Furever Loyal
Page 23
Kincaid laughed. “Well, if you’re so sure about it, I guess I’ll have to marry your ass.”
“Are you going to marry the rest of me too?” she asked with as much sass as she could muster.
He stared at her, unfazed. “If you’ll let me.”
She knitted her eyebrows together. “Is this a proposal?”
Kincaid bit his lip, hesitated, then nodded. “Yes. I guess it is. I…I didn’t really intend for it to go like this, but…”
Shock, wonder, joy and happiness rushed through her system all at once, a confusing parade of emotions that left Haley crying and nodding her head and speaking repeatedly. “Yes,” she told him. “A dozen times, yes. Screw the rules. I just want to be with you. We’ll do it our own way!”
Kincaid shouted with joy and picked her up, holding her tight to his chest as he ran back out into the hallway.
“What are you doing?” she asked in astonishment as he started shouting to the rest of the House.
“We’re getting married!” he bellowed, running up and down the hallways, announcing it to everyone.
Haley laughed. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em I guess.
“We’re getting married!” she shouted, adding her voice to his.
We’re getting married.
Epilogue
Kincaid strode down the Grand Hallway, wondering just how much of a coincidence his being called to meet with the Queen was. Was it possible she knew something was still eating away at him? That there was still one last question he had about it all?
He hadn’t voiced his concerns to anyone, not even Haley. The last thing he wanted to do was stress her out. This was something that would have to be dealt with by his House, by those that could be trusted. The only problem was determining just who to trust. The numbers, it seemed, were smaller than he was comfortable admitting.
“Hello Khove,” he said calmly, nodding at the head of the Queen’s private guard, the Queen’s Own.
“Kincaid,” the man said gruffly.
“She’s expecting me.”
The big, stern-faced guard nodded, but instead of pulling one of the doors to the Throne Room open for him, he turned and pushed it inward, accompanying Kincaid inside.
“Out,” Khove said, jerking his head at the other guards.
Kincaid frowned. “Something wrong?” he asked quietly once the door closed behind them, the two walking side-by-side up to where the Queen sat on her throne.
“Always,” Khove replied, both of them inclining their heads toward Kaelyn.
“Thank you for coming so promptly, my Hunter.”
“Of course, Your Majesty,” he replied. “I actually wanted to talk with you as well.”
“How coincidental,” Kaelyn replied with a wry smile. “I thought you should know that Laurent Canis is dead.”
Kincaid jerked upright in surprise. “What? But we let him go?” Anger welled up inside him. “Did you let Kvoss go after him without telling me? He was mine.” Kincaid’s voice was a low growl. Khove stiffened next to him, but the Queen waved him down.
“No,” she said calmly. “It was not Kvoss, any of his men. It wasn’t any of Ursa.”
“Are you telling me that someone in Canis killed him?”
“Yes. I don’t know who. All I know is he is dead, and the position is currently unfilled.”
“Fascinating. I did not see that coming, but I suppose it’s not that big a surprise either. He was an embarrassment and a weak link. It’ll be interesting to see who Laurien appoints in his stead.”
“Indeed,” Kaelyn said in casual agreement. “Now, what did you want to talk about?”
The Queen may have been seated on her throne, but the conversation between them was decidedly more casual. Kincaid was a Title Holder now, a lord of House Ursa, and because of that, the Queen and he could converse on near equal levels.
“Khove, can you give us some privacy,” he asked politely.
The guard looked unimpressed, but Kaelyn gave him approval with a nod, and the head guard retreated to the door, though he didn’t go outside.
“What is it Kincaid?”
“There is a lingering question,” he said, keeping his voice low. “About all of this. Something I don’t understand.”
“If you’re here to ask questions about how to figure out your mate, I am probably not the best person for that,” Kaelyn teased.
Kincaid chuckled. “No, that I’ve got figured out.” He looked upward. “Mostly. No, this is about the investigation. About how it all got started, something nobody has seemed to address.”
Kaelyn leaned forward. “What is it?”
“How did Laurent know how much money to put in my bank account? It couldn’t have been a guess, and I would assume that the exact figure of how much was stolen was kept a secret from the masses. I sure didn’t know until I got implicated in it. So how did someone from House Canis know?”
Kaelyn gave him a long appraising look before leaning to the side. “Khove, please send for Kirell to join us. Immediately,” she added with a strong emphasis, assuming the mantle of Queen.
Kincaid tried to keep his surprise down as Khove spoke to the guards outside, several of whom took off at a run, judging by the sound of footsteps.
“I take it this is something that has crossed your mind as well?” he asked.
Kaelyn nodded, while the two of them waited in silence for Kirell to arrive. Thankfully, he must have been close, because no more than five minutes had passed before he was ushered into the Throne Room and walked up to join them.
“Kincaid,” the Captain of House Ursa said, extending his hand.
“Kirell.” They shook.
“What can I do for you my Queen?” Kirell asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.
“Kincaid here was just wondering how Laurent Canis discovered just how much money was stolen from the central Ursa account during the uprising.”
Kirell looked sharply at Kincaid, then back at the Queen. “I see.”
“Anyone care to tell me what’s going on?” Kincaid asked, looking back and forth between the pair.
“A traitor still lives in my House,” Kaelyn said icily. “Neither I nor Kirell know who it is, but we suspect they are the real mastermind behind the uprising.”
Kincaid frowned. “I thought Kven was acknowledged to be the head.”
“And so we will continue to do publicly,” Kaelyn informed him. “But Kirell and I have been working quietly in the shadows, trying to figure out who it could be. Our suspect pool is shrinking, but none of them has given us any indication they might be guilty. Whoever it is, they’re good.”
“Why tell me?” he asked, looking at Kirell and Kaelyn.
“Because, now we can expand who we trust with this information. It’s no big secret that we haven’t caught all the traitors. Krawll is a perfect example of that. But nobody knows we’re still searching for the head.”
Kincaid nodded slowly. “Very well. Count me in. Let’s find this bastard.”
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Other Books by Riley Storm
High House Ursa
Bearing Secrets
Furever Loyal
Mated to the Enemy
About the Author
Riley is one of those early-morning people you love to hate, because she swears she doesn’t need caffeine, even though the coffee-maker is connected to her smartphone.
She lives in a three-story townhouse by the good graces of a tabby cat that rules the house, the couch, the table—well, basically everywhere.
When she’s not groveling for forgi
veness for neglecting to pet her kitty enough, Riley is strapped into her writing chair, coming up with crazy worlds where she can make her own decisions of when feeding time is and how much coffee can be drunk without her friends—of which she has three—holding yet another intervention they threaten to post on the internet.