Blood Moon (MalexMale Paranormal Fantasy)

Chapter 10 ∞ DAIRE

It's nearly suppertime when Omicron Easton forces me to stop working and helps me clean out the jagged claw marks and deep wounds where I'd been bit in this morning's fight. It's strange having someone care for my injuries so attentively for once. Peter usually tells me to just spit in it and grow a pair.

I hang my head as he applies a light cream, parts of me still reeling. It's as though I'm slipping down a rock slide, scrabbling my way toward a ledge growing further from my reach. I killed Louis. We weren't friends, not even close, but I'd trained alongside him. I'd battled him with Peter, joked with him between drills, and had respected him as my fellow warrior. What's worse, is that he recognized me before I killed him. He knew who it was slicing the blade across his throat, and that bothers me more than I expected. I hadn't anticipated the illusion of separation and deniability that my anonymity as a warder and the Ghost had given me. This fight marked a change; an unmasking of the Ghost, becoming the first recognized act of an exhumed prince. Burning him had been surreal, a moment when Peter's absence had felt particularly gaping. And I know that this is just the beginning—but maybe, hopefully, it's the beginning of the end.

And all of this is before I've properly considered what it means that I was shielding Reeve. Why had I done that? It could have gotten him killed. If I were his warder, we would be bonded and my immunities would be shared, he would have been unbothered and safer there beside me. But I'm not his warder. I have no intention of becoming his warder.

I need to be smarter. I can't afford to put him at risk like that again, and not only because the thought of him hurt infuriates me on a cellular level.

"All set, Master Warder."

"Thank you, Omicron."

"Young Alpha told me what was said this morning by one of our wolves, and I'm sorry for it. It's not an excuse, but they have had very little contact with any species aside from wolves, and even those interactions have been limited due to our more remote location.

"One of our former zetas, a male named Robin who is now in Satu's Great Realm, was quite hostile toward vampyres after a bad encounter he'd had as a pup. He would report out news of the coven: the violent measures used by the king to control his vampyres and how they, in turn, were unabashedly violent. He'd spout the latest gossip: the suspicions of the king murdering his own brother and the young Prince Daire groomed as a merciless soldier to hunt and slaughter innocent wolves and vampyre rogues just trying to free themselves of Frederick's rule."

I breathe through erupting nausea.

"I once heard Zeta Robin tell a young Reeve to never lead through fear or he and his father would be no better than the vampyres: a ruthless king and an equally cruel prince set to take over. There was a sigh of relief when his brother, Prince Tol, died, and then again when the young prince passed. It felt like there was suddenly hope for whatever comes after Frederick's reign. We are optimistic about the potential for peace once the king is gone." He puts a hand on my shoulder as if we might share the same thoughts. "You are very brave to have left."

I don't know what to say, but looking him in the eyes right now is one of the hardest things I've ever done. Is this what the world thought of me? That I was like him? His mindless pawn? His mercenary? I suppose that's how he must have portrayed me to the Council, twisting the truth of what Peter and I did. Yes, we hunted and killed rogues, but they were the ones sent out after gruesomely violating others in the coven and who continued to be a problem: blood rapists and murderers, thugs tormenting younger and weaker vampyres in the coven, then caught forcing their perversions on wolves in the communal grounds and attacking merchant ferries and stealing their goods.

I realize now that I could be in very grave danger here if they find out the truth of who I am.

I'm showered, bandaged, and weary as we walk to the main pack house to eat. Coly opens the door for us and we're not two feet inside when the alpha mate, Sophie, catches sight of me and comes over, and I can see where Reeve gets his trademark smile.