Sydney
Guests are arriving–extended family I haven’t seen in years–when I meet back up with Ryan and Sarah on the second floor landing. I wave down to my great uncle Ben and his mate, Emery, the long-standing Alpha of Obsidian temple. Some of my grandma’s other siblings are here, too, bringing their mates, children, and grandchildren along. I realize why Mom insisted on setting up several long tables in the ballroom. There’s at least fifty people here.
This isn’t going to be a typical family gathering. Not at all. And now, looking at my mate, who has gone so pale I’m wondering if she’s about to faint and fall down the stairs, I’m rethinking our means of sharing our news.
I hold her steady as we linger at the top of the steps with Ryan.
I missed whatever meeting Dad and Ryatt were having. I walked in right as they were preparing to go down to dinner. I formally pulled myself off the Sasha investigation, obviously, so I’m technically no longer included in these talks.
Still, as an Alpha, I feel like I have the right to know what’s going on.
Especially since this affects me and my family–Sarah and Blake–directly.
There is one thing I have to do before this night moves forward, and it can’t wait.
I pass Blake to Sarah. “I need to talk to my dad for a minute. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
She nods, looking nervous, but Kenna and Evander appear in the hallway leading to the landing, and some of those nerves disappear from Sarah’s eyes.
Kenna ropes her arm around Sarah’s, beaming, and leads her downstairs while I hang back with Ryan and Evander for a moment.
My brother looks withdrawn, and Evander looks exhausted.
“I need another drink,” Ryan says heavily and starts down the stairs.
“You look like you could use one, too. Whiskey?” Evander asks me, but I shake my head.
Mom passes us, smiling down at the arriving guests. I see Ella out of the corner of my eye. She and Ryatt must have taken one of the servants' staircases, probably out of the need for a moment to confer privately. Ella looks radiant in an emerald green gown in the ethereal style of Eastonia, her long, dark brown hair falling down to her waist as her hand rests in the crook of Ryatt’s elbow.
Ryatt looks up at me and nods. I nod back. I should probably apologize to him.
Later, I think.
My eyes slide back to Ella when she turns her head toward the entrance of the ballroom. Sarah is standing with Kenna, talking to my mom. Mom reaches for Blake, and Sarah smiles as she places him in her arms.
Ella is watching Sarah, her back suddenly rigid. I watch Kenna slowly meet her mother’s gaze and discreetly shake her head.
“Fuck,” I whisper, mostly to myself, but Evander is watching it play out as well.
“Go talk to your father. I’ll handle this.” He walks down the stairs in a flash of dark blond hair. The black fabric of his suit seems to absorb the light raining down from the chandelier.
A slight pang of pain echoes through my left temple as I turn from the railing and make my way toward my dad’s office for a second time this evening, finding him still seated at his desk.
I close the door behind me. He looks up, his eyes lined with fatigue. “Good. I needed to speak to you before dinner tonight. I promised not to ruin your mom’s evening.”
I lean against the door. “This is about Gabriel, I’m guessing, since I wasn’t privy to the meeting that took place just before we were told to arrive?”
“We have evidence that Sasha is alive. You were wrong about the grave.”
My blood starts to pound through my ears. “You dug it up?”
“No,” he says steadily. I sit on the couch across from his desk. Red leather. It’s been here since before I was born. I used to sit here doing homework while he worked. Now, I feel like the room is caving in on me as he pushes a folder across his desk. I open it, finding pictures of devastation.
“How could something like that have happened?” I ask, flipping through pictures of what once was the temple on Mononoke Island. It’s gone now, reduced to ashes. The house Sarah lived in as a child is nothing but smoldering embers. Several graves, those of her house mother and the woman’s mate, have been dug up with their coffins shattered.
Sasha’s grave. The headstone is cracked like someone took a pickaxe to it, and a wide area has been dug up, the shadow of the hole left behind stretching several feet down.
I flip to the last picture. The bartender, the man who’d directed me and Ryan to the temple, lays face down in the middle of the street, dead. I narrow my eyes as I look closer and see what looks like a brand on his back, burned through his shirt. A snake in the shape of an eight.
That symbol floods my head, and the pain in my temple skyrockets. A vague, fractured memory splits my mind in two as I grip the folder.
I’d lost consciousness several times when Evander and I were being tortured by Gabriel. I remember being dragged, half lucid, from our cell into another room that was blazingly hot. On the ceiling, that symbol had been painted in red. That’s the room where I tried to shift and shattered my legs, which were in chains.
It took all of the strength I had left to heal my bones with my own powers in the hours before Kenna arrived.
I close my eyes and put the folder on the desk.
“I know she’s not dead.” I meet my dad’s gaze. “But she’s as good as dead, Dad.”
He eyes me, scanning my face. Behind the mask of icy emotions he wears, I can see glimmers of concern behind his eyes.
“She needs to remain missing. Presumed dead. Please.”
“What are you not telling me?” His eyes roil with mingled confusion, concern, and maybe a bit of heartbreak.
He fucking knows.
“I found my mate. She’s downstairs, with my son. Our son.” I rise from the couch. “I wanted to talk to you privately about it first, of course, to go over the logistics of Sarah moving into this new role in not only our family, but this kingdom, as a princess and heir to Mom’s position, but none of that matters right now.” I meet his eyes.
He slowly stands. Dad’s not stupid. He can read behind the lines etched in every word that leaves my lips.
“My only prerogative is keeping my family safe. I will do whatever needs to be done in order to ensure my mate and son is safe and by my side.”
Dad rounds his desk and comes to a stop near the door. “This changes everything about this mission.”
“This mission ended the day I found her and my son starving and nearly frozen to death,” I rasp. “You can’t stand here and tell me this woman is capable of the crimes the Allied Kingdoms want her tried against. She was a child, Dad.”
“Who knows?” he asks, his voice dropping, softening, as he stares at his shoes in thought. “Who knows that you’re mated to Sasha.” His eyes rise to meet mine, but to my surprise, there’s no ice in his expression.
“Kenna, Evander, and Ryan. As well as my staff at the manor. That’s it. And Ella. I have a feeling she’d find out just by looking in Sarah’s direction.”
“This isn’t just about me, you know. Ella and Ryatt have the right to interrogate her–”
“She is my mate, and I will not allow it.”
“Spoken like a true mate. If your mother was in a similar position, I’d feel the same way. I’d be making the same choices. But you didn’t have to keep this from me.”
“What’s going to happen to her?”
Dad crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the wall. “We need her to get to Gabriel. If he’s putting together another coven somehow, we need to stop it before it grows out of proportion. Ryatt and Ella can’t have another war on their hands after what happened last summer. Things in Eastonia are already precarious enough after the attack in Moonrise.”
“You’re saying you want to use her as bait?”
“It shouldn’t have to come to that.”
“Whatever this comes to,” I say, edging a step toward him, “I need you to promise me something. Gabriel is mine. I decide what happens to him if he’s caught, but when we know where he is, it’ll be me going in and ending this fucking nightmare. I have a score to settle with him. He is mine.”
“You have my word,” he says quietly, his eyes meeting mine.
Silence settles between us, thick and uncomfortable. I wouldn’t say there’s a rift between my dad and me, but the moment I became an Alpha, our relationship changed. I am his heir. I’ll be standing in this office one day calling it my own.
He’s always been harder on me because of it.
“Your mother told me about Blake already. I’m sure most of the family knows.”
I blow out my breath, fighting the dull ache still hammering away at my skull. “I had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret.”
Dad straightens a bit, his mouth ticking into the ghost of a smile. I don’t flinch when he steps forward and places a hand on my shoulder.
“Congratulations,” he says, squeezing my shoulder. Pride shines behind his eyes, which confuses me a bit.
But I can’t question him about what’s going through his head right now because the door to his office opens, and Mom steps inside holding Blake, who is fast asleep on her shoulder, his cheeks smudged with several different shades of lipstick.
“What are you two still doing up here? Dinner is on the table!” she hisses, patting Blake’s back as he drools on her dress. Dad turns to her and smiles like I’ve never seen him smile before. It’s so loving–and so private.
It’s the same kind of smile I have on my face when I watch Sarah rocking our son to sleep. It’s a smile shared solely between mates.
Mom looks between us, her eyes going glassy.
I promptly tear myself from the room, leaving them with their grandson.
I hear their soft voices down the hallway. Dad’s surprise, mom’s relief and excitement, a sweet, tender moment they’re sharing as parents, now grandparents.
Ryan was right about Blake being a perfect buffer.
I jog down the stairs and turn into the ballroom, sweeping my gaze over the tables full of my family members.
Ryan catches my eye first. He’s sitting with Evander and Kenna, and Sarah is smooshed between Kenna and Misty. Misty leans into her, showing Sarah something on her phone.
Misty always wanted a sister. She got stuck with us instead. At least I can give her Sarah.
I start walking through the ballroom, saying hello to extended family. When I finally reach Sarah’s side, Mom and Dad have entered the ballroom, and Mom shows no signs of giving Blake back. She shows him off, and I’ve never seen her look so happy.
Ryan and I exchange a glance.
I place my hand on Sarah’s shoulder and squeeze.
“Can I have your attention, please. I need to make an announcement,” I say, my voice booming over the mingled conversations sending a buzz throughout the room.