Wolf's Claim (The Royal Heir Book 3)

by Jen L. Grey

"Wait." Kassie turned around, and her eyes caught Mona's. "Did she just say what I think she did?"

  "That you were right?" A huge grin spread across Mona's face.

  "Technically, she said you might be right." Ella arched an eyebrow.

  "Listen here, blondie," Kassie growled, "she said I was right. Got it."

  "Yes, she has it." Louis reached over and placed his hand across Ella’s mouth.

  "No, I don't." She muttered the words as she bit his fingers.

  "Damn." He jerked his hand away and shook it. "You almost drew blood."

  "You weren't complaining last night." Ella tilted her head.

  "For the love of God." Mason rubbed a hand down his face. "Please, shut up."

  "Oh, but it's okay for you and Elena to suck face and moan in front of us." Ella leaned back in the seat and crossed her arms.

  "Anyway." This was a conversation that I did not want to have, especially with the two people who had raised me in the vehicle. "Do you mind if we do a drive-by and see what's going on first?"

  "Hell, it can't hurt anything at this point." Tommy glanced at Kassie. "Just tell me how to get there."

  For some reason, my heart grew heavy.

  Within minutes, we were pulling into the small parking lot of Rose’s shop. All the lights were off, which wasn't completely abnormal. She’d always had later shop hours.

  "What do you want to do now?" Tommy pulled into a spot and glanced at the building.

  "Let's see if it's open." I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door. "Sometimes, she’d have the lights off even though she was there. It was rare, but I always learned to check."

  "Hold your horses." Mona croaked from the back. "You can't just go out there like you aren't being stalked."

  It was rare for Mona to speak to me that way, so when she did, it made me pause. "But I want to go in."

  "Then give us a second to get prepared." She lifted an eyebrow.

  "I'm on it." Kassie's shoulders shook with laughter.

  Damn, she can be scary. Mason's eyes widened as he glanced in Mona’s direction. Granted, she's right.

  She's scary because she isn't constantly lecturing me like someone here in the front seat. She uses it only when she needs it the most. You could never underestimate either one of these ladies. They have the good cop, bad cop routine down pat.

  Kassie climbed out of the car while Mona squeezed past my open door. They both scanned the area and then waved me on.

  Sometimes, I hated how I couldn't just walk out the door anymore without someone checking everything, but it was one of the many sacrifices for the crown.

  Stay beside me at all times. Mason got out of the car and hurried to the door.

  "I'm going to stay here in case something happens." Tommy glanced at me through the rearview mirror. "If anything is out of the ordinary, rush back here immediately."

  "Let's go." Ella leaned forward.

  I turned and placed my hand on hers. "Look, it'll be quick, I promise. If we all get in there, we won't be able to get back into the vehicle and leave quickly."

  "No way." She shook her head from side to side.

  "Elena's right." Louis took her hand and pulled her into his arms. "We'll give them five minutes. If they aren't back out here, we'll go in."

  "Fine, but a second over, and my happy ass is popping inside." Ella pointed at me. "Got it."

  "Got it." I'd be willing to say almost anything to keep her ass in the vehicle.

  I stepped out and made my way to the door. Though the lights were all off, it didn't faze me. However, when my eyes scanned inside, I felt something sitting hard on my stomach.

  The place is cleared out. Mason reached for the door handle and yanked it open. It's like nothing was ever here, to begin with.

  "The doors are not even locked." This was odd.

  He held the door open, and Kassie breezed through before I could move. I followed behind her, still struggling with the fact that it seemed like the shop had been shut down a while ago.

  "I don't understand." Maybe she wasn't working for the other team. If she was, wouldn't she want to keep her shop up and running? Give the illusion that she was on my side.

  "Unfortunately, we aren't going to find any of the answers here." Mason walked over to where all her herbs used to grow. "This doesn't make any sense."

  "Has anything made sense the last few weeks?" Kassie snorted as she headed toward the back.

  I followed after her, seeing as Rose had always run back here after she took my blood. I'd never been allowed past the threshold.

  As I entered the backroom, I was surprised at how open it was. And once again, it was like she was never there. The idea had me thinking. "Do you think she glamoured the whole place?" Was none of the shop even real?

  Kassie stopped in her tracks and turned toward me. "That would take a lot of power to do, and what would be the benefit?"

  "I ... I don't know." I took a few steps closer to the door and felt a certain energy in the air. Something that seemed to linger. "Do you feel that?"

  "It's magic residue." Kassie walked over to it and shook her head. "Holy shit. We shouldn't be able to detect that."

  "Then how can we?" Mason, you may want to come in here.

  "Because whatever spell was cast here used a ton of magic and power." She shook her head. "There was only one time I felt a spell that was this strong. It was at a ..." Kassie paused and closed her eyes.

  "At a what?" I didn't like when she did stuff like this. It was as if she was hiding things.

  "What's going on?" Mason entered the room and walked over to me. "Did you find anything?" He paused and narrowed his eyes. "What's that vibration in the air?"

  "Kassie was just telling me it was residue from a powerful spell." I still wanted to know what she was going to say.

  A phone rang, and Mason pulled his out of his pocket. "Hello?" He paused a moment. "Yeah, sorry. We had to make a quick stop before coming there. We'll be there soon, okay?" Another second passed, and he put the phone back in the pocket.

  "Is everything okay?" I couldn't help but worry when his dad called.

  "Yeah, it's fine." Mason took my hand and intertwined our fingers. "He was only checking on us, but I didn’t tell him anything. I didn’t want to worry him."

  "Okay."

  "We need to go." Kassie motioned for me to move out the door. "When you're close to magic this strong, it's never a good thing."

  Not needing any additional encouragement, Mason and I headed to the door.

  Mona stepped in front of us and checked the area. "Come on. Let's go."

  As Mason and I headed to the Suburban, the uncomfortable feeling of being watched came over me once again. I glanced around as I climbed into the vehicle but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

  I forced myself to sit back down and buckle up. Once we were all settled, Tommy took off in the direction of James's pack.

  "You were close to going over five minutes." Ella leaned forward between Mason and my seats. "Did you find anything there?"

  We quickly filled them in on what we had found, and within minutes, we were pulling onto the road that led to James’s pack neighborhood. As we passed by, I noticed there were several wolves patrolling the perimeter. This can't be a good sign.

  No, something must be going on. Mason scanned the woods as well. It wasn't long before we were rolling into the neighborhood and the driveway of James's home.

  I loved the feel of their house. It was a modern craftsman style neighborhood that backed up to woods.

  The front door opened, and both James and Dehlia stepped out onto the small front porch as we climbed from the car.

  Dehlia met us in the middle of the yard and threw her arms around Ella. "I hadn't expected to see you all so soon."

  "Hey, Mom." Ella returned the hug.

  Dehlia made her rounds, hugging everyone, and then Mason decided to get down to business.

  "Has anything weird been going on?" His eyes surveyed hi
s dad.

  "Well ..." James glanced around the woods as if he was looking for an enemy. "Let's go inside and talk about it."

  "That sounds like a plan." Mason waved us on.

  The nine of us entered the house and headed straight to the den. With all of the nervous energy I had bottled up inside, I went and stood next to the couch.

  Hey, are you okay? Mason stood next to me and took my hand in his. You've been awfully quiet.

  I'm tired in every way. Sleep-wise, stress-wise, and feeling overwhelmed. If I couldn't admit my weaknesses to him, then I was screwed.

  We'll get it figured out. His words sounded like a promise.

  "So, what's going on?" As soon as we were all in the room, Kassie stood by the window, staring out of it, keeping watch.

  "Well, if no one is going to sit down, I sure as hell am." Ella walked over to the couch and sat down, patting the spot next to her for Louis.

  Neither parent acknowledged Ella's antics. They usually smiled at her, but they both seemed as if they were in their own little world.

  "We keep getting whiffs of vampires the last two weeks." James shook his head and glanced at the ground.

  "Are they attacking?" Tommy went over and stood next to Kassie. "We saw several shifters on watch in the woods."

  "No, they aren't attacking." James glanced at his wife and shook his head.

  "It doesn't make any sense." Dehlia shook her head too. "We've had nonstop watches, and their scent is still being smelled throughout the woods."

  "How many guards have been on duty?" Mona leaned against the wall as she ran a thumb down her chin.

  "We have at least ten on guard at all times." James threw his hands in the air. "And that's the most we can have out there at one time, but they still manage to hide."

  "Are they threatening you?" Maybe they were getting marbles like me. "Or leaving you messages?"

  "No, that's what is so bizarre." James ran a hand along his neck. "It's as if they are watching us watch them. It's the creepiest feeling I've ever had."

  "I hadn't thought of it like that, but you're right." Dehlia shivered as if she felt a cold chill run down her spine. "How can a vampire get past us though? There are so many shifters on point."

  "And don't forget to mention how many different vampires’ scents we're catching too. It's not one person sliding past our pack. It's at least twenty of them."

  "They must have a spell." Louis's eyes locked with mine. "There is a witch involved after all."

  "Well, I guess it's a damn good thing we stopped by Rose's shop first and found her not there." Kassie closed her eyes and blew out a long breath. "Someone is using magic, and we have no fucking clue who it is or if there are multiple supernaturals working together. We need to find someone who can help us. Cloaking that many vampires and for that long is another huge-ass amount of power."

  "You're thinking of another magical residue level spell?" That's the only way I knew how to describe it.

  "Hell, yeah. Probably even more so than what was in that shop." Kassie shook her head.

  "What are you guys talking about?" James's shoulders stiffened as he took in our words.

  Mason quickly filled in his dad and then turned and looked at me. "Maybe we need to visit the coven. I mean, someone should be there. They normally don't move."

  "That's true, but I have no clue where they live." That was something I could probably figure out though if needed. Supernaturals had to disclose their locations to other supernaturals in order to set boundaries. That was one reason I didn't have a problem with Rose using my blood when I thought it was for killing vampires.

  "But we do." Ella grinned. "So we could go visit them now."

  "Do you have to call or something first?" Louis pursed his lips. "In Europe, we have to give them notice."

  "The covens here don't have cell phones." Mason frowned. "But they'll know we're there. We just have to show up."

  "Then, there is no time like the present." I was worn out, but we needed to get something nailed down on our side. Hopefully, we could call it an early night.

  "How trustworthy are they?" Tommy stood and cracked his neck.

  "If I go with you, then you should be okay." James pointed at me, Mason, Tommy, and Kassie. "Maybe the five of us can go. She trusts me, so we should be able to get by without any problems."

  "Why would a witch trust you?" Mona tilted her head and narrowed her eyes.

  "Because we worked together a couple of years ago when the vampires went crazy. We had offered our assistance.”

  "But I want to go," Ella whined.

  "No, baby girl. You and your mate need to stay here with me." Dehlia winked at her. "I was thinking we could bake some desserts."

  Ella stopped pouting and pursed her lips as she tilted her head slightly from side to side. "Uh ... okay. I guess that works."

  "I'll stay back too to help keep an eye on the family." Mona nodded at James. "It seems that the smaller the numbers are, the better."

  "Yes, we don't want to come off like we're threatening them." James shook his head. "So the smaller the better, but I also know we need to protect my son and daughter."

  The fact that he called me his daughter warmed a place in my heart that I'd never thought could heal. "Okay, that works. Let's go." It was important to meet with the coven that Rose was part of, but there was no telling what we may be walking into.

  Chapter Sixteen

  We'd been riding in the car for over ten minutes. Tommy was driving, and James sat in the front passenger seat, giving directions as needed.

  Mason and I opted for the back seat—since it was usually occupied with Ella, Louis, and Mona—so Kassie could sit in the middle to keep tabs on the situation.

  I reached in the back and grabbed our carry-on luggage, pulling out the last marble that had been received on the plane and slipping it into my jeans pocket.

  Come over here. Mason scooted against the side of the backseat, sitting right behind Kassie. He turned his body so I could lie in his arms.

  There was no telling when we’d have the next opportunity to cuddle in the back of a car. Don't mind if I do. I laid my head against his arm that was on top of the armrest built into the door so I could look at him. Have you been to visit the witches before?

  That one time Dad was referring to, but other than that, no. He used his free hand to brush my cheek with his fingertips. I wish we had more time to be like this.

  Me too. I closed my eyes, enjoying the warmth. I'd like to say it'll get better, but hell, it seems to keep getting worse. I hated that I had brought him in to this chaos. Still, without him here beside me, I wasn't sure if I'd have survived it on my own. Well, okay. I was being a little dramatic. I would have survived, but I was pretty sure I'd have come out of it more hardened and jaded.

  None of that. He leaned down and brushed his lips against mine. I don't know what you're thinking exactly, but it's full of remorse, and I don't like it.

  I just sometimes wonder if you'd have been happier if you’d had a mate without all this. I closed my eyes, enjoying his lips on mine.

  Of course I wouldn't. He deepened our kiss as if he was making a point. You're the perfect half to me. Destiny even determined it. I'm happier now than I've ever been.

  Even with vampires, wolves, and witches at every corner? It had been going nonstop since we completed our bond.

  Hell yeah. He pulled back a little, his emerald eyes sparkling. Do you know how bored I'd be? He winked at me and lowered his lips again to mine. At least, we don't have some couples’ problems of not knowing what to do on a weekend. Granted, I don't think I could ever get bored with you next to me. There's plenty that we could do. He growled as he deepened our kiss.

  My body warmed as I responded to his touches and kisses in earnest.

  "I never thought I'd live to see the day where I missed Ella," Kassie muttered. "She'd tell the two of them back there to cut it out."

  "They still are newly mated." James's voice carried a
ll the way to the backseat.

  It washed over me like a cold shower. Your dad is talking about us.

  So? Mason tried deepening the kiss again. We're mated and married. We're legal in all the ways that matter.

  Still. I couldn't contain my giggle. Let's not give your father a show.

  Next time I get you alone, there won't be any excuses. He pulled back, but his eyes deepened into a lust-filled hunter green.

  You won't hear me complaining. I winked at him. Surely, he had to know I wanted him as badly as he wanted me. I lifted my head and quickly kissed his lips once more. Maybe we can find some time soon.

  "All right, it's right up here." James's voice turned serious, and my body stiffened in response.

  I sat straight up and glanced out the window. As expected, we were turning onto a road that was barely traveled. The trees became denser as we drove through the woods.

  I'm surprised the road isn't well-traveled. Rose had come into town daily. This appeared as if it hadn't been driven on in months. It had to be glamoured.

  "Are you sure it's smart going in with just the five of us?" Kassie sounded as if she was on edge. "I mean a coven of witches could take out a huge pack of wolves if determined, and we're going in with five of us."

  "I promise you." James glanced over his shoulder. "The priestess here is a good woman."

  "How can you be so sure?" Mason stiffened and took my hand. "I mean they were taking Elena's blood to get the vampires addicted to it."

  "I know, but that doesn't make sense." James turned so he could make eye contact with his son. "You met her."

  "True, but a lot can change in a short amount of time." Mason shook his head.

  "Hey, wait." I lifted both of my hands in front of me. "We agreed to this when we left the house. Why are we discussing this when we're right at their door? They probably already know we're here."

  I don't like the idea of something happening to you. Mason frowned.

  He was starting to sound more like Kassie every day. But we agreed to this, and we're here. This is a conversation that we should've had back at the house prior to leaving. "It'll be fine. And Ella could find someone who knows where the coven is if we need backup." I pulled my cell phone from my pocket.