Chapter 34 Ch 34

Once we landed and disembarked from the plane, a private SUV headed towards the address printed on my tongue. I didn't know if they would be there. I didn't know what I would find. My body felt jittery as we entered the city. The memories of dead bodies strewn haplessly in public squares and the eerily quiet city streets in the mornings stirred up anxiety that I couldn't quell. Matt kept a firm hand on mine. He squeezed it every time I fidgeted.

I was soon surprised, though. My home city resembled nothing of the broken, empty Savannah I had left behind. The highways flowed with traffic and the sidewalks were cluttered with people. Lights beamed from storefront windows. Everything seemed normal.

Almost.

My shock edged out when we passed a park and I saw two wolves sunning in the grass. Three more were play-wrestling in another space. Humans moved around them cautiously but without surprise. I nearly snapped my neck looking at Matt for an explanation.

He smiled a little smugly and leaned over to kiss my head. "Wolves are allowed to express themselves within city limits, but there are rules. They can roam the streets between midnight and six in the morning or anytime in public green spaces. They are expected to abide by the same laws as humans."

"So they're just . . . coexisting?"

"Mhmm. There's been a few issues, but mostly things have found normalcy here. And in other cities too. People want to get on with their lives, and the wolves do too. They just don't want to hide anymore."

My nose squished against the glass while I studied the world with new fascination. I couldn't believe it. The last time I had seen the human world collide with the wolf world, things had been in tatters.

No law and order. No cohabitation. Just beast versus man.

"Do you see that?" Matt pointed to a city building under construction.

There were vans and hoists around the site that had Blended Construction painted on them.

"That means men and wolves work for that company. It's been happening a lot, actually. Companies are advertising a mixture of employees. The wolves, you know, are stronger and faster than men. So they're really beneficial to hire. Now that wolves don't have to hide their extra abilities, they're exercising them."

"There's no way my home city has this many wolves!" I said with a laugh.

"Probably not originally." He squeezed my leg so I would look at him. My heart actually fluttered. "Some wolves have been migrating to the cities now that they can work normal jobs without fear of being caught."

"How does Basileus feel about all this co-mingling?"

Matt arched a brow. "What do you mean? He gave the orders for integration. He's been incentivizing cities all over the world to promote cohabitation."

"Oh, really? He's also the one who gave orders to wolf packs to take control of local governments. And he ate the entire cabinet of this country, I'm pretty sure."

Snorting, he nodded with a shrug. "Okay, okay. He was anti-government at first. It's in his blood to be a bloodthirsty dictator. He's shown me memories of his past. Like, millennia-ago past. Things were a lot different. It's a miracle he's been listening to any of my advice or that of Tandan and local leaders. This is not the world he left behind when he originally died."

I took a moment to process that. Basileus was a tyrant, certainly. Maybe that was why it was so much harder for me to imagine that he promoted a society like this. Not even tolerated—endorsed and ordered. My core felt hot and tingly all of the sudden. Matt sniffed the air and his grip tightened on my leg.

"Babe," he hoarsely murmured.

Gulping, I glanced up at him.

"Now?" he whimpered. "I'm going to be tortured."

"I can't help it! To think my cranky, fluffy Beast King did all of this? It's a turn-on. I'm ashamedly unashamed. It's hot."

He groaned and kissed me full on the lip. I clutched at his shirt. His tongue slid along my mouth before piercing the seam. The warmth in my pussy escalated to dripping honey pot in a second. Matt moaned, cupping me hard. I found myself crawling into his lap to straddle his hips.

The driver cleared his throat. Matt gently pushed me to the side and snarled at the guy. My mouth dropped.

"You're totally beasting," I remarked.

"And you think it's hot," he countered with a smirk.

My lips pursed. "Maybe a little."

If I thought about Matt's beast mode too much though, my chest would ache. Matt always did it for me, but that didn't mean I didn't miss Basileus.

"Maybe we can go for a walk later and find a little green space," I suggested, innocently smiling at him. "My wolf could use a stretch."

He grumbled and kissed me before sliding me back into my seat. The driver blew out a relieved breath.

As the city blended into suburbs, I became increasingly aware of where we were. A lot of the anxiety had lessened. I had more confidence that my family might be alive and well after seeing the city. There were fewer wolves in the parks we passed and less advertising for them.

As we reached the borough I had grown up in, I noticed a few changes. Some of the restaurants had signs hanging that said: "No Animals Allowed". A few were flying torn flags from the posts outside their businesses. The tears in the fabric seemed to have been made by claws.

"What happened here?" I asked.

The driver cleared his throat again. "May I answer, my Queen?"

I glanced at Matt in surprise. He sighed and nodded.

"It's just Anna," I told him, "and please, tell me what you know."

"Yes, Miss. Things have gotten better in the cities, Ms. Anna, but the suburbs and rural areas are worse. Humans know what they're up against now. Some of these local municipalities aren't requiring their citizens or businesses to integrate."

"Isn't that going against Basileus' orders?"

"His orders are for populations over thirty-thousand," Matt said. "He wanted to encourage wolves to take up jobs in populated areas. We believed that starting with those areas would improve the public image of wolves. If we can prove we can handle working with humans while being ourselves, they will eventually accept us. It may take time but they will. We can work on the suburbs once the general public sentiment is that wolves aren't going to kill everyone."

"Don't some of the wolves want to stay in rural areas, though? Where they can be in packs and run wild? Wasn't that the point of all this?"

Matt squeezed my hand. "Of course. That's completely allowed. Packs are encouraged to operate as long as they respect private property. No eating farmer's cattle and things like that. Some of them want to live in cities though and never were able to because they had to let their wolves out sometimes. That's hard to do in a city where people would hunt you down."

I nodded slowly.

"Also, I need to warn you," he said.

His eyes moved to the view outside the window. We were pulling into my parents' neighborhood. I could see my house now. There was a fence that hadn't been there before. My body shivered with a chill.

"Your parents aren't going to like the Big Guy," Matt whispered.

On top of the big posts in the metal fence were strings of barbed wire. Between the barbed wire, every ten feet or so, were spikes. Spikes with objects on them—skulls. As we drew nearer and my heart slammed harder against my ribs, I could see more clearly.

Wolf skulls.