Evander
The moon is still high in the sky when the first blacked out SUV pulls out of the driveway moving toward the security gate. Princess Misty is inside the vehicle with her suitcases. I didn’t watch the heated exchange she had with her parents. I could hear it, though. The Princess of Crescent Falls is not happy she’s being sent away for the summer.
I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the hood of a similar SUV, checking my watch. It’s 4:00 in the morning. Kenna and I will set out for the port in twenty minutes, taking a different route than Misty and the Ghosts assigned to escort her to Maatua.
Royal warriors in their wolf forms move through the surrounding woods like shadows, searching for threats.
I check my watch again. Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes until I’m stuck in a car with Kenna, alone–for two hours, if I respect the speed limit.
I roll my lower lip between my teeth and let it go with a pop, then straighten and whirl toward the footsteps sounding behind me in the dark.
“Jumpy this morning,” Flynn drawls, cracking his knuckles. “I was trying to walk as heavily as I could to let you know I was coming up on ya’.” He kicks a pebble across the cement before coming to a stop at my side.
“What are you doing here?”
“I got reassigned,” he sighs, giving me a shrug.
“To what, exactly?”
“Reassigned to you. I’m your backup on this little road trip.”
I eye him skeptically. “On whose orders?”
“Commander fucking Artyom,” he grunts. “Howard practically dragged me out of bed an hour ago–panicked. This is a pretty big operation now. We’ve got Ghosts coming in from Eastonia to relieve us of our current mission in Crescent Falls while our unit returns to Eastonia to do the gods know what.”
This is odd. Normally, only a few Ghosts have feet on the ground in one place while the others remain scattered across the Roguelands with other warrior units in the various packs. Never in the history of the Ghosts has the entire fleet been dispatched at once.
Flynn nods to himself, meeting my eyes. “If you’re thinking this is madness, you’re right. I don’t know what’s going on yet, but everyone’s been called to action. From what I heard while spying on Howard through his mind-link with Commander Artyom, Alpha King Ryatt has called on his commanders in Eastonia to start preparing for war. The King and Queen of Eastonia are closing the borders, putting up wards.” Flynn's special little gift of penetrating through the veiled walls of the mind-link certainly comes in handy in moments like this.
“War?” I turn to Flynn. “With the rebels…. How many are there to constitute this many–”
Footsteps break over the cement–light and hurried. I turn to find Kenna hustling toward me, her eyes downcast on her pair of pearly white sneakers.
I hate her outfit. She looks like any other woman in Crescent Falls dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt, her hair tied in a bun on the very top of her head.
When she’s dressed in the vibrant, silken fashions of Eastonia, she’s… magnificent.
Flynn nudges me hard, smirking down the mind-link, ‘You’re blushing, dude.’
‘Shut the fuck up and get in the car.’
I move toward Kenna, snatching the suitcase out of her hand. It’s lighter than expected as I toss it in the back and open the door for her. She climbs into the back seat without a word.
I start the car, my hands curling around the steering wheel. Flynn gets in the passenger seat and immediately turns on the radio. I shut it off again without a word.
I wait for Agent Connor, who is stationed in his wolf form a few miles ahead of us, to give me the green light through the mind-link.
Flynn turns in his seat to look at Kenna, smiling. “How’s it going, Princess?”
“Uhm, it’s going about as good as you’d expect. How are you?” Her voice is kind and gentle, and I know she means every word. Kenna is the type of person who actually cares when asking how someone is doing.
Flynn arches a brow. “I’d rather be sleeping than be stuck in the car with his asshole all morning, but what can you do?” He winks at Kenna, and she grins, her cheeks going a little pink.
I grind my teeth and hit the pedal, lurching us forward.
Flynn, who hasn’t buckled his seatbelt, hits the dash with a crunch and mumbles a colorful curse under his breath.
“Sorry,” I say dryly. “I don’t get to drive these often.”
He glares as he buckles his seatbelt, but through the rearview mirror I see Kenna smiling down at her lap, biting her lip….
I look back at the road just as Connor’s voice rumbles through my head, ‘You’re green.’
We pull away from the castle, taking a back road that weaves through the royal family’s private land for several miles. I clock each wolf we pass, taking stock of how many warriors the king has patrolling the grounds. It’s a quiet, thirty minute drive through a dense forest along a dirt road before we finally reach pavement again.
The city stretches before us in the distance, a soft electric glow against the millions of stars overhead. The first ferry of the day is set to leave at 6:00 A.M., an hour and a half from now.
“Repeat the plan to me,” I say to Flynn, the first time any of us have spoken since we left the castle. I glance in the rearview mirror, watching Kenna stare absently out the window looking withdrawn and… sad.
I bite back what I want to say to her. That I’m sorry this is happening. That I’m sorry she didn’t get what she came here for.
“The first scheduled ferry of the day leaves the Port of Crescent Falls at 6:00 A.M. Princess Misty of Crescent Falls will board at exactly 5:45, and we have a fifteen minute window to get Princess Kenna aboard before the ferry leaves the port. The ferry will leave on schedule, no exceptions. The only other passengers are warriors in plain clothes. Once aboard, the princesses will be secured in the cockpit for the duration of the trip to the Island of Weatherby, a roughly six hour journey. From there, they will board a royal vessel under the flag of Maatua and be escorted by ship for another twenty-seven hours, approximately.”
I nod. Weatherby is a small island territory of roughly two-hundred people. The princesses won’t be stepping foot on the island, however. They will be going from one boat to the other.
“Once in Maatua,” Flynn continues with a jaw cracking yawn, “Agent Evander and Princess Kenna will meet up with Alpha King Ryatt and be escorted to Veiled Valley, via jump. Princess Misty will remain in Maatua under the guard of the Ghosts until further notice.”
Another glance into the backseat. I notice Kenna listening intently to every word Flynn says. Her eyes shimmer in the darkness as we turn off the pavement onto another dirt road, purposefully taking a longer, more rural route to the port. Trees hug either side of the road, leading us deep into a forest. Her view of the city vanishes, and that shred of hope in her eyes does as well.
“What will you do when you reach Veiled Valley?” Flynn asks a moment later.
I ease my death grip on the steering wheel. “Stay there.”
Flynn furrows his brow. “What?”
“My contract with the Ghosts runs out in a month and a half. I got the order from Commander Artyom this morning that they’re waving those last weeks of service. Once I set foot in Veiled Valley, I am the Beta.” My words ring over the engine like a death knell.
Kenna heaves a breath but stays silent.
She knows that once we arrive, all of this is over. She will become Luna, and I will rule by her side as her unwilling second.
And we’ll both be miserable–together.
Flynn twists in his seat to look at Kenna. I want to smack him, but the mind-link steals my attention as Connor’s voice echoes through my head. ‘Rat in the nest–’ he cuts off, and I grip the steering wheel again.
“Kenna, are you buckled?” I ask.
Surprised, she meets my eyes in the mirror and nods.
An uneasy feeling settles around us. Suddenly, the lone, unlit dirt road feels too silent, too wide open despite the trees choking the easements on either side. Flynn senses something too as he twists to look out his window and slowly pulls a pair of black gloves out of the front pocket of his jeans.
‘Connor–’
‘I heard him. We’re being followed.’
Behind us, shadows drift in the dark–three large, swiftly moving shadows.
“How close are we to the port?” Flynn asks as he carefully puts on his gloves. He curls his fingers, testing the fabric.
“Thirty-five minutes,” I say, keeping my eyes split between the road and the shadows catching up to us in the rearview mirror. “Kenna, unbuckle your seatbelt and lie down flat in the backseat.”
“Why?”
“Do it.”
She swallows with effort and obeys my command, lying as flat as she can.
I sit up a little straighter as the shadows edge closer. Three large trucks come into view, their lights shut off as they move through the darkness. I press down on the gas, slowly accelerating.
“Get in contact with the caravan transporting Princess Misty,” I tell Flynn. I’m not making any sudden moves, not yet. Not with Kenna in the car.
A wolf runs out in the middle of the road ahead of us, caught in the glare of the headlights. Stark gray against the amber glow, its head snaps in my direction.
“Princess Misty just boarded the ferry.”
“Tell them to pull up the anchor.”
“We won’t make it in time–”
“Tell them to pull up the anchor and get away from the port!” I shout, knowing full well that Kenna can hear every word I’m saying. Her fear radiates down the bond and rips into my chest.
The wolf in the headlights turns to face us fully as we gain ground. The trucks continue to close in, and now we’re surrounded on all sides as wolves sprint out of the shadowed woods.
“Now,” I growl, and Flynn opens his door, disappearing into shreds of plain clothes as his wolf leaps into the night, his gloves turning to obsidian, scaled armor that covers almost every inch of his lean, powerful body. He blends into the darkness immediately, disappearing from view. The car door slams shut on its own accord.
Somewhere behind me, Kenna lets out a choked breath.
More wolves are coming out of the woods and running alongside the car.
I reach back with one hand and grab Kenna’s shirt. In one swift motion, I haul her between the gap in the front seats and deposit her where Flynn was just sitting.
She yelps, surprised, when I reach across her and grab her seatbelt, locking it in place. The last thing I need is for her to fly through the windshield when I hit the wolf still standing in the center of the road.
I’m really lying on the gas now. The pedal reaches the floor, and the engine whirs, filling the car with so much noise it drowns out Kenna’s desperate protests to watch out, to stop.
With one hand on the wheel, I cover her eyes.
The wolf is a second too late. He should have known I wasn’t going to stop.
A ball of gray fur flies over the top of the SUV, but I keep going, the trucks behind us gaining ground.
In the distance, I spot a trail into the woods. It’s going to be tight, but the SUV will fit– I hope. I honestly don’t know, but I don’t have time to ponder the logistics of it as I yank on the steering wheel and send us bounding into the woods.
“Evander!” Kenna shrieks, gripping my arm for dear life as I keep it clasped over her chest, pinning her to the seat. We fly over bumps and uneven ground, and behind us the trucks are still following, turning on their headlights to guide them down the trail.
“Hold on,” I grunt, yanking on the wheel again. We make a sharp turn between two trees. Metal grinds and splinters as the side mirrors shatter and disappear behind the vehicle.
I cut the lights, driving blind through the woods, dodging trees and rocks. The trucks are still following me but losing speed as they try to navigate the path I’m carving. I edge against an embankment that stretches into complete, rocky darkness.
A flash of light in the rear view mirror catches my attention as one of the trucks hits the truck beside it, sending it barreling into the rocky abyss.
I take another sharp turn and speed back out onto the main road. We have a flat tire and something is dragging on the road beneath us, but I still have speed and power.
“Evander, please!” Kenna pants, her nails digging into my arm. “At least drive with both hands on the wheel.”
“What’s the fun in that,” I smirk, and we look at each other.
We look into each other’s eyes for the first time in five years.
I open my mouth like I have something to say, but then headlights through her window tear the unspoken words from my lips.
A truck smashes into Kenna’s side of the car.