Wolf Soul

D.

I could tell Mother was confused. Her blueberry purple eyes squinted and eyebrows furrowed. "What? What about prince Geold?"

I felt frozen, momentarily blindsided. Never in a thousand years would I think that Prince Geold was the one-

He was the first prince of the royal family and was supposed to take the throne in Switzerland, the homeland of the wolf shifters. He was supposedly in Russia negotiating territory disputes with other packs. It was a complete mystery as to how he ended up in the states and to be murdered...

For the werewolf world this would be a disaster. A complete catastrophe since Prince Geold had been trained since birth in specific royal family secrets and he was the only one with the qualifications to take on the crown. Without him, the werewolf race was destined to have large calamities, not to mention how vulnerable we would be to the vampires or witches if they knew.

I felt my blood run cold and I'm sure my face was frozen in shock. "A-are you sure?"

"What? What are you two talking about?" My mom grabbed my arm and shook me slightly, looking back and forth between Nick and I.

"Prince Geold-"

"Devona." Nick cut me off and looked at everyone around the room. His eyes were darker than the bottom of a black abyss and everyone shivered when they made eye contact. His presence in this moment was overwhelming.

"Listen to me now and take my words to heart. These words and what you hear do not leave this room under any circumstances. Is that clear?"

Everyone nodded since there was no room to argue. His voice left no question of the consequences should the secret be spoken of outside.

"Today while investigating something, we ran into the no mans land and discovered near the pits a deceased wolf. After making a few calls, I believe that this wolf, is in fact, our Prince Geold."

Everyone froze and their eyes were wide, expressions full of shock. My mother who was the pack negotiator had known the royal family as a family friend of the queens cousin so she had met the royal family in person quite a few times.

Her eyes were full of disbelief but when Nick didn't say anything after the revelation and kept his serious expression, her eyes filled with despair and started glistening.

"H-how?" Her voice trembled.

Nick hung his head, radiating anger. "We don't know. But it seems to be him. He was supposed to be in Moscow for the next three months, but he disappeared a week ago. The royal family was trying to keep it secret so as not to cause panic."

Isabella quickly went to his side and grabbed his hand to squeeze it, trying to be as comforting as she could given the current situation.

"What-what should we do from here? Alpha?" Felix's face was pale but he was trying to keep his composure and make a plan.

Nick's eyebrows crinkled in annoyance and he rubbed his forehead roughly. "Well our next plan was already chosen for us. When I reported the incident, I was informed that the royal family would be coming."

Dex's mouth opened, thoroughly surprised. "Coming...coming here? The Royal family?"

Nick nodded. "Yeah. The whole Royal family. They'll be here in 12 hours. And as vassals we need to prepare for them like the apocalypse."

I closed my eyes. Well, this wasn't too surprising really, considering that the heir to the werewolf kingdom was murdered. We'd have to rush around like maniacs to make sure the security is air tight and their rooms are prepared to their liking. We might also need to plan a funeral for Prince Geold as well. What a headache that would be. It would be a nice distraction though.

I looked at Nick and quickly asked,"What is being done with Prince Geold's body?"

"The shadow hunters are taking care of the corpse. We'll have to prepare a proper burial for him."

I nodded satisfied. Shadow hunters were a few of the elite humans we employed on our territory for certain things we couldn't ask our regular warriors to take care of. Scraping Prince Geold's skin off the rock crevice was definitely something a wolf couldn't stomach, so we had the humans take care of it.

"Alright, with that said we all need to prepare. Let's get started with the regular procedures. Dismissed."

My father who had come in towards the end of the conversation wore a confused and worried expression as he saw mothers red face. As they left I could hear her quietly telling him what happened. The others all left in a hurry out the door and I was right behind them when Nick's voice stopped me.

"Devona, wait. I need to talk to you."

Nick sat behind his desk and stared at me with his intense eyes. Isabella sat in a chair next to him with her head in her hands, slightly shaking. He grabbed one of her hands and squeezed it. They really were a good couple.

I turned to stand before him, my arms crossed over my chest.

"When the royals arrive they'll want to know how you knew where to find him. I'm also quite curious as to how you knew."

I shrugged. "It was just one of my feelings."

"Wrong. Try again."

I stared at him confused. "What? Really, it was one of my gut feelings, the ones-"

"That's not good enough!!" Nick slammed his hand on the table, irritation making his face slightly red as he shouted at me.

My eyes widened. "What do you mean? Not good enough- that's really how I knew!"

I was now thoroughly confused. Nick knew about my feelings. He always knew my sixth sense was stronger than most. Why was he denying it and getting angry?

"What's the matter with you?" I asked, my own temper flaring.

Nick glared at me then sighed, an exasperated look on his face. "You can't tell the royals that you found him based on just instinct Devona. This is too important. If you tell them that, they might think you're someone to be suspicious of. We need to make sure that they don't even keep you in their sights while they are here investigating. The royals are dangerous, much too dangerous to mess around with. So you need to think of a side story that's more believable than 'it was my gut instinct' alright?"

I frowned but nodded. Nick was worried, which given his arrogant and confident personality, really said something. "Alright. I'll think of something."

"Alright. When you think of something, discuss it with me first and we'll go over it together. Dismissed."

I rolled my eyes at his dismissal but quickly turned and left. I was fine not talking with him anymore.

Now my next step was to think of what to say to explain.