89. Give In Part I

Selene rose to her feet. “Fucking finally,” she sighed, instinctively following Sienna out the door of her office that Lona had allowed her inside. The dead-faced Sun Delta knew the drill with the requests: follow behind Selene but in front of Lona. They fell into step halfway through the empty harem living space when Selene froze.
She turned slowly to Sienna, whose truly wolfish features were not made for the elegance of a Moon werewolf. “Who is sending this message?” she asked slowly.
The female’s lip started to curl. “I just said Kiran, didn’t I?”
Selene narrowed her gaze. Over Sienna’s shoulder, Lona stiffened at the disrespect. “Kiran found the box?”
Sienna flicked her eyes up and down critically. “Seeing as you don’t.”
“But failed to retrieve the key.”
“Seeing as I told you *no one* has it.”
Selene couldn’t decide whether to feel irritated or amused. She was finding it very difficult to trust anyone lately and it made her bullshit radar very sensitive. And Sienna’s heart was just one beat too fast. “Since when are you so snippy and hasty with me?” she asked sweetly.
She admired Sienna’s teeth when she bared them in a savage grin. “Since I learned how these stupid trinkets can benefit *me*.”
“A wolf after our own hearts,” Selene admitted. All packs had their fair share of selfishness running through the veins of their members. Sun wolves thrived on it—on greed and drama.
She scented Sienna; the she-wolf was a great actress. But Selene knew something was…off. Nonetheless, she smiled and continued on, but not before snatching a robe off one of the couches.
It was nearing night already, and thankfully most of the harem was asleep, the corridors empty. At the entrance of the Castle, Selene ordered Sienna to go ahead of her. She didn’t hesitate to comply with *that* command.
To Lona, Selene said, “Do not give me that look.”
“What look?”
“Like you are *worried* about me.”
“Not about you. *For* you. I don’t have a good feeling, Luna.”
*So it’s not just me*, Selene thought with sudden grimness. The ripping sound of Sienna’s Shift was still echoing in her ears; the night had already swallowed her wolf form. She touched her forehead to her Delta’s briefly. “Watch over my harem. This visit is no different than all the others.”
Lona wasn’t convinced. It was rare for her to be caught between gladly following Selene and offering flippant remarks. “Be safe, Selene.”
Without responding, Selene held the robe between her jaws and Shifted. She jolted into a run once more toward Apollo’s Keep. The pounding of her paws matched the rhythm of her heartbeats, and her thoughts kept equal pace.
Until two more beating hearts disrupted them. Selene’s ears swiveled to track the sounds—there.
She kept looking ahead to not clue in the twins that she knew they were following her. *Altan*, she thought darkly, *Elio…are you planning to kill me or Kiran*?
There were too many unknowns for her liking. The twins returning to the Keep could either mean they were simply going to sleep and resume their ruse or proving their loyalty to their true Alpha by protecting her flanks. But the very air felt wrong somehow, and it told Selene that it most likely involved revenge.
When she reached the gates of the Keep, she had already crafted several plans for several different situations. Selene did not like going into anything blind. She trotted to a stop and looked around. No one was guarding it—not even Sienna. Who knew where the fuck she went. The torches were lit and flooded the immediate field and orchard in orange light. She wondered with a chuckle how those Alpha guards might be enduring punishment for injuring Seff at this very moment.
Shifting back into her human form and slipping into the robe—tying it loosely at her waist—Selene marched forward to open the gates herself.
“What the fuck are you doing here?!”
Selene turned slowly at Kiran’s roar. His hulking gold wolf form bore a leather harness strapping a square something between his shoulder blades. At his side, a slightly smaller white-furred male. Her smile was giddy. “Oh, you brought the traitor!” she sang. To Kiran she loudly whispered, “Does he still have his…little stick?”
Both males scowled deeply, Hyacinth’s visible even with clothes obscuring most of his muzzle. They Shifted in tandem, Kiran’s parcel on his back smoothly transitioning to his arms. Hyacinth donned his robe quickly—Selene paid attention to everything but him, the disgusting weasel—and in a satisfying twist, helped Kiran into his like a dutiful manservant.
“You trained him,” Selene simpered. “How nice.” As they approached, she couldn’t help but search her gold enemy head to toe. His hair was mussed, dark crescents under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept in days, his jaw bristling with his slowly-growing beard… “You look like shit.”
Even the fire in his eyes was duller than usual. She didn’t expect the slight ache in her chest. Then her gaze honed in on the parcel—a white wooden box. The ache turned sharp. “Is that it? The Amaranth records? Did you open it?”
It didn’t escape her notice that he scanned her as well. Yet he found it in him to be his usual knothead self by lifting the box far above her head when Selene tried to snatch it out of his hands as if they were pups play-fighting. “Yes. And no. Get the fuck off my property.”
Inside that box held over one hundred years of history. *Calla’s diary was in there*. Selene felt drawn to it like a magnet, and for a moment, she was lost in the emotion of possibility. Those dozens upon dozens of pages held its own key: a catalyst to unlock forgotten memories for more than just she or Kiran. *If Seff read these, could she*—
“Lord Kiran.”
Sienna’s voice broke Selene from her daze. All attention went to the Delta emerging from inside the gates. In her human form she was dressed in that gods-awful silk garment no better than pretty curtains. And while a good actress, she couldn’t hide the flash of *recognition* in her amber eyes when she saw the white box.
Kiran’s demeanor changed with a turn of his head toward his Delta. “Excellent timing,” he purred.
“Kiran,” Selene barked. His head snapped back at her. Decades of being together gave them the ability to signal nonverbally. All she had to do was flick her eyes at Sienna to the box and back.
His narrowed. *You’re suspicious about her. Understood*.
Just as Sienna’s fingers brushed the wood, Kiran held it closer to him. “The treasure for a king stays in the king’s hands.”
Selene clenched her jaw. “Gods you’re unbearable.”
“You’re here how and why?” he shot back, the faux charm gone.
One of her plans included obliviousness. “Sienna told me I was summoned by your return. Clearly you did not send that request.”
They didn’t need to communicate to look at Sienna, whose dead-face was excellent. “You two already know who did, so why make me say it?”
“Because it could be Seff or Wisteria Ren that you agreed to help,” Kiran said dangerously. “Why, may I wonder? What did they offer you?”
*So quick to pick up on the aura*, Selene thought.
“Ask them yourselves,” Sienna responded crisply.
Kiran’s voice was flat. “I’m brimming with curiosity. If you haven’t fully betrayed me, watch this one”—he glared next to him at Hyacinth—“and if he tries to escape, I’ll let you bite his dick off.”
Annoyance was forgotten—or simply well-hidden—Sienna grinned savagely at the Magnolia Alpha’s horror. “W-wait—”
Kiran broke into a long-legged stride up and through the gates. Selene fell in step beside him; he riddled a few feet away, putting space between them. She rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to steal it, knothead.”
He ignored her and stared straight ahead. “Let’s get on the same page, Selene.”
“I believe we already are,” she said briskly. “We both want to open the box. We both need the key from Wisteria Ren, who”—she looked back at Sienna behind them with a glare—“used too simple of a trick to lure me here, I am guessing. We both want Seff to read the records.”
“Ah, that is where we are on different pages. I have yet to determine if I want them left unburned.”
Selene didn’t know what emotion made her grab Kiran’s arm and halt them both in the middle of a hallway. He ripped away but didn’t walk away. “You still want her to remember?” she asked quietly. Gods, he still wouldn’t look at her. “You know, when I said to let her go, I didn’t mean just Seff.”
She didn’t know what Hyacinth did or didn’t tell Kiran, but apparently learning about the Amaranth records only heightened his desire to hold onto the last wisps of their lost loves.