Vindicator

Chapter 43

Karma and Chance had been engrossed in their own little world, so hadn't heard Tom's approach until he was barging into the room. Karma gasped, diving away from Chance to hide her face in the pillows.

Tom stopped in his tracks and stared, absolutely flabbergasted by the sight before him. He had never taken Chance as the kind of man to bed a random she-wolf, so to see him naked with a random woman was mind boggling. No longer capable of forming coherent thoughts, he just stood in the doorway with his mouth agape.

Chance was startled by his friend's appearance, but didn't consider what it looked like to Tom. For this reason, he frowned at him and his strange behaviour.

"Well?" The Prince demanded.

Tom screwed up his face, completely taken aback by Chance's lax behaviour. "Wh-What do you mean, 'well'?!" Tom demanded back.

"What do you mean, 'what do I mean'?! You said you had news about my mate!" Chance said, growing annoyed.

Tom nearly laughed, initially angry at his Prince for such disrespectful behaviour; however, his wolf reminded him of how Theo had treated Chance to date. Still, Tom was disgusted by his friend's sudden shift, since he would know very well how it felt to be cheated on.

Due to this, he unwisely scoffed "I'm surprised you care."

Chance recoiled as if he'd been physically punched in the nose. "What?" He asked in confusion.

Tom snorted, and just pointed at what he believed to be a naked she-wolf in the Prince's bed. Chance looked at Karma, then his eyes widened in understanding. He looked back at Tom and shook his head.

"No, this isn't what you think, Tom. I—" Chance began.

"Not my business, your highness" Tom retorted stiffly, not wanting to hear about his excuses. "I just came to tell you that we may know where your m—where Theo is."

"Thomas, stop right now, you know me better than that" Chance growled, getting up out of bed to reveal he was in boxers.

Tom just stared at him with a neutral expression. "I don't know what you mean, your hi—" he started, but the Prince cut him off.

"Call me that one more time and I'll shove my foot up your ass" Chance growled at his best friend. "She's the Spectre, somehow she's able to dull the pain of the mate bond being assaulted...But for some reason it's only when her skin touches mine, okay? We're not naked, and nothing happened!"

Tom blinked, his neutral expression slowly giving way to one of shock. He looked back to the bed where Karma had since pulled the blanket up over her entire person, so she was just one lump of blanket now. "So she showed you her face?" Tom demanded of Chance through their pack mindlink.

Chance nodded, replying the same way. "She didn't mean to, her face was covered but we fell asleep and when we woke up it was gone" he explained.

"Would you two stop gossiping through mindlink and tell me what you've learned about Theo?!" Karma snapped, muffled by her blankets. She could tell by the sudden silence in the room that the two were likely having a private discussion, and it was annoying her. She needed to know how to help Theo.

"Sorry" Tom instantly replied sheepishly. "The Queen let Russell out of the dungeon and—" he began, trying to explain from closer to the beginning.

Unfortunately, Tom's choice of beginning only lead to further confuse Chance and Karma. The two, in unison and disbelief, shouted "what?!"

"Let me finish!" Tom snapped, before they could go off and shoot the messenger. "He needed to retrieve his phone, so he and his former mate went back to the Red Moon pack-house to get it. Like the Spectre had said, there were texts on it but he doesn't know who they're from. They used a spoofed number, and just told him they want him to convince the Royals to announce the truth about their son being mated to Theo."

Karma frowned to herself at this news. "Why would these people repeatedly abuse Theo if that's all they wanted?" she asked her wolf through their link.

"They're going to ask for more, this is just the first step. They want the monarchy thrown into question, and likely believe the people won't follow a Prince who is going to end the Royal bloodline" Alessia cautioned.

"I think you're right...But they'd have to know that people aren't going to just pick up and follow someone else. Russell was stupid to believe that, but he was half-mad already. There must be something else going on...Who's going to benefit most from the fall of the monarchy?" Karma wondered through the link.

"It could just be more wolves being stupid...But it is likely more. The Alphas would basically be royalty in their own rights if they didn't have to obey the crown. Perhaps it's an Alpha, or more than one?" Alessia hypothesized.

Meanwhile, Chance and Tom were discussing the news. "So what have my parents said?" Chance asked.

"They're...Hesitant. Especially the Queen...She said she wants to talk to you before they make a decision" Tom said with a sigh.

Chance walked to his closet and disappeared inside to get dressed while replying. "Then I'll go talk to her right now. The longer we wait, the worse this gets for him, we can't delay any more than necessary" he said, walking out in khaki pants and a white polo shirt.

"Alright, and uh...What about..." Tom asked through mindlink, nodding towards Karma.

"Spectre, we're going to see the Queen. Would you like to join us?" Chance asked after being reminded of the she-wolf in his bed.

"No, go ahead without me, I'll catch up later" Karma muttered back, not wanting to get dressed in front of two men, nor have them wait for her.

"Very well...And Spectre...Thank you" Chance said sincerely before exiting his room with Tom in pursuit.

Karma sighed, mumbling "no problem" to the empty room.

"So...About our mate" Alessia purred.

Meanwhile, Chance and Tom were hurriedly making their way to the Queen's parlour room. The door that was normally closed for the Queen's privacy was left open in anticipation of Chance's arrival. Hearing the two men making their way down the hall, Queen Aless greeted them at the door.

"Chance!" She exclaimed, arms open to greet him.

He went to her and kissed her cheek as his greeting, but after a brief moment she pulled him into a hug. She subtly sniffed at him while hugging him, noting he smelled different.

"He has another wolf's smell all over him" Celeste observed in the Queen's head.

"I caught that, too. It smells familiar...I think it's Karma's!" She answered her wolf excitedly.

When Celeste concurred, the Queen released the Prince from her hug and gave him a beaming smile. Recognizing that his mother had her scheming smile on, Chance felt a little uncomfortable.

"You wanted to speak with me, mother?" He asked.

"I did! Come in, come sit" she said, ushering him into her parlour room. "Thank you for fetching my son, Tom!" She called back over her shoulder.

Tom gave her a smile and closed the door, instantly feeling bad for his friend. Whatever the Queen was up to, Tom suspected it wasn't going to go over well with Chance. He figured she was trying to matchmake or something, especially after he saw her smelling the air during her hug with Chance.