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NOLAN
“Captain Zaleski.” I won’t lower my gun, not for anything. Rage has my vision narrowing to her. Or maybe that’s the wolf’s bane still kicking through my system.
“I see you found a blood-spelled door,” she says.
“Yeah, and I solved the shifter murders.” I wait for the slightest chance that she came here for the same reason I did. Maybe she’ll holster her weapon and ask questions. But that won’t happen, not with her sure and steady pulse.
“Did you now?” she asks, rounding toward the first case while her aim stays fixed on me.
The way she navigates the uneven stone floor? She has been in this room before. Her scent must’ve been the one I followed. Between the campfire smell and the sulfur of the grotto’s natural springs, I hadn’t been able to pin it as more than she-wolf. Her betrayal cuts deep, twisting my gut and making the skin around my torn stitches throb an unrelenting painful beat.
I can’t lose my temper—not yet. If I play this carefully, there’s a chance I can get Bunny out of here alive. I move to keep my body between her and Zaleski. “If you already knew, then why put me on the case? Why send me here?”
“Who better to send than a liar who only pretends to be full wolf?”
She knows what I am. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The longer I keep her talking and advancing farther into the room, the better shot I have at getting Bunny out of here.
“Only a sneaky fox would’ve found the blood door. Everyone knows your royal bitch of a mom had a fling with the fox alpha.”
“If that was true, I wouldn’t have made it into the wolf marshals. I would’ve died at the academy.”
She passes by the case with Hazel’s engagement ring. “That would’ve been short-sighted.”
Irritation and alarm crawl up my spine. “You don’t have that kind of political pull or power.”
“Perhaps not by myself, but my associates do.”
I can’t risk a look to make sure Bunny’s still behind me, stepping as I do. A little farther and we’ll be past the last trophy case in the circle. “You’re working with the Huntresses,” I guess.
“Mainly Devlyn. She has been excellent in negotiating with the interspecies council.”
“That explains why her scent was at marshal headquarters.” The puzzle had been stuck on my brain’s backburner since that first night at the Hack and Ale.
“Excellent work, detective.” Zaleski clicks her tongue. “Not that the detail will do you much good when you’re dead. Devlyn threatens the council members with the safety of their loved ones, and they rely on the marshals to keep them safe. It’s a win-win for the Huntresses and us.”
“Us? This isn’t how the marshals operate.” I joined because it was the noble thing to do, the most honorable path for a shifter to take.
“This is exactly how the marshals operate. We had to clear the way to be in charge of all shifters, not just the wolves.”
My head pounds, the memory of Stone’s hatred for the marshals rushing back. The bear had been right when he accused the marshals of wanting to rule over every pack. This would eliminate the rights of the individual packs and their alphas. “The alphas would never agree to giving up their power to a central authority. There would be war.”
“You’re right. Or you would’ve been.”
I’m almost to the door—a few more steps and I can shove Bunny to safety. “What do you mean would’ve been?”
“Your theory of the case was solid. Kill a few select, well-placed shifters in each community, and the devastation would weaken the alphas so they’d be more agreeable to our terms.”
Shock ripples through me, sending the pounding in my head to thump in my chest. “The shifter murders. You orchestrated them.”
“Not just me. The marshals. We worked with the Huntresses, but the marshals picked the targets. Don’t look at me like I’ve kicked your puppy.”
“You killed innocent people.” She had my brother, Sadie, and her entire family slaughtered.
“There had to be a few casualties to put the marshals in charge, where we belong. The Huntresses get what they want for their god Pan with chaos, and we get what shifters deserve.”
“What we deserve? How did my brother deserve to die?” I push Bunny out the door. “Run,” I yell. “I’ll cover you.”
She sprints rabbit fast through the first room, beneath the stained glass and onto the exterior façade that had us all tricked that the Huntresses might be benevolent followers of a chaste and pious goddess, not a monster god. I’m behind her, taking a couple of return shots at the captain when she fires on us. The boom of the gunshots is deafening in the marble palace. I flinch but keep going.
