Page 19 of Wolf Queen Ruin
Most troublingly, it hadn’t prepared me for my own response to her presence, the way my carefully maintained walls seemed to fracture whenever she challenged me with those unnervingly perceptive eyes.
For three centuries, I’d cultivated control as meticulously as Renaissance nobles had cultivated their gardens.I’d learned to suppress the wild impulses of my fae heritage beneath the cold calculation of my vampire nature.
Yet within days of meeting Luna, I’d found myself making a joke about dungeons and sex swings, of all things.Utterly undignified.Completely unplanned.
She made me unpredictable to myself.A dangerous development.
Across the street, the man glanced at his phone, then pocketed it and began walking toward the Repository’s side wall with newfound purpose.
I moved before conscious decision formed.A blur of speed that would have been invisible to human eyes.In the narrow alley beside the building, I intercepted him, my hand closing around his throat with just enough pressure to communicate the seriousness of his situation without crushing his windpipe.
“You’ve been observing this building for one hour and twenty-three minutes,” I said pleasantly.“I find myself curious as to why.”
Fear bloomed in his eyes—the instinctive recognition of predator by prey.“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I smiled, allowing just the barest hint of fang to show.“Let’s try once more, with honesty this time.Who sent you to watch Luna Rookwood?”
His pulse raced beneath my fingers.Fascinating how human bodies betrayed them so consistently.
“I’m just doing a job,” he choked out.“Atlas Security.We were hired to keep tabs on her movements.”
“By whom?”I asked, loosening my grip just enough to allow easier speech.
He sucked in a breath.“I don’t know.I swear.The contract came through standard channels just a few days ago.All I know is I’m supposed to watch both exits and report when she leaves the building.”
I studied him, sorting truth from lies with senses honed over centuries.He wasn’t lying about his ignorance, which was both frustrating and concerning.
A few days ago… That was when we’d both arrived here from Japan and decided to hunt the Shadow Fang.
“You’re going to do something for me,” I said, catching his gaze with mine.The compulsion slid from me like silk, wrapping around his consciousness.“You’ll report that Ms.Rookwood remained inside all day.You’ll request reassignment to a different surveillance target.And you’ll forget this conversation.”
His pupils dilated as the compulsion took hold.“Report…remained inside.Request reassignment.Forget conversation.”
“Excellent.”I released him and straightened his collar.“Now walk away and do not look back.”
As he departed, blank-faced and obedient, I felt the familiar disquiet that accompanied using compulsion.A necessary evil, but one that always left a bitter aftertaste reminiscent of the ash and elm berries my fae mother had used to ward off dark magic in another lifetime.
I checked my watch.In forty-five minutes, Luna and I would attend Selene’s gala, moving one step closer to the Shadow Fang.One step closer to saving Elliot.One step closer to a salvation I wasn’t certain I deserved.
And I still hadn’t told Luna about the price of finding the Shadow Fang.A price that would bind us together far more thoroughly than our fictitious engagement.
The truth was, I’d selected Luna not just for her skills or her access to Dr.Felix’s library, but for a quality rarer than either—her complete disregard for supernatural hierarchies and politics.The very trait that had gotten her exiled from her pack made her uniquely valuable for what lay ahead.
If I’d been completely forthright about everything, Luna might have refused outright.And I couldn’t risk that refusal.Not with Elliot deteriorating so rapidly.Not with the Shadow Fang representing our last, best hope.
So I’d chosen calculation over transparency.Strategy over honesty.The vampire’s path over the fae’s.
I moved toward the Repository’s front door and found my thoughts returning to Luna’s expression when she’d gazed up toward the patients’ ward.The raw determination.The barely concealed fear.The love that defied reason and self-preservation alike.
I recognized that particular combination intimately.I’d worn it myself once, centuries ago, when I’d allowed myself such uncomplicated devotion.Before blood and politics and centuries of calculated decisions had hollowed me into something colder and more efficient.
Tonight, Luna would step into a world where such naked emotion was considered a weakness to be exploited.And I would be responsible for guiding her through it unscathed.
The irony wasn’t lost on me.
I’d spent three centuries avoiding emotional entanglements with beings whose lifespans were mere flickers compared to mine.I’d buried enough loves, both of my family and otherwise, to populate a small cemetery of the heart.Each loss had carved away another piece of whatever soul had survived my turning.
Yet here I was, feeling strangely protective of a woman I barely knew, a woman whose usefulness to my plans should have been my only concern.
