Chapter 17

17

KILLIAN

H ayley fidgets in her seat while Leah's eyes light up like a kid at Christmas. Rex looks like he might crawl across the table and rip my head off.

"I have a latent wolf?" Hayley looks from me to Cooper and back again.

Wrapping a protective arm around her shoulders, the Grey Ridge alpha smiles reassuringly at his mate.

"Your sense of smell is still stronger than it should be. We can't blame that on carrying Hunter anymore." He drops a kiss to her temple, and she relaxes into his side, brows still furrowed, as she considers this. "Hayley started to show some enhanced abilities, but we weren't sure if that was just while she was pregnant, and it was coming from the baby, or a permanent thing."

That makes sense. I've heard of pregnant females temporarily having the powers of whatever supernatural baby they're carrying.

"That's not the case here. It's likely being pregnant just brought your own abilities forward. It's up to you whether you want to take the next step and get your wolf. Although that has implications beyond just becoming a shifter." I gesture to the palace around me.

They would then become shifter royalty, even if they're not directly in line for the throne. This is quite a bombshell to drop, although I'm sure they've thought about the possibility when Zoe got her wolf first, and now Chase.

"So, Zoe and Chase are royalty, but not us, because we don't have wolves yet?" Leah asks.

Rex bristles at her use of the word, yet .

"Exactly. You're still powerful and respected because your grandfather is, or was king, but you could never take the throne." Nodding to Zoe and Chase, I add. "But you could. Which puts you in danger, if anything were to happen to me."

Steel is remarkably calm. Cooper is pretending to be.

"And would Cooper have to em… bite me… like Blake did? Under the full moon." Hayley smiles shyly, and her cheeks pink.

I think she quite likes the idea.

"You could do that, but I believe Zoe's change had some help from a witch?"

Blake nods and clears his throat, the only sign that he has some strong feelings about how that went down. "Raiden helped speed the process up after seeing Tyson come for Zoe in a vision."

"And I don't think it was the most pleasant experience? Not that anyone's first shift really is." I direct that question to Zoe, who grimaces.

"I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy." Zoe doesn't elaborate but shifting without understanding what's going on before either you or your wolf is ready, must have been horrific.

"Then I would suggest a more gradual beckoning forth of your animal, rather than anything as sudden as Zoe went through." Choosing my next words carefully, I fold my hands on my lap and sit back. "In Ireland, we have some friends who keep much better… records… of all things, paranormal. They assured Dad that it could be done, slowly, with some gentle commands from the king. But only if you want to."

Rex drums his fingers on the table, eyes narrowed on me, like I'm trying to tempt his mate into something nefarious, rather than just waking up her dormant animal.

"Let's say Leah did this, she'd be shifter royalty ." Rex rolls his eyes, as though the ideal is completely absurd. "So, after you, the order would be Chase, Zoe, Hayley, and then Leah."

I nod, knowing exactly where he's going with this. It would be my main concern as well.

"Someone went after all of the king's extended family, too. That's why there was nobody left to take the throne when he went missing. What's to say someone won't do the same thing now?"

"Nothing. That's the only reason I came back. If I'm here, I'm the main target, and hopefully not the rest of you. For now, I think Hayley and Leah aren't in danger at all. Zoe and Chase, I'd watch your backs, just in case." This isn't news to Steel, and from what I've seen, Chase is always on guard. His military background and private security business will make him a tough target. But these are serious people with money and power. "Until we figure out who did it, you need to be extra careful. If they got to King Morgan before, anything is possible."

The mood around the table is sombre, as my nieces contemplate how to proceed.

"You don't need to make a decision now." I advise, "I don't plan on going anywhere just yet."

They chuckle half-heartedly, assuming I'm making light of the fact there's most likely a plan afoot to assassinate me, but I'm really talking about leaving this place.

My gaze drifts to Charlotte, who remains stock still. She hasn't even twitched.

"I'm so sorry I'm late!"

If the atmosphere in the room was subdued before, it becomes positively charged when Elodie sweeps in with a bright smile on her face. When she registers the dour expressions of my guests, she hesitates, halfway into her seat. "I apologise. Am I interrupting something? I can come back."

Dressed in a pale gold gown with her hair swept elegantly over one shoulder, Elodie looks like she belongs in a palace, or a castle. Her manners are impeccable as she stands to her full height, gives me a small bow, and then makes to leave the room.

Zoe's hand lands on top of Elodie's on the table. "No. Please, stay. Killian was about to regale us with the story of how the king ended up in Ireland starting a second family."

I was? Put on the spot, as Zoe intended, I push my shoulders back and sigh. "It's a long story. A long, long story, especially the way Dad tells it, but I'll give you the abridged version."

Edmund sweeps in and tops off my drink before tending to each of my guests and making sure they have everything they need.

Elodie wordlessly slips into her seat, just as eager as my family, to hear the truth about what happened to the king.

"After Priscilla was murdered, he was unmated. Badly injured, he wasn't in good enough shape to attempt leaving the country, so he holed up in a small town he'd visited once on a work trip. Your grandmother wasn't a shifter, but she knew about wolves, and she knew he was in trouble the second she laid eyes on him. She nursed him back to health, and they fell in love."

I have the girls rapt attention as I fill in some of the blanks for them.

"But eventually, the council came sniffing around after rumours of a powerful wolf got back to them. He couldn't risk anyone else getting hurt, so he left and went to Ireland. At that time, there were no wolves at all in the country, nobody to tattle back when they encountered a strangely dominant wolf."

There's absolute silence. You could hear a pin drop in the room as I take a sip of my drink.

"Eventually, a small wolf pack was set up in Dublin by an ambitious rogue with a penchant for using his abilities for his own personal gain." The Doherty's gang has no qualms about using their supernatural abilities to get the edge on the competition. They're ruthless, tight knit, and hard to kill, something that's extremely valuable in the world of organised crime.

"He met Gemma, his fated mate, and that was it. They had many blissful years together, and he never once regretted not returning to his position. Until he heard about Zoe turning." Our friends in Ireland kept an ear to the ground for us on all things shifter, and when tales filtered through of a human shifting into a white wolf, he knew what was happening. "Dad would have come himself, but Mum was failing, and he wouldn't leave her. She passed away about a year ago, and Dad's health went into decline pretty much immediately."

"I'm so sorry." Elodie's sympathy is genuine as she presses her lips into a sad smile. "You must miss them terribly."

"Every day." I take another stiff swig of my drink. "Dad made me promise to come here and sort all this out, once and for all, before one of you got hurt, and so, here we are."

Anyone else looking at me might think I've processed the loss, and while sad, I'm no longer actively grieving. But when I look at Charlotte, compelled to meet her gaze, she's staring at me, chest rising and falling quickly, a look of pain painted across her pretty features. Because she can feel the truth through our fragile connection. That my heart still feels like it's been cleaved open, and each breath burns with the staggering agony of loss.

"At least, he got to find her." Leah's whispered words pull me back to the table, and I drag my gaze away from Charlotte's. "His fated one, I mean. I'm sure he loved our grandmother, but he deserved to have that happiness after giving up so much. Everyone should get to experience that kind of love."

Rex elbows her, and she frowns, narrowing her eyes at him. Tipping his head toward Elodie, he issues a low growl. He thinks her words are insensitive given everyone expects me to court Elodie as a chosen mate, but I think Leah's right.

"He knows what I mean. You know what I mean, right? I didn't mean to offend anyone." Leah looks genuinely appalled that she might have upset me, but I'm quick to reassure her. Nothing she said was untrue. She knows better than I do how special that bond is.

"I do, Leah. You're right. He loved your grandmother dearly, and it killed him to have to stay away from Michelle, but I've never seen two people more devoted to each other than my parents. He was a lucky man to have had that for so long."

With a longing that's bone deep, I stare at Charlotte, who's resumed her usual practice of staring straight ahead at the wall. But I can feel her anguish at not being able to comfort me. She thinks all of my grief is about seeing my parents fall apart, but it's not.

A good portion is knowing that I might never get to have that with her.