The Wolf Crown (The Wolf Kings #2) (MLM)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

                Fifteen minutes later, Jack, Everett, Mira, Wyatt, and Poppy found themselves in the storage room, surrounding by barrels of fish and coolers of beer. Everett looked like he was going to be sick but was too polite to gag, but it couldn't be helped. There was hardly anyone left in the bar at this late hour, but Jack didn't want the werewolves or a human overhearing his idea. If for nothing else, he didn't want to get anyone's hopes up if this failed.

"You want me to call the Siren Queen?" Poppy hummed. Every word she said felt like a song she was using to reel them in, but the warm gold band on Jack's finger was a constant reminder of why he was here. Granted, Wyatt seemed to enjoy getting pinched a bit too much, but they had to stay focused here.

"I know it's a lot to ask," Jack said, "but to beat the Shadow Wolf, we need all the power we can get, and the only mention of the Wolf Crown we could find doesn't mention her."

"They don't mention the Fairy King either," Poppy noted, and grinned, pulling herself up to sit on the edge of a barrel. She idly poked the eye of a dead fish at her hip. "My father's told me about those stories, too, King Jack. Everyone always thought they were funny myths, but there was something . . . very interesting about a werewolf that imbues its own skin with silver." She grinned. "And a bit sexy, don't you think?"

Wyatt made a hmph sound and crossed his arms. "I think you and I have very different ideas of what qualifies as sexy." Then to Mira, "Pinch me again, I can feel the fog coming on."

Everett swatted him away. "Miss Gills—"

"You can call me Poppy, handsome."

"No," Mira said without taking her large eyes off Poppy. "You can't."

Everett cleared his throat. "Miss Gills, I understand the request is a bit unorthodox, but you're the only siren we know, you see." He glanced at Jack. "And, apparently, you're our only hope."

"Ooh," she giggled, "a Star Wars reference? Give a girl a chance, Mr. Elf."

"I"—Everett frowned—"don't know what that is."

"Poppy," Jack tried, "if you do this, everything could change for you and your dad. If not with the Siren Queen, then at least in the forest. If everyone else finds out how hard you tried, you could be welcomed back to the rivers and lakes with open arms. I know you're not happy being cooped up here."

"Maybe," she quietly confessed, but even that sounded like a song, dragging her finger across the dead scales. "But I'm safe here. Can you say that for me if I got involved in this? Do you even know what happened to the last leaders who went up against the Shadow Wolf?"

"They died," Jack said bluntly, and could feel his friends look to him. It had not been a suspicion he'd shared with the rest of them, but as he said it, he knew it to be true. "The use of all that power drained them, their bodies couldn't take it anymore. Don't you remember what Ender said?" he said to the others. "When he was talking about that spell the first werewolf and the others used to send the Shadow Wolf away? 'They weakened it and he delivered the final strike that killed it.'"

"'They,'" Everett repeated, eyes narrowed. "Like he was talking about someone else."

"The first Elder Elf," Mira agreed. "His wife."

Poppy let loose a faint giggle. "Romantic tragedies are my favorite, I'll admit, but I'm still not seeing what this has to do with me. I don't know where to even begin looking for the Siren Queen—"