4. Rhyson

4

Rhyson

Her scent clung to everything in the hotel room. The couch where I'd first made her come. The bedsheets where I'd fucked her until well into the night. The shower where I'd carried her just before daybreak because we'd ruined the bed and fucked her against the tile. The towel that I'd laid down on the bathroom counter while I bent her over it and hammered her into it.

We'd finally fallen asleep on the couch, and I'd awoken the second she pushed herself off me, but I didn't move. Eyes closed, I listened as she crept out of the room. After a cursory inspection, I realized that she hadn't taken the clothes I'd offered her or the dress. She must have shifted and returned home as a wolf.

I laid the torn dress on the bed and stared at it as if it would give me some answers.

Last night had been…different. I hadn't fucked like that in…well, ever. I'd lost control. I could have hurt her. She'd been so goddamn intoxicating.

When I could get out of my own head, I made a phone call. Two hours later, Alpha Larson and his new mate were in one of the hotel's conference rooms. They smelled of each other.

But not of a mating bond.

That wasn't surprising. Few wolves created mating bonds these days.

"I wanted to apologize in person for not making it to the ball to celebrate your mating," I said cordially as I gestured for them to sit down. "There was an incident that distracted me."

"No apologies needed, Your Majesty," Larson said as he bowed deeply. "I was just honored that you accepted my invitation. I know you are a busy man."

"I am, but meeting each of the alphas personally is on my agenda, and I had planned to do most of that last night. Now I'll be inviting them here for the next month as I assess them and their clans."

"I'm certain the alphas will be as eager to meet the newly crowned king as I am," Larson murmured, and they both took their seats. Serena's chair rolled away a few inches from Larson, squeaking, and she mumbled an apology. Larson grabbed the chair's arm and pulled it closer to his.

"Tell me about the woman you rejected."

There were more important things I needed to handle. In fact, letting myself get distracted with a woman last night had waylaid my plans considerably. I'd be here for at least two more weeks doing everything I should have done last night. The last thing I needed was to get more distracted by her, but I could hardly focus on anything else. I'd showered several times, fisting my cock raw while thinking of her, and I'd run earlier this morning to ensure that I didn't smell like her, but she was all I could think about. I needed to focus.

"Maya?" Larson frowned. "She's the daughter of an alpha, Bruce Callahan. Serena's cousin, in fact, on her mother's side."

"She was your intended before Serena?"

"Nothing was formalized, but her father and I had spoken about aligning our packs through marriage. It's no secret that I had planned to mate with her, but then I learned of her infidelity. Maya screws anything that moves. That's not the kind of woman I want by my side."

My stomach twisted. "By infidelity, I assume you mean infidelity to you. Have you been faithful to her?"

"I have."

A lie, and not even a good one. His shit-eating grin told me that he expected me to understand.

"So because of her infidelity, you humiliated her at the ball?"

"No. I rejected her because of her infidelity. I humiliated her because she humiliated me. Every man at the ball had apparently fucked her."

Serena opened her mouth, but Larson squeezed her hand hard, and she immediately shut it. I studied her. "You are Maya's cousin through her mother. Are you part of the Callahan clan?"

"She is Chalmer Basin now," Larson interjected. "She is mine."

So Maya hadn't gotten what she wanted last night. Did she know who I was last night? I hadn't told her that I was the new king, only named my previous clan. Since she couldn't get Larson, had she set her sights higher?

I was careless last night, and so close to my goals. I hadn't become king to throw it all away over a redhead in a lace dress. Fury replaced my obsession, but I forced it to cool and harden. I would not lose my head over this. I hadn't given a shit about her sexual past last night, and caring about it now meant last night meant more to me than I wanted to admit.

She'd used me. I knew she'd used me. It was pointless to care about being another notch in her bed.

Still, I couldn't abide a wolf who couldn't respect their mate. Loyalty was our strongest trait, and clearly, she wasn't capable of it.

Forcing myself to relax in the chair, I focused on business. "Tell me about your clan."

When Larson and his soon-to-be bride left, I returned to my room to discover that it wasn't empty. Duke turned from the window and frowned. "I don't think bleach will be enough. You may have to set it on fire before the hotel can let anyone else sleep here."

He wasn't wrong. The sheets had been changed, the carpets and upholstery cleaned, at my request, but it still smelled of sex.

And her.

"You were at the ball."

My second-in-command and oldest friend raised an eyebrow. "And you were not? I was told you played the hero to the humiliated beauty in the bold dress. Did you enjoy yourself?"

I shrugged. "What did you learn?"

"Of the girl?"

"Of the clans, Duke. I know all I need to know about the girl. She's nothing more than a one-night stand."

A small smile played on his lips. "Strange. I didn't say otherwise." When I growled he just chuckled. "I learned that King James has given them their freedom for a long time. He was as lazy with them as he was with everyone else. All twelve of the clans here are cordial with each other, but there's tension. Chalmer Basin is the biggest clan and therefore Alpha Larson has the most power when it comes to clan skirmishes. The Callahan clan is led by Bruce. They call him the Golden God and he's well-liked."

"I suppose it makes sense that they would want their clans united, even if Bruce didn't get it with his daughter. His niece will do it."

"Serena is not Bruce's niece. She's Maya's cousin through her mother, but Bruce and Maya's mother never married. Apparently Maya's mother died when Maya was born, and Bruce took her in to raise her himself. He never married."

"So the clans are stable?" Something felt a little off, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It didn't matter. If the clans were stable, that meant my job would be a little easier.

Duke hesitated. "From my intel last night, yes, but I think we need more information."

"We'll get it. All I need to know is if the clans can hold their own for a little longer. A newly crowned king should make them behave for a little while. We'll meet the rest of the alphas here and then float the rumors that I'm continuing the trip. That should give me at least a month to head into the mountains."

"You're going to get yourself killed."

"We both know I'd make a shitty king anyway. Rune will make a better king." My brother, Marrow, should have been king, but he was dead now. Murdered, and I intended to find out who did it. If I didn't make it out of the mountains, Rune, my nephew, would be crowned. At twenty-two, he still had some growing and learning to do, but I'd set plenty of good wolves in place to guide him.

I'd never planned on being king for long anyway. I was shit at politics.

My brother's killer hadn't wanted power. He hadn't wanted Marrow's clan or title. He hadn't wanted blackmail or information.

He'd simply wanted Marrow dead.

My brother had left one clue to the identity of his killer, mailed to me on a fucking postcard a day before he died, with a picturesque view of the Greenville Mountains.

Known to the shifters as Shadowed Moon Mountain, or the exiled mountain.

On the back was a single name.

Emerson.

I had no idea what that name meant. Even after the mountains were exiled, the king at the time had kept spies in place, but that was three kings ago. Slowly, the new kings cared less and less for the mountains filled with wild rogues and magic. King James hadn't even sent anyone to the civilian town at the base of the mountains to gather some intel or even rumors.

I had nothing but a name.

Duke was right. I probably was going to get myself killed going in there, but Marrow had been my family. For a long time, it had just been the two of us and our baby sister. She'd been gone for nearly two decades now.

Rune didn't need me. He had a clan who still adored him and a bright future ahead of him.

And I had nothing. Rune was my own family, and if I could leave him the legacy of a crown while avenging my brother, then that was more than enough for me.

A knock at the door startled me out of my thoughts, and one of my guards walked in. "Forgive the interruption, Your Highness, but there's an alpha here to see you. Bruce Callahan."

Was there? I grinned ferally. "See him to the conference room."