Gil
I focused on the garden outside my window. Fidgeting with the hard platinum metal bracelet that marked me as Alpha of the ArcKnight pack, I couldn’t help but to scowl. The road was always painted gold for the prince of the pack. Anything I wished would be brought to me at a moment’s notice, anything at all.
The one thing I wanted was the most impossible to obtain. My father died today after being attacked by an unknown assailant, and I wanted that person, creature or thing to hang for it.
It was my only wish.
Not this circus going on around me as I lamented, staring across the expansive gardens my mother maintained. She was out there now, pruning, digging up the dirt, planting and nurturing her precious brood of flowers, fruit trees, and other horticultural specialties I knew nothing about. I’d never taken to her green thumb, but as I watched her systematically work her gloved hands through the rows of tulips, petunias and other flowers she alone kept alive, I wished I could obtain her level of peace.
I had no such luxury.
Her husband was dead before his time, and she was calmer than a calm before a storm. I loved and hated this characteristic of hers, but that was my mother. Adelaide had no head for war or peace, but her mere presence calmed everyone who had the pleasure of meeting her in person. It was an ability that mystified me, and sometimes I could see the same trait in my partner, Rafaela. My parents had chosen her to be my betrothed when I was born, though I highly suspected my mother had more to do with it than my father. Rafaela was a perfect mate for me, but I knew that fate had nothing to do with it. Adelaide had everything to do with the choice.
“It’s time.” Right on cue, my beautiful bride-to-be’s voice interrupted my reverie. I didn’t look away but continued to stare, lost in the repetitive movements of my mother’s hands.
“My mother?”
Rafaela approached the window and breathed out, looking tired. “I’ll take care of it.”
She swerved around, her long, dark brown hair swinging into my sight as she left to retrieve my mother. The soft breeze replacing her left a trailing scent of honeysuckle and spring air. Closing my eyes, I let it swirl around me. Rafaela was… intoxicating. That was the word. No one compared to her, and I didn’t know how my parents had found her so many years ago. Her parents were not ArcKnights. They were from another pack, far from here on the other side of the world. They’d been summoned for the pairing since they had a newborn daughter of the right age and wished to forge an alliance with our pack. They’d relocated and had happily sealed our futures with a blood oath, swearing our families’ bond forevermore.
Now, at the age of twenty-two, we were normally free to get married when we wanted to. The only exception to that was if the ruling Alpha died or was in any way disabled, we were to be married within three days to take the head position in the family.
We had two days to set up a wedding.
I knew Rafaela had it all under control and was probably a tangle of nerves, as was I, but it was too soon. We had just become adults, and with marriage, a whole other set of problems came with it.
I wasn’t looking forward to it, no matter how much it was my destiny.
Pulling my eyes from the glass, I turned to grab my jacket. It was time to get this show on the road. I loathed funerals, especially when it involved a family member. Who didn’t? I was now tasked with finding my father’s killer, and I was pretty sure the one person who could help me had just been banished into the city and was probably dead by now.
I shouldn’t have banished her so quickly. It was a rash decision to send Lily away so soon. I was distraught and didn’t even wait for Rafaela to come when I had Lily shoved out the gates.
Most lone wolves didn’t survive a night out in the ghettos of the city, beyond the borders of the Arcknight stronghold. Nope. I was positive Lilliana, my fiancé’s sister, was good as gone. I was kicking myself for being so naïve as to let the elders handle her fate and for me delivering it too swiftly. It never occurred to me until afterward that she could have some answers about the circumstances surrounding his death. Now… that was a dead end. Finding her in the tangle of derelict houses and destitute streets was almost a near impossible feat in a city the size of Temple; it could rival New York City. Besides, there was a rival pack nearby who would certainly be eager to sink their teeth into her.
The MarkTiers shared the city with us, but they held the south side of town whereas we held the north. The in between, east and west were the neutral lands, formally called Temple City, but were not governed by either pack. No one crossed the other’s territory, but the in between? Anything goes.
“Ready?” Rafaela asked, returning from retrieving my mother.
I nodded. “Yes. You?”
She sighed and gave me a somber smile. “As I’ll ever be.”
“Tell me something, love?”
“Yes?” She perked up and waited as I gathered the words I wanted to say. If it didn’t come out right, I could offend her. That was something I didn’t want to do.
“Do you think Lilliana might know who did this to my father?”
Rafaela’s once bright face tightened when I mentioned her sister. She did love her younger sibling, but their relationship was probably based more on duty, not love. I never did pay any attention to it. Though Rafaela rarely showed her sister more than a slight cold shoulder, Lilliana would never speak wrongly of her older sister. The two were thick as thieves in private; it was the royal public life that had worn down—but not quite broken—their connection.
“I don’t know.” Rafaela lifted her chin as she subjected me to her cold, dissecting glare. “And if she did, she’d have told me.”
“She always told you everything, right?” I toned down a challenging glare. Treading carefully here was a must.
“That I know of… yes.” Rafaela let her eyes fall away and studied the ground. I knew she was holding something back. The sisters had been distant as of late, and I wondered if Rafaela realized just how big the divide had become. It would grow even worse once she became my wife.
Pack before family. Always. But what defined those lines?
I reached for her and grasped her hand in mine, giving it a firm squeeze. Sooner or later, she’d tell me what had happened between them. I was her mate. There could be no more secrets.
“Shall we go?”
Chapter Four