Page 5 of The Reign of Blood

“But the full moon,” someone begins to protest, and he waves his hand dismissively, effectively cutting them off.

“Can be celebrated elsewhere.” The firmness in his tone isn’t to be questioned and everyone knows it. Silently, the gathered wolves begin to disperse at his command, except one, who stalks toward me with purpose.

Leticia.

Fucking Leticia.

“I’ll still be declaring a challenge against that disgusting fae,” she bites, eyes narrowing as she glares at me, and I roll my eyes.

“I wouldn’t bother,” I grunt, my gut twisting slightly with concern for the intoxicating fae that is now in the grasp of my vampire friend, but I tamp it down, making sure it’s not noticeable to the outside world.

“I can do whatever I please,” Leticia retorts, hands on her hips as she attempts to peer down her nose at me.

“You can, but I don’t want you. Whether you win or not. You just can’t seem to get the message,” I snarl, pushing further venom into my words as I glare back at her. I don’t feel an ounce of guilt as she turns with a huff and storms off. She’s never going to learn, no matter what I say or do.

“Your way with women is… interesting.”

I turn to my father. His raised eyebrow and judgmental gaze only makes my wolf harder to restrain. Instead of letting him know the difficulties I’m facing, I scoff at him. “Says the man holding Queen Reagan captive.”

“She’s not a queen anymore,” he snarls, revealing his own emotions as the muscles at his neck bunch together. It seems I’ve definitely hit a nerve.

“And why does it feel like you had something to do with that?” My chest tightens at the accusation I already know is true. He doesn’t bother with a response, though. Instead, he tilts his head up to stare at the moon, but I don’t miss the smirk that ghosts over his lips.

He’s always been like this. Elusive. Holding all of his cards closely to his chest. It makes it hard for anyone to predict his next move. It’s half of the reason I left. I want transparency and truth from my leader, and he’s incapable of either of those things. That’s how I knew the pact with my friends was my future. My father will never be an alpha I believe in, so I’ll be myown leader, my own alpha, with my own pack instead of waiting for him to die.

“Why the fuck do you have Queen Reagan anyway?”

“That’s none of your concern,” he retorts, not bothering to look away from the moon.

“I think it is,” I push back, finally earning his deathly stare again.

“Are you a part of this pack?” he grunts, jabbing a finger at the ground as he takes a heavy step toward me. Even with only the moonlight glittering down on us, I can still see his cheeks reddening with anger.

Fucker has me there, but this is about more than the pack and he knows it.

“I’m going to bring this to The Council.” The words are out of my mouth before I can even consider them, but the scowl I expect is nonexistent as he tosses his head back with a dark and wicked chuckle.

“You think they don’t already know?” he muses, eyes returning to me once again.

“Bullshit.” There’s no way. There is nofuckingway.

“Think about it, Cassian. I’ve done what I want, when I want, for years now. Why do you think that is?” His grin doesn’t reach his eyes as the feral side of my father rushes to the surface. “It’s because I hold all of the power, and you turned your back on all of that for a Kingdom that doesn’t care what it does to its subjects, thinkingyoucan change it. You can’t.” His words become gravely and choppy as he turns his jabby finger toward me, pushing at my tense chest with every syllable before sauntering off without a backward glance.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Maybe out of my depth is not a true representation of where the fuck I’m at. Scrubbing a hand down my face, I take a deep breath that does little to calm me.

My father’s secrets are more than I could have anticipated. Queen Reagan is in his grasp; she has been for more years than I care to decipher right now, and that obviously leads me back to one person.

Addi Read. Or, more specifically, AdriannafuckingReagan.

A hand lands on my arm, pulling me from my thoughts, and I whip my head around to find Janie looking up at me with concern swelling in her deep eyes.

“Are you okay?” she whispers, and I sigh. There’s no real answer to that right now. Not one I can truly wrap my head around and swear it to be true.

“I’ve been better.”

She nods in understanding as we both watch my father shift into his wolf form before darting through the tree line in the distance.

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