Disturbing News
*Rafe*
Zeke, Percival, and I lean over my desk in my office, looking at the new numbers. “I think you should also push into Tormentia,” Percival says.
“You just want King Dartmoth Croft to get it right up the ass,” Zeke snorts.
“Why not? He deserves it,” Percival replies.
“I’ll have the army push forward into Tormentia,” I agree. “King Dartmoth doesn’t deserve to be responsible for a pet rock, much less an entire people. Reports say soldiers’ families are being threatened. I’d like to take that off their chests so they might surrender instead of fighting for a king who abuses his power.” I rub my chest.
Percival puts his hand over my heart again, and the warmth spreads, taking away most of the terrible pain. But I can see it costs him as his shoulders droop when he finishes.
“Thank you,” I say. “Really. I know whatever you’re doing isn’t easy on you.”
“I’d rather have my king fighting fit and take a few more naps than have you curled in agony on the floor while Zeke and I try to strategize over your head,” he shrugs.
I nod. “I still very much appreciate your sacrifice.”
He looks as though he’s going to say something else when a messenger rushes in. “King Rafe!” the messenger pants. “Word from Longclaw! Two letters!”
I wonder if that asshole Howard has finally allowed his daughter to write to me, but I see the two letters are from the Alpha King and his Beta. The one from the king is very thin, while the Beta’s is quite heavy.
“Would you like us to leave?” Zeke asks as the messenger scuttles back out.
“No. Whatever this is, I’m sure it involves the wellbeing of the kingdom,” I reply.
Percival and Zeke lean over my shoulders as I open the king’s message first.
King Rafe Poe,
You’re not having her back.
Sincerely,
Alpha King Howard Bleiz
I grimace. I’d practically poured my heart out in my last letter to Howard, begging for my wife to be returned to me. And the best he could do was send me one sentence?!
“Man of few words,” Percival observes.
“So it would seem.” I break the Beta’s seal on the second letter, three pages uncurling in my hands.
King Rafe Poe,
Alpha King Howard Bleiz is going to force me to marry Luna Queen Ainslee Bleiz-Poe within two weeks. This is an arrangement neither of us want to agree to, but the king has said if we refuse, he will send Longclaw troops to march on Shadowmanor Castle.
I have a mate already and am on the brink of marking her and letting the chips fall where they may, but I also don’t want to be responsible for another war. I’ve seen far too much conflict in my time.
I beseech you to come to Longclaw and negotiate with Alpha King Howard. I can think of no other solution. He believes you are a monster, though most of Longclaw knows this not to be true. He is our king. If he orders a war, there will be one.
Also, Luna Queen Ainslee is in a very bad way. Her pregnancy has been difficult, but more than that, she is separated from you and is sick because she is without her mate. She has told my mate on several occasions now she’s simply fighting to make it through the birth and then she is afraid she might die. I have seen her weaken. I do not doubt this is how events will unfold if something is not done.
Ainslee is committed to her promise to her father for the Longclaw troops. She also will not make a move that will cause another war. I cannot simply sneak her out of here. But I refuse to believe I can do nothing but marry her and wait for her to die. She is a good person and deserves to be happy with her fated mate.
Alpha King Howard, of course, does not know I have written to you. I will accept whatever fate is to befall me. Just please come.
Sincerely,
Beta Marcus Lightfoot
Strong hands grip each of my shoulders, and I realize Percival and Zeke are holding me up, just in case.
“I’m all right,” I lie.
“Really? Because I wouldn’t be,” Percival says.
“I’ll tell them to get the carriage ready. Percy, you’re going to need to go with him so he’s still strong by the time he gets to Longclaw.” Zeke’s tone is no-nonsense and not to be trifled with.
I’m not arguing. There is the war to think about, but Zeke has already been taking good care of that, and we are winning on both fronts. No, my place is with Ainslee. It must be.
Zeke takes off out of my office like a rocket to get the carriage ready.
“I’ll go tell Scott to get ready as well,” I wheeze, but when I step away from the desk, I have to take a moment to breathe.
Percival steadies me. “We can’t lose any time.”
“It’s three days to Longclaw. What if we don’t get there in time?” I mumble.
“Then I suppose the Hybridians are going to be fighting Longclaw troops because we are getting our queen back, one way or another,” he says stubbornly.
Sophia comes rushing into my office, her skirts hiked in her fists to aid her hurry. “I’m going to Longclaw as well. I’m writing a letter to Karl this moment and telling him to get there, too. This has gone on long enough.”
“Bad news travels fast,” I chuckle bitterly.
“I met Zeke in the hall. This is complete and utter nonsense.” She snatches a sheet of vellum to the corner of my desk and begins to write her letter. “I won’t have it.”
“Messengers will have to ride through the night to get that to him in time for him to meet us there,” I point out.
“Then they will ride through the night,” she says.
The two of them make sure I get to my room where Scott is already packing with Drake in a sling against his chest.
“Bad news travels very fast,” I sigh.
“Regent Zeke said we are leaving for Longclaw,” he responds, not pausing at all in his packing. “I have to make sure we’re ready to go as soon as possible.”
“Thank you,” I say. “How is His Highness?”
“Napping. We had a very big day, didn’t we, little Drake?” He coos at the tuft of hair sticking out of the sling.
I smile. Scott really is the best nanny I ever could have hoped to find. He’s told me he was a schoolteacher before he was forced to fight for Rallegrad, something I saved him from.
Within half an hour, we are all packed and crammed into two carriages, Percival and me in one, Sophia, Scott, and Drake in the other.
Percival watches me carefully as the carriage bumps and rocks down the road. “Please tell me when you’re in pain again.”
I laugh and force myself not to rub my chest. “You always make me feel better, Percy, but I’m always in at least a little bit of pain.”
He nods. “I imagined that might be the case.”
I regard him for a long time. Then I ask, “Your wife and children. When you lost them, it must have felt like this.”
“It very nearly killed me,” he agrees. “But we don’t have the same mate bond that wolf shifters and lycans do. And, apparently, vampires and wolf shifters, in your case. So, I didn’t die. I live for my people now. When something terrible happens, you have to find a reason to keep going, you know?”
“I don’t know if I’ve said it before, but I’m very sorry for your loss,” I say to him. “I can’t imagine the pain.”
“I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,” he replies.
I rub my chest absently. “I wouldn’t, either.”
He sits forward and puts his hand on my chest, and I feel the warmth spread again through my heart. I sigh and pat his wrist. “Thank you.”
He nods, looking a bit sleepy. “You’re welcome.”
I fall silent so he can get his rest, staring out the window at the landscape. The last time we came this way, I married Ainslee in Warfang. I wonder what sick sense of humor the gods must have that I have to return this way to fight for Ainslee again.
Not that Longclaw is as far as Warfang, but given where they’d settled their king’s house, toward the western border of the Longclaw territory, it might as well be. I imagine Ainslee over the miles and miles, dying in some room, holding on to a thread of life just to make sure our daughter is born.
If she is in half as bad of shape as I am, I’m glad Percival is with me. Though I do worry about him having to use whatever magic he has to heal both of us. He never says anything, but I fear it takes more of a toll on him than he lets on.
Still, I want Ainslee to live. I need her to. I can’t live without her.
“I’m coming, Ainslee,” I whisper into the sunset. “I’m coming.”