3. Cassian

CASSIAN

Anger courses through every fiber of my body as my wolf itches to take over. I can feel him pushing against my flesh from the inside, ready to cause havoc and demand answers to questions we haven't even thought of yet.

"Everybody fuck off," I snarl, my breath whooshing with every inflation of my lungs as I struggle to remain calm.

"You don't get to order them around anymore. You're not the alpha heir to the Kenner pack, or even a measly pack member, remember?" My father smirks, a sense of accomplishment spreading across his lips as he stares down at me. My nostrils flare as I strain against my wolf, who is desperate to lash out, father or not.

If my father notices my inner turmoil, he doesn't mention it, and he turns away from me to find Dalton. He doesn't see me as a threat at all. One day, I'm going to have the pleasure of correcting him on the error of his assumptions. Right now, though, I need to understand what on Earth is happening.

"Get rid of her," my father grunts, and Dalton yanks on the queen, still on her knees. My jaw ticks as I turn away. I don't know what the fuck is happening, and my gut already knows that my father isn't going to share anything with me, but that doesn't mean I can't try.

Looking down at my bare hands, I try to calm my rising fury as I consider the past few minutes. One moment Addi, or Adrianna, or whoever the fuck she is, was in my grasp, and the next, she was gone. With Raiden. I should be concerned about what he has planned for her, but I can't seem to move from the spot I'm in, my father turning back to me with that familiar-yet-sinister look in his eyes.

I'm not na?ve enough to refuse to consider that I'm completely out of my depth in this moment. My mind swirls with hints of betrayal as my emotions threaten to get the better of me.

"What have you been up to, old man?" I ask, fingers clenching at my sides as I assess him just as hard as he's assessing me, until my gaze cuts to the former queen crying out in the distance.

"Please, please. My daughter! Please!"

The wolves around us remain frozen in a mixture of intrigue and horror as they watch the mess unfold before them. Forever my father's sycophants, they won't object to any of his decisions; that's always been my job. But it seems he was making moves before I was old enough to understand my role. Moves that can't be reversed.

"The party is over," my father bites, earning a few gasps and grumbles from the pack around us.

"But the full moon," someone begins to protest, and he waves his hand dismissively, effectively cutting them off.

"Can be celebrated elsewhere." The firmness in his tone isn't to be questioned and everyone knows it. Silently, the gathered wolves begin to disperse at his command, except one, who stalks toward me with purpose.

Leticia.

Fucking Leticia.

"I'll still be declaring a challenge against that disgusting fae," she bites, eyes narrowing as she glares at me, and I roll my eyes.

"I wouldn't bother," I grunt, my gut twisting slightly with concern for the intoxicating fae that is now in the grasp of my vampire friend, but I tamp it down, making sure it's not noticeable to the outside world.

"I can do whatever I please," Leticia retorts, hands on her hips as she attempts to peer down her nose at me.

"You can, but I don't want you. Whether you win or not. You just can't seem to get the message," I snarl, pushing further venom into my words as I glare back at her. I don't feel an ounce of guilt as she turns with a huff and storms off. She's never going to learn, no matter what I say or do.

"Your way with women is… interesting."

I turn to my father. His raised eyebrow and judgmental gaze only makes my wolf harder to restrain. Instead of letting him know the difficulties I'm facing, I scoff at him. "Says the man holding Queen Reagan captive."

"She's not a queen anymore," he snarls, revealing his own emotions as the muscles at his neck bunch together. It seems I've definitely hit a nerve.

"And why does it feel like you had something to do with that?" My chest tightens at the accusation I already know is true. He doesn't bother with a response, though. Instead, he tilts his head up to stare at the moon, but I don't miss the smirk that ghosts over his lips.

He's always been like this. Elusive. Holding all of his cards closely to his chest. It makes it hard for anyone to predict his next move. It's half of the reason I left. I want transparency and truth from my leader, and he's incapable of either of those things. That's how I knew the pact with my friends was my future. My father will never be an alpha I believe in, so I'll be my own leader, my own alpha, with my own pack instead of waiting for him to die.

"Why the fuck do you have Queen Reagan anyway?"

"That's none of your concern," he retorts, not bothering to look away from the moon.

"I think it is," I push back, finally earning his deathly stare again.

"Are you a part of this pack?" he grunts, jabbing a finger at the ground as he takes a heavy step toward me. Even with only the moonlight glittering down on us, I can still see his cheeks reddening with anger.

Fucker has me there, but this is about more than the pack and he knows it.

"I'm going to bring this to The Council." The words are out of my mouth before I can even consider them, but the scowl I expect is nonexistent as he tosses his head back with a dark and wicked chuckle.

"You think they don't already know?" he muses, eyes returning to me once again.

"Bullshit." There's no way. There is no fucking way.

"Think about it, Cassian. I've done what I want, when I want, for years now. Why do you think that is?" His grin doesn't reach his eyes as the feral side of my father rushes to the surface. "It's because I hold all of the power, and you turned your back on all of that for a Kingdom that doesn't care what it does to its subjects, thinking you can change it. You can't." His words become gravely and choppy as he turns his jabby finger toward me, pushing at my tense chest with every syllable before sauntering off without a backward glance.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Maybe out of my depth is not a true representation of where the fuck I'm at. Scrubbing a hand down my face, I take a deep breath that does little to calm me.

My father's secrets are more than I could have anticipated. Queen Reagan is in his grasp; she has been for more years than I care to decipher right now, and that obviously leads me back to one person.

Addi Read. Or, more specifically, Adrianna fucking Reagan.

A hand lands on my arm, pulling me from my thoughts, and I whip my head around to find Janie looking up at me with concern swelling in her deep eyes.

"Are you okay?" she whispers, and I sigh. There's no real answer to that right now. Not one I can truly wrap my head around and swear it to be true.

"I've been better."

She nods in understanding as we both watch my father shift into his wolf form before darting through the tree line in the distance.

"That was a lot."

"That feels like an understatement," I grumble as she drops her hand from my arm.

I press against my temple with my fingers, trying to will the growing pain away, but it's pointless. Turning to the table that was full of my friends earlier, I find it empty now.

"I told them to leave. That it was pack business and they weren't welcome." Janie's face twists, hating the lie she gave, but she's only trying to protect them, whether they see it that way or not.

"Thanks," I mumble, bracing my palms on the table as I take a few deep breaths.

"You might not be pack anymore, Cassian, but you will always be my family."

I tilt my head to look at my oldest friend, the big sister I never had and, for a big portion of time, never wanted. Yet she's the purest soul and strongest person I've ever had in my corner. Confiding in her has always been easy, and that won't ever change.

"Seeing all of this makes me wonder if leaving was the best idea," I admit. It was the first thought to enter my mind when my father declared the woman at his feet to be Queen Reagan, while staring triumphantly at her daughter.

"Why, because you want this dark kind of power like your father?" Janie asks, surprise lilting her voice as I shake my head.

"No, because it's harder to put a stop to it from the outside."

She hums in understanding, her hand finding its way to my arm again as she squeezes in comfort. "It seems it's been happening behind all of our backs for a long time, Cass. If anything, you might be our only savior."

I scoff, but the softness of her words leaves me a little breathless. She believes it to be the truth, yet I'm filled with more doubt than ever.

"I need to get out of here."

"Go. Think. Check on your girl," she rambles, pulling me in for a half-hug that I don't have time to reciprocate before she takes a step back.

"My girl? That's not my girl, that's a fucking princess," I grunt, and she shrugs like the weight of that sentence doesn't matter all that much.

"She's always looked more like a warrior to me."

I stand with my jaw slack, staring at the empty spot she had occupied moments ago as she takes off toward Jake, who is standing by the tree line. She can't just say shit like that and disappear into the night.

Addi.

My alpha.

She has been worming her way under my skin, yet the lies, the deceit, it's all there. I can't even begin to consider how I feel about it all, but I'm not going to figure any of that out here.

Shifting into my wolf, I take off. He's eager to go in search of my father, but relents on heading back to the academy.

We're back on campus quicker than I'd hoped, and I shift back into my human form at the fountain. I take a moment to stare down each path, leading to a different origin building. I start at the fae path first, but the anger that radiates through me has me taking a step back.

I have to trust in my gut that Raiden hasn't hurt her while I consider whether I care or not.

My cell phone vibrates in my pocket, pulling me from my indecision. Suddenly I hate the fact that I shift back into a human fully clothed and with all my belongings. To shred it all and leave it all behind would have been an excellent excuse to not look.

Raiden: Meeting. My room. NOW.

It's directlyto me and not in the group chat, which tells me the others are already there. If he has Addi with him, I'll be at a complete loss as to my feelings, and I need time to figure them out for myself first. She might intrigue me, but right now I can't see through the fog of information tainting my vision.

I'm not in the mood for any kind of meeting right now. They can discuss whatever it is between the three of them and I'll wade in with my thoughts tomorrow.

Marching down the pathway that leads to the wolf building, I continue to glance out of the corner of my eye at the vampire building that stands even taller than ours, but every thought that makes me consider heading over there is rebutted with another that tells me I'm doing the right thing.

As I approach the front door, I know I've made the right decision, and as my hand wraps around the handle, I sigh with relief until a whooshing sound echoes from my left, signaling movement, but before I can take action, a sack is shoved over my head and everything goes dark.