“You don't need to worry,” she assures me. “We have it under control.”
I'm not so sure. It doesn’t sound like she believes herself.
~
Wynn
I step out of the training barracks and stumble to a halt. Leaning against the wall, I drag in a breath, but the vice around my chest only tightens.
That conversation gutted me. Not because Adelaide doubted me—quite the opposite.
You'd never betray your pack. Even when you disagree, you're loyal.
Adelaide trusts me more than I deserve. She's my cousin, my Alpha, and I'm lying straight to her face. I was naive to think she’d escape the blame, foolish to believe this wouldn’t rattle her. I wanted to bear the responsibility for Marlow on my own but my family is facing the consequences anyway.
And what am I doing? Sharing beds and playing house with a fugitive. Worse, I'm enjoying every second. The way his smirks keep turning into smiles these days. How he strokes my hair when he thinks I'm asleep. How I’m getting used to waking up with a gargoyle nestled between us.
I'm falling for him and it's going to destroy everything. For fuck’s sake, we still haven’t even confirmed whether we’re truly mates.
When I open my eyes, I immediately do a double take. “Iggy?” I hiss. He’s right there, out in the open.
The tiny gargoyle floats lazily over a vibrant flower bed, drifting down to sniff the blooms. If the rocky creature were nestled in between the flowers, he'd be easily mistaken for a lawn decoration. But flying above them, wings flapping, he isn't fooling anybody.
A surge of panic shoots through me. “What are you doing?”
"You needed backup," the gargoyle replies.
A mini gargoyle stopping to smell the flowers in the middle of a wolf pack's territory isn't a normal occurrence. People can't start asking questions.
"Iggy, you gotta hide, they’ll see—"
A pack member exits the training barracks, a burly guy with red hair. Iggy darts away, flying in front of the man, waving his stubby little arms and flitting around his head.
"Hello, how are you? Yoohoo, over here!" Iggy calls out, flipping and twisting in the air. "Hey there! You can't see me but I'm fabulous!"
The pack member doesn't even glance in Iggy's direction. He simply strides past, completely oblivious to the tiny gargoyle's antics. Iggy zips back over to me, landing on my shoulder with a satisfied huff.
Oh right. No need to panic. Iggy’s presence is invisible to everyone else.
“Did Marlow send you?” I ask.
Iggy falls silent. At first I think he doesn’t want to answer. Then he pounds on my shoulder with his fists. Oof. He’s only trying to get my attention, but he might leave a mark.
“Over there! I sense something. Something close.”
Iggy points and leads me around behind the barracks. I follow, cautiously peeking around the corner. The low murmur of voices reaches me. Adelaide’s standing behind the building. She’s with a short man dressed all in black, eyes darting around wildly, and he screams “up to no good.” I don’t recognize him.
"You're sure this will work?" my cousin asks.
"—Exactly what you asked for.”
“Better be, for the price.”
“Underworld merchandise isn’t common. Necromancers—”
Snippets of their conversation reach me. I could pick up more if I tried, but it’s hard to focus. What the hell?
Adelaide reaches into her pocket and pulls out several bills. In return, the shady guy produces a small velvet bag from inside his jacket. They make the exchange and then he’s gone, heading in the opposite direction from where we're hiding, disappearing back into the shadows where he came from.
