I’m going to find the Adalwulf seeress. She’s the key. I know it.
I remind myself of her warning to me the last time I dreamed with her. The war is coming. You must decide which side you’re on.
What if she’s appearing in my dreams to seduce me to pledge fealty to her pack? She’s an Adalwulf, after all. They are a dark, twisted, devious lot.
But isn’t that what I wanted? My entire plan revolves around infiltrating the Adalwulf pack. That’s why I came to the city and worked so hard on my degree and all the credentials that would make me a great candidate for Adalwulf Associates.
Except they didn’t hire me, and now I work for their enemy, Brick Blackthroat. A twist of misgiving moves through me. I haven’t been taken into the Blackthroat pack, but they’re honorable. Brick is an admirable leader who has fought and overcome huge hurdles to hold his pack strong. Betraying them doesn’t feel right.
But I didn’t come to Manhattan to ingratiate myself with the Blackthroats.
I’m here to get in with the Adalwulfs. For revenge. For justice. And because they may still hold someone precious to me. Not Aster although something in me longs to protect her.
No. I’ve been working toward this purpose my entire life. I can’t let a growing loyalty to Brick Blackthroat and his pack thwart my designs. They aren’t my friends. They aren’t my pack. They are just people I work for.
I step outside and hit the pavement running, trying to ignore the knot of misgiving that wars with the unquenchable need to meet the Adalwulf’s new Seeress.
Chapter Three
Aster
The bulletproof limo pulls up in front of the Gem and Mineral Museum. Aiden had a designer send a dress, shoes, and bag up to my tower for the trip, along with a long white rabbit fur coat. While Oma had insisted on our living in austerity to keep our gifts pure, Aiden sees me as a representative of the pack. Today, I represent him and his interests. I have to look good.
I braided my hair into a wreath around my head, and teardrop moonstones dangle from my earlobes. They were a gift from Catherine Adalwulf when I turned sixteen. She’s the only person who ever remembered my birthday. I regret not being able to help her in the terrible position she was in. Her mate was a Blackthroat. She gave birth to Blackthroat pups and was hardly allowed to see them. And then Oma and Odin made her the instrument of her mate’s death. Her own pups’ father.
I can’t imagine anything worse than that fate.
I haven’t seen her since she defended her son’s mate from Odin’s assassins. She’s exiled now–a fate I’m sure she would’ve chosen for herself from the beginning.
Now that I’m Seeress, I hoped to steer the pack away from their feud with the Blackthroats. Away from the poison and hate and focus on tearing the Blackthroat pack down instead of building our pack up. Both sides have lost enough.
Of course, I haven’t voiced that opinion. I wouldn’t dare. But I plan to give them only the guidance that leads in that direction.
I plan to withhold any prophecies that support this war. It’s all I can do to steer this pack towards a better path.
But I failed to earn their satisfaction with my visions, and now I’ll be bound to the alpha.
I wonder if it will change me.
Did Oma become the hate-filled instrument of destruction through Odin’s dark power, or did her black heart infect him?
I wrinkle my nose. The air in the limo is tainted, probably from Vera’s aura. She accompanied me to the city, too, and was dropped off at her Manhattan apartment. We rode the whole way here with her staring at me, like she was watching me for the Warden. I ignored her. It was rude, but when I thought about being polite, my intuition whispered Rat, and I kept my mouth shut.
She’s gone now, but the oily taste of her aura still lingers.
Blech.
I wait for the driver to open my door and offer me a hand before I step out onto the sidewalk. I wobble a bit in the heels–I’m usually in bare feet at the keep. My trips to Manhattan are infrequent. From the time they moved me from the Moonborn lair to the Adalwulf’s Adirondack mansion to study with Oma, I’ve been to the city only a half-dozen times.
Today, I will get to go without Aiden or Oma breathing down my neck. Oh, I will certainly still be heavily guarded, but I’ll be my own woman. I’m the pack Seeress. The men will have to respect me and my wishes.
I resist the urge to look around and gawk at all the noise and activity around us. Instead, I hold up my head, making my neck long and regal as I click up the marble steps to the glass doors, following Otto, my handler, in.
“Ms. Adalwulf is here for the private viewing of the Tiara of Ix-Chel,” Otto tells the museum attendant.
“Ah, yes. I’ll let the director know. If you could just pass through security here.” She waves us toward the metal detectors.
Aiden’s security team looks like any human security team, except they don’t need to carry weapons. They are weapons. He chooses the largest and most ferocious young males the pack produces, and they all stand over six feet tall. They will shift and kill in an instant if Otto gives them the signal.
