Part 22 (1/2)
”Ouch,” he said when they pulled apart, although he had partic.i.p.ated with gusto. ”Busted lip.”
”Oh, look what you did to my dress!” Lady Maccon glared down at the blood now decorating the white satin trim.
Lord Maccon refrained from pointing out that she had initiated the kiss.
”You are an impossible man,” continued his ladylove, swatting him on one of the few undamaged portions of his body. ”You could have been killed in such a fight, do you realize?”
”Oh, phooey.” Lord Maccon waved a dismissive hand in the air. ”For a Beta, Dubh is not a verra good fighter even in wolf form. He is hardly likely to be any more capable as a human.”
”He is still still a trained soldier.” She was not going to let this rest. a trained soldier.” She was not going to let this rest.
”Have you forgotten, wife, that so am I?”
”You are out of practice. Woolsey Pack Alpha has not been on campaign in years.” are out of practice. Woolsey Pack Alpha has not been on campaign in years.”
”Are you saying I'm getting old? I'll show you old.” He swept her up like some exaggerated Latin lover and carried her into their bedchamber.
Angelique, who was engaged in some sort of tidying of the wardrobe, quickly made herself scarce.
”Stop trying to distract me,” said Alexia several moments later. During which time her husband had managed to divest her of a good percentage of her clothing.
”Me, distract you? You are the one who dragged me off and up here right when things were getting interesting.”
”They are not going to tell us what is going on no matter how hard we push,” said Alexia, unb.u.t.toning his s.h.i.+rt and hissing in concern at the array of harsh red marks destined to become rather spectacular bruises by the morning. ”We are simply going to have to figure this out for ourselves.”
He paused in kissing a little path along her collarbone and looked at her suspiciously. ”You have a plan.”
”Yes, I do, and the first part of it involves you telling me exactly what happened twenty years ago to make you leave. No.” She stopped his wandering hand. ”Stop that. And the second part involves you going to sleep. You are going to hurt in places your little supernatural soul forgot it could hurt in.”
He flopped back on the pillows. There was no reasoning with his wife when she got like this. ”And the third part of the plan?”
”That is for me to know and you not to know.”
He let out a l.u.s.ty sigh. ”I hate it when you do that.”
She waggled a finger at him as though he were a schoolboy. ”Uh-uh, you just miscalculated, husband. I hold all the high cards right now.”
He grinned. ”Is that how this works?”
”You have been married before, remember? You should know.”
He turned on his side toward her, wincing at the pain this caused. She lay back against the pillows, and he ran one large hand over her stomach and chest. ”You are perfectly correct, of course; that is exactly how this works.” Then he made his tawny eyes wide and batted his eyelashes at her, pleading. Alexia had learned that expression from Ivy and had employed it effectively on her husband during their, for lack of a better word, courts.h.i.+p. Little did she know how persuasively it could be applied in the opposite direction.
”Are you going to at least see me settled?” he murmured, nibbling her neck, his voice gravelly.
”I might be persuaded. You would, of course, have to be very very nice to me.”
Conall agreed to be nice, in the best nonverbal way possible.
Afterward, he lay staring fixedly up at the ceiling and told her why he had left the Kingair Pack. He told her all of it, from what it was like for them, as both werewolves and Scotsmen, at the beginning of Queen Victoria's rule, to the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt on the queen planned by the then Kingair Beta, his old and trusted friend, without his knowledge.
He did not once look at her while he talked. Instead his eyes remained fixed on the stained and smudged molding of the ceiling above them.
”They were all in on it. Every last one of them-pack and clavigers. And not a one told me. Oh, not because I was all that loyal to the queen; surely you know packs and hives better than that by now. Our loyalty to a daylight ruler is never unreserved. No, they lied to me because I was loyal to the cause, always have been.”
”What cause?” wondered his wife. She held his big hand in both of hers as she lay curled toward him, but otherwise she did not touch him.
”Acceptance. Can you imagine what would have happened if they had succeeded? A Scottish pack, attached to one of the best Highland regiments, multiple campaigns served in the British Army, killing Queen Victoria. It would have thrown over the whole government, but not only that, it would have taken us back to the Dark Ages. Those daylight conservatives who have always been against integration would call it a nationally supported supernatural plot, the church would regain its foothold on British soil, and we would be back to the Inquisition quicker than you could shake a tail.”
”Husband”-Alexia was mildly startled, but only because she'd never given Conall's political views much consideration-”you are a progressive!”
”d.a.m.n straight! I couldna believe my pack my pack would put all werewolves into such a position. And for what? Old resentments and Scottish pride? A weak alliance with Irish dissidents? And the worst of it was, not a one had told me of the plot. Not even Lachlan.” would put all werewolves into such a position. And for what? Old resentments and Scottish pride? A weak alliance with Irish dissidents? And the worst of it was, not a one had told me of the plot. Not even Lachlan.”
”Then how did you find out about it in the end?”
He huffed in disgust. ”I caught them mixing the poison. Poison, mind you! Poison has no place on pack grounds or in pack business. It isna an honest way to kill anyone, let alone a monarch.”
Alexia suppressed a smile. This would appear to be the aspect of the conspiracy that upset him the most.
”We werewolves are not known for our subtlety. I had realized they were plotting something for weeks. When I found the poison, I forced a confession out of Lachlan.”
”And you ended up having to fight and kill your own Beta over it. Then what, you simply took off for London, leaving them without leaders.h.i.+p?”
He finally turned and looked at her, propping himself on his elbow. Seeing no judgment or accusation in her eyes, he relaxed slightly. ”There is no pack protocol to cover this kind of situation. A large-scale betrayal of an Alpha with no qualified reason or ready replacement. Led by my own Beta.” His eyes were agonized. ”My Beta Beta! They deserved to be without metamorphosis. I could have killed them all, and not a one would have objected, least of all the dewan, save that they were not plotting against me; they were plotting against a daylight queen.”
He looked to her and his eyes were sad.
She tried to distill the story down into one manageable chunk. ”So your leaving was a point of pride, honor, and politics?”
”Essentially.”
”I suppose it could have been worse.” She smoothed away the frown creasing his forehead.
”They could have succeeded.”
”You realize, as muhjah, I am forced to ask: will they try again, do you think? After two decades? Could that explain the mysterious weapon?”
”Werewolves have long memories.”
”In the interest of Queen Victoria's safety, is there a way for us to provide a surety against this?”
He sighed softly. ”I dinna know.”
”And that's why you came back? If it's true, you'll have to kill them all, won't you, sundowner?”