Some people have that uncanny ability to scent a mate bond on others.
“Kenna can’t feel the bond. She thinks it’s because her magic overpowers her wolf. Do you think that’s true?”
“Possibly. It isn’t stopping her from trying to find her mate, though.”
“Do you think she’ll find him?” he asks, and I know it’s a trap. He’s trying to bait me into telling him what I assume he already knows, or at least suspects.
So, I give him the only answer I can. “No, she won’t. But perhaps she’ll find something close enough, and I can get on with my life.”
Sydney nods, but his eyes don’t leave mine as he raises his coffee and sips. “I’ll see you tonight, then?”
“You won’t see me, but I’ll be at the ball.”
“It’s a masquerade. Wear a mask if you want to blend in.”
With that, Alpha Sydney leaves my apartment.