“No, the restaurant was busy—”
“Was anyone injured?” Again, he interrupted.
“No,” Poppy hedged.
“I don’t want to hear it then. Get off my property and come back when the sun is actually up.”
The door slammed shut.
I leaned to the side and peeked.
Yeah, the king wasn’t going to let us in.
Not willingly, anyway.
I tapped on Wolfe’s right shoulder, and whispered, “What’s your special power?”
Wolfe turned around to face me. His eyed narrowed on mine in distrust. “Why?”
“I wonder if it would help us. Unless you want to wait for tomorrow.” I shrugged.
Wolfe leaned down until his face was in front of mine, whispering, “I’m not a teenager, Noelle. I try not to do anything reckless at my age. And breaking into his home, with him inside, would be extremely reckless.”
Poppy stared longingly at the closed door.
I waited, holding eye contact with the alpha before me.
“This is not a great idea,” Wolfe hissed, finally breaking in the silence. “He’ll kill Poppy and me, then put you in jail for however long he deems it.”
“What is your special gift?” I questioned again.
He stated bluntly, “My wolf form can be as small as a mouse or as large as a house.”
I blinked hard and then peered around the bottom of the doorframe. “Do you think you can squeeze through any of those cracks?”
Wolfe didn’t even look. “No, but I know where I can.”
I made a shooing motion with my hands. “Live a little. Get it done. Poppy and I will wait here for you to open the front door for us.”
The door swung open again.
All three of us froze once more.
Theron crossed his arms, and muttered, “You three are some of the most dumbass people I have ever known. I mean really. I am two thousand years old, and my hearing only gets better with age. How did I go wrong with you, Wolfe? Did I not teach you well enough? Do you need more lessons from me?”
Wolfe closed his eyes and sighed; his breath brushed against my hair. He straightened and turned toward his king. “You taught me well, Theron. No more lessons are needed.”
The wolf-man sprang at Theron, taking him by surprise.
One well-placed punch to Theron’s left temple and Wolfe was catching his unconscious king before he hit the ground. Wolfe kissed the top of his head, and whispered, “You did teach me well. And I am sorry we’re breaking into your home.”
“He can’t hear you,” Poppy groused, marching inside the king’s home. “Put him on the couch over there. Hopefully, he doesn’t wake up until we’re done.”
My feet were firmly planted to the welcome mat, my chin bobbing up and down. “He’s going to make your death suck ass for that, Wolfe.”
The wolf-man tossed his king over his shoulder as if he weighed nothing. “I know. It won’t be the first time. I was rather unruly in my younger years. He had his hands full with me. But I figured I’d have to do that anyway when he eventually caught us in his house. And he would have found us, there’s no question of that.”
He dutifully placed his king down on the couch and placed a blanket over him to keep him warm and toasty. “Now get in here. We don’t have much time.”
I stepped inside the king’s home, realizing just how deeply I was embedded into their lives, all from one little article published. I shut the door behind me, and respectfully—the only thing I had done tonight as such—locked his door behind us.
Poppy led the way to the basement, all of us rushing through hallways, then eventually descending a circular staircase.
I muttered in unease, “Is there a reason why he has a morgue in his basement? And how far down does this go? We’ve already gone down four flights of stairs.”
Wolfe grumbled, “Don’t ask questions that could get you killed if you had the answers. And be careful, the steps start to get narrower the farther down you travel.”
“That’s not very comforting.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be,” Poppy chimed in from the front of our line. “He’s right, too. Be careful going down. If you knock us all over, and I break this vial, I will kill Your. Scrawny. Ass.”
“Message received.” I placed my hand on Wolfe’s shoulder in front of me just so I wouldn’t fall by accident. “Do you think he hides treasure down here?”
“Shut up, Noelle.” Poppy huffed.
“Fine. I’ll conserve my air since we seem to be heading to the center of the earth.” This was freaking ridiculous.
Around and around we traveled down into the king’s secret lair. My legs started to cramp, and the spinning loops we took made me dizzy as hell. I did stumble, but my tight grip on Wolfe kept me from falling completely. But when ten more minutes passed by, and it didn’t appear we were any closer to the end, my body started screaming at me.
“Wolfe, you’re going to have to give me a piggyback ride the rest of the way. I can’t keep going,” I panted. I slammed hard into his back when the two of them stopped at my words. “Ow. Fuck, are you made of stone?”
Wolfe’s delicious chuckle bounced off the enclosed space, and his hands reached back, warm palms grabbing onto my thighs. “Hop on. I’ve got you.”
At this point, it was even a struggle to lift my legs high enough to wrap around his waist—even at his lowered height in front of me—so there would be no ‘hopping.’ I groaned in pain. “I’m going to be so sore tomorrow. This is not how I planned for my evening to go.”
“I’ll get you some ibuprofen before I take you back to your hotel,” Wolfe stated kindly. “There won’t be any here since we don’t need it.”
I muttered, “Show-off.”
Wolfe and Poppy started racing down the stairs now.
“Ugh. Even worse. You guys were holding back for me.” Bounce, bounce, bounce went my body against the stone wall that apparently Wolfe was made of. “I’m like the kid picked last in gym class. This is rather mortifying.”
Wolfe snorted under his breath. “You’re human. We don’t hold it against you.”
“Poppy’s only a mate, and she’s keeping up.”
“I’m a soldier in the Corporate Army,” Poppy justified herself. “I work hard to be this good.”
Wolfe turned his head and whispered loudly enough for me to hear, “She can’t really keep up with me. I still have to slow myself down right now.”
“Definitely a show-off.” My lips twitched.
I turned my head and kissed his cheek softly.
His cheeks pinched in a smile under my lips. “Stop that, or I might actually fall.”
“Really?” I asked, sliding my lips down to his jaw. I bit softly.
A huff, all wolf, puffed out from between his lush lips.
“We’re almost there!” Poppy cheered in front of us, completely oblivious to my antics. “This had better work, and work right, or I am going to slice that motherfucker up into strips.”
I blinked. “You are talking about Joshua, right? And not Cassander?”
“Of course,” the redhead stated seriously. “But it is smart that we’re going to do this at Theron’s house. Once Cassander regenerates and wakes up, we may need Theron if Cassander isn’t…Cassander.”
Wolfe said, “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
We finally stopped on flat ground.
But I didn’t ask for Wolfe to let me down. I wasn’t entirely confident I could walk right now, my legs aching severely. Fuck the ibuprofen. I’d break out a bottle of whiskey and drown the pain away.
We headed down a large hallway where it veered off into multiple smaller halls. Wolfe and Poppy walked side by side, taking the same path, and stopping in front of a solid, gray door. Inside, the temperature instantly dropped.
Rows and rows of chambers for individual dead bodies to be stored, each one with its own sealed door.
“Yeah, I take back my question from earlier. I a
ctually don’t want to know why Theron has this place,” I murmured, wrapping my arms tighter around Wolfe’s shoulders. “This is creepy as fuck to have below your home.”
Wolfe’s grip on my thighs tightened. “I suppose it is, but Theron has lived many years. He likes to be prepared for every instance he’s had in the past. Our king doesn’t make the same mistake twice.”
“Which one do you think Cassander is in?” Poppy wandered up and down the rows, not opening any of them yet. “You would think Theron would have labeled these.”
“I’m sure they aren’t all full.” Wolfe twitched his nose.
“I don’t know. Cassander was working a lot lately.”
Wolfe’s nose twitched again. “Maybe I can sniff him out.”
I pointed a finger to the very first chamber. “Try that one first. I could see Theron leaving the first spot open for family, just in case.”
Poppy and Wolfe must have agreed because they both walked toward it. Wolfe leaned forward with me still glued to his back. I hung on as he leaned left and right sniffing at the chamber’s edges.
He pulled back and nodded. “Noelle was correct. Cassander’s in there.” His head instantly turned toward the closed door and cocked to the side, holding completely still. “Theron’s awake. He’s halfway down the stairs. You better hurry. He’s not even trying to be quiet he’s coming so fast.”
Poppy yanked open the chamber door and rolled out the metal table, heavy with a dead body. She quickly unzipped the bag down to his waist and shoved the edges out. Poppy was on a mission, only glancing once at Cassander’s face in death. Instead, she yanked out her dagger and opened the vial.
A simple prick of her finger and one droplet of blood fell into the clear liquid. The blood swirled when she lifted the vial over his chest, directly over the fatal wound.
“Please work,” Poppy whispered. “Please come back. We all need you. I need you.”
The morgue door slammed open.
An enraged Theron stood right in the doorway.
The king bellowed, “What do you think you’re doing to my son?”
Poppy blinked in the face of his wrath, her body trembling.
She tipped the vial over, pouring the liquid onto his wound.
Theron watched with wide eyes, furious and confused.
Poppy wiggled the bottle, making sure it all came out. “I’m not sorry for doing this, Theron. I want him back.”
All expression drained from his face, the wheels turning in his mind. “What have you done, Poppy? What did Joshua Striker promise you that spell would do?”
“It’s supposed to bring him back to life, just as he was. Cassander mentioned once that he could have done it for Godric, but it would have turned Cassander dark. I believe Joshua this time. I believe that killer was finally telling the truth.”
“Only because you wanted to believe it,” Theron charged forward toward us. “He’s never told the whole truth about anything, even before he went dark. Joshua has always been evil.”
Wolfe interjected calmly, “Don’t blame only Poppy. I helped her in this.”
Theron rubbed at his temple while he stared down at his son’s dead body. “I know you did. Apparently, you haven’t forgotten my training.”
I cleared my throat softly, so as to stay as “small” as I could, from the king. I pointed a finger at Cassander’s chest on the left side of his wound. “He’s starting to regenerate.”
The king’s lips thinned into a hard line, all of us watching a miracle happening before our eyes. “All we can do now is pray he’s not a monster.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “And someone needs to run up the stairs to get me my favorite gun.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Is it sanitary to eat down here?” I whispered.
“Dumb question,” Poppy muttered.
“Oh, yeah. Immortal.” I crossed my legs on the chair I had claimed at the back of the morgue. “Where do you suppose Theron got that cupcake? I didn’t see him bring it down.”
“They were at Elara’s birthday party,” Poppy explained. “He probably has a box down here with leftovers. He spends a lot of time in his basement.”
Theron licked his bottom lip and pointed at a locker. He still stood next to Cassander’s body while Poppy and I had retreated to rest on chairs for a few minutes. Theron called loudly, “Over there. There’s plenty.”
I pushed myself up to stand on jelly legs, making myself walk on unsteady feet. I could do this. I wasn’t a complete loser.
“You must really want a cupcake,” Poppy snickered. She waited until I was all the way to the locker before she spoke loudly, “Oh, Noelle. We may be immortal, but you’re not. I really doubt that eating down here would be sanitary for you.”
My eyes bulged out of my head while I wobbled to turn around and face her. I clenched my hands into fists, and spat, “You bitch! I was almost to the promised land of food orgasms.”
Theron finished off his cupcake. “Just eat it, Noelle. I’m sure there’s something around here that could fix you right up if you became too ill.” Whatever else he said, it was far too quiet for me to hear, his lips moving, but no sound was attaching to it for me.
I turned and sniffed at the locker like Wolfe had done the chamber. Yummy strawberry tickled my nose. That was worth getting sick for. I opened the locker and removed two cupcakes from the container. My trudge back to my chair wasn’t nearly as fun as it had been getting there. I stumbled more than once and nearly dropped my cupcakes four times.
I finally sat back down when Wolfe barged back into the morgue carrying a sturdy, black gun with a fat barrel on it. The wolf-man handed it over to Theron, and then stalked in my direction, all types of alpha predator vibes radiating off him.
I didn’t think I was drooling. I hoped I wasn’t.
I lifted one of my cupcakes when he stopped next to me. “I brought one over for you, too.” I was positive he’d heard us speaking for a while. “They’re strawberry and smell delicious.”
He gently took the cupcake from my hand, uncertainty tainting his features. “That was kind of you.”
My head tipped back as I laughed at his expression. “It’s just a cupcake. Calm down. I don’t want to put a ring on your finger or anything.”
His golden eyes lowered to where my wedding band rested. “Speaking of rings. I’d like you to answer a few questions for me.”
“Ask away.” I licked at the icing of my cupcake.
I hadn’t meant it to be sexual, but Wolfe’s attention homed in on the action like a covetous lover.
Wolfe blinked slowly, still watching me eat. “How old are you?”
“Thirty-one.”
“Have you ever been married?”
“No.”
“The marriage certificate on file is fake?”
“It is.”
“Why did you decide to break the law for the bogus marriage?”
“Theron, do you know where Megan bought these cupcakes?” This was absolutely the best cupcake of my life.
“I made them for her.” Theron licked some icing off his pinkie.
“Damn. These are fabulous.”
“Thank you.” His eyes shot in my direction. “Quit evading the question he asked you.”
I sighed and returned my attention to the hot shifter standing next to me. “My father owns a strip club just outside of New City named Jazzies. That’s where I mainly grew up. Strippers taught me how to swim, how to dance, how to sing, and even how to read and write when my father failed to put me into school. I was essentially a ghost child in the system.
“When I got older, I started to teach myself from books I found online. There’s only so much of the strip club life I could take. I stayed at home more, found even more books to read and learn from. When it was time for me to go to New City University, my father had other plans for me. He wanted me to handle the books for him exclusively. I was put under house arrest by my own father for two years so I wouldn’t run away.”
Wolfe’s head tilted. “How does this pertain to a fake marriage?”
He was good, but I could see it in his eyes.
The wolf-man already understood.
“I started at New City University, only to find out about the marriage law. My father had never told me about it. I didn’t want to be trapped again by another man. Fuck that. No way. I wasn’t having it. So I used my own self-taught knowledge to fake my own marriage, and nobody was the wiser. I went to college, obtained my degree…and started working from home. Apparently, some of that shit sticks with you when you grow up. I’m most comfortable around things, places, and people I’m familiar with thanks to my upbringing.”
Wolfe lifted my free hand, the hand with my fake wedding band on it, and gently slid the ring off my finger. He spied a trashcan in the corner and tossed it in. The wolf-man shook his head in my angry face, and stated quietly, “You don’t have to wear that cheap thing anymore.”
“What in the world do you mean?” I shouted. “I need that! Not everyone is as well protected as you. If I get in trouble with the law, I can’t finagle my way out of it.”
“Calm down, Noelle. You aren’t going to be in any trouble with the law. I put a death certificate into the system for your fake husband. In the law’s eyes now, you are a widow.”
My mouth bobbed up and down. “How did you manage that? A marriage certificate was hard to come by, but a death certificate? That’s impossible.”
He winked one golden eye at me. “I told you I was the best. It’s all fixed. You’re safe and “single” now.”
A thought, a thought, a thought edged nearer.
I grabbed it and evaluated my findings. It made sense.
“Oh.” I must have been riding a turtle I was so slow. “That’s why you did it.”
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