Page 67 of Fated to the Wolf Billionaire

“No. And I want you ungrateful fleabags out of my city before dawn, or I’ll throw you out.” The king tossed his napkin down on the table and scraped back his chair as he pasted on a smile.

If you hadn’t watched him flip the switch, you’d never know it was fake. He left the great hall slowly, laughing and slapping the backs of his people as he worked the crowd on his way out the door.

And I was completely, utterly fucked.

* * *

The restof the dinner dragged as I kicked myself internally for botching the negotiations so badly. I had known Cysernaphus was reticent to see us, but I had falsely assumed he’d want to play ball with the new high alpha. Clearly, based on his derogatory slurs, he was not only not interested in playing ball, he was willing to burn the very bridge we stood on.

Now I had two options: go back to Kane with my tail between my legs—not happening—or figure out a plan B.

I was no thief, but there had to be a way to get that stone. Fiona’s hand landed on my thigh, jarring me from my self-flagellation.

“Well, the night is suddenly looking up,” I joked, reaching over to rest my own hand on her knee under the table.

She smiled up at me, but I could see worry in the depths of her eyes. Leaning in close, I whispered, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure. There’s something… off about one of the dessert trays. Don’t be obvious, but check out the waiter closest to us. About half of the little glasses on that tray are shiny?”

“Shiny? What does that mean?”

“It means they’ve been magically messed with. I don’t know what was done to them, but…”

The likelihood of the king trying to outright poison us was slim, given how recently he’d left and the amount of time it would take to plan something of that magnitude. Also, telling us to go fuck ourselves was insulting; killing us would start a war between the packs and the dwarves, and one to one, the odds were even at best that the dwarves wouldn’t be overwhelmed, let alone wiped out.

Regardless, if she thought it had been tampered with, there was no telling what the contents of those cups might do to us.

Wolfsbane could make a wolf wish he were dead, after all.

“Don’t touch it, and pass word down the table not to touch it.”

“Okay,” she whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to my cheek before turning discreetly to Elodie on her other side.

We excused ourselves quickly once the dessert had been served, and no one commented on our untouched gelato.

Shame they were tampered with. They smelled mouthwatering.

As soon as we were out of the castle and on an empty side street, we paused so I could fill the others in.

“That bastard,” Gael growled.

I waved off his anger. “It’s probably my fault. I tried to take the moral high ground first. I should have started with the financial benefit to him. Dwarves are notoriously reluctant to part with their treasure. But now we’re stuck. He wants us out of the city, but we don’t want to leave empty-handed. We need a fresh idea, and fast.”

Elodie spoke up next. “What if I tried to sneak in? Lisanne gave me an invisibility potion from the local witch. It might be enough to get me past whatever guards he has stationed on the stone, get it, and then get out.”

“Noble, but there’s no way he’d have something that valuable protected by just a pair of guards. It’s going to be in some vault somewhere deep in the mountain, and we don’t know where that is or how to access it.”

She frowned, shrugging. “That’s all I’ve got, unless you want to do this the hard way”—she pointed a thumb at her sword—“but we’re more than outnumbered.”

“What if—” Leigh started as a clatter of boots on stone at the end of the alley made us all freeze, turn.

When the first troll rounded the corner, it took me only a split second to register the double-bladed axe clutched in his meaty green fists.

My first thought was for Fiona, and I bodily shoved her behind my back before she had even registered what was happening.

There was a softshingas Elodie unsheathed her butterfly sword and kicked off her heels, while Gael and Leigh were both growling low in their throats.

One moment of pause. That was all there was before the trolls charged, no showy battle cry on their lips as they barreled down the alley toward us.

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