“I’ll never be able to remember all of this by the ceremony tonight,” Ellie complained. Her bite mark felt swollen and itchy, and she could feel a headache starting behind her eyes. She rubbed her temples and tried not to squint at Mura.
The brilliant afternoon light shone in the wide windows of the west parlor where they had spent hours reading from a dusty old scroll. Well, Mura was translating and reading it aloud to her, since the scroll was written in Russian.
They had spent most of the previous day doing the same until Rylek had stolen his mate away for some “quality time” in the bathing room, claiming he could feel her need and couldn’t stay away. Built to take advantage of a natural spring, the dim, cozy bathing chamber was quickly becoming one of Ellie’s favorite rooms in the house.
Mura laughed. The sound was like tinkling bells. She poured Ellie a fresh cup of tea and passed it to her before pouring for herself.
“Of course you’ll remember, Ellie. And if your mind goes blank during the ceremony itself, please remember that most members of the vulfen community have never seen a crowning ceremony. It has been quite some time, nearly sixty years now, since Rylek’s mother was crowned. You can make up some of it if necessary. The only one who will know is Rylek.”
Ellie didn’t know if that was reassuring or not. As she sipped her tea, a frightening thought occurred to her.
“Mura, is the ceremony in Russian?”
“Goodness, no. We live in America, now. The crowning ceremony will be in English, of course, just as we have practiced it.”
Well, that was a relief.
“Rylek has given me permission to steal Eva from his Cadre to recreate the Queen’s Guard. Mura, do you know anything about the Guard? Is there some procedure I need to follow, or a certain number of people I need?”
“I have heard this news. My daughter has spoken to me of her excitement. She is honored.” Mura smiled. “Although, she is young and in her words, excited came out as ‘blown away.’ As a mother who wants her daughter to be happy, I have learned to appreciate these terms.”
Both women laughed.
Ellie was happy to find one person at least who would call her by name. She thought with enough time in her company, the daughter might be persuaded to shed some of the protocol as well. At least, she hoped so. Rylek was wonderful, but she needed some female friends in this new world.
Mura leaned her hip against the long table.
“Ellie, my dear, the Alpha’s Cadre is twelve warriors, as you know. They are the first line of defense, and stand for the Alpha if he is wounded outside of a formal challenge. In ancient times, the Queen’s Guard was one female warrior. But that gradually changed. Rylek’s mother had six, with five of them females. In the case of several of the members, it was a ceremonial position, not necessarily granted because of excellence in combat. But my daughter, Eva, is a warrior. She would be an exceptional Queen’s Guard.”
“Valeri said Eva is merciless when she’s training with the men,” Ellie said, and Mura’s smile was luminous. It was obvious she was very proud of her warrior daughter and son.
“The last Guard all died at the hands of human assassins in defense of Rylek’s mother. My sister was in the Queen’s Guard. The last queen was killed as well that day. It was many years ago.”
Mura wiped away a tear, and Ellie winced in sympathy.
Ellie’s head was throbbing, but she never got headaches. Surely
the pain would pass. She tried to concentrate on what Mura was telling her.
“I am sorry. The queen was my sister-in-law and my dear friend, and I lost my sister that same day. I was the only woman left in my family. As soon as we got the news, Vasily went to get Rylek, and he came to live with us. Rylek was sixteen and had just made it through his First Change. He was proclaimed Alpha of the three clans within weeks. Even then, no one could stand against him.”
Ellie hugged her. Mura returned the gentle hug.
There was a knock on the door, and the young blonde woman who had brought their tea tray stuck her head in.
“The queen is summoned to the kitchens. The chef is looking for her opinion about the midnight buffet.”
Mura straightened and ushered Ellie to the door.
“You must go with Nasja. Don’t keep my Vasily waiting,” she said with a wink.
Ellie nodded. She knew Vasily from the restaurant.
“Yes, I remember Vasily and his mouth-watering chocolate mousse. Yum,” she said, trying to ignore the rolling of her stomach.
“Yes, his ambition in life is to make women swoon and crave his chocolate desserts.” But the older woman’s smile was intimate, and Ellie understood that Mura was very much in love with her mate.
Mura waved as Ellie followed the young woman from the room. They walked through the atrium before they descended a staircase and turned down a dark inner hall.
“Is the kitchen this way? I must be turned around. I thought this was the way to the bathing room,” Ellie said. She was paying attention to their route. The house was large and had several wings. She wanted to be able to find her way around eventually without needing an escort.
“Yes, it is this way.”
They turned again. This hallway was in an older part of the house. It was narrower, and the walls were bare stone.
Ellie was beginning to feel ill. She needed to lie down. She was about to make some excuse when Nasja stopped and withdrew a large old-fashioned key from her pocket.
“You keep the kitchen locked?” Ellie asked, feeling perspiration break out on her forehead. She was going to be sick. She started to back away from Nasja, but when she turned, she ran into a large form.
It was the white-haired man who had been so slow to kneel at the presentation. He grabbed her arms and pinned them to her sides, preventing her from getting away. She writhed in his hold and fought to get away, but her struggles were ineffectual. Her head bobbed and she felt as if she was looking at the world through a long tunnel.
“Who are you? What do you think you’re doing?” Ellie asked in her best queen’s voice. “Let go of me.”
His face twisted into a sneer. “Ah, but letting go would defeat the purpose of bringing you down here. Nasja, hurry up and open the door,” he barked.
“Who are you?”
The man didn’t answer. He was glaring over her shoulder at his companion.
Ellie heard a clatter behind her and a nervous apology from Nasja. It sounded as though she had dropped the big key. After a moment, the old hinges creaked and then White Hair shoved her backwards through the door and into what looked like a long storage room. The floor was stone, and there were several dusty barrels in one corner.
White Hair gave Ellie a shove, and she stumbled further into the room.
She caught her balance with an effort and studied her captor. “Rylek will hunt you down if you kill me,” she said, and she knew
it was true. “You won’t escape him.”
White Hair smiled and it was an ugly expression. “No, no, you will not be killed by me, human. When you appear at the crowning ceremony covered in another male’s scent the Alpha will kill you by his own hand. When he knows that you have betrayed him with
another, his Alpha nature will demand immediate retribution.”
A shiver of fear ran up her spine as she watched his face. His voice was dripping with false sweetness, but his eyes were alive with a malicious excitement. He wanted her to smell like another male. Did this man mean to rape her?
“Rylek will never believe it. He knows I would never cheat on him.” She put every ounce of defiance she could muster into that statement. It still came out sounding small and scared.
“Of course he will believe it. I am known as a lover. I have a well- deserved reputation for seducing faithless women, even those who are unwilling at first,” White Hair said, and his cruel smile sent a ripple of terror through Ellie.
“I’ll fight back,” Ellie said flatly. “You picked the wrong woman. I won’t just lie back and…let you…hurt me.”
Nasja sounded almost sympathetic when she replied, “It won’t hurt. You won’t even be aware.”
Ellie tried to focus her eyes on the woman, but the face wavered and blurred. There was a feeling of wetness on her chin and her lips were cold and numb. Understanding was slow in coming.
“The tea…drugged.” She was having trouble putting her thoughts together. “Mura?”
Nasja pushed the long curls out of Ellie’s face. “You are
concerned for Mura? She will be fine, though she may have a headache. We obtained a human drug.”
“Shut up,” White Hair said and backhanded Nasja away from
Ellie. Nasja slammed against the wall with a cry and slumped to the floor. “Humans do have their uses. But we do not need to justify our actions to a human.”
Humans had their uses? Ellie’s thoughts were fuzzy, but that statement made her pause.
Was this the vulfen male who had given information to the
humans who attacked them at her apartment? Miros had smelled a faint vulfen scent on those humans. She felt a rush of anger at the
thought that this man had caused her mate to be shot.
“Are you the man…betrayed your Alpha…and Cadre…to humans?” Ellie managed.
A flash of triumph crossed his face before he schooled his
expression. But in that moment she had seen.
“Coward!” She tried to spit in his face, but it fell short. She couldn’t seem to control her movements. Her limbs were filled with a strange tension, and she couldn’t make them obey.
White Hair pushed her and her neck snapped back. Her head felt like it would explode, but she managed to stay on her feet.
Behind White Hair, Nasja rose from the floor unsteadily. She looked at him with horror.
“Roga, is it true?” Nasja asked. “You acted against the Alpha?”
He barely spared his companion a glance. “The human would say anything when she is scared,” he said. “Humans can’t be trusted.”
Ellie was weaving on her feet, fighting to stay upright, but she
wasn’t going to give up. If she could get them fighting with each other, maybe she would have a chance to get away. But she was so weak.
“Nasja…it’s true.” Ellie could barely get the words out. “Can’t you…smell his lie?” She didn’t know if ordinary vulfen people could smell lies or truth, but she hoped so.
Nasja looked at her companion in panic and ran out the door.
Roga grinned and grabbed Ellie again. He pulled her up against his body.
“Alone at last,” he said, and licked Ellie’s cheek in lewd mockery of lover’s a caress.
She swung at him and the hit connected, but it barely made an
impact. He was still holding her much too close.
Her heart was pounding and sweat was pouring off her. The room was too hot and too cold at the same time, and her insides were twisting themselves into knots. She felt so dizzy.
Her knees gave out, and Roga let go of her as she dropped to the
floor. She landed with her arms braced in front of her. Her stomach heaved and she gagged, but nothing came up. Her limbs were twitching and she couldn’t keep her balance. With a groan, she toppled over sideways, falling to the cold floor.
Roga straddled her prone form and lowered his weight to sit on her aching stomach. He grabbed her breasts and squeezed hard. She almost passed out with the wave of pain and revulsion. His head was coming closer and his eyes were on her mouth. It was disgusting.
Rylek was her mate. The thought of submitting to this male made her ill. She renewed her struggles, twisting her torso and shoving against his chest. She forced her aching body to battle against his depraved attack.
She would never let this creature have her.
“Never!” The sound reverberated in the room and in her head. Ellie screamed and there was a flash of light in the dim room.
Her vision became painfully clear, every detail of her attacker
standing out in sharp relief. She saw the shock on his face as she pulled her arm back, but when she lunged upward to hit him, savage claws tore across his face and blood sprayed into the air.
Rylek sat at the big central table in the kitchen discussing the Cadre reports with Vasily and Valeri. Vasily kept looking at Rylek’s hands, and he realized he’d been drumming his fingers on the tabletop. He stopped the loud tapping, but the desire for action didn’t subside. It was all he could do to stay in the kitchen and away from his alluring mate.
He pulled his attention back to the reports with some effort.
The investigation was well under way, but the vulfen traitor had not been located and the crowning ceremony would begin in a few short hours. Rylek was adamant they find the traitor before the ceremony.
When Mura walked in carrying a tea service on a large tray, he looked up expectantly, but Ellie wasn’t with her.
“Mura, how is Ellie feeling about the crowning ceremony?”
Mura tilted her head and looked at him. “You should ask her. She came to the kitchen with Nasja Dobren when Vasily sent for her. You haven’t seen her?”
Rylek was on his feet. “When?” he asked at the same time Vasily said, “I did not send for her.”
Mura frowned. “It was ten minutes ago, or fifteen. No more. Where could they be?”
Rylek and Valeri shared a look.
“Valeri, send warriors to hunt Nasja. I will track Ellie’s scent. Follow me when you are able.”
“Mura, did you or Ellie drink any of this tea?” Vasily asked. He had picked up the teapot and frowned down into it.
Rylek was halfway out the door, but Vasily’s question stopped him at once. Was something wrong with the tea?
“Ellie drank more tea than I did. She was nervous, I think, and it gave her something to do with her hands.”
Rylek grabbed the teacup and sniffed, recoiling in disgust. “Drugged,” he snarled and his claws sprang in anger. “Valeri, call
the Cadre. Forget everything else. Find the queen.”
Still in human form, Rylek raced from the room following his mate’s sweet scent, howling his hunting song, with Valeri on his heels. Cadre members answered the blood-chilling call and poured out of doors and hallways to follow their Alpha.
One by one they fell in behind their leader as he tracked his mate. Even in their wolf forms, the elite warriors were hard pressed to keep up with Rylek, and he refused to slow his punishing pace.
His mate was drugged and in the hands of a traitor to their people. Every second was vital.
She was a strong, brave woman, Rylek thought grimly, but even the bravest person would be terrified in this circumstance.
Rylek was going to get his mate back. And if the queen had been
harmed, someone would die an ugly death.