6: Seth
By the sixth ring, Seth wasn’t sure if his wife was going to answer. What time was it on the West Coast? He did the math. Kate should be home from school. Probably.
His call might go to voicemail. What the hell was he going to say? “This is your husband returning your call. What do you want?” No, that sounded weird. He didn’t know if the number he dialed was her private number or her pack’s landline number. Seth should have checked. The king required all packs to maintain a landline for emergencies. That number, though, would be manned at all times. The phone number probably was Kate’s cell phone.
A woman answered on the eighth ring with an angry, “Who the hell is this?”
“Seth. Seth Tatterskein.”
There was a long, stunned silence. “If this is some kind of prank, I will find you, grab your tonsils, and yank them out of your throat.”
Oookay. “This isn’t a prank.”
“You’re really Seth Tatterskein?” She didn’t sound convinced.
“Yes,” he said.
“Prove it.”
Seth stared at his phone. How could he prove that it was him? Alexander had joined them together, but Seth had never actually explored their connection. It seemed too creepy stalker-ish to do with a girl he couldn’t remember. It was weirdly unsettling lately to do it to Jack now that Jack had a girlfriend.
He closed his eyes and focused on Kate. She wasn’t in his territory, so all he could sense was her. Nothing of her surroundings. She wore her black hair extremely short even though her next transformation would make it long again. She also had a dozen piercings, which was odd for their people. Such wounds healed the moment that the jewelry was removed. Judging by the sunlight warming her skin and the soft traffic noise he could hear over the phone, she was outside. It was December. It might not snow in San Diego, but most of the population would be bundling up as if it did. Kate was a werewolf. She only needed warm clothes to fit in with everyone else. She wore a tank top and blue jeans and sandals as if she couldn’t care less about fitting in.
She half turned to face the East, gasping in surprise. “Holy shit. Is that you?”
He felt her focus on their connection. It was as if she had reached out her hand to him. He focused tighter on her. It felt like he’d taken her hand and pulled her close. It felt good.
She gave a breathless laugh. “I guess it is you.”
Seth reluctantly dropped his focus on her. If she had bad news to give to him, he didn’t want to hear it while feeling how they could be. “You called me. Left a message. You said you needed to talk to me.”
“A week ago!” she shouted. “Dude, what the hell happened? I was sitting in class, and all hell broke loose in Boston! I freaked out so bad that I nearly got kicked out of school! The idiots in my class are still putting me on blast because of it. They’re pushing for Darwin Awards. It’s almost laughable how they think teasing me is safe to do.”
As the Princess of Boston, Kate could wipe the floor with just about anything on the planet short of a Power. It was a testament to her control over her wolf that her classmates weren’t aware that she was a large scary predator. When Seth lost his temper, everyone within a hundred-foot radius knew it unless they were total psychic nulls.
“Who shot Jack?” Kate asked. “Wickers? Were those Wicker constructs? Whatever they were, they were gnarly. Why the hell did you stick your hand into a breach? Are you insane? What were those things fighting with you? One of them felt like a Grigori but the other was the weird creepy thing that lives in Cambridge. Who is the new puppy in our pack? How is he getting so small? Why is he living with that thing in Cambridge? What the hell is it?”
Kate had a stronger connection to their alpha than he gave her credit for. He realized it was because his mother’s bond had been weak. His parents rarely talked about this aspect of their marriage. Everyone compared his mother to his father’s first wife and found her lacking. It had been a constant sore spot—so one rarely broached.
By the hierarchical nature of the Source, Seth was the primary connection. Kate shared the load. She had been insurance against Seth being overwhelmed by the alpha, hence the need for their rushed marriage. Seth buffered her from the flood of magic, which was why she hadn’t suffered alpha amnesia. It meant that she probably remembered the entire wedding in painful detail. She would also have had a harder time controlling her wolf immediately after the ceremony, hence all the broken furniture at the Castle.
The king had shifted Jack back to the Boston pack within minutes of Seth’s father dying. If Jack and Kate hadn’t been enough to keep Seth from being overwhelmed, the king could have transferred in some of his Thanes. Seth was glad he hadn’t been stuck with Isaiah’s lackeys as his pack mates.
Kate’s connection, however, meant that she had a ringside seat to the chaos of November.
“Oh,” Seth said. “You saw all that.”
“Yes! I called the Castle to tell them. The Thane that answered the phone said that the king was on his way to Boston. I skipped the rest of the day at school; there was no way I could have stayed calm until I was sure that you and Jack and our new puppy was safe.”
Our new puppy. That made Seth smile.
“The puppy is Joshua,” Seth said. “He’s my older half brother from my father’s first wife. The one that was murdered.”
“I thought his name was Ilya.”
“Yes. And no. Not anymore. It’s—it’s complicated. We fought the same coven of Wickers that kidnapped Joshua as an infant. They had some big, crazy plan to take control of the Boston alpha. I’m not sure I understood all of it. It might have worked if they raised Joshua like one of their twisted homicidal children. Luckily, they had lost control over one of their puppets when my dad killed their leader. The puppet took my brother when she bolted. She sold Joshua to a family totally unconnected to the coven. They thought Joshua was her son and that the money that they were giving her was to cover hospital bills. They had no idea the mess they bought into. They’d raised Joshua as their own, so he’s had a nice normal childhood. His adoptive sister drove through a blizzard to cook him Thanksgiving dinner. It makes me happy that there’s so much love there.”
Kate snorted. “I wouldn’t do that for my brother. He’s a total jerk face.”
Seth suddenly remembered that Jack complained about Kate’s twin throwing a series of hissy fits during the visit. Jack suspected it was because her brother was used to being the center of attention. Since the daughters of alphas were usually married out of the pack long before their father died, the firstborn sons were considered the heir apparent. Seth knew how that worked. He’d been a spoiled brat when he arrived at the Castle. His father’s death erased that character defect.
“Joshua is nothing like that,” Seth said. “He’s fun to be around. I think you’ll like him. Maybe you can fly to Boston and meet us. Him.”
“Send me money,” Kate said.
“What?”
“My dad is being a total jerk about money. He gave my brother a car when we turned sixteen but he’s like ‘get one from your husband’ when I complained that it wasn’t fair.”
The one thing Seth learned from his parents was never bitch about your in-laws, no matter how crazy they drove you. The news made him angry at his father-in-law and at himself. He should have made sure that she had what she needed.
“I’ll send you money,” Seth promised. “I’ll pay for anything you need.”
There was a long silence in reply. As he waited for her to reply, he made a note to get her a car. Something he discovered while fighting the Wickers was that the freedom that cars provided got very important fast. He added a note to get a car for Joshua too so that he wouldn’t be limited by public transit.
“I want you to agree to some ground rules first,” Kate said cautiously. “We’re married but I don’t know you. No sex. Not until I’m sure I’m ready. That I actually like you. I want to date like normal people do. You know—like what they do in rom-coms. Dinner. Dancing. Bowling. Maybe not bowling. Whatever. I want the right to say when we do the dirty.”
“Okay.” Seth realized that he’d wasted time by not contacting Kate earlier. They could have spent the last three years becoming friends. He wouldn’t have felt so alone at the Castle if he had had someone other than Jack to talk to. He was supposed to spend the rest of his life together with Kate and he didn’t know anything about her. Why did she cut her hair so short? Why did she have so many piercings? Why had she been so angry when she answered the phone? Why had she been so angry during their wedding? It didn’t sound like she wanted an annulment. She sounded cautious. He thought it was a good trait to have.
“I mean like a year or maybe more,” Kate said. “I’m not a baby machine. I’m not coming to Boston to get knocked up.”
“I think dating is a good idea,” Seth said. “We have so much stuff to do before even thinking of having kids. I want to go to college, so I’ll know what I’m doing when I take over our businesses. We need to build a Court and a real bachelor house and gather more wolves to our territory. If there’s anyone there that wants to come with you from San Diego, that would be great. We need more people that we can trust.”
There was silence on Kate’s side and then a quiet confession of, “I’ve been burning all my bridges for the last three years. It’s hard. Everyone knows that I’m going to leave and not come back. There’s no reason for them to get along with me.”
Seth felt a stab of guilt. He’d spent the last three years assuming that Kate was “safe with her family.” His mother had stayed close with her parents, but his mother had left home the day she came into her power. His grandfather’s funeral made him realize that visits between his grandparents and mother had been deliberately few and far between. It was the nature of wolves to be territorial. Daughters married out of their family packs instantly became interlopers. Human love kept wolf instinct in check—but not completely.
It was a large part of his problems with the king’s Thanes. They belonged to the New York City pack. Seth was a strong wolf at the heart of their territory. It grated unconsciously on their nerves to have him sleeping so close. Worse, the Thanes knew that Seth’s presence at the Castle was temporary. Isaiah was the most dominant of the Thanes. Whether or not Isaiah became the Prince of New York was moot; the king would never move his son to another pack. Many of the Thanes had no desire to ruin their relationship with the strongest wolf of their pack for a puppy that would leave in a few years.
Seth hadn’t considered that Kate would be in the same position.
“I’ll make sure you can fly to Boston whenever and as often as you want,” he promised. The need for the bachelor house and other wolves just went up a notch. “I plan to move forward on rebuilding the Court of Boston soon. I’m not sure how fast I’ll be able to push it through, but I would like your input on our future home.”
“Wow. That’s—that’s scary and exciting at the same time. I’ve seen every single movie and television show ever set in Boston. I collect pictures of the city. I dream about walking through the streets. I really, really want to see it for myself.”
She didn’t define what was scary about what he said. She really didn’t need to. He was asking her to trust him, a complete stranger who had ignored her for three years. To fly to the other side of the country alone. To restart life in a war-torn city. It made him scared for her.
“I look forward to getting to show you Boston.” He was reminding both of them that she wouldn’t be alone. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you better.”
Hanging up felt like he was letting go of something warm and wonderful. He had to set things right with Kate, which meant he’d have to talk to the king even sooner than he planned.
* * *
The throne room at the Wolf King’s Castle had been built to hold large numbers of people. It was the only room that could take all the Thanes and the upper ranks of two packs in disagreement over territory and business deals. Only the dining room came close in size. Unlike the dining room, here the occupants could launch themselves into battle without breaking chandeliers or furniture. Over the years, Seth had seen a dozen different such fights. Wolves weren’t known for their decorum.
The architect decided that he would use the space to impress. Maybe he foresaw the angry groups of wolves descending on the place and wanted to batter them into submission with gold and stone. The floors were polished marble, and the vaulted ceiling coffered and edged with gilded molding. The crystal chandeliers were all high overhead, struggling to light up the floor without endangering themselves from flying bodies.
The only window was high over the raised dais. During the day, its arched sunburst design spilled light down over the king like God’s blessing. It was an illusion; the Wolf King gleamed from his own inner power.
Between the high chandeliers, the lack of windows, and its overall design, the room was much like a cave. It seemed sometimes that the Wolf King was a wild thing lying at the mouth of its den. Rarely he was a man in the throne room. Most of the times—like now—he was a massive white wolf lying on a couch strewn with dark bearskins.
Two of his oldest Thanes lay at the foot of the dais. Another king, another culture, they would be guards. Here, they attended Alexander merely for companionship; wolves were most comfortable when surrounded by their pack. Coming and going were the rest of the Thanes, reporting on their duties as the king’s voice and presence to scattered points of the globe. Ichirou Nakano had just returned from Japan, where he settled disputes between warring packs. Felix Leung was being sent to Vancouver on the king’s private jet to deal with a border dispute between Canada and the barons of White Rock, British Columbia, and Blaine, Washington. Edward Bishop was discussing how newly elected politicians in United States might influence the wolves’ businesses. The Wolf King lay on the furs, listening with his eyes closed. It would be a mistake to think he was asleep.
Seth walked toward the king, his stomach doing somersaults. He would have preferred facing Alexander alone. The king could be more readily swayed when he didn’t have an audience. While the king was in New York, though, he was rarely unattended.
When Seth was a little boy, he had hated having to sit quietly through his father’s business meetings, listening to debates that he wasn’t allowed to partake in. His father said it was part of learning how to be a prince. Back then, he used to yearn for Ilya to be found and fill the “eldest son” slot so he could be out playing with his friends.
He was grateful now for the experience. He had learned a lot, even while he was bored senseless. His father always said that the strongest argument was the one that was focused and easy to understand. Sometimes it was best to aim for the easiest goal to achieve in order to leverage the more difficult one.
As Seth neared the dais, he realized that the king had turned his focus onto Joshua. The king’s power felt like a hand resting on top of Seth’s hold on his territory. In Boston, Joshua had been sitting at the island in Decker’s kitchen, apparently doing on his homework. He went still, raising his head, as if he was suddenly aware of the scrutiny.
“He’s safe,” Seth voice echoed through the room. The Thanes turned to look at him as if he was a bored, spoil brat, interrupting the adults’ important business. Seth struggled to ignore the judging looks. “I’ve come to you about the Boston estate.”
Seth had chosen his words carefully to cover his two major projects and yet raise the least number of objections.
“What about it?” The Wolf King’s voice was deep and rich in a way Seth hoped that someday he could sound like. It would make being the prince so much easier if he could sound so regal.
“I need to care for my wolves without being hopelessly fettered,” Seth said.
“Your businesses are being cared for.”
“The businesses are not my wolves. I trust that Thane Levine’s office has them well in hand. They do not need my oversight to run. It is my wife that I’m concerned about.”
“Last I heard,” Alexander said, “you have never contacted her.”
Seth gritted his teeth. He’d earned that criticism. He could only hope his neglect didn’t doom this conversation. “I rectified that earlier today. She reported that her father is providing only basic Shelter and Assistance as due her status as an outsider within his territory. I have made the mistake of assuming that he would continue to see her as his daughter, not the child of another pack.”
“Boston is an older territory with more resources. You should not assume that other territories have as deep as pockets as you do.”
Seth nodded, keeping hold of his temper. Did Alexander know the truth this whole time and never said anything to him? S&A was taken out of a pack’s tribute before submitting it to the king. The shortage was then charged to the traveler’s home pack. It was set up as an incentive for alphas to freely help any wolf that stumbled into their territory. The alpha would not have to worry about being out funds since the Wolf King would be balancing the books. There were thousands of packs scattered across the planet; it was Levine’s office that kept the records straight. Had Levine brought the accounting to the king’s attention or simply juggled the money?
And what would a proper response be to the king’s statement?
“I’m attempting to be the prince that Boston needs.” Seth struggled to pick out words without seeming to think deeply. A slow answer, his father taught him, sounded like a lie. “I have neglected my wife. I want to ensure that we have a strong relationship for the good of Boston.”
“That would be wise.” The king tone sounded like he might be teasing Seth. It was hard to tell with Alexander. His wit was dry and sharp, when he chose to tease, which was rarely.
“My wife is still under her father’s guardianship. It means that all funds for her—and any decision on how to spend those funds—funnel through him.”
“She is in his territory,” the king said.
Seth paused, searching for a way to steer the argument in Boston’s favor. Alexander was merely stating facts without giving a clue as to how he felt. Did it mean that he saw no problem with the situation or was this some kind of test? His father said never to weaken his stance by pleading. State it as if it was your right.
“I want her guardianship to be reassigned to someone on the East Coast, be it you, Thane Bishop, or Jack. She’ll be an adult within two years. At that point, she can take over her own finances. I would like her to receive a car as soon as possible. She should have the freedom that a vehicle would provide. I want her to be able to visit Boston—get to know the city; get to know me.” Because he thought it would strengthen his demands, he added, “I don’t remember our wedding. She is a complete stranger to me.”
“You’ve had three years,” Alexander said.
“You have not allowed me out of your sight for three years,” Seth said. “I was a child—”
“You are still a child.”
“A few hundred days and I will not be a child anymore.”
“That is debatable.” The king’s words were cutting, but still, it felt as if he was teasing Seth. It was hard to tell when he was a man, let alone a wolf.
Where was I in my argument? Seth had lost track. The most important point was that the king allowed Kate to visit Boston. Alexander hadn’t said no. Yet. Seth would assume that the answer was yes and push on to the related needs. “I want to rent or purchase some housing in Cambridge. Something close to Harvard, MIT, and Boston University. That would make it attractive to any wolf that wants to shift packs for a better education. Two neighboring units of three or four bedrooms each would be ideal. That would allow a bachelor and bachelorette house.”
“You plan to recruit all puppies?”
Seth didn’t want to rebuild his pack with older wolves already forced out of one pack. In the three years that Seth had drifted in the Wolf King’s wake, he’d learned that most older wolves left their packs only when they had behavioral problems. They were addicted to something undesirable: drugs, gambling, sex, or violence. Often it was three out of four at once. Other times, they had inflated egos and were dangerously petty, seeing any slight as cause to strike out. Seth would rather have no wolves in his pack than to gather a horde of monstrous problems.
Seth couldn’t say that out loud, not in front of the Thanes. A good quarter of them were the wolves that the king couldn’t place safely in another pack. “Not puppies. Young wolves. They would need to be adults. They’re the ones who would be most willing to shift packs for what Boston has to offer. A bigger city. Better access to top universities. A stronger job market. More cultural resources. Theaters. Museums. Historic sites like Plymouth Rock, North Church, and Paul Revere’s house. And—and places like the aquarium…” He realized that he was listing field trips for Blackridge. That was stupid. He’d better make a better list for his recruitment pitch. “A lot of young people are frustrated by the lack of potential mates. Some packs have an overabundance of females. Some have too many males. Most packs are in danger of inbreeding. You only set up marriages for the children of the alpha. It leaves the more rural packs without options.”
At the king’s feet, Armand Mandeville grunted in disgust. “You can’t raise families with just puppies. You need seasoned fighters.”
“They’re not puppies,” Seth repeated. “They’ve been trained to fight their entire lives. If they remained in their home pack, they would be given the most tiresome patrols and expect to deal with any problems that arose.”
“Puppies or not,” the king said, “you have no wolves now that need to be housed.”
“I can’t recruit wolves without a place for them to live. The Court of Boston will need to be rebuilt from the ground up. The empty lot is on a street deemed ‘historic’ so we will not be able to build anything we want…”
The king snorted. “It was a mud path through a cow pasture when I first visited it.”
The king had visited his family’s home back before history was made. It was fifty or sixty years between the king’s coming to North America and the American Revolution.
“I’ll have to deal with considerable red tape in order for construction to start,” Seth said. “The new buildings will have to keep to the original footprint and exterior details. Plans will need to be filed with the city and approved. The city might request an archeological dig on the site before allowing us to start work. Someone will need to be in the city to oversee every step, be it Jack or one of your Thanes.”
Seth preferred Jack, even though he hated the thought of being in New York without him. If Jack was in Boston, though, Isaiah couldn’t harm him.
“A bachelor house would give whoever is working on the construction project a home base. Also, I want some place safe where my wife can stay while visiting the East Coast. I don’t want her here in New York because of Isaiah. Since you haven’t chosen a wife for him, Isaiah resents the fact that I was given one at thirteen. He is ignoring the fact that I needed help to bear the Boston alpha.”
“He wouldn’t dare hurt her,” Mandeville said.
Seth gritted his teeth. Why did everyone defend the man when the proof that he was dangerously jealous was in plain sight? “He would dare. Just as he dared to attack me when I was thirteen. As he dared to ignore my phone calls from Mexico, saying that Jack and Samuels were in danger. He was willing to let a Thane on King’s business die.”
He shouldn’t have taken this path. He shouldn’t be criticizing the king in front of his Thanes. Not when he wanted something from Alexander. Yet he had to be sure that Alexander didn’t insist that Kate come to the Castle.
“Your law states that no adult wolf should attack a puppy. You have not punished him once for all his petty attacks on me. Why would he not dare attack my wife? While he would attempt it, he wouldn’t succeed. She’s the Princess of Boston and well chosen as such. She would destroy him. I do not want to start my marriage, though, by forcing her into that confrontation. I don’t want to deprive New York of its prince.”
Actually, Seth would do it cheerfully. The more people he had to protect, the more willing he was to kill Isaiah. The king could remarry and have another son. New York had waited three hundred years for a prince. It could wait another twenty.
“Kate deserves a chance to actually see the territory that she’s part of,” Seth pushed on. “I want her input on building our home. She needs a safe place to stay in Boston. At the moment, the only refuge for her is Silas Decker’s home.”
Seth knew that Joshua would happily host Kate, but he also knew that none of the Thanes were comfortable with the notion of puppies sleeping in a vampire’s lair. Add “female” to “puppy” and the Thanes visibly flinched.
“Hm, yes, the Grigoris’ pet monster,” Alexander said. He fell quiet but his focus went to Joshua again. This time Joshua was asleep, head down on the kitchen island, homework scattered around him.
Seth clenched his fists. The other thing that his father taught him was not to press the attack until your position was known. He waited for Alexander to say something.
The king sighed deeply and stood up. “Belgrade took much out of me. I grow weary. Do the groundwork on establishing a bachelor house. We will talk about this again later.”
Seth watched the king walk slowly to the door as if the weight of the world rested on him. What? Did he win? Was that a yes? Or just a “maybe”?