Page 54 of Chasing Tail
“We know he’s terrible. I couldn’t save my sister, and Taron couldn’t save his family. But if you get out of our way, we can save that wolf pup.”
“We want to save that pup as much as you do. But, we have to change the plan, Kishi. If we return that pup back home, their family is going to want revenge. It’s not going to make sense that the king tortured their pup while his wife was dying and killed himself in grief,” Adamo said.
“I only liked our plan because it wasn’t messy,” Tristan said. “Maybe it should be. He lied to his people while framing and murdering innocents. What he did in the water was unacceptable. He’s hurting children now. He doesn’t deserve to die with his people still believing he was a good king. It’s time to let everyone know the truth.”
I was all for that, but maybe I did need a few things explained still.
“Whatever you are suggesting better mean Callum, Beck, Forrest are safe.”
“They will be, little mermaid,” Adamo said. “Callum will take the throne, and you’ll have a land harem. We’d never break up true love, and Callum is going to make an amazing king. Plus, I think if we hurt her brothers, Topaz will maim us, and I hate regrowing body parts.”
“So will I, and I’m exceptionally good with several weapons.”
“I will bite you,” Taron said.
Don’t ask me how he did this because he hadn’t this entire time. He didn’t even do it when he was threatening to stab princes with forks for touching me. Taron opened his mouth, and he had two rows of shark teeth, but he hadn’t turned into a shark. That was incredibly sexy.
“Put those away, Taron. Plans frequently change in our line of work. We had a feeling something was going to go wrong, and there’s a hurt wolf pup in there. That’s about as wrong as it gets. He needs to pay for that, and the way we intend on doing it means you’ll get to tell your story about what he did to your people.”
That would be nice, but my immediate concern was that crying wolf pup and putting a knife into the two sleeping people in that room who had hurt them. I liked them and didn’t want to hurt the Sins, but they needed to get out of our way because Taron was with me on this.
“Calm down, both of you. We need to get Callum, Beck, and Forrest right this minute so they can gather the wolf Alphas. The best way to rescue that pup without dragging the princes down with the king is to get the packs involved. We all want to fight for the pup in there, but we have to do it the right way. The packs are probably worried sick. They need to be brought in on this.”
“I get it,” I said. “But I don’t get why you’re going to leave a hurt pup behind to get their family. I’m sure someone saw them sneak them into the bedroom. What if someone comes back and hurts the pup?”
Salem just smirked and pulled his bag off his shoulder.
“We come prepared for any and all scenarios. I don’t just know sea witch magic. I know every form of magic practiced. So if I hear about something new popping up, I get on a ship. Set these along the wall.”
Salem started handing out crystals. I recognized them from Beck’s place. He showed them to us and explained they were all used for different things. It made sense to me because plenty of coral in the ocean had magical properties. I didn’t know what it would do when I placed the crystals against the wall, but I trusted they would work.
Salem wasn’t done. Once the wall was lined with crystals, he took out a jar and sprinkled powder. He pressed a button, so part of the wall slid open just a little bit. Next, Salem took out a bushel of herbs and lit it on fire. He blew it out, so that it was smoking and stuck it in the gap in the wall.
“Hello?” the little wolf called.
“Hi, there, brave wolf. We’re here to help. The king and queen won’t wake until morning and can’t hurt you anymore. I set a protective barrier around the room so no one can come in unless I want it. I set Holy Basil burning to calm your fears. We’re going to have to leave you to gather the wolves and the princes, so the bad king and queen pay for hurting you. Can you be brave until we get back?” Salem said.
I’d never met a wolf before, but the pup immediately stopped crying.
“My dad is the Alpha. I’m just as brave as he is. I’m going to lead my pack one day and be an Alpha wolf princess. My dad is going to eat the king and queen for hurting me, and he’ll even let me bite them.”
“Did you get a few good bites in when they were hurting you?” Salem asked.
“Just with my regular teeth. They were burning wolfsbane so that I couldn’t shift. If they hadn’t taken my wolf away, I would have killed them both.”
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Cassandra. Go get my pack before my dad starts a war with the wrong person because I’m missing.”
I had a feeling I was going to like the wolves. Cassandra was pretty brave and calm, considering the two most influential people in this kingdom had kidnapped and tortured her. I wanted to rush in there and rescue her without thinking about the consequences.
She’d been here longer than I had, and she’d probably met Forrest, Beck, and Callum plenty of times. She might have just had her eyes open about how evil the king was, but she probably knew deep down his sons weren’t.
She understood how things worked on land much more than Taron and I did. I didn’t like leaving her in pain, but all she needed to know was that help was on the way. The Sins said this needed to be done a certain way, but the hurt wolf agreed with them.
I grabbed Taron’s hand and squeezed it. I didn’t have to ask him. Everyone agreed the only way we were going to pull this off was getting messy with the wolves.
Taron and I were entirely on board with that now.
