Captive: Hopeless

Chapter 44 - Facts and fiction

"Report," Darius commanded, and for the next hour, they listened to the progress reports. The battles they had fought, losses and wins, but the picture was not pretty. The room emptied as each commander delivered their report, and only the family remained.

"Darcy?" Darius asked, and she powered up her laptop, connecting it to the viewscreens.

"There is no conclusive evidence on Linda's hard drives that Carduran is alive, or Azera is the mastermind behind all of this. Thanks to the age of technology, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the dark queen is up to something," she clicked open a folder, and a photo appeared on the screen.

It took KAy about ten seconds to realize the clean-cut, blond, cold-eyed woman in the picture was either Azera or her twin.

"Azera walked into Barnaby Jones' hotel yesterday in her usual black hair, green eyes, weird ass leather dress outfit and then about two hours later, exited, looking like this. If Harry didn't have a thing for preppy, blond, rich types and took this picture on a whim, he would have waited outside that hotel until the cows came home. As is, he accidentally sent this one along, and it took me a moment to figure out why she looked so hauntingly familiar.

"So, just to make sure, I sent him to check it out. Azera was not in the room, but the leather outfit was. Unfortunately, we have no idea where she went, only that she returned around midnight and left the hotel in her usual getup.

"The car that picked her up as this woman was not her limo, and the driver was unfamiliar. When she returned, she entered the Clairmont hotel at the back, exited at the front, and got into her own car, cavalcade and all," Darcy sat back and watched them stare at the side-by-side pictures.

The difference a blond wig, blue contacts, and a lack of heavy makeup made was astounding. It turned Azera into an entirely different woman, and a frown tugged at Kay's brow. What was this all about?

"I would have walked past her in the street unless I caught her scent," Adrian admitted, and Darcy grimaced.

"She walked right past Harry and Winslow. Neither of them picked up on her scent, which should be impossible but is true," she reported, and they all glanced at Darius as if he would have the answer.

"Azera has ties to the pharmaceutical industry. If there is a way to make your scent go away, even briefly, she will find it," Marcus said quietly, and Adrian nodded.

"You can't hide unless you can hide your scent. It makes sense that Azera would find a way," Adrian agreed. "Azera was always into alchemy and that kind of stuff."

"That would make snooping a lot easier," Marcella agreed with a droll voice, and Darius almost smiled.

"Keeping track of you is hard enough without help, thank you," Darius teased, and she grinned at him.

"Sore loser, much?" Marcella pretended to ask coyly, but her eyes were shining with victory.

Marcella and Darius checked out the perimeter security earlier in the day. According to Darcy, it turned into a field operation game in the form of finding the infiltrator. The infiltrator, Marcella, had escaped all her pursuers, including Darius.

"Adrian, how's training going?" Darius asked shortly, probably to hide his embarrassment or discomfort.

It seemed he was not good at losing, and when Adrian glanced at him, mischief glinted briefly in her eyes.

"Fine," Adrian answered in the same tone, mimicking his speech pattern. Darius looked at her, and she stared him down.

"Daddy, ask nicely, or they will tease and taunt you all day," Claudia said, laughter in her voice and a slow grin touched the werewolf king's mouth.

"Pretty please," he said, looking Adrian right in the eye with a look that could boil water with its steamy promise, and Kay grimaced as her succubus sensed it.

"Eeuwww," Claudia said, sounding five years old, and laughter filled the room.

"I said fine," Adrian said, and Darius' dark brows furrowed into a scowl.

"Marcus? Is my daughter as difficult as my wives?" The werewolf king asked with faked weariness, and Marcus smirked.

"No comment on that topic. For all formal statements, please refer to my publicist," Marcus deadpanned, and Darius smirked.

"Well played. I wish I was that sensible," Darius sighed, leaning back.

"Then again, you like turmoil," Claudia teased, and he glanced at Adrian with a look only the two of them could interpret. Even his other women didn't seem to know what the inside joke was, but they agreed with the sentiment, yet each of them reacted differently to the words.

When she was human, the idea of a man having more than one wife and them living in the same house would have been unthinkable. In fact, she would have been outright judgmental, even though she would not have voiced her opinion. She'd been taught that if you had nothing nice to say, not to say anything at all.

"Sometimes the pot needs to be stirred, or otherwise it burns, and the meal is ruined," he said sagely, making them chuckle.

"Before we get sidetracked, there's more, but I need to confirm my suspicions first," Darcy concluded.

"Sir?" a voice interrupted from the door.

They turned to stare at the werewolf commander stationed at the surveillance cameras committed to spying on Azera and her compounds, as she was no doubt spying on them.

The paleness of his face, the tension in his shoulders, the lack of expression, and the seriousness of his gaze screamed urgency.

What now?

"Yes, Arthos?" Darius asked, and the man hesitated.

"I think you better see this for yourself, sir."

He avoided glancing at Kay, which made her wary.

They followed his blistering pace down the stairs and into the spy room.

Why was she so uneasy? A moment ago, they were laughing, and now you could cut the tension with a knife. Were things like this when she was human? Did life go from high stress to laughter and back again in an instant? She couldn't recall. Those days sometimes seemed hazy, surreal, and almost unimportant, like she hadn't been truly alive until she became a newborn.

The thought almost made her hesitate mid-stride, but the commander's urgency made her set aside the past and hurry along. Whatever had just happened, she suspected it concerned her. Could she be wrong just this once?

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