Spellbound: Mated To The Tribrid

Peter POV

I was still in my study when the second report arrived.

The first one, hours earlier, had been about the failed assassination attempt. That had been expected. Messy, but expected. Someone always tried. Someone always failed. But the second report was different.

My mind went ballistic as I read it.

“This can’t be true,” I spoke silently to myself as I read the report again, this time slower than the other. In front of my desk stood the intelligence officer stood silent yet waiting for my command.

The second report had not only the exact description of the woman I had been looking for, but also news I hadn’t expected. It contained a revelation that made the air in my lungs feel suddenly too thin.

Apparently, the report said this woman whom I believe should be the one I had taken to the penthouse two nights ago had been seized by vampire soldiers in Ashford that morning.

The rest of the report felt like a death sentence as I read.

It stated that she was a physician at one of the local clinics and had been present at the scene of the last Crescent murder. She had last been seen leaving the Black Moon with an escort.

“With me in disguise,” I whispered to myself as I realized she’s the one I’ve been searching. I continued reading.

She was currently being held in the lower cells of the vampire royal compound under Rose’s direct authority.

I read the last sentence twice.

Rose had her.

Wannabe princess has her.

That wasn’t the worse part. They were calling her a hybrid which information had been gotten minutes it was presented to me.

Arrrrgggghhh

I set the paper down carefully so I would not crush it between my fingers.

“You’re certain it’s the same woman?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Multiple independent confirmations. Physical description, location history, and the timing all match. The vampires have already begun interrogation.”

Interrogation. That word landed like a blade cut to my skin.

My wolf, which had been restless since the moment I left her in that penthouse, surged forward so hard I had to lock my jaw to keep from shifting right there in the study. The pull I had felt the night I met her was intense. It was the same pull that made me carry her out of the Black Moon without asking her name. I could still feel it roaring back to life with a force that left me momentarily breathless.

I had told myself it was merely attraction and I wouldn’t spun myself into lies and deceit. It was what I termed Temporary madness. You know, the kind of intense, fleeting connection that sometimes happened between strong Lycans and someone interesting.

I had walked away the next morning because she refused to come with me and because an assassination attempt demanded my presence in the capital. I had left her behind like a fool.

Now she was in a vampire cell, and Rose was the one asking the questions.

“How long have they had her?”

“Approximately six hours, Your Majesty.”

Six hours. More than enough time for Rose to do any real damage.

I stood and walked to the window, needing the distance, needing the cold glass under my palm to keep the wolf from taking control. The capital spread out below under a pale afternoon sky. Somewhere behind those distant mountains, in a dungeon that smelled of old blood and silver, the woman whose scent I could still remember was being questioned for crimes she almost certainly did not commit.

I didn’t just know if the statement I said to myself was true or any means to catching our mystery murderer

“What exactly are they charging her with?”

“Suspicion of involvement in the crescent murders. Possession of a silver crescent pendant matching the mark left on the victims. And… a likely association with you.”

Of course. Rose would use every scrap of information she could.

I turned back to the officer. “Has the Council been informed?”

“Not yet. I brought the report directly to you as instructed for any matter concerning the Black Moon incident.”

“Keep it that way for now. No one outside this room hears a word until I decide otherwise.”

He bowed. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Send for Kael. And prepare a full tactical convoy. We leave for vampire territory within the hour.”

The officer’s eyes widened slightly, but he only nodded and left to carry out my orders.

I remained standing at the window long after the door closed. My reflection in the glass looked colder than I felt. I could feel my wolf inside snarling continuously, demanding movement, demanding blood if necessary. It seemed like he did not care that she had been labeled a hybrid even if I wasn’t so sure of that assumption neither did he care about the old decrees my father had left behind concerning impure bloodlines. It only cared that the woman who had looked at me like she was daring the world to break her was now at the mercy of someone who specialized in breaking people.

I thought about the way she had felt under my hands. The quiet, stubborn refusal when I asked her to come with me. The flash of something almost like fear when I mentioned the crescent bloodline. She had been running long before the vampires took her. I should have forced the truth out of her that morning. Instead I had respected her silence and walked away.

That mistake was no longer acceptable.

Kael entered without knocking, as he had for the last twenty years. He took one look at my face and closed the door firmly behind him.

“How bad?” he asked.

“They have her. Rose has her. They’re calling her a hybrid and interrogating her for the crescent murders.”

Kael’s expression did not change, but I saw the slight shift in his stance. “And we’re going to retrieve her.”

“Yes.”

“The Council will lose their minds.”

“The Council can file a formal complaint after she’s out of that cell.”

He studied me for a long moment. “This is about more than the murders, isn’t it?”

I did not answer. I did not need to. Kael had been at my side long enough to recognize when my wolf had already made a decision the rest of me was still catching up to.

“I’ll have the convoy ready in forty minutes,” he said. “Full escort. No advance notice to the vampires.”

“Good.”

He paused at the door. “Peter. If she really is a hybrid…”

“Then I’ll deal with that after she’s safe in our territory.” My voice came out flatter than I intended. “Not before. She’s a wolf before anything else.”

Kael nodded once and left.

I returned to the desk and read the report one final time. Every line felt personal. The clinical description of her appearance. The note about the pendant. The confirmation that she had been taken only hours after I left her.

Somewhere in those six hours she had gone from the woman who had fallen asleep in my arms to a prisoner in a vampire dungeon.

I folded the paper, slipped it into the inner pocket of my coat, and strode out of the study.

The wolf inside me had already chosen.

I was going to get her back.

Whatever she was.