CHAPTER 19
In the morning, Alex and Mason were both already gone.
I spent the day in a state of nervous anticipation, knowing that I was finally going to get the chance to talk to Alex alone and get some answers. At the cafe for dinner with Dana again, I found that I couldn’t eat more than a few bites of my food, which was extremely unusual for me, especially since the food at the café was so good. When Dana asked me what was up, I told her the truth.
“Oh, nothing major, but I’m having a long-awaited talk with Alex tonight. Maybe after, I’ll finally be able to tell you a bit more about some things that have been going on, although I’m not really even sure yet. All I know is that this talk is so long overdue, and if, for some reason, Alex can't make it, like if there’s a problem with the Darkwings or something, I swear to God I’m going to put my fist through a wall.”
I was really worried about a Darkwings problem delaying Alex or preventing him from coming over altogether; however, even more than that, I was afraid of Mason delaying him or preventing him from coming over.
Fortunately, it turned out that all my worry was for nothing.
Alex showed up at my apartment exactly at eight o’ clock, dressed in jeans and a dark t-shirt fitted just well enough to reveal the hard contours of his muscular chest. After closing the door behind him, he immediately pulled me into his strong arms, kissed me briefly and fiercely, and then pulled away to look at my face. “I just want to tell you something, Kira, first thing.”
“What is it?”
“It’s that I hate sharing you with Mason. I absolutely hate it. I can’t deny that at first, it was more than a bit thrilling for me to sit back and watch you enjoy pure physical pleasure with another man. But now…well, all I can say is that I just hate it. Mason doesn’t deserve to touch a single inch of your body.”
Alex soon kissed me again, and I kissed him back with enthusiasm, realizing that I wanted to make love to him and him alone, and right then. As badly as I wanted this, and as much as it seemed like Alex wanted to make love to me too, things might have gone that way if I hadn’t been so anxious to finally get the chance to just simply talk to him alone.
After a little while, I broke our passionate kiss and began leading him out to the living room by the hand. “We should prioritize business first, or else we may never get to talk. If we decided to make love, I can just see Mason arriving the moment we finish, before we even get the chance to say more than two words to each other.”
While we sat down on the couch, Alex assured me that Mason would be occupied for a while. “To make sure we have all the time we need to talk, I had Dean report a Darkwing spotting to the south of the city; so, Mason had no choice but to lead a group out there. But the truth of the matter is that Dean never spotted any Darkwing spy tonight. He’s really just working for me, doing whatever he can to help. He’s become one of the men I trust the most in recent days, although there are many, many others loyal to me as well. In fact, from what I know right now, there are only a few dozen shifters in the whole city who know what Mason is trying to do and actually support him in it. I’m sure you know what they say, though…all it takes is a few bad apples to spoil the bunch. Or cause a lot of potential problems, in this case.”
“Okay. Please start at the beginning. What exactly is Mason trying to do, other than kill you?”
Turned toward me with his side against the back of the couch and one long, muscular leg bent, Alex heaved a long sigh. “He’s trying to join forces with the Darkwings, thinking that they’ll help him in his attempt to kill me. I’ve known this for a while, although I’m still not quite over the shock. I think that Mason underestimated the level of loyalty most of our people have for me, and he probably didn’t think that a few of them, including Dean, would start to tell me bits and pieces of funny little things they were seeing and hearing around the city. Eventually, I did some investigating on my own, and my suspicions about what Mason was up to were confirmed. He’d been meeting with Michael Black, the leader of the Darkwings, in secret, promising him shared power if he’d help take me out. Mason assured him that once I was gone, the Darkwings could share in leadership of the nation, which is absurd. However, Mason and Michael Black are both completely delusional about many different things, so the whole thing actually almost makes perfect sense.”
Considering the wariness toward Mason that I’d developed, I couldn’t say that I was exactly stunned by the things that Alex had just told me, but I still didn’t quite understand one thing.
“How does Mason think that things are going to work out with your grandfather if he kills you?”
“Oh, I don’t think that he does think things will ‘work out’ with our grandfather if he kills me. And that’s why I think that our grandfather will be Mason’s next target.”
“Really? His own grandfather?”
“Oh, absolutely. Mason is a sociopath, remember? If I were to be killed, his next target would likely be our grandfather, just to hasten the passing of power. I really believe he’s taken this into consideration when formulating his plan. Of course, he has yet to put his plan into action, but I think that’s going to happen very soon. Once he gets Michael Black and the Darkwings officially onboard, I think he plans to have a full-scale fight right here in the city, and that’s when he’ll attempt to kill me. Which just shows exactly how much Mason really cares for our people. He seems to not care if innocent civilians are hurt or even killed in the middle of this attempted-takeover fight he’s planning.”
Although I knew that Alex probably didn’t want my pity, looking at him across from me on the couch, I couldn’t help but feel more than a bit sorry for him. Or maybe the feeling was just one of profound sadness about what he was going through. Warm, golden-toned lighting in the living room revealed the faintest of dark circles beneath his coal-gray eyes, which was something I’d never seen before. I thought about how he probably hadn’t even been able to get a full night’s sleep anytime recently considering all he had to worry about and think about. Not to mention the fact that I was sure he was still dealing with a lot of anger and hurt over Mason’s betrayal.
After looking into Alex’s eyes for a moment, I took one of his hands. “For what it’s worth, I’m really sorry that Mason did this to you. I know the two of you have never been close, but I know that you probably trusted him at some point in your lives, and then he went and shattered that trust. It’s really just terrible what he’s done, and is still planning to do, to his own brother.”
Alex just shrugged, giving me the faintest hint of a smile. “I won’t lie. A small part of me will always be a little wounded by Mason’s actions. But at this point, I guess I’ve really gotten over the majority of the hurt and shock that I felt when I discovered his plan. Now, I just want him dead. He’s too dangerous a shifter to let live, and frankly, he doesn’t deserve to live, considering that I know for a fact that he’d snuff out your life without even thinking about it if he were to find out that you know exactly what he’s planning.”
With a shudder, I recalled just how close I’d come to telling Mason that the night he’d brought us all sandwiches in my bedroom.
Before we could talk any further, Alex’s phone began going off, and he yanked it out of his pocket, apologizing.
“Just one second. This could be Dean, wanting to keep me posted about Mason’s whereabouts.” Alex answered the call, had a brief conversation, only saying a few words, one of them being goddammit, and then hung up. “That was Dean, reporting that Mason is still occupied hunting around for a Darkwing that was never really even spotted, having to play the part of a leader that is actually trying to keep them out instead of working with them. However, we now have a real Darkwings problem. Three of them were seen lurking around the home of one of our council members in wolf form, right inside city limits, but unfortunately, they were able to escape. Another of them was found inside a warehouse west of downtown and was captured. I’ll want to interrogate him without Mason knowing, and this is going to take some real work. So, I need to get going right away, but I’ll be back to visit you alone as soon as I’m able to.” After rising from the couch, Alex took my face in his hands and gave me a hasty kiss. “Try to get some sleep if you can. Something tells me that in the coming days, we’re both going to need all our strength.”
He was flying out of my living room before I could say a word.