Queen Alpha (NYC Mecca #2)(9)
“You’re the best,” I said, before a thought hit me. “Hey, is there any way you could make one more for—”
She dropped a second vial in my hand. “There’s enough there for King Kade’s Staten home and the bear estate on the Island. Nikoli will know what to do.”
I could always count on my best friend to think ahead. She’d probably already told Nikoli about it. He was Kade’s royal magic born and seemed to be almost as powerful as Violet.
Almost.
I put the two vials in my pocket before picking up my turkey and bacon sub. I’d just opened my mouth to take the first bite when Violet spoke again.
“So what’s with you and King Kade?” Her tone was relaxed, almost uninterested, but those white-blue eyes were locked on me, watching with intensity. I opened my mouth before closing it again. What could I say about Kade and me? It was … I didn’t even understand it.
Her next words were even softer. “When he looks at you Ari, it’s like … it’s like I can see the energy between you both. More than anything I’ve seen before. Even in true love pairs.”
I sucked in a ragged breath. Damn Violet, leave it to her to not ask a word about us for weeks and then drop this. I set the sandwich down and cleared my throat. I couldn’t keep it bottled up any longer, and I trusted my oldest friend.
“You know that bear I kissed on the Island when I was fifteen?”
Some of her seriousness faded, and a smile of remembrance crossed her face. “Scrawny guy? You talked about him for weeks.”
I sighed. “That’s Kade.”
Now it was Violet’s turn for her mouth to pop open in surprise. “Holy shifter,” she breathed. “Girl, he is so not scrawny.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, he’s not now. So yeah, we have this history, and then he was in the garden at the Summit and he remembered me. He kissed me. It’s … I’m the queen of the wolves and he’s a bear king.”
I let my words trail off and Violet’s eyes darkened as she read some emotion across my face. She reached out a hand to lightly touch mine before pulling away; she didn’t say anything more. We both knew there was nothing either of us could do or say. No matter the attraction Kade and I shared, we could never be. After this we ate in companionable silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts.
The next day, the wolf council lined up before me. We were in the basement area, preparing for the alpha meeting. All eleven were dressed in their full robes, arms crossed over their stubborn chests. I was meeting with them first, before we opened the doors to the alphas of the boroughs, and the lesser leaders of the smaller packs. These leaders had come from far and wide to learn of my news.
Finn sat at my feet. He said that all was quiet in Manhattan right now, but I could still sense the tension thrumming in his huge body. His worry was bleeding over into me, but I couldn’t focus on that. I had a bunch of ignorant shifters to deal with.
“You can no longer keep secrets of the Tuatha from me,” I said for the third time since we started this meeting. “Torine … you should have told me about the magic books. We should be researching everything we can to learn of a weapon to help us in this war.”
They just continued staring at me, eyes glittering, expressions hard and unyielding. “You weren’t there,” I said, some of my composure fading away, anger leaking into my words. “It was a single fae and he cut through us no problem. Ka … King Kade and I barely managed to take him down, and we have the mecca at our command. What do you think will happen if an entire army comes through?”
Unease filtered through them then. Some shifted where they stood, and Glenda, my old teacher, stepped forward to address me directly. “Queen Arianna, you must understand that the magic information within those walls is beyond our knowledge. Beyond any wolf shifter’s knowledge. Most of the books are not even in a recognizable language. So while there’s a chance you would find some information inside to help, there’s an even bigger chance that whomever read the books would be destroyed, or would discover a power to destroy our packs. It’s too large a risk for us to let that information out.”
Well, I already knew Violet could read them, and so far no one was dead. So far. I hoped my friend knew what she was doing.
Finn shifted closer to me. Tell them, Ari. Force them to understand. This is going to come to us whether we are ready or not.
I ran my hand over the wolf, and the rumbles shaking his huge body calmed somewhat. I’ll make them understand, and if they don’t, I’ll figure out a way to make sure that all of the shifters are ready. I don’t need them. It would just be easier with their help.
I tilted my head slightly up so my voice would project with strength. A tip from Calista’s many years of training. “It’s not your place to decide who gets to do what in this house. I am the queen. I want to know everything that is happening with my people.”
I never wanted to start my rule at odds with the council. They were wise in history and tradition, but they continued to force my hand. They had left me with no choice.
Torine cleared his throat. “It was the Red Queen’s desire that we seal away all books pertaining to knowledge of the fae.”
What? Why on Earth would the Red Queen do that? I tucked that piece of information away for another time. It was another part of the puzzle that made up the former wolf queen. Hopefully I’d have a full picture soon of who she was. Which might also lead me to how she ended up dead at the hands of the fae.