“It was too late for her. He had nothing to do with her death. If there’s anyone to blame, that’s me. Christine challenged Sabine only because she was beating the crap out of me. I couldn’t… I just couldn’t fight back. I’m sorry.”
“No.” Avelyn lifted herself up on an elbow to look into his eyes. “You’re a wonderful man, Max, of course you couldn’t fight back. I just wish… I just wish she had come to her senses and given up…”
“But she didn’t. She was determined to fight to the death. She had made her choice. Don’t hold it against Viggo.”
Avelyn sighed heavily and let herself fall back on Max’s wide, strong chest. “I still don’t want to see him. I need time to figure things out… make some kind of peace with what happened.”
“Of course.” Max kissed the top of her head and squeezed her closer to his side. There was a fair chance that what he was about to tell her would make her angry again, but he had to. Honesty above all. “Viggo is going to buy Delyse for his Fyrstur, Eric Drekinn. And before you lash out on him, it was my idea…”
Avelyn jumped back to a sitting position and the quick movement made her head spin. She crossed her arms over her chest and raised a questioning brow at Max.
“Actually, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Delyse’s brother asked me to use my connections and find a wealthy, influential Alpha for his sister in exchange for the cure. Delyse agreed.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I guess I never got around to it. He gave me the cure, then you took it, then it was that whole month of tension until the full moon… Sabine… Also, I wasn’t quite sure I would be able to keep my promise. When Viggo made his weird, unexpected appearance, it struck me that not even Councilor Harington could say a dragon-shifter is not enough for his daughter.”
“Yeah… fair.” Avelyn calmed down and started playing with Max’s soft, black hair. “Let’s just hope Eric Drekinn is nothing like his Annarr.”
“So… you’re not angry?”
Avelyn smiled. “As if being angry would solve anything. Delyse is my best friend, but I can’t make decisions for her. If Viggo interviews her, it doesn’t mean she will accept. It’s Delyse we’re talking about here. She’s tougher than me, and her Donation status does give her some privileges the other Alma Venus girls don’t have. She’s met Viggo and seen what he did. She’ll make her own decision, and it will be the best.”
“Honey, you’re amazing, did you know that?” Max pulled her towards him and captured her lips in a bruising kiss.
“Yeah… I’ve been told before,” she said when they paused for a breath of air.
***
Max left Avelyn with Rosanna and went to his office at the first floor, where Viggo was waiting for him. The weredragon had no reason to stick around Schloss Blackmane now that everyone knew about his intentions and why he was so interested in Avelyn’s unique condition. He could finally go back to his clan’s business, and in light of what he had found out in the past few days, the things he had to solve had doubled.
“I’ll have the private jet ready for you,” said Max. He was sitting in his chair, behind the desk, a glass of whiskey in hand. Viggo was on the other side of the desk, his glass already empty. He had fallen silent a few minutes ago, and he seemed to be in deep thought. “If there’s anything new with my wife and our baby… related to the cure, I mean, I’ll let you know immediately. You have my word.”
Viggo turned his golden gaze to Max and gave him a half smile. “I know.”
“Then what’s wrong? I feel like something’s wrong. What is it?” That was a silly question. Almost everything was still wrong, and now Max was waiting to see which particular thing Viggo would bring into discussion.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t been thinking about the escaped rogue wolves. Because I have.”
Max sighed and took a sip of his whiskey, enjoying the burn it left down his throat. “Here we go again,” he thought.
“I’ve been thinking about more than that. There’s also the three-tailed Inari and a couple of his werefoxes.”
Viggo leaned forward in his chair and propped his elbows on the desk. “Yes, but you see, the werefoxes are not really a problem unless they try to take revenge on us for killing the she-wolf. I still can’t figure out why they were involved with her, but let’s leave this for later. I’m concerned about the remaining rogue wolves. They turned just a month ago, they’re inexperienced, they probably don’t know how to control their animal instinct, or move slowly enough to fool those around them when they’re in their human form. They were clearly controlled by Sabine. Either because she was their only option once they turned, or because she had some sort of inexplicable power over them. I don’t know… The point is that Sabine is dead and they are out there, scattered. These are people who were kidnapped and forced into something they didn’t want. The implications scare the shit out of me.”
Max considered Viggo’s logic for a long minute. Everything he said made sense. “So, they’re more dangerous than the werefoxes because…”
“… they can decide to take some kind of revenge for what happened to them by simply going to the Council.”
“Shit.” Max rubbed his beard, then ran his fingers through his longish hair. Why hadn’t he thought about this? It was simple, common sense logic.
“Yeah… you can say that again.” Viggo reached for the bottle of whiskey and poured himself some more, then refilled Max’s glass as well.
“They could do that, yes. It wouldn’t necessarily benefit them, because it’s not like anyone can give them back their old lives, but the scandal would be huge. It could actually threaten the peace treaty.”
“And we don’t want that.”
“Why would they want that?”