Page 21 of Wolf’s Fated Bride

“Thank you. Now, if you would all give me a minute with Peter…”

Runa leaves right away, but Sören lingers, his instincts probably telling him he should keep an eye on me. His instincts are correct, but he can’t deny me a moment alone with my alchemist. Blade leaves. He knows what to do. We need another body to burn in the pit, because I’m sending Peter’s body for an autopsy.

Chapter 8

Runa

After the Regulator’s funeral, we gather for a feast.

A large green urn filled with the ashes of the deceased alchemist sits on the dining room table. It blocks my view of the Fireborn Alpha chatting with my mother, directly in front of me. Next to him, my sister looks bored, but she’s staring behind me and to my left at the door through which her man’s going to come and join us any moment now.

It’s so obvious she’s expecting someone that I fear Ash Fireborn will figure out it’s Sören’s Regulator she’s looking forward to seeing. Ash will light us all up like candles. My only hope is that my brother can stop him.

And why does my dad have to sit all the way at the other end of the table?

My mother sure as heck shouldn’t be entertaining the Fireborn Alpha. If she gets any more wine in her, she might grope him. I’m going to die if that happens. No, really, I am.

Ash should sit beside my father. He should sit anywhere that’s not beside my mother, who’s on the second bottle of wine in a span of an hour. My sister is helping her with the bottle now, so I guess that’s a saving grace.

As Maren leans in toward Mom, she giggles at something Ash said, and I can barely contain the urge to yank her braid. We shouldn’t be laughing during a funeral dinner. Besides, the Fireborn Alpha’s jokes are stupid. She doesn’t even like him.

I lean to the right to see past the giant urn. Ash catches my movement, and our eyes meet.

Instantly, I lean back.

While my mother and sister drink with him, I pick at my potatoes. Ash doesn’t seem sad about his Regulator now, but I sensed sadness from him when he first found Peter’s body. I guess Ash grieves quickly, or maybe privately.

I wish I could do that.

When my childhood friend died in the wars, I couldn’t get out of bed for weeks. Maybe Ash has the same relationship with the Regulator that Sören has with his. Sören’s Regulators die on the job quite regularly. I hope Sören logs their deaths as work related so their families receive care for life.

When it comes to care, human society is brutal and materialistic. If you can’t take care of yourself, nobody else will. Those threats to safety and security make people live on the edge all the time. A society that’s built on constant reminders to fear the future if they don’t save or make the kind of money that many of them can’t make right now isn’t healthy for anyone.

Their alchemy helps them cope. They don’t realize that much of what they do is motivated by fear, because that’s how they’ve always lived.

We’re not better than humans, but when it comes to taking care of the young and the elderly, we stick together as a pack. There are hundreds of pack mates who live in this castle with us. Someone is always around to lend a hand.

Which makes me wonder if Sören “helped” us achieve some goal with Ash Fireborn by drowning his Regulator in the pool. It could also be that someone will try to frame my brother for murder since Peter drowned, and water is the element my brother controls.

Are we even investigating it? Or did we all accept Peter’s death as a sad accident?

Ash chuckles. It’s a very inappropriately sexy sound that makes my body aware of his proximity. Or distance, if I’m being honest. I lean to the right. Again, he catches my gaze. This time, he winks.

I stick my tongue out at him.

Jerk. I want to tape his mouth shut so he can’t speak to anyone anymore.

I eat my potatoes. They’re yummy.

What’s really saving us from killing each other this evening is not the departed Regulator, but the departed Peacebroker. If that man were still around, we’d have a major issue, and I bet he’d have caused a ruckus with Fireborn once Fireborn told the lie of how Peter died. The Peacebroker would’ve been the one who would’ve handled Peter’s body.

With him gone, Ash did whatever he wanted with both the paperwork and the body. It occurs to me that we have no crematoriums in our pack. I can only imagine how he cremated Peter’s body.

I admit, I’m endlessly curious about the Fireborn Alpha’s elemental fire. I’m curious about most things, but I’m most curious about the elemental alphas. There are only three of them in the world, and they’re regulated by humans, so they rarely use their element.

I can’t remember the last time Sören made waves. When we were kids, my dad would craft waves that could reach the moon. Or so we thought when we were kids.

Alchemy regulates the use of elements, but there’s another reason Sören won’t manipulate water in front of others. It makes wolves uncomfortable. Raises the hackles even if we’re in our human form.