“You’re really good at this,” I said. “I’m glad you’re here to help me with planning. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
She looked uncomfortable with the praise, but I was delighted to see her smiling back at me. “Thanks. It’s… been nice. I enjoy being able to help.” She shrugged one shoulder. “I like being part of a team. Other than at work, I never feel that way.”
“Well, Brielle Laurent,” I said. “Welcome to my team.”
She beamed at me, and my heart nearly melted. During the last few days, I’d come up with a myriad excuses to spend even just a few seconds with her. I took every chance I could to thank her, help her, to give her confidence all the boosts it might need, and tried to keep her mind off her family. All in all, the past two weeks had been much more pleasant than it would have been otherwise.
Now that the day had finally come, my own stress had begun to build. I was worried that something would go wrong, or that some part of the planning would fall apart at the last second. Tonight was the night, and we wanted to make sure it all played out without a hitch. One mistake, and Elle could be in danger. Iwouldn’t allow that.
“What about the entrances and exits?” I asked my father on the day of the gala.
“All covered. As usual, there will be agents from both shifter races running security,” Dad said, sweeping a hand over the documents laid out on the table. “I’ve double-checked. House Beaumont has been assigned to security for the wolves. They’re friendly with the Laurents, but who isn’t in their world?” he said with a snort of disgust. “They might as well be royalty among the wolves if they did things as we do, but the Beaumonts are not as aggressive as the Laurents are. They typically keep a low profile and do not agitate much. I think they’ll do the right thing, but I’ve added additional security measures. Undercover men who’ll take action if anything seems off. All are already in place and ready for the arrivals.”
I sighed, letting the breath out in a slow stream.
“What about the foreign delegation?” I asked. “Did they make it from overseas? I know we booked some luxury hotel rooms in the area for them.”
Titus, sitting on the other side of the room, cleared his throat.
“Prince Aurelius, I’ve been in contact with many of our European, Asiatic, and Australian counterparts. All have expressed excitement for the gala this evening and have all arrived within the last two or three days. Those we are closest to have been given a very basic rundown on what is going on. No details yet-we’ve just expressed our statement that if anything happened to the Lady Brielle, it was not done by House Decimus. As you and His Majesty have said, we want it her appearance to be a surprise to all,” Titus explained.
With the shrinking of our numbers, Titus had taken on far more roles over the last several decades. Once he’d only been the managing butler, but now he even helped Father with some duties that, in years and ages past, would have been handled by a royal vizier or even prime minister. Well, maybe not that extensive, but the man was a godsend.
“Very well,” I said.
“Speaking of Lady Brielle,” Dad said. “How is she and her lady-in-waiting, Delphine, enjoying the estate?”
It had been nearly two weeks since the Laurents had declared war on us for “murdering” their dear eldest daughter. To keep her safe, as well as try to maintain an air of secrecy, it had been decided-with Brielle’s agreement, of course-that she and her friend Delphine would stay here at the mansion until after the gala.
“Seems to be fine,” I admitted. “The mansion and attached castle, along with the grounds, are large enough that she says she doesn’t feel like she’s in jail. She told me that she actually enjoyed searching out all the hidden areas and old, unused rooms.”
“Very good,” Dad said. His face looked even more lined than usual. This situation with the Laurents had drained him as much as it had me.
“What of the Hikshil tribe?” Titus asked. “Any word?”
I nodded and smiled grimly. “They’ve agreed to send an envoy group to the gala.” I shrugged. “They tell me they will be here at the appointed time, though I have no idea how they will arrive tonight. Their tribe is old. Indigenous to the Americas from tens of centuries ago. They have no real understanding of the gala like the fae from the old world do. This will be the first time they attend. They have no idea what to expect or what’s even being celebrated, but they said they’ll be there.”
“Good,” Dad said, a smile finally flickering to life on his lips. “It will be nice to see them watch the Laurents and other wolves squirm when Brielle reveals herself and fingers her own family as the would-be assassins.”
“And the other wolf families are all coming?” I asked, glancing at Titus. “Even with it being on our lands?”
Titus inclined his head. “All the families will be in attendance. Most are already on their way for the evening’s festivities and will arrive within the hour. It is a bit worrisome that they are all so intent on being there. This will be the first gala held on dragon lands in over two centuries. It makes me wonder if, perhaps, the Laurents have pushed their agenda even further within the wolf families. They may all be excited to come and watch House Decimus fall to accusations of murder and assassination.” Titus shrugged helplessly. “There’s no way to know. Either that, or they may simply be excited to traverse dragon lands for the first time in a long time. We can do nothing but wait and see.”
“I doubt they just want to have a leisurely walk around our controlled lands,” I said, my voice low and angry. “They want to see what we have to say about Brielle’s alleged murder.”
Tensions had grown taut over the last two weeks. In fact, we’d had word that wolves had attacked one of our transportation routes five days before. Without proof of Brielle being alive, we really had no way of showing we’d had nothing to do with the assassination. The houses of the dragon court had all been sworn to secrecy, and so far that had been held. It made our plan more dramatic and explosive in the long term, but the short term had been terribly inconvenient. Most dragon families had chosen to hunker down in their own estates rather than venture forth and risk being attacked in areas we didn’t control. All-out war and fighting hadn’t begun yet, but anger and resentment simmered on a low boil. I was grateful the gala was tonight, because this couldn’t go on much longer. After this evening, everything would be settled and behind us.
“Are we positive they don’t know our plan?” Dad asked. “Their assassins obviously returned empty-handed and with a story of you and Vince swooping in to rescue Brielle. Can’t they assume we have her safe and sound? It’s been eating at me since their first declaration of Brielle’s death.”
“That occurred to me as well,” I admitted. “What I believe, as awful as it sounds, is that they assume we think of her as an equally big liability. If I have the Laurents figured out, I think they assumed Vince and I didn’t arrive to save Elle, but that we showed up to kill her ourselves. It’s the way these people think. Brutality first, compassion second.” I snorted in disgust. “Or maybe fifth or sixth. That could be even further down on their list of priorities.”
My father bobbed his head back and forth. “I suppose you may be right. It would explain the way they’ve acted. It also shows what they would do if you were in their hands,” he said, eyeing me. “The Laurents would probably slit your throat before we even had time to negotiate your release.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I said. “They’d never try anything tonight. Not on our land in our castle. They’ll never get me, anyway. They even try
? They’ll pull back a stump.”
Dad grinned. “That’s my boy. Speaking of the Laurents, what exactly was the response from the Laurents with our previous offering? About Bastien? In all the drama and haste, I’d never asked.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Karinius said their eyes were as big as saucers,” I said. “When he told them we’d offered to make Bastien Laurent the guest of honor for the gala, they nearly fell off their chairs.”
Dad let out a belly laugh and clapped his hands. “Good! It was the best way to guarantee they would come.” He pointed at me. “It was a good ruse. I bet they wanted to spit fire. Too bad we’re the dragons and not them.”
Titus grinned ruefully. “It also helps that we sent word to all the other shifter families across the globe that Bastien was to be the honored guest. Hard to decline attendance when everyone expects you to be there. Hell, it may be why so many are coming. The historical nature of it. Bastien will be taking over as head of the family soon, if he hasn’t already begun.”
Dad leaned back in his throne, nodding as if to himself. For several seconds, he stared off into space. Titus shifted his weight in his chair. He always grew uncomfortable when my father fell into silent introspection. My father was the most powerful man in all of dragon shifter society. If I weren’t his son, I’d probably be intimidated too, regardless of how kind he was.
Through the window, past the dusky light, a line of limos and black SUVs had begun pulling up the main driveway-the first guests arriving for the epic gala.
“All right.” Dad let out a deep, weary sigh. “Let’s keep everything in order and go from there.” He pointed at Titus. “Head down and double check with the kitchen staff. The guests have already started arriving, and the damned thing isn’t supposed to start for another hour. They need to go ahead and get some hors d’oeuvres out for the guests.” He turned his gaze to me. “Stay on top of security. Have them do one final run-through before things pick up later.”
“Will do, Father,” I said.
“Of course, Your Majesty,” Titus said.
“That’s all for now,” Dad said, glancing at his watch and sighing. “I don’t know what else we can do. You two need to prepare for the gala anyway.”
I was almost out the door before my father called out to me.
“Aurey?”
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