Chapter 145

NOLAN

Tossing and turning in his black silk sheets, Nolan was sweaty, itchy, and agitated.

He got up and paced the room. Scorched himself in a scalding hot shower. And finally dressed in the early morning hours and went to his office to drink black coffee and watch the news. Waiting.

He felt in his gut that something was wrong hours before he knew precisely what it was.

His intuition was onto something. What exactly it was that was coming for Nolan, he could not be sure. A strike on the capitol? An assault on the palace, even? It was impossible to penetrate this fortress, but Adan, with his connections, could have infiltrated the palace staff somehow… with him, anything was possible.

Danger was coming for Nolan, that much he knew. And it could be coming from anywhere.

He unlocked his desk and retrieved a slender box from a bottom drawer, where it had been hidden behind a row of confidential files. He handled the box with care, placing it gingerly on his desk before tilting the hinged lid back. Inside was a small pistol.

Nolan knew how to handle a firearm. He was not accustomed to carrying one on him, though. His entire life, he had been instructed to trust his Gamma warriors to protect him in public. It was the order of things, with the men of lower rank and status in the line of fire, their lives less valuable than the prince’s by far.

He checked the barrel and confirmed the gun was loaded. Made sure the safety was on, then tucked the pistol into the inner pocket of his jacket. Nolan was not sure what he was preparing for, but he felt like he needed to be prepared for anything.

The dark, gloomy morning dragged on quietly until, in the span of about ten seconds, the world as he knew it changed forever.

First, the news anchors started to sputter, distracted.

“We’re receiving a live update…” one of them said, looking past the camera with a mix of fear and disbelief on his face.

Then came a loud knock on the door. Nolan opened it to find his secretary looking up at him with tense eyebrows. Behind him, a young man with a messenger bag slung across his chest, carrying a package, stood looking up at the prince as well. He was shaking like a leaf.

Two Gamma warriors were pacing forward slowly from down the hall, keeping an eye on the messenger. Their weapons were raised just a few inches.

“This young man,” the secretary whispered urgently, “made it through security with this confidential package addressed to you, but his odd behavior has the guards on alert.”

Nolan pushed past him and had the parcel in hand a moment later. The messenger looked relieved and scurried away, putting his hands up into the air in a gesture of surrender as he neared the Gamma warriors, who lowered their weapons and slowed their pace, following him back toward the exit at a calculated distance.

Tearing into the package, Nolan felt the glossy edges of large, high-resolution photos on thick paper.

On the news, they were saying: “This is unbelievable…”

“We’ve just gotten word of an official declaration of civil war…”

“Adan, the former Lycan Heir who abandoned the throne a decade ago, has declared war on his half-brother Nolan, pledging to fight for his position in line to be our future Alpha King. This news comes as a shock to the nation…”

The words of the talking heads on the TV floated in through Nolan’s ears. They registered clearly in his mind. And did not stir up an ounce of surprise.

What did surprise him was what he was looking at in the photos in his hands.

They were pictures of Yena. Dozens and dozens of pictures.

Some were taken at her parents’ house. Scenes of Yena with her brother on the front porch. And glimpses of her through the tiny window of her upstairs bedroom. And photos of Nolan and Yena at the doorstep when the prince was there recently to visit her.

Nolan’s pulse thrummed faster and faster as he flipped through the photos. Yena had been followed out of town once, on what looked like a day trip with Evan out to the edge of a waterfall. She had been followed to a bakery. To a boxing gym at the edge of town. To a grocery store.

Nolan realized, his horror growing with every passing second, that Adan had been watching Yena since the day that she had moved out of the palace.

But he had no time to react. The prince was being hurried up to the King’s chambers a moment later. The palace was suddenly alive and full of commotion.

“Ultimately,” the King said to Nolan, “this fight is between you and your brother.”

Nolan’s upper lip almost curled into a sarcastic smile. He wanted to say, “half-brother,” distancing himself from his rival semantically. But now was not the time for sarcastic comments.

It seemed as though his father heard his thought, though. Or perhaps the King knew Nolan well enough that he could just anticipate his son’s reactions.

“He is your brother, Nolan. Like it or not. The two of you carry the noble blood of the Lycan inside of you. And he may have betrayed us… but he is still your elder. He was born to be my heir.”

Nolan’s mouth went dry. He nodded solemnly at his father.

“Adan no longer deserves to wear this crown,” the King continued. “But, in our world, sometimes violence and savagery prevail. And sometimes werewolves cannot help but bow before an Alpha that convinces them of his blood right. You must prepare yourself to fight him, son, to win the right to be called their King.”

“I know, Father.” Nolan squared his shoulders, straightening his spine and focusing on controlling the adrenaline coursing through his body. “I will not let him destroy everything we’ve worked for. I’m ready to face him.”

“Are you?” The King studied Nolan’s face intently. “And what about your Luna?”

“Yena is safe,” Nolan replied. “She’s leaving the country soon. She’ll be safer, out of Adan’s reach.”

The King slowly raised one of his heavy eyebrows. “You think he will not be able to reach her in the human world?”

Nolan swallowed hard. He knew that his father was right: Yena would never be completely safe, especially not while she and Nolan were apart. But Nolan could not force his wife to come back to him and stay at his side. Considering everything happening between them, getting Yena onto the plane now seemed like the safest idea possible.

“And I was not asking about her safety, anyway,” the King continued. “I was asking what role you think she may be playing in all this.”

“What do you mean?”

The King nodded to someone behind Nolan, and a servant appeared with a big envelope that he handed to the prince.

Nolan opened the envelope with a sinking feeling. Slid a couple of big, glossy pictures out.

“I received this by courier this morning. I’m told you received a similar package yourself, as well?”

The first photo was of Yena and Adan, seated side by side at that little bakery Nolan had seen in one of the earlier pictures. And the second photo featured the two of them together again in the same place, wearing different clothes on a different day.

Nolan looked up to see the King gazing down at him sternly.

“What exactly do you think the two of them have been up to?” the King asked. His tone was dry and unemotional. But Nolan could tell by the thick, heavy feeling in the air that his father was angry about this, and deadly serious.