24

I was treading on thin ice. We gave Elisane enough leverage and she was smart enough to know something was going on. I had seen her on several occasions following Tara to the library or watching us when I went for a run with her.

Caspian initially said it would be easier to hide from Elisane who she was to Tara. It was the reason he used when she got curious. I didn't see the logic in that.

Going to the Winter Ball with Annabelle Boyle had, in hindsight, been beyond risky. If it hadn't been for Esme it could have ended differently. Not only could she have revealed everything, but I could have lost Tara.

She ran away from me once for being an Alaiser, but I wouldn't let her do it a second time. The quarrels between our packs ran deep, I was aware of that, but now we also had the time to talk about everything.

"Second best friend," I heard Jade growl from the front seat and Tara's eyes lit up. Jade and Tara had something in common that neither of them had explained to me before. Jade was here as a teacher, not a student.

"I didn't know you were so possessive," Tara giggled, snuggling closer to me.

"She'll have to explain that to me, how she came up with that," Jade snorted contemptuously, which Tara only answered by shaking her head.

"You never mentioned that you are related to Ethan Fenton," she asked curiously, but also hurt. I was just amazed that Tara didn't know. Esme had been in her class since last year and she hadn't known anything about Tara either.

"Well, it's always the famous alpha that everyone knows. He's my brother," Jade murmured.

"Well, he's something of a celebrity. Not like us Stones or Alaisters." Tara gave me an apologetic look. However, she was right. Our packs isolated themselves from the outside world and even the quarrel among us was hardly known to anyone.

The Tungsten and Black, on the other hand, belonged to the VIP among the packs. The Blacks because of their witches and their mysterious connections to the Lycans. Wouldn't be surprised if Taylor had some stories to tell when he got back.

"My brother's mate is a Tungsten. Old Alpha's little daughter. Turns out there's more to her than a little party girl." Jade glanced at us and just managed to smile. "Looks like you could make it big, though, Tara."

Jade turned back to the front and the car remained silent. Tara shifted nervously in the seat next to me.

"Everyone gets what they ask for. I don't believe in Luna's destiny. You can fight for something if it's important enough to you," Tara murmured, leaning against my shoulder. I pulled her into my arms and it wasn't five minutes before she fell asleep.

"What was that about, Jade? What did you mean she could make it big?" I growled at her now.

"She dances with you and her Erasthai is the king himself. How come?"

"I haven't told Jade yet," Trevor let me know.

"Was genau?"

"Everything. I invited Jade on a pretext." Now that surprised me. "Looks like we have the same task in the next few weeks."

"Are you guys whispering? Seriously now?" Jade snorted at Trevor.

"How do you even know she's Caspian's Erasthai?" Trevor asked confused and I felt like hitting him if he wasn't behind the wheel. Jade, on the other hand, grinned broadly at him.

"You didn't know." Trevor bit his tongue, we we all smelled.

"And you?" Jade turned to me. "Then what are you? Your mate," she laughed and stopped when she realized that no one was laughing with her. "Shit. We need Esme's witches. I guess I'm only second best friends after all."

Esme hasn't revealed what it is that even the king flinched from her. But it shouldn't interest me as much as my mate, who lay asleep on my lap and didn't know anything about it yet.

I brushed back her hair and looked at her flickering eyelids and small nose that wrinkled slightly. A small smile touched her lips. Whatever she dreamed, it made her happy.

"You can ask our witch," Trevor interjected, and I was about to hit him for the second time. "She's from the coven Esme is so proud of."

"Trevor," I growled at him, but he already had Jade's full attention. Annoyed, I turned away and, to my relief, finally saw the airport.

"We're here," I said so loud that Trevor fell silent and a curly blond head looked up sleepily.

"Where?" Tara asked confused.

"At the airport," I brushed her hair back from her face, which she had never worn open before. I've always found my curls annoying, but hers gave me a reason to keep touching them and brushing them off her face.

"I don't have a ticket yet," she mumbled sleepily, looking at the parking lot where the other betas and alphas were unloading their bags.

"You have Taylor's since he would rather be in Europe now."

"Oh I see." Tara looked at me in surprise and she seemed lost for a moment.

"Wyatt sent a plane," I corrected myself. "There was always a place for you, Tara." Even if we didn't own a plane and there weren't any tickets, I would have bought a damn plane. I would have carried her all the way home if I had to.

"Always, yes?" she grinned at me and I had to pull myself together not to pull her towards me and kiss her. I can do that. I've been able to do that for the past few months. But soon we would no longer be under surveillance and only the two of us.

"We'll take care of the luggage," I heard Trevor and then two car doors open and close. Not that it really gave us any more privacy.

I looked at her lower lip, which she was chewing, like the guilty conscience in me. I wasn't allowed to tell her who I was to her. Nor did I know if she really wanted to know.

A lot had changed for me since last night. I wasn't sure anymore if I could bear to keep her in the dark. I was just wondering if I had really thought twice about taking her with me.

I would feel more comfortable having her around. King Caspian even said he would send a lycan to protect them. One who would have been here long since he was gone. I looked out the window at the airport and its tall figure wrapped in a black coat.

On the one hand, I was glad he was there. Esme was able to put Boyle in his place, but Elisane only stayed calm because he was there. I was a little surprised that he had allowed Tara and I to get so close. Just as Caspian hadn't addressed it before. I was no fool, he certainly knew it. If there was one thing Lycans were exceptionally good at, it was reading the emotions of others.

I grabbed one of her curls and twisted it around my finger. I tried to distract myself from her blue, glassy eyes shimmering through her thick lashes. About her lovely smell that drove me insane and kept me constantly tense.

With every second I was with her, my self-control weakened and my urge to tell her how I felt about her grew stronger.

"When we get home I'll kiss you. That's not a promise, that's a warning." I could still see the sparkle in her eyes as I said the last word and stormed out of the car.

My steps knew only one goal. No lycan would stop me from winning my mate any longer. I made my way through the arriving and departing vehicles and he looked at me calmly and expectantly.

The cold didn't seem to bother him. Neither do I normally, but in my human form, the tolerance limit here was far exceeded. I walked towards him and he just stood there, motionless. He watched me come closer and when I was only ten paces away from him, he suddenly reached out his hand to me.

"Cyril Connaissances," he introduced himself, holding out my hand. "I'm sent by someone who owes the Stones something."

"Weston," I growled. I only got to know him briefly, but I had experienced the story of his companion first-hand.

"Somebody has to look after the king if he can't do it himself." His words left me speechless. I had never heard anyone speak so disrespectfully of the king.

He was still holding out his hand, which I now took. What should happen if he wanted to rip my head off, he would have done it long ago.

"Weston sent you, didn't King Caspian?"

"Well, he always asks Callum, there's no one else he trusts," he shrugged.

"How long have you been here?"

"Long enough to clarify my assignment," he replied dryly, looking around for a few curious wolves walking past us. I was big for a wolf, but the motherfucker was almost as big as King Caspian. That alone drew attention.

"What's it called?"

"Protect the king, of course," he grinned.

"Very precise," I shook my head in disbelief.

"I can kill you if you harm him. Is that what you want to know?" he asked dryly. That was something I had been anticipating for a long time anyway.

"I want to know how you plan to protect Tara," I answered him.

"In front of Elisane? Caspian will take care of that. If she loses her nerve, I can kill her too. She is aware of my presence," he answered, just as cool.

"I hope King Caspian knows what he's doing," I murmured.

"I don't think so. He wanted to get his queen and the right one was here and he still chooses the wrong one." That lycan was getting on my nerves.

"It's Tara's choice," I growled at him. A look over my shoulder told me that this useless conversation was about to end.

"And she met her, as I saw yesterday." I couldn't make sense of him. If he was sent by King Caspian's closest confidant, perhaps with the knowledge of the king himself, he should have ripped my throat out yesterday. Yet he stood here and did nothing of the sort.

"How old are you?" I asked just out of curiosity. He didn't look much older than me.

"Four hundred and thirty-two," he replied calmly.

"No Erasthai?" I asked, which was stupid to ask. He wouldn't be standing here if he had one or if it were long history.

"Nein."

"Then how are you going to make decisions about who needs to live and who needs to die? If you don't even know how we feel?"

"The absence of a feeling you've longed for supports my decisions, Grayson." He either had no idea what it was like not being able to be close to his mate or he just felt sorry for what he was talking about.

"Even if Caspian loses his Erasthai to you, he will keep his feelings for her. Something that can sometimes be more precious after all the lonely years."

"I suppose I have to take you with me now?" I asked to end the subject.

"Right," he replied stiffly, just in time for Tara to come within hearing range.