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“A shapeshifter came through here tonight, pretending to be my father,” I informed her, watching her face for any shift.
She remained stoic and unwavering. “That’s awful, Alpha. You must have been very distressed. Where is he now?”
“Dead,” I lied. An unmistakable look of relief flashed over her face, and my gut twisted. It was all the confirmation I needed. Jamery hadn’t been lying. Odette had hired him. She was the mastermind behind it all.
“As he should be,” she said, nodding. “You don’t need a treacherous soul like that running amok through the kingdom.”
“No, indeed,” I agreed slowly, ambling toward her.
“Maybe he took Maren before you got to him,” she suggested.
I clenched my jaw. “I doubt that very much. I got him fairly quickly. He wouldn’t have had much time.”
“Maybe she took off again,” Odette suggested, drawing closer to me, her hands reaching up to adjust my collar. “With faeries like that, you never know what they’re going to do. I did try to warn you about her type.”
The rage was getting harder to suppress, but I knew I had to keep it together if I wanted to find out what Odette had done with my mate.
“I asked her to be my queen tonight,” I told her bluntly.
Odette’s hands fell to her side, her jaw dropping. “What?” Her façade faded fast.
“She wouldn’t just leave.”
Odette’s face crumbled entirely. “She didn’t tell me that,” she choked.
“No? I’m not surprised,” I hissed, drawing closer to her, my face directly in front of hers. “Seeing as you took her somewhere against her will.”
“I didn’t!” Odette denied indignantly. “You always think the worst of me, and I’m the best match for you out of anyone in the entire kingdom!”
Her proclamations shocked me, but they didn’t sway me in the least.
“Tell me where she is, Odette,” I snarled, grabbing her arm as my fangs shot out. “And she better be unharmed?—”
“Or what?” she fired back. “What will you do?”
My ire erupted, and I pounced on her, fully shifted, my teeth gnashing at her face. Odette screamed, holding up her hands to ward me off with magic, but I bit her fingers before she could react. More howls of desperation radiated throughout my office, streaks of red pouring down the floor and along the carpet to stain the rung.
“STOP! NYX, STOP!” she pleaded. “I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!” I allowed myself to morph back, knees squarely on her shoulders as she gasped and wheezed for breath. “You have to get me a healer! I’m dying!”
“You’re not yet,” I told her flatly. “But you will be. Where is Maren?”
Another shrill cry of anguish erupted from her mouth, but when I moved to shift back into my wolf form, she relented.
“She’s in the basement!” she bawled. “Now help me! I’m bleeding to death! I’m dying!”
Without speaking, I fully changed back into my wolf body and finished what I should have done the moment I first metOdette. I had never liked her, and now I would be rid of her forever.
Falling back on my haunches, I released a feral howl to shake the entire castle and let everyone in earshot feel my wrath and anger.
“Nyx, no!” Odette screamed as my snot bore down into her chest. They were the last words she ever spoke.
She drew her last breath as I bolted through the doors, still in my wolf body. Half the Royal Guards rushed toward me, their confusion palpable when they saw my blood-stained coat, but I didn’t stop to explain the situation to them as I flew toward the west wing.
“The enchantress is dead!” I heard one of them call out.
My paws pounded on the marble, then the older wood of the west wing, the drafty part of the castle slowing my gait.What will I find in the basement? What did Odette do to her?
I almost didn’t want to go down alone, lest I was met with a sight I would never recover from, but I didn’t stop, the need to save my mate overpowering everything else. I needed to find my lover and my child, regardless of the state they were in.
