"If I told you of the darkness inside me,
would you still look at me like I am the sun?"
_____________________
Livius' POV:
The Fae King stood across from me in my personal meeting room. And beside him stood Queen Valerie. She was pale, as any vampire was, her eyes blood red, her lips equally crimson, but she was smaller, much smaller than anyone would've dared to predict.
But Alexius... Alexius had Alexandria's tan skin, her golden eyes, her now silver hair. Or perhaps it was better to say she had his.
I remembered what Levon had told me of the fae. How only those of royal blood retained their pale eyes and silver hair even when unshifted, making them easy to distinguish among the others. There was no doubt in my mind that this was my mate's brother, the same man I'd briefly met years ago, the man whose life my father had destroyed.
But what the hell was he here for? He had her. He'd sent Gabriel to wreak havoc in my territory, to steal her away from me, to murder and devastate and destroy, and now he dared to show his face here under parlay? He had brought this to us and now he stood here as if my instincts didn't shout at me to kill him.
Alaric and Aria. Alexandria's near death. Her kidnapping. The demolished forest. The vampires in the woods. The new curfew. All this chaos was on him. Gabriel had served him, had followed his orders.
Was he here to state his terms? To taunt me?
My face twitched, my hands itching to reach for him. Levon remained close to my side, as if waiting for me to snap just so he could pull me back. But even he couldn't keep pace with me anymore.
I was on Alexius in an instant, my hands curling around the lapels of his shirt and throwing him against the wall, my own anger leaving no room for thoughts or discussion. "Pretty fucking bold of you to show your face here, Your Majesty."
Behind me, I heard a small yawn and then the creaking of a chair as Valerie casually settled down into one of the seats at the table. "If you two could please hurry the fuck up and clear the damn air. I'd like to go home, thanks."
In front of me, Alexius rolled his eyes at her remarks but my fingers only tightened. "We wouldn't have come here if we didn't have to," he finally spoke quietly.
Another response came from behind me, "I didn't have to. I'm just a really good ally," Valerie chirped. A slight shift, the rustle of papers being shoved. She'd propped her feet up on the table.
"Where is she?" I growled, practically shaking him in my anger.
"I don't know. Gabriel has been acting alone since Castiel left him in your forest. His orders were to bring her back to the palace and avoid any serious confrontations. He did neither."
"He killed two of my own, two children. And then tried to kill her," I growled out, watching carefully when Alexius flinched at my words. He didn't attempt to shove me away or fight back. There was no malice in his gaze, no sign that he was waiting to snap back or dangle Alexandria's whereabouts in my face.
"That was not on my orders, but I take full responsibility for his conduct." His voice was cool, calm, collected. But I could feel his pulse, hear his heart racing, see the uncertain dip of his brow. It was the only thing that made me loosen my grip.
We wouldn't be here if we didn't have to.
"Gabriel is a traitor," Alexius continued, his voice low, his eyes darkening in a way that was so similar to Alexandria. "But I can't do anything against him if he has my little sister."
He took a slow breath, his fists loosening and pulse settling. Then he met my gaze, head on and straight to the point. "Unfortunately, we have a common goal here."
The way his voice had softened when he said the words 'my little sister' was enough to let anyone know he cared. I inhaled sharply, still seeing red, but I forced my anger down, my wolf's panic was suffocating and giving in to it would cost us everything.
He didn't have her. That was both a relief and a disappointment. Perhaps Alexius would've used her, but never hurt her. But Gabriel... Gabriel would do whatever the fuck he wanted.
"Do you know where he is?" I finally asked, my emotions back in check.
Alexius blinked, clearly surprised that I'd bothered, or even been able, to recollect myself. But if tolerating him meant getting Alexandria back even a second sooner, then I could manage that much, even if my own vexation was always a breath away from breaking the surface.
"I have a few ideas," Alexius answered slowly, still looking a bit skeptical. "But he wouldn't keep her anywhere near my borders."
"And where exactly are your borders?" I questioned, my glare never having lifted from his face. The location of the restructured Fae kingdom had eluded us for a long time, I doubted he'd enjoy revealing that secret. But for this to work, he had to.
I turned away from him, not caring that I was giving an enemy my back. Alexius would do nothing for now, his concern for my mate seemed to trump all else.
"Italy," he gritted out as I settled back into my seat at the head of the table— Levon still standing to my right. The others in the room didn't look away from Alexius, clearly still deeming him a threat.
There would be little trust in this arrangement, it seemed.
"Where in Italy?" I asked with a predatory tilt of my head.
Alexius' eyes narrowed. "It doesn't matter. The area is covered."
"But is it? We all know how sneaky Gabriel is. He'd hide right under your nose if he knew he could get away with it." There weren't many packs in Italy and the werewolf population there wasn't nearly as concentrated as it was elsewhere. We'd already called for a search but had yet to receive any all clears from any of the packs in Europe. It was too soon and shifting all our focus to a single area seemed risky.
Still, I didn't trust Alexius to do anything, let alone rule out an entire country. And the Goddess only knew how many Fae remained loyal to Gabriel and were willing to cover his tracks.
"I'll have my men personally comb through my territory. In case you've forgotten, we don't work well with wolves," Alexius retorted, not enjoying my line of questioning, or having to answer to anyone.
"And if some of your men are in Gabriel's pocket?"
"They're not."
My eyes narrowed suspiciously, a new kind of tension settling in the air as neither of us appeared to be backing down. The room fell into a suffocating silence. It was broken by the sound of Valerie's chair being pushed back. The vampire eyed us both carefully before approaching the center of the table where our map was laid out, the fabric of her dress seeming to flow behind her in an endless pool of black silk.
She rested a manicured finger over the Netherlands, then Belgium, then Luxembourg, and finally Germany. "A majority of my people are concentrated in these four. We'll cover them. Whether you trust us or not," Valerie said, her voice sharp and lined with certainty. "Gabriel doesn't expect us to come together on this, he likely won't predict how quickly we can cover land."
Yet another group I didn't trust to do anything right. The vampires had joined the fae in their attack on my pack and that very same alliance was exactly what had brought Valerie here as well. I eyed her as she stared down at the map, stroked her chin thoughtfully, then met my gaze with those piercing eyes of crimson.
"Can you have someone bring me a cup of tea?" She requested and my gaze shifted to Alexius' hand, to the way it twitched at his side as though he wanted to throttle her for her indifference.
I peered over at Elias, giving him a bland look before nodding in her direction. He nodded, his face going blank as he spoke to one of our pack members. We might as well appease her while she was here. As it turns out, our backs were to the wall and we didn't have much of a choice but to accept their assistance, even with the minimal trust between us.
My gaze returned to Alexius' and held. "Italy is yours," I conceded, watching as Sebastian moved to mark the country on the map. "Leave no stone unturned." It was a veiled threat, one that they all heard and understood. If Alexandria ended up being there and his people's carelessness was what made us overlook it, then I'd throw him in a cell and leave him to rot until kingdom fucking come.
The Fae king gave a faint nod in response, his shoulders slightly relaxing. It was clear he had no intention of revealing where the remaining fae were and he feared compromising them in this. I had to remember the last time he'd encountered wolves, it had been a massacre.
He had every right to be apprehensive around us.
I turned to my advisers, a bit of that tension waning just enough for everyone to breathe. "Introduce yourselves," I murmured, my attention falling to the map. "It seems we're going to be here a while."
They didn't move for a long moment, not sure what to do with these old enemies turned temporary allies. Slowly, Levon moved from his position near my end of the table and extended a hand. Alexius shook it almost graciously, even as my uncle curtly spoke his name in introduction.
My Beta, Jayden, and Delta, Noah, followed suit, their words careful and movements stiff even as Valerie smiled at them in turn. From across the room, Elias raised a halfhearted hand and murmured his name, still more preoccupied with his ancient readings, Sebastian did the same, his attention fixated on the map.
"We have a week," Alexius finally said, inching closer to the table, his golden eyes flying over the map as if he hadn't just given us a time constraint. Meaning Gabriel had already spoken to him.
"What does he want from you?" I asked coolly, calmly.
"My kingdom."
Of course that was Gabriel's price. The instant that answer escaped him, some irrational part of me wanted to drag him out and make him abdicate, anything to get her back, to see her safe. But that would do us no good.
Gabriel would never give up the leverage he already had and the last thing we needed to give him was an empire to rally. Even if Alexius did step down and give into his requests, there was no guarantee we'd get Alexandria back, not after simply having her had so easily brought my own kingdom to its knees.
"We may not need to comb through countries for her scent anymore," I suddenly added, effectively ending whatever thoughts may have arisen about giving in to Gabriel's ridiculously pathetic demands. Giving him the Fae would be no different than handing him an army to slaughter my people. But the sight of the book in Elias' hand came with a reminder of a little detail we hadn't been able to use.
Levon was already nodding and moving to circle the table again. He reached for one of the files we'd printed for the briefing and opened it up, the images splaying across the table. Alexius' gaze immediately fell to the pictures, his golden eyes sharp and attentive, his fingers absently grazing the pages.
"We'd been holding him in one of our dungeons. That's where he drew the magic circle," Beta Jayden explained, still watching the fae king with carefully concealed suspicion.
Alexius reached forward, his hand curling around the document, those pale eyes seemingly glued to the page. He carried himself the way an Alpha would, with that quiet grace and authority.
"Can you decipher it?" Noah asked what we were all wondering and Alexius was silent for a long moment.
"He likely suspected one of you may be able to. He wouldn't have made it so complex if he didn't," he answered, his eyes narrowing on the paper he held before lifting back up to meet Noah's gaze. It was the same issue Levon had mentioned.
A phone rang. Sebastian picked up, spoke a few words, nodded his understanding, then hung up and proceeded to mark up some nameless plot of land in Poland. The packs were already moving, already clearing areas and covering cities. A week was enough time if we worked around the clock, but if there was a way to narrow it down using the circle alone, it was worth pursuing.
Gabriel had likely taken Alexandria somewhere far from all our territories. Even he wouldn't risk hiding in a place concentrated with too many of our kind, especially since he likely knew what kind of large scale search I'd order. Pack epicenters and major cities filled with wolves, vampires, and fae could easily be marked out, but there was still too much land, too many places that we'd have to comb through and too much we could miss.
"I can translate it," Alexius continued, exhaustion dimming his features. He seemed to have flown straight here the minute he'd realized he couldn't find my mate on his own. "But it will take some time."
I resisted the urge to sigh, that heavy weight still resting on my shoulders. Casually, I waved a hand towards the empty chairs at the table. "Make yourself comfortable, Your Majesty."
Alexius shot me a long glare, his chin lifting in a way that reminded me so much of Alexandria it was unnerving, but he sat down anyway, apparently choosing to set aside his pride for her sake. He worked silently, diligently. Redrawing every line, every careful curve and transcribing as quickly as he could manage. But Gabriel had predicted someone interpreting his circle and had gone the extra mile to make it as hard as possible. He'd written a web of riddles, his location hidden behind line after line of useless ancient writing.
Bastard.
Further down, Valerie spoke on the phone with her people, mainly in the countries she'd indicated. Tentatively, Jayden went over to discuss how the search would go, if only to ensure none of her vampires encountered any of the packs who were also scouring the area. The last thing we needed was a stand off between the two groups.
Noah excused himself to tend to pack business and join the remainder of our own personal patrols. It was easy to forget that we still had borders to guard, a pack to run, others to protect. Regardless, Elias and Sebastian discarded their readings to accept calls from those who were phoning in after clearing a territory.
Levon paused for a moment, but like Jayden, he went to join Alexius' side, if only to offer his own wisdom and assist him in decoding faster. This wasn't the time to hold back or retreat into our own discomforts. The Faerie King and Vampire Queen had come to our table and we would treat them as we would any ally.
For now.
Alexius stiffened when my uncle sat beside him, his hand coming to stop over the document he held, but after a moment, he relaxed enough to calmly speak with him.
In the meantime, I threw myself into calls with a good majority of the Alpha's who needed to be fully briefed on the situation. They needed to know what we were dealing with, how dangerously scheming Gabriel was, and how willing he was to shed any werewolf blood without hesitation.
As the hours dragged on and the map was continually dotted and marked up, an overwhelming sense of dread settled. One that reminded me that if any of this were to go wrong at any point in time, then I would never see her again. I barely even remember what she'd said in farewell before, it hadn't felt fleeting at the time. It had felt unending, like a thousand tomorrows waiting to be plucked from our hands.
We had finally relaxed, moved forward. Gabriel had been captured. The pack was healing. Alexandria had shifted. We'd marked each other with only the moon as our witness. I should've known it was too perfect, too good to be true.
It was the same when my mother died. All had been well and good and peaceful... until it wasn't. My thoughts churned, always rushing back to my mate. To the paleness of her hair and the golden glint in her eyes, to her mischievous smiles and awful taunts.
I had always known I couldn't live without her, but now it was certain, as unchanging as words carved into stone. If she died at Gabriel's hand, I would too, but not without settling the score.
Just as my father had before me.
***
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