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“Understood,” the man outside says with a judgmental sniff.
Cam is my father’s man and always will be, a fact I’m usually grateful for…even if the smug fucker gets on my last nerve.
My father should have loyal friends.
But not friends on the Cult Crazy Train.
“Does Cam know about this?” I ask softly. “The prophecy and everything?”
“No,” my father says. “The people who know, we’ve kept it quiet. And as far as why we didn’t go after Willow, the prophecy says the King Maker will find her way to her King and anyone who interferes will end in blood.” He arches a pointed brow. “Sounds like that’s what happened to Victor’s kid, doesn’t it?”
“She didn’t end him,” I counter.
“But she bloodied him and escaped. And how often does a woman from that pack defy an Alpha? They’re raised to be terrified and submissive, to believe their fate lies in the hands of their fathers, brothers, and future mates. But not Willow. She rose above all that and found her way here to you.”
“She’s already mated to another man,” I remind him.
“If the charts were forged, the mate bond isn’t valid. Might as well have never happened, no matter how many binding chants they said.”
I press my lips together, hating to admit he has a point, but obviously I’ve been thinking how odd it was for both Astor girls to be mated to Darius men, too. “So, Victor…what? Paid off the astrologers to fake a fated mate bond between his family and theirs?”
Dad snorts. “I have no doubt he would pervert a sacred ceremony for his own gain. Especially to secure total control of our kind. Do you?”
“No.” I chew the corner of my lip before I add, “I’m only surprised he didn’t try to marry one of them himself.”
“I’m sure he floated that idea,” Dad says, his disgust for Victor clear in his voice. “But the prophecy specifies a young Alpha will rise and, whatever else Victor is, he ain’t young.”
“Neither am I,” I say, earning another snort from Dad.
“You’re thirty-two. A baby. Barely out of diapers.”
“Pax is twenty-four. Most of the next generation of leaders in the Parallel and living Human Side are in their early twenties.” I frown, another thought rising through the tangle of questions in my head. “And if Kelley’s still alive and presumably married to Bane all this time, why hasn’t he risen to rule the shifter world?”
Pain flickers behind Dad’s eyes. “Well, one answer is that your brother is dead,” he says. “But I don’t think that’s the case. I bet I can tell you what Kelley stole from the artifacts room before the team gets back with their report.”
I cock my head, intrigued despite still being ninety percent certain Dad’s been brainwashed. “Yeah? And what’s that?”
“The Alpha bands and the spirit-sharing cup,” he says. “I think she and Bane are getting married and want it to be an old-fashioned North Star wedding with all the ceremonial trappings.”
His words send a shaft of pain through my chest.
I should be happy my brother is probably alive, but this wound is too fresh for that. “Why? Why steal those things? Why not come home, be a part of our family, and have the wedding here?”
“That’s part of the prophecy, son,” he says, his gaze so haunted I can’t bring myself to call him crazy again. “Both the Astor girls will help a king rise. But one king will bring light, the other darkness. And no one knows which one will win out in the end.”
I blink, my brain so unaccustomed to things like this it takes a few minutes to follow the “logic” of his words. “So, you think Bane has…what? Become a bad man? An evil king in waiting?”
“What do you think?” he challenges. “Judging from the pieces we’ve put together so far, it seems Kelley conspired with several other shifters—including at least one cat—to set off a bomb in a crowded theater as a distraction so she could steal North Star wedding artifacts. Artifacts she wouldn’t need to marry anyone but a North Star Alpha. And this same group of people tried to kidnap Willow tonight. Potentially to reunite the sisters, sure, but just as likely to eliminate the competition. If Willow never marries her true mate, only one king will rise, and no one will stand in his way.”
I shake my head. “Bane would never attack our people. I can’t believe that. And what about the Venom in the bomb? That’s a Blood River calling card.”
“Or an attempt to throw us off the scent of who really did this,” Dad counters, nodding toward the bull pen in the center of the enforcer office beyond the door, where the rest of the team is gathered. “We need that tiger awake and talking.” He lowers his voice to a confidential whisper, “I’m going to reach out to a fairy friend of mine from way back, see if she can get a few truth charms over here for us ASAP.”
I drag a clawed hand through my hair. “Don’t bother. I have someone connected and discreet. I’ll get her on the case. Though it might be a few days before she can deliver.”
And I won’t be able to use those charms for Willow. But thanks to her emerging pack gift, I don’t really have to.
She’s not a threat to our pack, at least not as a spy or assassin.
