Page 46 of Fated to the Wolf Prince

Gael stepped around the rocks, and the dank smell ofsorrowrolled off him.

“Alpha, I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t interrupt if it were anything less.” His eyes never strayed from mine, politely ignoring my curious mate, my raging hard-on, and the perfume of her arousal I knew he could smell from where he stood.

“What is it?”

His face fell, and I immediately began searching the pack bonds. Someone was seriously hurt or injured, or else…

“I’m sorry, Kane, but your father… your father’s been killed.” My mind went white, blank as a sheet, as my lifelong friend and second-in-command dropped to both knees, his eyes locked with mine. “Long live the high alpha, Kane, son of Kosta, son of Konstantin, ruler of the nine great packs.”

No.

No, it wasn’t possible. My father had decades of ruling ahead of him. And my mother wasn’t even here. She was back in Romania, and she was also—I reached out further, past Pack Blackwater, pressing for that familial pack bond, and where there had always been strength and comfort, the solid foundation I’d built my life on, I found… nothing.

Stark, cold emptiness.

They were gone.

I threw my head back and howled.

Gael was talking,saying something. He’d stood back up and was trying to impress upon me what had happened, who was there, what Reed was doing, what the guard who found him said—I didn’t hear any of it. My brain had shut down, moved into survival mode.

My father was gone. The man who’d taught me everything I knew about being a fair, strong leader. The man who’d played soccer with me every day after school behind the pack mansion in Romania was gone.

My mother, the one who’d sung me Romanian lullabies and kissed my scraped knees, who’d let me cry and never told a soul when my first girlfriend broke up with me was gone.

Every pack under my father’s command save a handful had representatives on my pack lands, and he was gone. There was no high alpha, no one holding the reins of all the packs.

Except, it wasn’t true. There was a high alpha.Me.

Pain seared through my heart like broken glass, but I shoved it aside, down and down and down. I would deal with all of it, but first I must see to my mate. Her safety was the only thing that mattered now, and all the rest would come after.

“Turn!” I barked at Gael again, and he fell gratefully silent when he turned his back on us, giving us a moment of privacy.

This wasn’t how our first sexual encounter was supposed to end, but I couldn’t ignore this, no matter how much I wanted to crawl into her arms and let her comfort me, take it all away. No, I knew what had to be done.

And so I moved with wooden efficiency, grabbing the towels that had been left here for us, gently pulling her from the water and patting her down carefully with the first towel.

Something jabbed into my chest and finally broke through the blank cotton haze I was operating in. I looked down, surprised to see her finger poking me.

“What?” I asked, genuinely confused.

“Kane, I can dry myself off. I feel fine now. After… umm…” She cast a glance at Gael, his back toward us, but scant feet away. “Not important. I’m fine. Please, get your clothes. We have to get back and see what’s going on. I can’t believe someone would poison your father, nothere. It’s awful, Kane. I’m so sorry. But I’m here for you. Please, let me do this so we can get back quicker. Your wolves need you.”

Poison? Had Gael said that? Had some bastard really taken thecoward’s wayand poisoned my father, taking my mother in the process? Clearly, Brielle was processing more quickly than I was, because I hadn’t heard a word Gael had said afteryour father’s been killed.

The shaking started with my hands, went up through my arms, then my shoulders began to shake so hard, I knew I was about to shift whether I wanted to or not. I took a large step back from Brielle so I wouldn’t hurt her when a massive wolf burst out of my skin, but she stepped forward aggressively, not letting me take that space.

“Kane! Stop!”

My entire body stilled, and her hands were on my chest again. I didn’t know how she did it, stopping me midshift. I didn’t really care, frankly, if it was more proof of her omeganess. All I knew was my mate was the only thing who made sense, who grounded me, who felt like home.

“This is awful, it’s terrible, you’re in shock, and it’s going to be a long night. But you cannot do this, okay? You cannot break down, not right now. Your people don’t need to see your wolf, they needyou, the man. That’s the sucky part of being Alpha, right? But you are the most alpha wolf I’ve ever met, and I know we can get through this. But how you respondright nowsets the tone for the rest of your reign, so it needs to be right. Take a moment to settle yourself. It’s okay not to be okay. He was your father. Your people don’t need to see you like this.”

She sucked in a deep breath through her nose, holding eye contact with me, both hands on my shoulders. I followed her, letting her wisdom guide me in this time of grief. She blew it out slowly between her lips, puffy and reddened from my kisses, and I knew without a doubt she was my true north. No matter how lost I felt, with the gaping hole where my connection to my parents used to be, she would never let me go astray.

“Excellent. Now, let’s get dressed, and get back. We’ve got a murdering bastard to find.”

The glint in her eyes told me that my peace-loving doctor would happily tear the guts out of whoever had done this, and something shifted in me again. She was right. I didn’t have time to be shocked right now, and I had to be clear-headed. Somebody had murdered my parents, and that low-life scum was going to pay.

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