Chapter 26

Twenty-Six

CALUM

Glee? It’s a funny word. One syllable. But it’s better than any hallucinogen I’ve ever tried.

I’m giddy. Two syllables.

No, I am ecstatic. Three!

Fuck, I’m intoxicated. Intoxicated on happiness.

There’s some pleasurable sensation that reaches me in the depths of my sleep. Such an odd state to be in, half conscious. Between wakefulness and dreaminess. Something that eluded me for so many years now seems like a normal occurrence with my Vera wrapped in my arms every night.

The thumps of my heart make it difficult to hear anything else, and when I try, my body refuses to make a move. That full feeling of ecstasy hits me again in waves, tingling up and down my spine, and a muffled moan escapes my lips. Am I back off the cliff?

No. I can pry my eyelids open, but it takes some time to focus my vision.

Wild red hair flies in all directions like it’s been struck with static, and the insane texture of my trance snares me, holding me firmly against the mattress. Veracity’s fucking me and I’m stuck. My body won’t move.

Warmth crawls slowly up my bare chest as her fingers dance toward my face, and then the drumbeats within my ears are replaced with her sweet, lilting voice. “Good morning, handsome.”

She’s breathless, riding me like a good cowgirl would.

And she’s drugged me. If I could smile, I would. Ah, my precious puppet is using my body for her own gratification. Just like I used hers last night. Within a few moments of her bouncing on me, tightening her thighs around my waist, she comes violently, beautifully, tossing her head back with a scream. The waves of her inner pulsations cause me to release myself within her just as my thumbs and toes gain more control.

Collapsing onto my chest, her red strands tickle my nose, my cock still buried in the safety near her womb. Her heart beats hard and fast into my bones as she gathers her breath.

“Turnabout fair play?” I ask as soon as I’m able.

The smile on her face is felt through my sternum as she replies, “Yep.”

Catapulting a heavy arm across my body, it lands on her back, and I caress her as gently as my tingly fingers will allow. “No wonder I slept so good last night.”

“Cal?” Her cheek tickles my chest hairs as she speaks.

“Yes, my love?”

“Was it Alpha in between the sequoias of Laurelwood?”

“I am fairly certain from what I can piece together in my mind, yes. Was it your old people? Have you talked with them?”

Sitting up, she gazes down at me, then rubs my arms vigorously between her palms to wake the muscles. Massaging her creamy thighs as I monitor her bright green eyes, she hesitates before speaking. “There was a cell phone in the bathroom with our code for killing you. For extraction from the mission. But if it were Dot or Dash, they would have shown themselves. They would have thought they had won when you almost died. So, I don’t think it was them at all. But I would like to ask them.”

“If Alpha was with Herodius…she would have access to those kinds of codes. It seems their organization can manipulate a lot of events.” Propping my back up on some pillows, I pull my bride up closer to my waist, so she sits on my flaccid cock, you know, in case it pops up again.

“You think Alpha was with them?”

With a nod, I answer affirmatively. “Absolutely. You were trained to seduce and kill me from a young age? She must have been as well, except…I never bought into it. She was certainly not working for another clan. Which leaves her to be working for one of the three unknowns here. Herodius being top of the list…”

“But who is Amalthea?”

Searching each other’s eyes for a long moment, I finally confess, “I don’t know. But it looks like we have our next mission.”

Veracity leans forward to brush the hairs off my clammy forehead, and I lift my legs as they gain their strength back. “Should we even buy what she said? About killing this Amalthea?”

“On the way home, that’s all I thought about... I believe so. Despite being a traitor, I believe she had genuine feelings for me and don’t think she would lie as she was dying. Else, what would be the point?”

V’s entire body collapses on me as she clutches around my neck. “I don’t want Herodius to send more people for you.”

Tightening my hold around my woman, I soothe her. “We’re always in danger. I always have been. But we’re foxes, clever. I’ve got plans, and now there are two of us. And V? I have a feeling that Strauss is on our side…”

Peeking up at me, her nose crinkles, causing her freckles to merge together. “How can we be sure?”

“We can’t, but if he’s not with the traffickers or is putting up some bare minimum resistance to their demands, then he needs allies. I’m not saying he’s not a piece of shit, but maybe he isn’t the one behind the trades. Behind your trade.”

She glances down, not looking at anything in particular. “How did you know it was her? How did you kill her?”

With a smile, I tap my lips to each of her flushed cheeks. “I knew I couldn’t trust her a long time ago. When I went to the meeting and no one was there, I figured she was in on it. At first, I considered she was just trying to get out of researching Herodius, but that wasn’t like Alpha. She always pretended to do her duty to its fullest. That’s when I knew…she was in on it.

“I was just waiting on timing, to see how far I could push her and, of course, I couldn’t be sure you weren’t in on it, too. But when I knew you weren’t, that you saved me, then I knew you were on my side.”

Vera nods rapidly. “Always, Cal. Always on your side.”

Stroking her long hair, I sigh. “I had to prove that. And you did. So then, I waited until the fake next meeting. I figured that Alpha would want me to kill you and string me along after with false information. When I realized her jealousy wasn’t just for show, I knew she’d want you gone. And that’s when I knew I needed her gone.

“She knew my vials as well as I did, but I switched the solutions. And in case she could detect that I had done so, I put an extra anti-venom in my left pocket and coated the outside of both with the venom. When I tripped, and allowed her to pick them up, she was already poisoned. I swallowed the anti-venom.”

V’s eyes search my face for a moment as her lips part in an open-mouthed gasp. “You’re a genius.”

The corner of my mouth kicks up as I nod. “Yep.”

She picks up a pillow from across the bed and slams it on my face as I bring my hands up to protect myself. Her giggles can be heard even through the mound of feathers. When she removes it again, she leans over and embraces me with her mouth against mine.

As she parts again, she asks, “Can we eat breakfast now? I’m starving!”

Wiggling my eyebrows, I bite my bottom lip with hope. “Like, pregnant starving?”

Sitting up, she playfully slaps my arm. “Maybe. Come on!”

It’sthe most awkward dinner I’ve ever been a part of. And I’ve been to a lot of politicians’ dinners where everyone was secretly fucking everyone else’s wives, sisters, daughters, boyfriends, husbands… This is worse.

None of us have taken a seat and Max stands with his hands on my sister’s shoulders like if she twitches, he’s ready to pounce on the man near me if he so much as makes a sudden movement.

V’s happily smiling with her introduction and Livia keeps trying to catch my eyes as if to ask, “Are you sure about her?” The look is only going to piss me off, so I pointedly avoid her gaze.

Ace dances like a boxer buzzing with energy, biting his nails since Max told him he couldn’t smoke inside the house. Chewing one off, he spits it across the room before stealing a glance at the bear, who lifts his haunches with irritation.

“Well?” Ace sneers out.

Max glares at him in return, gripping Liv’s arms tighter. “She said she was coming down. Fritz⁠—”

“I’ll go check on her.” My sister’s calm voice interrupts him, and she rubs her now pouching belly and walks by my fiancée and me. “I’ll be back shortly. Sit, everyone, sit.”

None of us do.

“You’re the one who said we had to meet before the actual wedding. I’d just as well not, but whatever.” Ace fiddles with an empty candlestick near his fingers, knocking it over, then straightening it.

Across the table from us are two of his tanks, wolves looking for a brawl, and Dash, his mediocre spy who I will have the utmost pleasure of torturing before maiming and killing should one of his eyelashes fall near my V. Not just because of their previous working relationship, but mainly because of their previous non-working relationship.

“The deed is done, Cal. Tell me who did it. Who killed my sister? All I have to do is some stupid wedding ’cause little Miss Freidenberg sees herself as an empress or some shit, but tell me.”

Shifting my bored look to the tattooed spy, I speak to Ace as he rubs his knuckles of one hand with the fingers of the other. “First, we need to know if your men sought us out in the forests of Laurelwood, if they gave my fiancée the order to kill me.”

Ace’s head whips toward his spy, whose serious eyes meet mine with a solemn reply. “No, we did not go to Laurelwood or give her the order.” Straightening to his full height, he continues. “As far as we know, it was Alpha herself.”

V snags, then squeezes my hand quickly, and I catch her sparkling green eyes. Her freckles bounce as her nose crinkles. “He’s telling the truth.” My gal has worked with him enough and can read people well, so I trust her.

“Okay, then.” Ace claps his hands together loudly and rubs dramatically. “So? The marriage license has been signed and filed. I’ve got a dead weight on me.”

Max flinches. “Fuck you. My sister deserves better.”

Ace’s upper lip curls into a half smile, but his eyes betray the emotion behind it. “Oh? Like Strauss? I’m doing you a fucking favor, Maxi!”

“Enough,” I say, interrupting them, just like when we were kids, and I’d have to stop them before they started a fistfight.

Livia and Arianna come around the corner, and it’s clear that the youngest Freidenberg has been crying. Pink marks line her eyelids, and her olive skin is blotched around her nose. Holding an embroidered handkerchief up to her face, she sniffles delicately. Not even meeting Ace’s intense stare, she glides to the head of the table and stands behind her chair near Max. My sister returns to stand with her husband.

Starting off, I clear my throat for the room. “First of all, let me say that…Strauss? I don’t think he’s the man we all presume him to be.”

“Not this shit again,” Max grumbles under his breath.

Ignoring him, I continue. “I think he needs our support⁠—”

“If you say one more goddamn word hailing Strauss? You won’t be invited back here.” If Max’s deep brown eyes could murder me, they would have already.

Taking a deep breath, I keep my voice steady. “Clearly, we are of two different opinions.”

“It’s not an opinion, Cal. It’s a fact that he is a mass murderer and human trafficker. He deserves death, and if you’re trying to undermine our plans for him, then you’re not welcome.”

My sister and I catch each other’s gazes for a moment, an unspoken twin conversation passing between the two of us. She steps back toward Max and places her hand on his forearm in a display of loyalty. “He’s right. My husband is right.”

V steps closer to me, and I place my arm around her waist, then nod at the Freidenbergs. We’re paired off now. Two against two. And Ace with his wolf pack. Though I have a feeling it will be two houses against me. I suppose Max wanted to force a senate vote to take down Strauss…and now I’ve ruined his plan. And I’m definitely going to now.

“Well. I suppose I should say who killed Ashley before you all get to your lovely meal.”

Ace turns to face me fully, the first time I’ve ever seen an expression of fear in his crystal blue eyes. He crosses his arms as if to protect himself from the hurt this will bring him. “Tell me. Who? Who killed my sister, Cal?”

The room grows still and quiet. No one moves, and I gather up some air in my lungs. There are no tears or guilt any longer. Things turned out as they should have. In some alternate universe, probably not in Gnarled Pine Hollow, there are little girls and boys who can enjoy their youth without the dangers our world puts them under. Maybe one day, I can have that for our children, too. And I’d like that for West Side, and then maybe the rest of the town.

“I did.”

As if I hadn’t said anything aloud, things remain calm. Only Ace’s eyelashes blink rapidly, repeatedly. “Wha-what?”

“I did it.”

Ace’s face turns from a shade of white to salmon to red, the veins bulging in his temples, beating with a rapid pulse as his neck muscles strain. Livia’s jaw drops and Max leans forward over his chair. V’s hand slips from mine as I stand firmly with my confession out in the atmosphere.

It’s light here.

Both of Ace’s tanks make steady movements toward me as Ace suddenly whips out his gun and presses it into my forehead. Some of me expects he’ll just go ahead and pull the trigger, so I close my eyes in goodbye, my only wish that I got to see if V is indeed pregnant or not before I go.

“The fuck?! Explain yourself right the fuck now! You killed my sister?!” Ace screams as Max pulls out his handgun and aims it at both me and Ace, then flashes it around the room at Dash, who pulls out his gun and aims it at Max. Livia grabs Ari and they head into the corner. Everyone is afraid, jumping to action. Someone knocks over a candlestick and a shriek can be heard as their cook backs up into the kitchen, dropping a silver platter. The room is buzzing, angry, and violent…

Except for V.

Veracity. She disarms the wolf in two quick hand movements and holds the gun at Ace’s temple as he slowly raises his bulky arms in the air. Seeing her as my badass spy is such a fucking turn-on. Not just physically, but that she would sacrifice everything to protect me just as I would her… This is love. “Lower your fucking weapons. Now. Everyone. Dash? You, too. Lower them.”

The men step back and stow their weapons as she slowly lowers Ace’s gun to hold it at her side.

“I had to. Ace, I wouldn’t have done it, but she begged me. My father kidnapped, raped, and tortured little girls. He was a sick fuck and so I killed him, too.” Livia’s gasp in horror is audible as she almost hits the floor, but Ari and Max rush to help her. “Ashley was in pain, Ace. He’d hurt her so badly, she begged me to end her. So, I did.”

Ace’s teeth clench, and his eyes fill with raging tears. “I don’t believe you.” His chest rises and falls heavily with every word. Clenching his hands into fists, he presses them against either side of his head. “You killed her… You killed my sister. She was just a kid, and you fucking murdered her.” It’s difficult news for him to hear, I know.

And, yet, I want to laugh, feeling so carefree. It’s over. It’s done with. I did what I had to do. I paid the sins of my father by ending him and helping at least one of his victims rest in peace and another to have a better life. There were so many more things I could have done for the others, but it’s too late for them now. I believe that working with Strauss to end Herodius will lead us out of this mess, but I’m not exactly sure how to do that.

Perhaps it starts with the unknown figure Amalthea.

V takes a deep breath in, but before she can speak, I slip my body in front of her slightly. Despite her holding a weapon, I want to protect her. She lowers her voice and speaks softly to my old friend. “I was there. I was a witness. It’s true what he says.”

Darting his gaze over to my puppet, he says, “Then I don’t believe you, either.” Spit flies from his mouth as he speaks. Before I can even correct Ace for speaking to my fiancée that way, Max interrupts.

“Get out,” Max orders, leaning over his wife protectively.

With one last look around the room, I study everyone’s faces. It’s apparent V and I are the only ones living blissfully at peace now. And we don’t belong here. Gathering V’s hand in mine, we turn to leave, but Ace stops me with his parting words.

“This is war.”