Chapter 16

“I don’t want him, Dad. I already chose Paul,” Nolan seethed; he was clenching his fork so hard I thought he might bend it.

He was always the quietest, usually staying out of the way while his brothers tormented and instigated those around them. I had rarely, if ever, seen him this angry.

“He is the best of the best. Ezra has come from the Western Territories and was trained from childhood for this role. There will be no discussion,” Alpha Raymond responded and barely glanced at his youngest, but his face was sour.

That wasn’t a surprise. Nolan was the tamest out of the brothers; therefore, he was the least favorite. I didn’t think that Alpha Raymond saw him even as a potential heir, so he made him give up his trainer for the trials so that The Hunter could blend in without question. I wondered how The Hunter would measure up next to Hudson and Dominick's trainer. It might actually be a favor for Nolan, even if it was meant to be a punishment.

“But, Dad—”

“You will start with him tonight,” Alpha Raymond snapped and tried to leash his anger, but it never worked—one of his many downfalls.

“He will make a great babysitter, Nolan,” Dominick purred.

Hudson smirked at Nolan. “We can even give you an extra day to train so that you can get ahead.”

“Hell, make it a week,” Dominick added.

“Enough, boys,” Luna Addison chided, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“The trails are going on as scheduled,” Alpha Raymond said, ignoring the exchange. “Start training whenever you see fit. But we do have something to celebrate before then.” It took me a moment to realize that all eyes were on me.

I looked up and tilted my head, glancing at Alpha Raymond.

“It's almost your eighteenth birthday.” Alpha Raymond's voice made my skin crawl.

Dominick and Hudson turned their gaze to me, their eyes hungry.

“I’ve been waiting to see what’s under all that....” Dominick motioned to my dress. “Fabric.”

I didn’t have to fake my fear. I only had to suppress the anger that tried to claw out of me at the implication.

“Your first shift will be next week,” Alpha Raymond said, turning to his food. “We will all be there for it.”

Next week? Was it already next week? Why did I have it in my mind my birthday was after the trials?

Part of me knew why, a huge part of me, actually. I tried not to remember my birthday; I wished it away. It was near the anniversary of the death of my pack, and that overshadowed anything else.

It used to be a happy time, celebrated with my parents and my friends—an intimate affair after the craziness that was the Moonlight Celebration of Blood Moon. I didn’t mind that it wasn’t a pack celebration; it gave me something to look forward to after my favorite night of the year.

For my birthday, we would have a small dinner with my dad’s Beta and Gamma and his mate once he found her. Then, my parents and I would retire to my Dad’s office, sit by the fire, and open gifts.

Tears immediately pricked my eyes, and I looked down so they wouldn’t see. I spent ages willing away those memories and only held onto the anger, and eventually, I succeeded. I would not think of them anymore tonight.

“Yes, yes, that will be fun.” Luna Addison waved it off. “Finish your dinner, boys; your training starts,” she said almost lovingly.

“Why don’t you come watch us train?” Hudson asked, and it took me a moment to realize he was staring at me.

My eyes shot to his. I didn’t understand what he was trying to do. “Train to fight?” I made my eyes impossibly wide.

“Maybe we will let you decide who takes you first,” Hudson added, and he and Dominick laughed as if he had told even a passable joke.

I clenched my fist under the table. “O-okay,” I managed out.

It was one of the invitations I was hoping for, even if it weren’t a true one. I didn’t need it to be a legitimate invite. I just needed to have an excuse to be there.

Dominick seemed surprised by my response, but his shock was quickly replaced by an oily smile.

***

When I was excused, I went to my room on the pretense of getting changed and carefully packaged some of the Silent Juniper I had dried in a small piece of fabric. When mixed with sugar and water, even wine, it was lethal.

I smiled, remembering Dalton’s pained expression when I paid him a visit.

Enough of this ingested on its own could make you sick. Your body naturally wants to expel the threat and will do so out of every orifice. Sweats, vomit, bowel movements, all of them at once. It was unpleasant, to say the least, but not deadly in powder form.

However ingested, slowly, over time, you could poison someone enough to weaken them without the immediate visceral reaction that would surely tip someone like him off.

To poison someone that way, you had to add salt to slow it down. Our saliva was water, and if they ate it mixed with food and then ate or drank something sweet, it could mix and very well kill them. Salt balanced the sugar, just like oil balanced the effects of firehart, and water made it worse.

Kill them with kindness; kill them with sugar. If you have to bide your time, preserve them in salt. It was the way my dad helped me remember it, I always wondered if he made that up for me because it never really rolled off your tongue as some of those other songs and poems to remind you of things did.

I removed the stone that held my things. I swiped some salt and oil from the kitchen in case I had to mitigate a mistake. I sprinkled some into the powder, not too much that it would be noticeable, and mixed it as best I could.

I would start tonight to weaken him, at least for a bit of insurance, before I decided how to kill a trained assassin.