Page 61 of Fated to the Wolf Prince

“Julius is one of the wolves I sent to hunt down the Russo Alpha for questioning.”

I sucked in a startled breath, and Kane turned back to me. “You think they had something to do with your father…”

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “We’ll turn over every stone until we find the truth. For now, I need to go with him, see what they’ve found. Stay safe, my beautiful mate. I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”

He pressed a chaste kiss to my lips and then, as easily as breathing, melted into his stunning wolf. I ran my hands tenderly over his soft head, letting my fingertips dance over the lighter gray fur around his muzzle in a wordless goodbye. For the wolf, touch would always be more powerful.

“All right,” Gael called with a clap. “Let’s get back to work. This time, don’t try to rip your friend’s throat out, but I like the energy. Instead of a shoulder tackle, we’re going to work on a takedown where you get your arm behind her thigh, like this.”

I blew out a breath and watched as he demonstrated the move on Shay. Leigh watched at my side, growling low in her throat whenever Gael made contact with Shay.

“You okay, Leigh? You seem… off.”

“I’m fine. He just rubs me the wrong way.” She waved off my concern. “This isn’t about me. We have to keep you alive, and then I can stay far, far away from Marine Corps Ken.”

I snorted. If she still had her sense of humor, things couldn’t be too bad.

“You’re up, Brielle. Keep the focus, and let’s see you do it.”

Crap. I hadn’t seen the second half of the move, distracted by Leigh. Gael was going to besopleased with his star student.

THIRTY-SEVEN

Kane

The Russo Alpha was bound and bruised, his right eye swollen shut and blood oozing from a gash above his ear. They’d placed him in the equipment shed, the farthest outbuilding we had from the dormitories, which were still full.

While a few packs had stayed true to their plans to leave immediately after the funeral and the oath binding, more than half had opted to stay to see the results of the challenge.

As soon as it ended, I intended to politely invite them all to get the fuck off my pack lands and give us some time to settle in and enjoy our bonding ceremony in peace. Assuming my men had finished questioning everyone about the murder by then. But first, I had to deal with this piece-of-shit alpha and find out if he’d had anything to do with killing my father.

I paced to a stop in front of him, his good eye tracking my every movement. I’d intended to let him sweat for a few minutes, but my wolf was pushing me to get this over with and be one step closer to an answer.

“Tell me what you know about my father’s death.”

“Is that what this is about? I had nothing to do with that! My pack was halfway to Vancouver when your little bitch brigade caught up to us.” He spat, the bloody glob landing two inches from the toe of my boot.

I stared down at the offensive bodily fluids, then looked back up coolly. “You’re lucky that you have piss-poor aim. And my enforcers had no trouble bringing you in—from the middle of your entire pack, no less—so I guess that makes you worse than a bitch. Stop circling, Shane, and tell me what you know. If you do, we’ll fly you to Vancouver unharmed on the pack jet to meet up with your pack.”

“You call this unharmed? One of your enforcers broke my arm!”

I looked over at Julius, who’d now shifted back to his human form and stood nude a few feet to my left.

“He resisted.” He shrugged, the gesture one of boredom.

A man of few words, as usual. But he always got the job done. Since Dirge had turned feral, he was my best enforcer outside my top three. He was mated and had been for centuries, so the likelihood of him falling into the same trap was blessedly slim. Not that we knew what had sent Dirge over the edge, a fact which Reed was unable to come to grips with.

“He can break the other, as well, if you don’t feel like talking yet. Or, I can have our healer bring out the wolfsbane. Whichever you prefer.”

He froze, terror rolling in his good eye at the prospect. Wolfsbane was anathema to shifters. It dulled our connection to the wolf and, in high enough doses, could sever the connection altogether if not treated.

“I don’t know anything, I swear on my wolf.” His panicked eye was wide, pupil dilated as he snatched against the bonds.

“If only you had a scrap of honor, I might believe that. Somehow, I don’t. Try again.” Without looking over my shoulder, I added, “And someone go get John Henry.”

“Don’t do that. You don’t want to do that. My pack will take that as an act of war, Kane, and high alpha or no, you don’t want to.”

“I think I do.” I wordlessly extended a hand toward Julius, and he pressed a wicked-looking Damascus buck knife into it. The back of the blade curved elegantly, a work of art by a master crafter. I held it up, catching a ray of summer sun with it, letting it lazily cast a beam back and forth over the floor of the barn.

---