Page 37 of The Wolf Queen’s Curse

“I really think we’ll be all right,” Julius says. “We have Kenric.”

Rufus jabs a finger in Julius’s face. “Don’t even—” A growl and a shake of his head, then he herds us to the door. “The train station in one hour. And it’d better be first class. I don’t travel in second, and I sure as hell don’t travel in third.”

THIRTEEN

“That went well,” Julius says once we’re away from the building.

“Exactly as planned?” I say to Bishop, one brow raised.

Julius lifts his hands. “I didn’t know either. Suspected, yes, but I’m happy to stay out of Bishop’s schemes if he needs me to pretend there isn’t one.”

“I didn’t count on it working,” Bishop says. “Despite what Rufus said, we could have arrived without an enforcer. Bringing one with an envoy isn’t required—it’s simply that protocol allows the Alpha to bring his enforcer without it being seen as a threat.”

I nod. “So Rufus is claiming it’s required as an excuse for coming along.”

“More as an excuse for protecting us. As you noticed, he really does struggle to accept that we’re grown men. He left the Pack shortly after his first transformation. He would have been eighteen or nineteen, Julius and I were seven and six.”

“You do want him for your enforcer then. Permanently.”

“I do. However, as you saw, it must be his idea. I can tell him the job is his, should he want it, but I can’t push.”

“It’s not a trap,” Julius says. “That’s Rufus blustering, as he is wont to do. Or, if there is a trap, it’s of his own making. He left the Pack. He tells himself he doesn’t want to be part of one. And yet…”

“He was in a sort of a pack,” I say. “With you and Bishop and your fathers.”

“Yes. And we’ve stayed in contact, knowing that eventually he would come around. But if we did the luring, he’d run the other way. For a very big and powerful wolf, Rufus is—at heart—a stray cat that really would rather not be a stray.”

I glance over. “But, according to Bishop, not a stray cat that fled abuse. It does seem odd that he wouldn’t have been considered for enforcer. He’s as big as Henry, younger, and seems less of a brute.”

“Definitely less of a brute. Also far more intelligent.”

“Henry saw Rufus as a threat, didn’t he?” I murmur, working it through. “Even if Rufus didn’t get Henry’s job, Henry was raising his son to inherit his post. But there’s Cousin Rufus, poised to shoulder either of them aside if he wants the job.”

Julius smiles over. “Exactly so. The older—and bigger—Rufus got, the more Henry saw him as a threat. Arthur’s reign was coming to an end, and Silas could choose a new enforcer. Henry was worried and so he made Rufus’s life hell. Silas could have stopped it. He should have stopped it—who wouldn’t want two wolves that size in their Pack?”

“But my father liked the idea of them fighting for the future position. He probably encouraged it. To him, it’d prove who was the best enforcer … but at the cost of one very valuable wolf. Shortsighted as always.”

Julius nods. “Rufus would have ignored Henry’s bullying if he’d had Silas’s support. But without it? That just proved Pack life wasn’t for him, and so he left.”

Bishop says, “I would very much like Rufus as my enforcer, but again, must be his choice, with minimal enticement from me and absolutely no sense that he owes us.”

“Or he’ll whine about that forever,” Julius says.

“Not whine, per se, but be very clear, to everyone who will listen, that he’s repaying a debt. I need an inner circle who choose to be there.”

We turn down another street.

“We need to talk about something else,” Bishop says. “As you saw, Julius allows me to plan in secret when I need him to act as if there is no plan. When he can seem honestly confused.”

“I am a terrible actor,” Julius says, leaning toward me. “Even when it comes to acting confused, which you would think comes naturally.”

Bishop and I both give him a hard look. Bishop might be the leader, but it’s not because he’s the smarter cousin. In fact, one might argue that Julius is the wiser of the pair, content to sit back and let Bishop lead while he reaps the benefits of being second-in-command.

I jest, of course. Both roles come with their risks, as they learned when Silas tried to punish Bishop by threatening Julius.

I wouldn’t even say that Bishop is the more ruthless cousin. Julius acts the part of the charming doctor, and he fully admits he doesn’t like to fight, but while he didn’t kill Henry, he had suggested doing it by “misjudging” his sedative dosage. It’d been Bishop who vetoed that plan. Pack wolves don’t kill their Pack brothers, and Bishop wouldn’t start his reign with murder.

No, the only real difference is that Bishop has the ambition that Julius lacks, which makes theirs the perfect partnership. I could be jealous, but instead, I view it as an example. Through Julius, I see what Bishop needs and also what he lacks, leaving a space for me to squeeze in.