Chapter 160

EVAN

The royal staff that had been fussing over him and Yena earlier were now coming up to Evan, ready to serve him. He was taken aback. His mind had been on deeper concerns than what he was going to do now, so he didn’t know what to tell them.

“How can we help you, sir? What do you need?” they were all asking. “What can we do for you? Would you like us to retrieve your luggage? Would you like us to call you a car?”

“Yes, thank you,” he said slowly, suddenly very grateful for these people and their helpful guidance.

“Right away, sir.”

They got all of his and Yena’s belongings piled up in a cart and were pushing it alongside Evan back through the airport, heading for the exit. Daring glances around as they moved through the throngs of people, he realized all regular business in the airport had come to a stop. At this moment, every werewolf in the nation was pausing their lives to watch the news, waiting as the fate of their world hung in the balance.

Any minute now, Prince Nolan could be dead. And his father, the Alpha King, was getting old. Everyone knew his fighting days were over. He would be next on Adan’s list.

Then, there would be no one left to stop Adan from taking control of the kingdom. And the speeches that the elder Lycan brother had been broadcasting this past week were bone-chilling.

Adan wanted to change everything if he took power. He wanted to subjugate human immigrants in the werewolf nation and start a war with the human world, as well.

Crowds of travelers, flight attendants, bartenders and kiosk staffers were all gathered around the small wall-mounted TVs at the gates, which previously had been showing boring airline advertisements. Now the news was playing on every screen.

“…still reporting that the prince is in critical condition. No one knows how he has survived the poisoning thus far, but there is very little hope that he will recover…”

“Doctors treating the prince have confirmed the substance was, in fact, wolfsbane, a powerful toxin with no known antidote, and which, it was believed until this day, was imminently fatal to all werewolves within minutes of contact…”

“Prince Nolan, sources say, still has the poison-soaked bullet lodged in his chest…”

“This just in: Breaking news from the palace where, a golden wolf has been spotted rushing the palace entrance…”

Evan turned, still moving forward, and glimpsed Yena on the screen. She had made it to the palace shockingly fast. Her wolf was standing there by the palace steps, facing the King and Queen. Then the royals parted to let her through, and Yena leapt up the stairs and ran inside.

Evan smiled. She’d made it to him. And Nolan was still alive.

He kept hurrying through the airport, but started to realize that people were turning their heads to look at him as he walked by. That was new. Yena wasn’t at his side, and yet strangers were holding their phones up at Evan, taking photos and videos, whispering to each other with their eyes on him.

Everyone had seen him out there on the tarmac with Yena. And now, suddenly, he was a person of interest all on his own. It was very unsettling. Evan’s skin felt hot and itchy, and all he wanted to do was get home.

His anxiety was reaching new heights by the time Evan and his entourage of royal helpers reached the exit. His heart was beating wildly, his mind focused on one thing only—getting the fuck out of there.

A polite young man, one of the attendants, rushed to open the back door of a car that was waiting at the curb right outside the exit door.

Thank God, Evan thought as he leapt inside.

The servant closed the door quickly after him.

All of his and Yena’s suitcases were loaded neatly into the back of the car, very quickly. The hatch slammed closed, then one of servants patted a hand flat against the back of the car twice to signal the driver was clear for departure.

Once the car was moving and his heart rate was approaching normal again, Evan chuckled, shaking his head at himself.

He’d been so ungrateful for those servants earlier. What had he said? That they don’t ever let Yena do anything for herself?

He was suddenly very embarrassed. Those were kind and hardworking people and they had just helped him out a lot. He regretted mocking them. And he knew it had offended Yena, too. His face was getting hot as he thought about it.

“Where to, sir?” asked the driver, peeking back at Evan in the rearview mirror.

He gave the man his parents’ home address.

YENA

The palace was a swarm of bodies and activity.

I blew past everyone and everything, sending people jumping out of my way once again, causing shrieks of surprise at every turn.

Running was not as easy on the marble floors of the palace as it had been outside. I slid and slipped and crashed into the walls more than a few times as I rounded corners through the hallways. But I kept going, following Lily’s course.

The palace was a tremendous place, sprawling and huge. The daily life I’d lived here had been confined to one wing. I ran through places I’d never seen before, picking up the scent of Nolan’s blood and picking up speed along with it.

Finally I rounded the corner into the correct corridor.

There was a door open at the end of the hallway, and medical staff swarming all around it. Their pace was frantic. A bunch of nurses came out of the room pulling bloody gloves off their hands and bloody smocks away from their bodies, looking haggard like they’d just returned from war.

I barreled toward them, trying to slow down now. The marble floor sent me sliding straight ahead, right into the hospital room.

And then I saw Nolan.

He looked very bad.

He was unconscious in a hospital bed, his chest wrapped in blood-soaked bandages. Beeping and whirring machines were crowded all around him, connected by tubes and wires to his arms, chest and throat.

The doctors and nurses in the room gasped and shouted in surprise when I came flying in, sliding across the room and coming to a stop facing Nolan’s bed.

Everyone froze in surprise, their eyes wide as saucers.

I panted out a few heaving breaths, then shifted.

I pressed myself up from the floor, my heart still beating wildly, my lungs working harder than ever. The doctors and nurses were completely aghast. Their jaws dropped practically to the floor. And if their eyes were wide before, now they went wider than wide.

“Get out,” I said firmly, my voice coming out hoarse and throaty. I gave a sharp look to the person I perceived to be in charge, a doctor in a long white coat who was actively treating my husband, holding his hand pressed against Nolan’s chest.

Everyone except him fled the room immediately, understanding me quite clearly. I could sense that they respected me, feared me even.

“I can’t let off this pressure,” the doctor said, his saucer eyes still unblinking in amazement.

“Get. The. Fuck. Out.”

It didn’t even sound like my own voice. It was a growl. A threat.

The doctor didn’t flee like the others had. He pulled his hands away from Nolan slowly, looking very frightened to do so, and then paced backward, keeping his eyes on me, until he found the door.

I closed and locked it behind him.