Page 40 of Wrestling With Werewolves

“Oh, I know,” I mutter. “I just haven’t found my footing with him yet. I worked with Abemet for so long, I’m accustomed to his ways.”

Vikand smiles. “You and Arkan will find your groove, but that’s your path to travel. Tell me what your wolf is asking you to do that’s so bad. I won’t discuss it with my son.”

I sigh. “My wolf is attracted to the princess.”

Vikand snorts, stomping one of his dark forelegs. “Princess Lola?”

“Yeah.”

He cuts me an assessing look. “How attracted?”

Goddess, this is gonna get awkward. I cross my arms. “The attraction goes both ways. He thinks she’s my Luna.”

Vikand’s mouth drops open. “Do you know how rare that is, Alpha?” He waves the question away before I even get a chance to answer it. “Of course you do—silly question.” Wide eyes flash back to me. “Do you disagree with him?”

And there it is, the question at the heart of all my current angst. How can my best friend’s daughter be my mate?

“I don’t know how I’d know about the Luna part, but she’s mine,” I whisper. “And her father is my best friend. I was his Second for centuries, Vikand. This is impossibly complicated. I hurt her feelings last night, I—” My voice fails as I reminisce on how fucking terrible it felt to hurt her. I was shocked in the moment, terrified of what it meant to open those flood gates.

I don’t usually waffle like that.

The centaur male says nothing as he looks to his left at a stack of thick, dusty books. His fingers trail down the pages until he gets to one near the bottom. He grips the spine carefully and pulls the book out, laying it open on the tabletop between us. He pulls his glasses out of his pocket and perches them on the tip of his nose, hovering over the book. Deft fingers find a page and open to it.

He spins the book to face me. The top half of the page is a singular drawing of a shifted wolf, eyes glowing from where he stands in a dense grove of trees. He stands easily a head taller than the few wolves on either side of him. They look like the last line of defense, standing in a row.

Vikand taps below the picture, bringing my attention to rows of unintelligible text beneath the photo. “This book is an account of a pixie living in the wilds in an area with a ruling shifter pack, many, many thousands of years ago. The shifters ruled the forest and kept everyone safe.” He glances up. “This was long before the Cerinvalla Act created the haven system, so, of course, monsters were more at risk from dark forces.”

He slides his fingers over the words. Most are in a language I can’t fathom, much less read—the language of our goddess, Alaya. I’ve seen the maze-like text in books before. Marco has a whole shelf of them in his office. But I’ve never known anyone who could read it. No one has. Thankfully, parts of her account seem to have been translated into English.

Vikand continues, “From the sections I can read, their pack alpha’s wolf began to speak to him, which isn’t unheard of, but then they began to fight. He’d have fits where he’d shout at his wolf, bashing his head against rocks and begging for relief.”

I gulp. “And what happened?”

Vikand sighs. “He threw himself off a cliff and died.”

I snarl. “This is not helpful.”

Vikand points to the next page. “Right, but her account continues. After the alpha died, his Second took over, and his wolf began speaking to him. But instead of waiting for it to get to a point where they drove one another crazy, he went searching for answers. Nobody had ever seen an alpha and his wolf disagree. They thought there might be a sickness going through the pack, something to explain the discord. The pixie accompanied him as a scribe, because the new alpha wanted his findings to be passed along to other wolves, if he was able to figure out what happened to his predecessor.”

Vikand closes the book and pushes it toward me. “Your answers lie within this book, Richard.”

Frustration gets the better of me, a soft growl rumbling from my throat. Big Daddy is quieter than he’s ever been.

“I can’t read most of this book, Vikand. Can you summarize anything else?”

The centaur smiles, but it’s sad, his gaze thoughtful. “I know, but take it anyhow. You might find yourself curious about the details, or perhaps your wolf will have insight. But, yes, this pack ultimately determined one thing.” He gives me a wry look. “On their adventures, the alpha found his Luna. And once he cemented their bond, he became bigger, stronger, more powerful. He and his wolf both communicated with her, and he never had the issues the first alpha had. Instead, they both came into enormous amounts of power.”

All of the air disappears from the room as I grip the edge of the table. She’s the answer to this discord. Of course she is. I close my eyes and try to feel for her, to call her to me. I need to have this conversation with her directly. If what he’s saying is true, then maybe Big Daddy is right. Maybe she and I share this bond, the first pair to share it in thousands of years. I don’t know how we’d know other than Big Daddy’s insistence.

I just know. Isn’t that enough?

I can’t find words to answer him. Desperation to speak with Lola rides me until I can barely stand still.

Vikand’s voice is low as he continues, “I think you already know what to do, Richard. In a fight for what’s right, does your mate come first or your king?”

I thank him and tuck the book under my arm, my mind awash with emotion and focus. I need to talk to Lola.

Now.

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