Wolf Shifter Diaries: Lies Tamed (Sweet Paranormal Wolf & Fae Fantasy Romance Series Book 2) by E. Hall (books for men to read TXT) 📗

not upholding the values of the betas or, quite frankly, Pack Hjalmor. But that’s not why we’re having this meeting.” I turn my attention back to Baker.

An uncomfortable beat passes before he speaks again. There’s no mistaking the shift in energy among us. Before Kenna came here, things were relatively peaceful and harmonious. Her arrival has thrown things off, but if I hadn’t reached her first, things could be much worse.

No one knows the entirety of the story. Not even me. Right now, my priority is to keep Kenna away from the Klave...and the Council for now. I let the simmering just beneath my skin roll away.

Focus. Remain civil. My fists unclench, and I tell myself to let it go, for now.

“So, where was the werewolf last seen?” I ask.

Baker sucks in his cheeks and raises an eyebrow. “Armenia. However, of greater interest is her identity. As I said, I’m scraping the magical ancestry archives.”

“Why? We know she’s a wolf,” Claude says.

My wolf sense prickles. “No. She’s not.”

Baker clicks his tongue in confirmation. “We assumed she’s a wolf because of the werewolf curse, commonly known as a night howl. But no. She was not originally a wolf.”

“What was she?” Camilla asks with a twinge of nervousness in her tone.

“Not sure. But not a wolf.”

“Keep at it. When is this summit?” I ask.

This time, Baker’s expression falls. “It’s tonight.”

I grunt. The others are quiet. We all know this means I’ll have to turn Kenna over or buy more time. The latter is unlikely.

My mind carves out possibilities while my body wants nothing more than a chainsaw in hand and a few logs to cut up to blow off some steam. But I have responsibilities to my wolves and my future mate.

“I’ll figure something out.” Rather, my wolf will.

I stride toward the door as the shift starts to take place within. The creature’s dense bones and powerful muscles angle into position. My skin disappears into a mass of gray fur. My heart and lungs and everything that makes me look human pops and snaps and takes a new shape. I drop into that particular place of open concentration, syncing up with the animal inside and letting my mind flow into the current of otherworldly energy.

Once more, I take to the trails, eager to get to one of Montmartres peaks. There, I’ll be able to think. As the trees fall away and the air cools, the crashing thoughts disappear. I bask in this openness within and around me, knowing that everything will be waiting for me when I shift again. Hopefully, that includes answers.

When I return to HQ, my breathing is easier. There’s no hitch or hiccup. My wolf calmed me. The answer I needed was in that open space. I realized that I need to put space between myself and Kenna. It pains me to even think that, but we haven’t sealed our mate bond, so I can make the Council think that I have no care for her other than using her to lure the werewolf out of hiding. It’s flimsy, but I have a feeling we’re close to answers if only we can buy a little more time.

I can’t bear to think about my life without Kenna. But as Alpha, I will do what I need to do. Right now, that means pretending she doesn’t exist.

My wolf growls. I ignore him.

I get in the Jeep and reverse out of the garage. Kenna strides toward me as I shift into drive. Without so much as a goodbye, I pull away.

Her pretty face falls. She reaches out to wave and calls my name. Guilt slithers through me, but this is for the best. The Council cannot know my true feelings. At least not yet.

I drive to the airport hangar and the private jet. Having been around for almost a couple hundred years has its benefits. I turned coins into dollars and dollars into millions, bordering on billions. I bought land at the right time, invested well, and we live off the dividends. It’s not a bad gig. On top of that, the Headquarters in Polaris is essentially self-sufficient.

As the plane takes off, I should use this time to prepare what I will say and how to appeal to the other council members, but my wolf tells me to empty my mind. Stubbornly, he leaves me with Kenna’s image. I growl at him again. For once, I’m going to wing it.

The summit site isn’t majestic or lofty, given the name. Rather, we meet in an abandoned hotel outside Denmark with broken and boarded windows, peeling wallpaper, and stains on the ceiling. The others are already here and the wards of secrecy are in place.

I pass through easily, feeling the chill of magic in my bones. I shift from the neck up so they know it’s me. We’re the three representatives in this region and act on behalf of the magicals here.

“You selected an interesting neutral location this time, Ivan,” I say to the vampire representative on the Council.

He chuckles. “I had some business in Copenhagen. Figured, I’d check this out. Investment property perhaps?”

Melchior, the king of the fae, sneers. His distaste for everything human has always been apparent, despite the power of the Articles of Accord. “Let’s begin.”

The guy doesn’t waste any time. He’s probably ten times my age, and I’d think that at this point, he wouldn’t be in any big rush.

Melchior taps the scepter on the floor, calling us to order. It makes a hollow sound. I worry about the sturdiness of the moldering wood beneath our feet. The scepter is the symbol of fae might and in a strange twist, the iron shows their strength through that which weakens them.

Ivan draws his flaming sword, the symbol of vampire strength and the tool that can destroy his kind.

I