by Ana Calin
“What the hell are you doing?” I hiss through my teeth, but it’s too late. Princess comes in, baited by her fake moans, and sees me standing by the side of a naked woman working her pussy on my desk.
“God damnit, Princess, this isn’t what it looks like,” I call, the look on Princess’s face tearing my heart like a merciless claw.
She lingers there for a few moments, neither of us knowing what to do or how to react. I reach out and take a few steps towards her, but she bursts into tears, whips around and runs out, slamming the door behind her.
“Princess, no!”
Too late. She will never trust me again after what she saw, and there’s nothing I can say or do to make this right. The world comes tumbling down on me.
“If she’s got at least a trace of dignity she’ll never let you touch her again,” Paola says behind me, sick satisfaction in her voice.
Rage boils inside of me. This woman just destroyed all my chances of getting at least scraps of Princess’s attention. Scenarios run wild in my head, of Princess running right into Ramses’ arms, or maybe the arms of that local she told me about and that she was considering going out with.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Paola mocks, getting off the desk and starting to put her clothes back on. She achieved just what she wanted. “A woman like your Tinkerbell, beautiful, extravagant, she can get any man she wants. She won’t be alone or neglected. She doesn’t need you, and you know what—you don’t need her either.”
I want to turn around, grab Paola’s arm and throw her out, but that would only destroy my plans. I need her, the entire pack does, the whole town.
I square my shoulders and turn around, staring coldly down at her.
“Do me one last favor, Nero. Tell me the truth. What do you feel for Princess?”
“Lust. I am in lust with her.”
“More than you ever were with me, is that it?” There’s bitter reproach in her words.
“Yes, but I’ve been with you longer than I’ve been with her.”
She stares up at me in defiance. “You’re so full of shit, Nero. But you don’t fool me. You’re crazy about this woman in a way you’ve never been about anyone in your life. You got me here because you wanted to use me, but guess what—I saw right through your plot.” Her dark eyes seethe with wickedness and revenge. “You fooled me the first time, when you had me clinging to you, hoping there could be more between us than just an affair. After a while you didn’t even sleep with me anymore, and I still did your bidding like a dog or, admittedly, like a horny bitch. But not this time, Nero. This time I knew what you were up to and I came prepared.”
She sticks out her chin as she gives me the last blow. “You’ll pay for what you did to me, and for wanting to do the same this time around. Neither you or your brothers will get out of this town alive, and you know what? Sullivan or the big boss, The Reaper, don’t even have to show up in person. Their plans are far greater than what you can foresee, despite all of your experience and power. Sullivan has got someone in this town who will bring you down, and you don’t even suspect who it is and how exactly they’re going to do it. But know that I will be there to watch your downfall, and that it was the way you treated me that brought this upon you.”
She stares into my eyes for a few moments, waiting for signs of worry or fear, but I’m too old and I’ve gotten too good at controlling the expressions of my face.
“By the time this is over, you will break, Nero Wolf. Make no mistake about it.” She sidesteps me, walking to the door.
Princess
TEARS ARE STREAMING down my face as I knock on Arianna’s door. The housekeeper opens it, her neutral face filling with worry the moment she sees me.
“Tell her I’m here, please,” I manage among hiccups.
The housekeeper hurries up the stairs of the cozy Victorian house that is now adorned with colorful baby things. This is a nest of love and happiness, like what I would have loved to have with Nero as well. I cry harder as I realize once again that it’s never going to happen.
I plop onto the coach until the housekeeper helps the heavily pregnant Arianna down the stairs. I shoot up to my feet.
“I would have come to you,” I say, sniffling and wiping my nose. “I thought Beth would only let you know I was here, not help you down.”
“I had to get out of bed, I can’t bear to lie down anymore. Jesus, Princes, what’s wrong?”
I put my arms around her and rest my forehead on her shoulder, shaking with sobs. She caresses my hair and sits down with me, holding me until I can speak again.
“I caught him with his ex, Arianna,” I manage among sobs. “He was banging her on his desk, on the very desk he wanted to fuck me on earlier today. Dad was right, he’s a playboy, a hustler, a heartbreaker. Damn, this hurts so bad.”
Arianna looks at me with bewildered powder blue eyes. “Start from the beginning, love.”
I do. I cry and sniffle in the napkins, feeling better with every word as I release it all to my best friend. She calls Janine, whose sports car screeches to a halt into the driveway in less than half an hour.
She drops her designer bag in a corner and hurries over in her business suit and pumps, her blonde bob shining in the light.
“I do believe that Nero Wolf has deep feelings for you,” she says after Arianna and I fill her in. Our teacups lie empty on the table, and the housekeeper refills them.
“He didn’t imprint on me, Janine, that much is certain. And if he didn’t imprint on me, then he isn’t in love.”
“But he came here often to talk to Drago, and I think it was about you,” Arianna puts in. “Nero looked like a dumped lover when he left here in the morning. Crazy hair, stubble, wild eyes as if he was clinging to some hope.”
“Yes, he looked pretty down when he came back to the hotel at night,” Janine chimes in.
“Do you get to see him often?” I whisper.
“He’s been staying at my hotel ever since he came to Darkwood Falls, so we do run into each other a lot. He actually gave me a job to do.”
“A job?”
“Investigation,” Janine says. “Nero found out about my skills from Drago, and he told me about the serpent acolytes putting a sex drug in your drink. I activated my antennas, and it turns out that some of those guys had worked for Theodore Firtz until a few months ago.”
I look into Janine’s intelligent cobalt eyes. “Does that mean—?”
“That they may have been acting on his command. But that was only a suspicion at first. Not enough even for the werewolves to do anything about Theodore, but it’s the reason Nero has been sniffing around Lord Fritz.”
“Drago says his alpha brother always has had a life motto,” Arianna chimes in. “Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.”
“That’s why he’s been doing Theodore favors,” I whisper.
“Anyways, after I gave him this information about one of the serpents acolytes having worked for Theodore he thanked me, and said that would be all,” Janine says. “But I couldn’t stop.” She heads to her bag, searching inside it.
Of course she wouldn’t stop. Janine is a highly intelligent lady, a business woman by trade, and a detective by hobby. That’s how she got Drago as a male escort for Arianna less than a year ago, without any of the town people getting the slightest whiff. In the end, it was her who discovered the werewolves, and it was due to her detective skills, which is something Nero saw and exploited.
She comes back with her tablet, turns it on, and shows Arianna and me files and information she discovered. It’s reports about missing persons from the towns around Darkwood Falls.
“The acolytes that Nero took into custody were from these towns,” she says. “So was Spikes, and I thought maybe he had family or friends who would miss him. Turns out he had been reported missing—even if only briefly.”
“What do you mean only briefly?” I’m bursting with curiosity.
Janine swipes her long fingers over the ta
blet and shows us the file she hacked into from the police department of said town. The person who reported him—Lord Theodore Fritz.
“You gotta be shitting me,” I react.
“Only a few days later Theodore withdrew his report—probably when he realized that Spikes fell into the hands of the ‘enemy’, so to say, and he didn’t want the police digging too deep.”
“Could it be that Theodore knew what these people were? That they had snakes inside of them?” Arianna says.
I get up to my feet, pacing the room, putting two and two together.
“It makes sense. It makes perfect sense.” I turn to the girls, excited that we’re getting to the bottom of this. “Theodore has been doing business with a viper farmer for many years. They were breeding those vipers in a special way. It was a viper that killed Spikes from the inside, and slithered out of him. And Theodore knew Spikes. It doesn’t get any clearer than that, does it?”
“Yes, but what about the sex drug?” Arianna says, touching her swollen stomach, her face scrunched as if she’s having contractions.
‘Everything okay?” I inquire. She nods, eager to continue this conversation, but I’m not so sure.
“Problem is,” Janine says, focused, “that the werewolves can sense serpents, but not acolytes. Not people who have snakes inside of them the way this Spikes guy did. So anyone could be an acolyte.”
“And there are two types of acolytes, Drago told me,” Arianna manages, hands splayed over her stomach. “Type A, people ‘pregnant’ with the snake, who will turn into serpents themselves, and type B, people who are simply serpents’ puppets. Like Spikes. The snake is like a remote control. They all get inoculated in the same way, and it’s a gamble, really, who becomes a serpent shifter and who remains a servant. Some get lucky, some don’t.”
“But then the question remains—what about the sex drug?” Janine ponders. “What does that have to do with you, Princess, and why did Spikes put that drug in your drink?”
“That drug would have killed me if I didn’t have sex. So he wanted to bring me in a state where I wouldn’t say no to anyone. Even if I would have been normally repulsed by that person.”
“Then let’s use the simplest logic,” Arianna says. “Who is crazy about sleeping with you, but knows you’d never accept them under normal circumstance?”
One name comes to mind. “Theodore.”
Arianna cringes, throwing her head back. I can see with the naked eye how her stomach constricts. Both Janine and I snap to her, the housekeeper Beth emerging from the back of the house, wild with worry.
“Quickly,” Janine says, helping Arianna. “Call an ambulance. She’s having her babies. I’ll call Drago.”
I stay with Arianna as the two women make the calls. She grabs my hand over her belly.
“Princess, don’t you dare go confront Theodore about this.”
I smile, but it’s only to reassure her, because I won’t let this go.
She and Janine would have me go to Nero with this. But! Theodore surely has protection in place against Nero and the werewolves, not to mention that he could have serpents ready to intervene for him. I can’t imagine he stayed in Darkwood Falls as Sullivan’s invisible hand unprotected, at the mercy of the werewolves in case all of this comes to light, like it just did.
No. But he sure won’t see a reason to protect himself against me. On the contrary. Me he wants. I can get him to share his secret, make him think I’m on his side, even that I’m interested in him. I’ll get Theodore to tell me where Sullivan hides, and the werewolves can take it from there.
The door bursts open, and Drago barges in.
“Damn, you were quicker than the ambulance,” Janine squeaks.
Without a word Drago scoops Arianna up from the couch like she’s a feather, planting a strong kiss on her plump lips.
“No ambulance will be quicker than me.”
“Your friend at the obstetrics is ready, milady,” the housekeeper throws in.
Janine grabs Arianna’s hospital bag from the housekeeper, thanks the woman, and we follow Drago out of the house. We both get into Janine’s sports car, and race behind Drago to the hospital.
CHAPTER VII
Princess
Two healthy chubby babies, beautiful as angels. I got to hold them both after Drago and Janine did, but then Nero came to the hospital, and I had to get out of here before we came face to face.
But as I leave the hospital something else floods my mind more than him, which is a first since the first night we spent together—how can I feel so much love for those two babies? I could cry with love and tenderness. I always expected I’d love Arianna’s and Janine’s children, they are like sisters to me, but like this, as if they were my own blood? It overwhelms me.
I heard that werewolves have this kind of affection for babies of their pack, and I’m pretty sure this is what Nero feels for his niece and nephew as well. But why does it feel the same for me?
Whatever the answer, these two babies give me more reason and strength to fight. I won’t let them grow up in a town in which anyone could be a serpent acolyte, and I will do everything in my power to protect them.
Getting a date with Lord Theodore Fritz tonight is like running a blade through butter. He’s ecstatic that I want to talk to him at his place. I tell him in a honey voice on the phone that I’d like us to be alone, except maybe for a valet that would tend to us.
I know how to make men break and give me what I want. I hate doing it, but the fate of Darkwood Falls is in my hands.
The moment the big black gates open to let in the limo Theodore sent for me, my heart constricts. Damn, I hate this. I can barely keep the smile on my face as I step out of the car, dressed in a leather corset and leather pants, patent leather stilettos on my feet.
Theodore opens his arms when he sees me, looking me up and down like I’m all made of gold.
“My God, Princess, you’re so beautiful,” he says, taking my hand and walking me inside the dining room that he’s had prepared for a romantic evening.
‘Wow, Theodore, I’m overwhelmed,” I purr, touching the roses on the table and looking around.
“All for the most enchanting woman in the world,” he says with a sleazy grin, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. “I can’t begin to tell you how happy and honored I am.” He looks like he’d throw himself at me and kiss me, plunging his tongue inside my mouth if I gave him the slightest hint that I was willing, and my stomach twists.
But I manage a smile, heading toward my seat that Theodore pulls for me. “I must say, I was surprised when you called. Now that I see you dressed as Catwoman, I’m stunned.”
“You don’t approve?” I bat my lashes at him like a kitten.
“Oh, by all means, I love it. But I wonder.” He takes a seat by my side, at the head of the table, angled to me in an intimate way. “Why take that kind of trouble for me?”
I give him the answer I have prepared while the valet pours red wine in a crystal glass. “I had a talk with the mayor on the night of the soiree. He reminded me that I can’t see anyone who’s not a local of Darkwood Falls, and that in this sense he isn’t doing things any differently than Sullivan. He opened the subject because he saw me with Ramses, and he said Ramses wasn’t ‘local’ enough, so to say, because he’s been living outside of Darkwood Falls for so long.”
“Princess, are you telling me you’re thinking about a relationship? With me?”
I bite my lip as if I’m shy, but I continue. “Listen. Theodore, I know this is sudden, and it comes out of nowhere, but let’s be honest with each other. We’ve known one another for decades, you’ve known me since I was a child. The more I grew into a woman, the more I felt your eye on me, and I know you find me, well, to your liking. I was wary of showing my own interest in you because, to be quite frank, I thought that one day I would marry outside of this town and leave forever. But since that’s not going to happen anytime soon, I thought maybe, you would be the perfe
ct choice.”
“For a husband? Princess, are you proposing to me?” He stares at me with wide eyes. I can tell he groomed himself carefully before this date, his usually crumpled face nicely creamed, his hair combed back, his suit impeccable, his manicure fresh.
I look at him like I’m about to let go and be completely honest, as if I’ve been holding this inside for far too long. “Look, I’m already twenty-seven, and I’m not getting any younger. On the other hand, my father would never accept me being with some poor chump without a big family name and serious money. You and me, I think we go well together like that, don’t we? We’re both rich, we’re both from Darkwood Falls, and we both need a partner. Or don’t you need someone? Do you prefer to remain alone until the end of your days?”
There’s skepticism all over his face, but he smiles and touches my hand.
“Let us eat, enjoy this evening.”
And we do, but I eventually manage to steer the discussion in the direction that I want. A few hours later Theodore and I head outside to the back terrace with our glasses of wine to enjoy the gardens in the moonlight. He invites me to sit on the stone edge of the terrace, his eyes slipping down my body wrapped in leather.
The way I look in this outfit makes him hot, which is what permits me to be so direct about a relationship. I’m well aware men like Theodore, former playboys who led decadent lives until they were too spent to keep it up, usually back down when a woman comes with talk like this. But he’s wanted me for a long time, and as long as he doesn’t get me in his bed, thus ending the tension, my advances will only turn him on.
He winds an arm around my shoulders, and I feel the moment has come.
“I’ve been wondering,” I start in a low, intimate voice. “Have you heard from Sullivan again after, you know...”
“Why would I of all people hear from him?” His face is close to mine, his breath on my cheek, and I know he’s looking for a way to kiss me. I fight my disgust, and try to relax in his arms, but every cell of my body rebels.