*Xander*
The inn had a modest restaurant on the first floor, decorated in a similar fashion to the rooms above. I was sitting at a round table in a far, quiet corner of the restaurant, a huge platter of roast beef with gravy, sourdough bread, and roasted vegetables laid out between and the ambassador sent from the East.
He was a young man, likely only a few years younger than myself, with rich dark hair and slightly tilted erald green eyes. He bore the characteristics of the royal eastern family, with his sharp nose and high cheekbones, and a strong jaw and chin. I eyed him curiously as he forked a piece of roast beef from the platter and dropped it on his plate, letting out a long sigh as he blinked down at his food.
“Long trip?” I asked, sipping from my pint of bitter, dark ale.
George, a great-nephew of the forr Alpha King of the East, looked up at through his thick, dark lashes as a wry smile touched his lips.
“Absolute hell, if I’m being honest. I always forget how long it takes to get anywhere in Finaldi.” He took a bite of the roast and sighed again, shaking his head. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in days.”
“Sa,” I said, filling my own plate and stealing a glance toward the foyer.
Lena was in for the shock of her life when she ca downstairs to et us, and I was looking forward to watching her emotions play over her face.
“My partner will be joining us in a mont. She needs to... uhm, finish drying her hair.”
“I didn’t know your field partner was a woman,” he said with a cock of his brow.
I shrugged, hoping the heat still gripping my body from what Lena and I had been up to only half an hour before wasn’t evident on my face.
“She’s the best botanist Morhan has to offer,” I smiled, despite my efforts to remain neutral.
“Well, don’t tell my cousin that,” George grinned, swiping a piece of at through the gravy on his plate. “She’s a botanist as well, but her field study is in Red Lakes.”
I ran my tongue along my bottom lip, arching my brow and nodding my head in response. Oh, hell. This was going to be interesting.
“You might know her, actually. Selene Gray.”
“I don’t think I do. My course of study is in pharmaceuticals.”
“She’d be hard to miss,” he said with a little chuckle. “But I haven’t seen her since this ti last year. The whole damn family still congregates in Avondale every December–”
I was watching him closely as he spoke. I was feeling a little anxious now, wondering when Lena was going to walk down the stairs. Any minute she’d round the corner of the foyer, and she’d either run or co face to face with the truth.
“Did you co here on your own?” I asked.
George shook his head, but then considered my question and shrugged. “Charlie is in Breles eting with their Alpha. I’m ant to run whatever information the warriors have gathered pertaining to the investigation back to them at the end of my stay.” He glanced up at quickly before settling his gaze back down on his food. “Prince Charlie, that is.”
“I gathered as much,” I said lightly, giving him a crooked smile.
Based on George’s casual deanor, I’d already assud he wasn’t in line for any title, but he was still related to the retired Alpha King of Valoria, Ethan Gray. He would have grown up with the princes, as well as Alpha King Rowan, and Troy, the Alpha of Poldesse.
I could have asked him about his ties, but I knew it would take an hour for him to go over every branch on his enormous family tree. He was tied to the West as well, through the marriage of Alpha King Rowan and Queen Hanna, whose family hailed from Red Lakes and whose father was the Alpha King of the West, of Finaldi.
Ethan Gray’s reign was substantial based on the way he had connected the entirety of the pack lands through marriages and offspring, centing a hereditary monopoly that would rule for generations to co. It was incredible, really, how much that man had accomplished in just under fifty years of rule.
We ate in silence for a few minutes as I gathered my thoughts. I glanced at George as I reached for my beer, noticing the thin gold band on his ring finger. He noticed my gaze and smiled, his cheeks going ruddy as he flexed his hand.
“My wife isn’t here with , unfortunately. She’s pregnant, and wasn’t feeling up to a month-long boat ride to the West.”
“Congratulations,” I said earnestly, giving him a smile.
He smiled in return, his eyes misting for a mont before he brought his beer to his lips. “Thank you, it was a surprise, to be honest. I’m still coming to terms with it.”
“It couldn’t be so much of a surprise,” I quipped, leaning back in my chair. I was ward, and comfortably full, and thankful for the distracting conversation.
“Well, Joy and I were... well, you know. I’d known her all my life. She’s from Suntra, and her family vacationed with mine in Avondale every winter. We were in love, but didn’t know we were mates until she turned twenty-one last year. I married her the day after her birthday.”
“Really?” I said with a little laugh.
He nodded, crossing his arms over his chest and chuckling as the mory drifted behind his eyes. “We eloped. I thought Ethan–the forr Alpha King, as you know–I thought he was going to kill us both.”
“You’re alive, so I’m guessing the family accepted your decision eventually?”
“Yes,” he grinned, leaning back in a similar fashion to myself. “They act tough, but when it ca down to it, all they wanted was our happiness. It was my great aunt who silenced any complaints, actually.”
He could only be talking about one person. Rosalie, the White Queen.
I felt a glimr of hope settle in my stomach.
“This will be my last errand as a royal ambassador, actually. Joy and I are moving with her parents and their pack to the southern jungle–”
I almost spit out my beer, but swallowed it, giving him a quizzical eye. “The southern jungle?”
“Joy’s mother was from Dianny, if you can believe it. Her parents raised the kids that survived, and now what was left of the people in Dianny have outgrown the island of Suntra. They’ve been building a new settlent on the shore of the southern jungle for a few years now. It’ll be ready for the pack this coming spring.”
Dianny. Lycenna. I closed my eyes for a brief mont, trying to stabilize my thundering heart.
“You’ve heard the tales, I assu?” George shrugged, catching on to my discomfort.
Oh, if he only knew...
“Xander!”
I turned to Lena’s voice, seeing her standing in the foyer, her eyes narrowed at . I stood abruptly, biting the inside of my cheek as her gaze turned to George.
There it was–panic. She confird with her expression what I’d already known for a long ti. George opened his mouth, a surprised but genuine smile playing over his face, but then he stilled, his brow knitted in marked confusion. She was staring right at him, her face twisted in a scowl.
“This is Lena,” I said, clearing my throat as I motioned for her to co join us at our table.
“Oh,” George said, narrowing his eyes at her as she sheepishly walked forward, her cheeks flaming with a deep, frustrated blush.
She sat down, pulling a plate in front of her and began piling it with roast beef. I watched her for a mont, trying not to laugh as she did everything but make eye contact with George. I wanted to ask what her deal was, but I knew it’d be fruitless. She wasn’t going to tell the truth, no matter the situation.
“Crimson Creek, huh?” George said, giving Lena a stern look that made my skin prickle with adrenaline. “A far cry from–”
“What news from the Alpha of Breles?” she interrupted sharply, forking a piece of roast into her mouth.
George sucked on his lower lip, his eyes fixed firmly on hers for a mont before he surrendered to whatever ga they were playing via the mind-link, I assud, and turned his attention back to with a resigned sigh.
“The woman you sent word of? Jen? She’s missing. But based on the evidence gathered from those in the village and the estate, she is the pri suspect of the murder of the woman nad Gretta and is wanted for information pertaining to the disappearance of the groundskeeper and farmhand.” George sipped his beer, his gaze flicking to Lena before he t my eye again. “Sothing unusual was discovered, however. The warriors went out into the hills outside of the estate and found the remains of an old settlent in a nearby valley. It should have been long abandoned, but there were signs of activity in the area.”
I’d been there. I’d gone with Elaine that day she went with to collect samples of blood root.
Lena turned her gaze to , her eyes shining in the dim light of the restaurant’s chandelier.
“I know of that place. I didn’t get close enough to investigate,” I replied.
“Probably a good thing. There were signs of it being so kind of... sacrificial altar, of sorts. I have the report, and will be taking it back to Breles when I leave Crimson Creek in a few days.”
“Do you have samples of the blood root?” Lena asked, dumping an obscene amount of gravy on her plate.
“Of what?”
“Blood root,” she repeated, looking annoyed.
“It’s a plant that grows around the village,” I sighed, glaring at Lena. “We have samples of it. Slides, ready for the microscope.”
“If you feel it would aid in the investigation, I will take it with ,” George said, glancing between us, his brow furrowing with suspicion. “Are you two together?”
“No!” Lena and I said, a little too loudly.
A smile touched the corner of his mouth, but he hid it well.
After we finished eating, George said, “Well, I’m sure you’ve given your own reports to the warriors,” leaning back in his chair. “Is there anything else you’d like to add?”
Lena stood from the table, looking flushed. She shook her head, and then turned on her heel and walked briskly away and out of sight as she rounded the foyer.
“She’s in a horrible mood,” George huffed, toying with the remains of the food on his plate.
“Is she always like this?” I asked, eting his eyes.
Understanding passed between us, and he nodded, pursing his lips.
Silence blanketed the table for a mont, but then I leaned forward.
“Listen, I have sothing I need to tell you, that the royal family needs to know. But... it needs to be off the record.”
“Why?” George asked, looking intrigued.
I let out my breath, still gazing directly at him.
“I think the pack lands are in danger. There’s soone I need you to et–a family, here in town. But you have to promise their identity won’t be involved in the report.”
George narrowed his eyes at as I took a breath.
“They’re not like us,” I said. “They’re not from this realm.”
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