Page 56 of Chasing Tail
They seemed to recognize the princes but kept sniffing the air and staring at the rest of us suspiciously.
“Who did you bring into my woods, Callum? My pup is missing, and we’ve been searching all night. The people on your horses don’t smell like anything we’ve met before. If they hurt my pup, I want to deal with them myself.”
“Those three men are part of the Seven Deadly Sins. Kishi is a mermaid, and Taron is a shark. They didn’t have anything to do with Cassandra, but we know who did. The Sins, the mermaid, and the shark know things about our father many people don’t know. They came to stop him from hurting any more innocent people. When they got to him, they heard Cassandra crying in his room.
“They made sure the king and queen would be sleeping until morning. He would have given orders for no one to be let into his bedroom. If they stuck to the plan they had and snuck Cassandra out, it would have ended badly. You wouldn’t have known what they were and attacked them. If you stopped to hear them out, they would have told you my father kidnapped her. You would have wanted vengeance against all of us, and my brothers and I are against everything he’s been doing. You would have stormed the castle, and the guards would have defended it. More people would have died.”
“The little pup is safe and quite brave,” Salem said. “The king and queen won’t wake for a long time. I put a protection around the room so that no one is getting in unless I allow it. I have Holy Basil burning to calm her. We spoke to her, and she wanted you.”
“She was crying in pain. Taron and I wanted to go in there and slit their throats, but we were told we should get you instead. That was what she said she wanted, and we don’t totally understand everything here on land yet,” I said.
“It’s not up to you to get justice for my pup,” he growled. “It’s up to the wolves.”
“He sent men in a ship to my home and butchered my sister and all of Taron’s family before we sunk the ship. So we’re owed some justice too. We lost our home coming here to get it. We couldn’t save our family, but we desperately wanted to save your pup. You don’t hurt hatchlings in the ocean.”
No one seemed to mind that the entire wolf pack was naked, and they weren’t covering up. However, it left me with a lot more questions about why they insisted on these dresses on land. Maybe I should spend more time with the wolves.
“All three of you have always been a friend to the wolves. You don’t look down on us like the king and queen, and I know you are here to help. So, in the spirit of truce and me not ripping all your throats out, why don’t you tell us why the king kidnapped my pup and massacred the mermaids?”
“I think you know deep down that all of the wolves who have been arrested were decent wolves. Unfortunately, so was everyone else he’s arrested for a crime. Our stepmother found a lump, but she’s declined any available treatment because of vanity. The frame jobs are so flawless, and we haven’t been able to prove what he’s doing. He has everyone so keyed up about dangerous criminals that theywantthem to die when they are arrested.”
“No one likes your stepmother, Callum, but why the big ruse over a lump?”
“Since she declined any known treatment that would save her life, they started dipping into magic and snake oil. When that didn’t work, he started looking into magic that has been proven not to work and has long been forbidden. Next, he tried sacrificing different species under the ruse of them being criminals. When that didn’t work, he sent a whole crew to their deaths to violate the treaty with the mermaids.”
“You’d better be very careful about what you say next, Callum. What does that have to do with my pup?”
“He’s trying to harness the moon magic that allows her to shift and give it to the queen to heal her,” Salem said. “It won’t work, and it’s forbidden. He needs a live wolf to work with and went for an option less likely to rip his throat out.”
“Cassandra is perfectly capable of ripping his throat out. Don’t let her age fool you. She has alpha blood in her veins, and she’s a vicious hunter,” he huffed.
“He had wolfsbane burning in the room so that she couldn’t shift,” Adamo said. “There was a lot of it in his chambers. We dumped it in the chamber pot and put it out. She should have her wolf back by now, but Cassandra and the rest of us need her pack.”
“You shut your mouth. I don’t know you. I appreciate what you did for my pup, but we don’t know you. The king didn’t kill your family either, so you have no reason to stick your nose in this like the sea people. The guards at the palace won’t know what you are either and will want you dead. We know the princes, and they’ve proven themselves to everyone in this kingdom, especially the wolves. I’ll hear this from them.”
Adamo and Tristan grumped about that, but Salem just bowed his head to the Alpha and let him continue. I didn’t know who would win in a fight between a wolf and a Sin, but I really didn’t want to find that out at this minute. We had too much to do, and there was a time limit on that potion.
“This was actually their plan, and they brought us in on it, Harland, but we know trust has to be earned with the packs. So we need you to call every pack in the kingdom. We’re going to travel to the castle, making as much noise as possible. We want people to come to the street and ask what we are doing.
“We want as many people as possible to know he’s kidnapped a wolf pup. Most of the common people dislike him but respect him because they believe his lies about crime. The wealthy tolerate him because he makes them richer. Every class can agree you don’t hurt children. The people he keeps around the palace are fiercely loyal to both of them. If the three of us tried to get in there alone, they’d overpower us and arrest us until he could cover it up. They might be stupidly loyal to him, but they aren’t stupid. If half the kingdom shows up, they’ll be outnumbered and won’t have time to call for backup. The alternative is to hear us out and let the room be searched or die,” Callum said.
“He thinks druids are superior, and it’s the only supernatural race he trusts. So everyone who works at the palace is a druid,” Beck said. “They all buy into his nonsense, but you can bet your ass they’ve gotten their ass beat by another race at least once. They’ll shit themselves at the sight of a bunch of pissed off wolves looking for a pup.”
Harland scratched the massive amount of hair on his face.
“It would offend the bears and big cats they came at my pup too, and they despise the king and queen. So I’ll call them too.”
“I know you don’t trust us, but time is of the essence,” Salem said. “We slipped a potion I learned from a sea witch into the king and queen’s wine. They won’t wake for a long time, but they will eventually wake up. We’ve been watching him long enough to know that his real power is in lies. Dangerous liars get a million times worse when the facade starts to crumble. We need to pull this off while he’s sleeping, then you can do whatever you want with him.
Harland threw back his head and made this noise. The rest of the wolves joined in. I was guessing it was like a sonic pulse when I needed to call for help in the ocean. I could hear all these different noises of things responding.
I thought this was going to be a simple killing with no questions asked. It could have been, but now the only way to keep my druid princes and many innocent people safe were to gather a mob. Mobs tended to go out of control in the ocean, and I had a feeling this could be no different.
We hadn’t even started moving through the streets, but based on the cries responding to the wolves, there were plenty of shifters in these woods who were willing to help, even without the whole story.
