Chapter 37

Caleb

“What do I do, Mia?”

I couldn’t tolerate my sister’s pitying look, but I needed every bit of information I could get from her to make sense of my circumstances.

“Tell me again what happened? That doesn’t sound like Luka…”

I banged my fist on the table, jolting Mia, but not surprising her.

“I’m sorry,” I said, more tenderly, before sipping the tea that Octavia, my sister’s housekeeper, had laid out for us in her study.

My sister nodded, understanding perfectly.

“I’m just frustrated, because that’s the entire point. I don’t know if she’s the person she thought we knew at all. Who is this stranger?”

“So you said it happened at the clubhouse…”

“Yes. The elders clubhouse. I had gotten an urgent missive to come, that Luka was sick. And you know how her health has been…”

“She had been improving so much, and then she took a backslide after you—”

“After I left. For my tour. I know.” I glared at her, giving her the cruel look I wished I could have given myself for leaving Luka at the most vulnerable time. It was selfish of me.

But I didn’t expect Luka to be selfish right back in return.

“It’s not your fault, Cay.” Mia touched my hand, and I pulled it back.

I shook my head. “I ran into the clubhouse, worried for her. And I felt bad, since I had been so…dismissive of her…based on the rumors. Just the thought of her with…”

I felt my wolf rumble menacingly involuntarily.

“And then I had to see it. Right there. Her and that…animal…in the same room.”

“And how did they react? You can tell a lot by reactions in circumstances like those…”

“I didn’t stay to find out. They never saw me. They want to be alone? They can stay alone. They were not worth my time.”

“But, Caleb. How can you know, then?”

“Are you doubting my account, sister dear?”

Mia shook her head vehemently. “No, not at all. Just…”

“Here’s the truth. I was afraid I might kill them. The fact that I ordered them away from my sight was an act of mercy on my part.”

“Mercy and political reality…” Mia covered her mouth at her slip of the tongue.

I glared at her. “You know how sensitive things are with the Elder Council after the unpleasantness with Olivia. And concerning these two characters, too. In truth, I might even regret taking that creature in…”

“Don’t say that, Caleb. Your heart was in the right place, and I still am not convinced that it’s not in the right place now, that this is all a misunderstanding.”

I heaved a deep sigh. I wanted to have optimism myself, but I knew it was a dangerous trap, capable of convincing me to ignore unpleasant realities in favor of tempting fantasies.

“My sentries are keeping watch over them, so we’ll find out either way. My spies are busy.”

“And they’re more impartial than you are, my beloved brother,” Mia said with a laugh, then took a bite of a scone.

“Exactly.” I tapped my fingers on the table.

“Just make sure you can trust them.”

“I have Arthur and Vincent on the case, leading a team of his most trusted advisers. I trust his judgment more than mine sometimes. And of course, electronic spies have no opinions, only facts.”

“You have a digital tail?”

I nodded. “I do. Cameras, microphones, infrared trackers. It all paints a picture. I need to know that there’s no sabotage in my midst.”

Mia raised her eyebrows and nodded. “Well, I’m doing my best to find out what’s circulating and to stop rumors in their path.”

“What have you heard?” I asked Mia, trying to appear high-minded and above scuttlebutt. But when it involved my monarchy, and the woman I loved, the one I thought without a doubt had been my mate, it stung like a thorn in my jugular.

“Probably the same as you. Previous mate…magnetic pull…”

I flinched hearing the words.

“But Caleb, keep in mind, we’re good judges of character. The goodness that we saw in Luka, I don’t think we were wrong…”

“But people can have many sides, Mia. I know you’re just trying to protect me…”

“Yes. You and the realm.”

“That’s why it’s important to keep our wits, to separate the personal from the practical. If we root out treachery, it will reveal something much greater than just acting on impulse.”

Mia, always the scholar, got a thoughtful look on her face. “And apart from just our own circumstances, all of shifterkind can learn from this, which instinctual aspects of the mating bond translate to facts on the ground.”

I rolled my eyes. “First things first. And that’s sorting out this girl.”

“She’s charming, isn’t she? We were both enchanted.” Mia looked up in the direction of the training facilities. “She enchanted the whole pack.”

“Maybe it’s more a matter of her effect on the people around her than her effect on us.”

“She may have felt like a sister to me, dear brother, but my loyalty is always with you. You are my brother, and no one can replace that.” Mia got a suspicious look on her face. “The witch talked about an enchantment related to her dormant wolf. Do you think there are other enchantments at play, more sinister ones?”

I smashed the teacup down on the table so hard it smashed. “We can speculate about anything, Mia. We can’t distract ourselves with that. We need to find facts, and, more importantly, we need to focus on what comes next.”

Just then, an attendant came into the room with a complex array of monitors, listening devices, and telephones.

“The units you requested sir.” Gareth, the chief technology master, took a bow.

“And they’re set up in my office and bedroom as well?” I confirmed.

Gareth nodded. “As well as the portable unit.” He took what looked like a large plastic frame and with the wave of a hand minimized it to the size of a thimble. “This is for you to take with you, sir, wherever you are.”

“Come watch with me,” I told Mia.

“Is this staying here?” Mia asked incredulously.

“It folds up to the size of this teacup, your highness,” Gareth explained.

“Like Magic…” Mia said.

“Just science,” I said with a grin.

We leaned back in our chairs and watched the feed, with dozens of square items appearing, showing different parts of the compound. I zoomed in on the one with the beautiful woman with the brown hair, in long skirts, and tapped the screen to bring up the audio.

“Please take me back to my room,” Luka said pleadingly, being led away from the Elder Council Clubhouse.

I didn’t expect how viscerally hearing her honeyed voice would affect me, even through the filter of the electronic speaker. I felt Mia’s eyes on me in sympathy.

“That is exactly where I am taking you, ma’am,” the voice of the security detail said.

“Oh, good,” Luka said. I tried to discern the expression she had on her face as she was parted from Declan, but the camera didn’t capture that angle. I would have to tell the security team to add more floating cameras.

They walked out of the hall, and the guard led her by the arm toward the training facility on the far end of the woods.

“But wait. That’s not the direction of the alpha king’s manor…” she said.

“Yes. I am taking you to your room. It’s in Red Moon Crossing, the low-rise apartments…”

“Wait, this has to be a mistake. Let me talk to him…”

“No, ma’am. It’s not a mistake.”

“My things…”

“They’ll be coming along shortly.”

“And Caleb?”

The security guard shook her head with a scowl, and I realized I was making the exact same expression, the one that indicated that my affairs were no longer her concern.

It would take longer for her to disappear from my heart. But in time, I knew it would come.