AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Adrien’s attempts to track down Lukas and the witches had also been unsuccessful. The deeper into the prison he went, the greater the guard’s presence became, too much so for him not to end up caught.
Walking to the Golden Avenue through his favorite palm-shrouded paths on the outskirts of the city would’ve usually helped him clear his head, but he’d been running so late that the only option had been driving. He didn’t hate it, but he much preferred being outside. As he drove through the narrow, main streets, doing his best not to hit anyone on the crowded avenues, eventually, he was noticed and needed to go through his typical routine of waves and smiles—like the world wasn’t falling apart around them.
When he arrived at the White Rose, before he met his father, Adrien glanced at his forearm where Raana’s shadow had curled at the bend of his cuffed sleeve. At times, during the past few days, he’d found himself speaking to it as if, somehow, the message would travel.
Did you really do it?
Are you okay?
Just say anything.
All he was ever met with was silence, and before he’d drift off to sleep, he swore sometimes he’d feel the shadow beat.
To avoid the busy brunch crowd in the hull of the establishment, Adrien took the steps two at a time to climb to the private rooftop patio. A balmy breeze swept by as he reached it and took a moment to appreciate the view. Valkeric’s distant red stone had been exceptionally vivid in the afternoon sunlight, complemented by the occasional sprout of autumn-colored leaves along the streets below. From here, the territory felt so vast yet overshadowed by those mountains. It wasn’t cradled as it had felt in Mavec but entirely lorded over.
About twenty sturdy, metal-worked table and chair sets lay across the deck, all empty except one, and seated at it was a singular man.
Though his father’s back was turned, Adrien felt his heart rate hike up.
One may have considered it a risk, not having a vantage of the entrance, especially when his father was without guards up here, but Adrien knew no one had a chance at catching the Alpha unaware. If not for his father’s keen senses, Adrien’s shadow casting across the patio’s russet stone floor would portray his presence. An assailant’s bravado inassumingthey could get the jump on him would’ve likely been their undoing.
As he closed the distance between them, Adrien felt the phantom dig of his father’s claws into his own neck. They hadn’t spoken in over a week, his father hadn’t seenhimin a week’s time, and Adrien had betrayed him, but—
His only heir.That was Adrien’s saving grace.
Adrien noticed the third place setting and a bouquet of blush roses, his mother’s favorite flowers, perched before the seat beside his father’s. He hadn’t meant to sigh in relief at all, let alone as audibly as he had.
Still, Cassius didn’t move, even as Adrien’s shadow loomed just beside him. From the trajectory of the sunlight, sure, but he’d also believe his father’s aura chased it away.
Were they celebrating something? That would’ve explained the flowers…unless his father was just being nice, which may have been the truth when it came to his mother.
Slowly, he moved around the circular table until he reached one of the other vacant chairs—right across from his father.
Cassius’s eyes, at last, slid up to meet his.
Rather than pools of darkness, the sunlight brought out the mahogany of his irises, and somehow, it helped his father seem more…merciful. Adrien bowed his head, ensuring his voice was steady. “Alpha.”
Cassius, to Adrien’s surprise, wordlessly dipped his back.
Then he went back to the newspaper in his hands.
So, they were just going to sit here in silence? What were they, children?
Adrien didn’t ask—may even have been afraid to—at least, it wasn’t what he wanted the first words he said to his father to be.
The metal of the white-painted chair was cool in his hand as he jerked it back, eliciting a grating screech against the stone. He sat, the cushion beneath and behind him shockingly plush, as he waited for one heart-skipping moment for his father to lunge. To dig in his claws and bleed him dry, calling him an ungrateful traitor for everything he had and hadn’t done.
But no. Cassius kept reading.
Adrien resisted the urge to growl. They weren’t going to remain like this until his mother arrived.
He reached out for the glass of water sitting on the table, noticing condensation glistening on the sides, and relished in the coolness as it slid down his throat. He smacked his tongue a few times, finding himself subconsciously testing for the tang of poison before placing it down.
“Where’s Mom?”
To his surprise, Cassius answered, “She’s on her way.” He took a pen off the table that Adrien hadn’t realized was there and circled something on the page.
He furrowed his brows, opening his mouth to ask him what the purpose of any of this was—what he’d been reading, what the point of this brunch was at all—when a new shadow cast over him.
