The Alpha King's Princess
The Alpha King’s Princess – Chapter 63

I left the Estate through the front doors, but I didn’t get far before someone from Team Gamma-2 appeared. He opened the jeep’s door and gave me a pleading look.

“Miss Hedy?” He asked. “We’ve been instructed to take you wherever you would like.”

“Not to the ceremony?”

He shook his head. “If that is not where you wish to go, then we will not take you there.”

I considered avoiding this and just walking, but I didn’t want Candido to fire anyone or take his anger out on anyone. But I also wasn’t sure about how far I’d get without a ride. The mall wasn’t exactly nearby, and I didn’t want to risk being even more exhausted than I was right now when I arrived. What if he picked a fight or brought back-up?

I climbed in. “To the mall, please.”

The jeep pulled away from the Estate and pulled down the road into town while I turned over what I knew in my mind. The man had been seen entering the mall. I would have gotten another notification if he’d already left, so the trick would be to just replace him in the mall. From the photo and the location information, I was pretty sure he was on the south side.

“The south entrance, please?”

We pulled up to the south entrance, and I got out of the jeep. A plainclothes bodyguard followed me inside, trailing behind me as I walked. I couldn’t see why he would pick this side. There were a lot of people, a lot of cameras.

It was going to be hard to replace him. Maybe that was why. What was he up to? Just looking around. It was hard for me to think that he was window shopping.

No, whatever he was doing here, he could only do it because the werewolf world was distracted by Candido’s wedding. There were only a few options: an attack, surveillance, or planning an attack.

If he was planning to attack something, I had to figure out how. A bomb? He seemed to be sort of casually walking around, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t planning an attack or about to commence an attack. It just meant that I couldn’t tell which it was.

I kept my senses open, listening and looking for anything out of the ordinary, but there was nothing. Kids ran around. Teens laughed and sipped their drinks as they walked.

Adults hurried in between shops picking up things.

I caught a glimpse of the news coverage beginning out of the corner of my eye and sneered. Candido hadn’t appeared, but they had a photo of him with Sibyl from his youth. I didn’t think I’d ever see her face again and not think about how horrible of a person she was.

I probably should have brought my bag with me, but that would have been too obvious. I didn’t need them asking questions, and honestly, it would be hard to move fast if I needed to. With this many people around and perhaps blocking my paths, I definitely needed to be able to move at a moment’s notice.

I stopped to get something to eat at one of the stands, ignoring the whispers about Candido’s wedding preparations as I walked.

“You think she’s pregnant?”

“Probably. Why else announce it so suddenly?”

“At least our king will finally have a proper family again. Though his heart is great for taking in that girl, it’s time we had a queen!”

My lips twitched at the thought. Wouldn’t that be hilarious for that to blow up in her face soon after the wedding? Wouldn’t it be funny when everyone found out that Sibyl wasn’t queen? At least, it would be until Norton managed to kill Candido and made it happen. I shook my head and turned. I couldn’t focus on that right now. I had to focus on my efforts as a Moon Shadow operative. I slipped my earpiece into my ear as I walked, listening to my tracking software tell me how far I was from where he’d been last sighted.

Then, I saw him. He was barely a few hundred feet from me, dressed casually. He didn’t seem to be interacting with anyone in particular. Someone tried to stop him to talk to him, but he declined their attention and kept walking.

I followed, lingering several feet behind him, trying to keep out of sight.

He turned a corner into a larger part of the mall where a jungle gym that teens tended to hang out on stood. I turned and froze as he turned to look at me, and I froze in place. He smiled at me. His eyes glinted. I scanned him, trying to figure out what he was so amused about. Was it me? Was this a trap?

Then, someone screamed.

I turned at the wound, my heart lurching as someone snarled and someone lunged over a stall, tackling someone else to the ground and ripping their throat out. B***d splashed across the ground and through the air. The man that had ripped the other man’s throat out turned and stalked towards a group of teens who all cowered and started to stumble around.

“Miss Hedy!”

I rushed forward towards the man as he walked away from the area. In his wake, more and more people seemed to lose their minds and start fighting. B***d splashed. People panicked, pushing and shoving in a panicked wave of people.

Someone darted in front of me with glinting silver eyes. It was a woman, to my surprise. She lunged at me, but I dodged her attack. She scrambled and lunged at me again.

My bodyguard surged forward, tackling her to the ground and speaking into his radio about my safety. I ignored it and kept going, pushing through the panicked crowd until I could see him again. He hadn’t gone too far, but at the distance, I noticed something that I hadn’t been able to notice before.

A soft mist seemed to drift around him, like smoke or steam. The people around him grew stiff. They clutched their chests before they glared at each other, snarling.

“What are you looking at?” One of them snarled.

The man swiped the other man across the chest with his claws. Another jumped on the first, and soon they were fighting. I kept pushing through, avoiding the brawls. What was that mist? It had to be some version of one of the substances.

If I could just get close enough, maybe I could get the bottle he’d drop and take it back to have it analyzed. It might not yield answers about what it was exactly, but it would confirm that all of these attacks were connected.

He stopped and turned to look at me. He lifted a bottle and lifted it above his head, spraying it over the area as the fan above us began to spin, blowing the mist around.

I covered my face, trying not to breathe it in, but I couldn’t have been fast enough. I felt it starting to make my heart race. I felt angry. Furious.

I had to get out of here. I wasn’t strong enough to fight. I was still recovering from everything that had happened.

Then, he smirked at me, winked, and vanished.

I cursed, looking around, knowing that there was no way I could follow him if he’d cast an illusion over himself.

“Miss Hedy!” Someone called from behind me.

I tried to back away from the ground that was turning on me. Their eyes were fierce and glinting with animosity.

My stomach churned, and I back pedaled. A growl from behind me stopped me.

“Watch here the f**k you’re going!” The woman snarled.

“I’m sorry—”

“You think that’s enough? You almost stepped on my shoes!” She lunged at me. Is tumbled back, throwing my hand out as someone shoved me. I dodged another attack and hurried around the group until I could get farther away from them, but that just prompted them to chase me.

I saw him again further ahead. Dropping something casually in the fountain as he passed. The water bubbled, and smoke came out of the fountain, spilling over the edges and drifting into the air.

I tried to hold my breath, but someone shoved me forward, sending me towards the fountain with a snarl.

I plunged into the water and felt it like a million needles poking my skin through my clothes.

Something surged in me. I lifted my head. My head was spinning. My focus was narrowed to the woman who had pushed me. I was going to kill her if it was the last thing I did.

Didn’t they know who I was? Everything I had done for the werewolf world?

I lifted my head and howled. The sound shook the air. I heard glass trembling and cracking with the strength of it surging through me like I was taking my first breath after being underwater for too long.