The Prince's Fated Mate: M/M Alpha/Omega Paranormal Werewolf Romance (Norvargen Wolves Book 1) (17 page)

But the wheels inside Will’s mind were turning, spinning wildly as he connected the dots. He got to his feet. “You’ve been doing something to James somehow —
his tea.
”

It sounded insane and far-fetched, yet it was the only thing Will could conclude. Why else would Advisor Keanes have so easily suspected his own tea if it weren’t a trick he were using himself? Just as the mad queen had thought everyone was like her, committing the same deed and spreading the same sort of lies around. If the tea was indeed the answer, did that mean Adrian had his hand in drugging the prince? Will felt a cold chill run through him.

“You’ve quite an imagination,” said Advisor Keanes, tauntingly. “Probably from wasting all your time reading your childish books. Why would I ever need to do anything with the Prince’s tea, of all things? What
could
I possibly achieve from that?”

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s clouding his senses so that he can’t find his fated mate,” Will rambled, his mind frantically working.

Advisor Keanes froze at that accusation, eyes widening, and Will realised he had said something right.

“It’s true, isn’t it?” he cried out.

“Why would you guess that?” said Advisor Keanes, his voice shaking almost imperceptibly.
 

“That’s why he doesn’t have a clue I’m his fated mate,” Will exclaimed, astonished at what he was discovering.
This
was the answer to everything.

Advisor Keanes reacted to that revelation with shock. “
You’re
his fated mate?”

“You’ve done something underhanded with the Redfang pack, haven’t you?” Will went on, his mind racing in excitement as he felt himself finally understanding things. “With Prince Dashel himself or someone else. You just said that you’ve worked too hard on this engagement — what would you have to work on? It wasn’t an accident that I saw you coming out of the east wing that night. Your room is nowhere near there, and you’re smart enough to know that.”

“You —
you
’re his fated mate?” Advisor Keanes gasped aloud again, seeming to have trouble accepting that. He looked winded. “The son of an innkeeper!”

He shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and then he glowered at Will. “From the beginning, I did everything I could to make sure the engagement could proceed smoothly. I handled everything, all the arrangements, all the talks, convincing the Alpha and Alpha Consort that James bonding with Dashel would be the best thing for the pack. I even made sure I covered all the things that could possibly get in the way. I did all I could to prevent any sort of fated mates nonsense from ever happening — and yet, you still managed to worm through and attack the one thing I could never prevent. The prince was never supposed to fall in love with anyone!”

The alpha took a menacing step towards Will, and the omega backed away.

“I came here to merely warn you,” said Advisor Keanes, sounding ominous, dark, dangerous, “but now I realise you’re a bit too dangerous for me to ignore, as I’ve been doing so far. You should have never come along on this journey, you should have never been left alone with the Prince —”
 

He lunged forward, and Will leaped away, shifting in mid-air and breaking into a run, tearing through the knotted trees of the forest. The advisor was hot on his heels, and Will sprinted with all his might, hoping he was running in the right direction. Twigs snapped violently in their wake, and Will pushed on, sweating enormously. But Advisor Keanes caught up to him within seconds, and long, sharpened claws pierced into Will’s side, throwing him off-course.
 

He howled in pain and agony, trying to scramble back to his feet. But the alpha was on him in a second, biting his neck.
 

As if to taunt him, Advisor Keanes shifted back to his human form then. Even as a man, he was still stronger than Will’s wolf, and he pinned Will down to the ground as if he were a leaf.
 

“Do you know just how easily I could kill you and get away with it?” said the man, baring his teeth. His human teeth were still covered in Will’s blood.
 

Will fought and struggled, but it stung so badly where he had been clawed and bitten. His cheek was bleeding, scratched when he had been thrown on the ground. Advisor Keanes had him pinned down by his bleeding neck, rubbing it into the dirt beneath and making it sting harder.

“I could rip you apart right here and cover your tracks up so that no one could ever find you. I can cover your scent up just as easily as I can cover mine. I could even leave your body out for all to see, and just make it look as if you had a terrible accident with a stray animal. Oh yes, I could do all these things, and no one would ever know it was me.
My
books teach you many things, you know, things that your storybooks have never taught you.”

Will coughed and fought for breath. If Advisor Keanes wasn’t going to tear him apart, he was going to suffocate to death first.

“Go on and scream,” taunted the man. “Even if you could, there’s no one around to hear you. We’re far, far away from the camp, and Prince James is sleeping peacefully while you lie here, dying.” He bent down to whisper into Will’s ear. “Goodbye.”

A force collided into them, sending Advisor Keanes tumbling away from Will. The omega had the mind to scuttle away to safety, but he was too winded to move, and he lay on the ground, panting hard. He felt dizzy enough to throw up if he moved an inch, and strange shapes and lights were flitting across his vision. All his senses were too muddled to weed through the mess that was happening, but he could hear screams and shouts, and a violent fight was happening before him.

Something sneaked into the periphery of his vision, something familiar — it was James, in his wolf form, his sleek grey fur instantly recognisable. He was fighting with Advisor Keanes, who had immediately shifted back into his wolf. James had his jaw wide open, fangs bared, ready to sink them into his opponent the moment he could steal an opening. He seemed to be staggering, shaky on his feet. Then his claws went wild, glinting harshly in the moonlight, but they turned darker, blacker, vanishing until Will could see and hear no more…

*

Will was dreaming that dream again. That childhood memory. His mother was smiling at him and stroking his hair.

“
You just know it
,” she was saying. “
The first time you catch the eyes of your fated mate, you just know it’s the right person
.”

“
Will that happen to me too?
” Will asked, ever-young and innocent.

“
Maybe
,” Ma laughed, finding her son adorable.
 

Will, older, wiser, jerked awake, startled by a ray of sunlight bursting through a window. His window, the window of his bedroom.
 

He was in his bed in his room at the inn, and Pa was sitting by his side.

“Will,” Pa said in a shaky voice, barely audible. “Are you awake?”

“Pa,” Will croaked out, his throat burning with soreness.

“Will,” Pa cried out, lunging forward to embrace him. He sobbed, holding his son tightly, and then he pulled back to hand him a glass of water.

“We’ve been waiting for you to wake up,” explained Pa, wiping away his tears. It was the first time in years Will had seen him cry so much — the last time was at Ma’s funeral. “Seeing you like this — I never should have asked you to go — I never thought that — “

“What happened?” Will rasped, taking careful sips of his water. Sitting up ached a little. Looking down, he saw his chest wrapped up in thick bandages. He reached a hand up and felt half of his neck covered in white gauze as well.

Pa pursed his lips. “I don’t know the full story,” he admitted. “Everything’s been a mess since Prince James brought you back here, and I haven’t had the chance to hear much. I’ve been spending all my time by your side. The doctor came to see you and tend to your wounds already.”

Will looked into his glass, feeling tears pooling at his eyes. Everything was a strange mess right now, and he had no idea what to ask and where to start.

“The Prince was waiting by your side for some time too,” Pa said gently. “But he had to go away to talk with the rest of the Alpha Court. You’re alive because of him. He saved you from that advisor, that’s what I heard.”

Will stared down at his cup. “He was being drugged by the advisor.”

Pa stared at him. “Advisor Keanes?”

Will nodded. “He confessed just as much. I don’t have any proof — but I think that’s why James never knew I was his fated mate.”

“We’ll tell them that then,” Pa said excitedly. “I’ll go — ”

A knock came to the door, a solid tap interrupting Pa’s exclamation.

He went to answer it, pulling it open and revealing James.

“Prince James,” Pa greeted, too eager to be overly polite, but James waved him down. He looked tired, and Will could see white bandages covering his hand.

“Pardon me, Master Connor,” said James politely, “but if it would not be too much for me to ask, I would like some time alone with your son.”

Pa looked back and forth between him and Will, and then nodded. “Of course, of course.”

When they were alone, James rushed to Will’s side, and he wrapped his arms around Will.

“Thank God you’re awake,” James sobbed. “I was so worried about you.”

“I’m doing fine,” said Will quietly. He wanted to cry too, but he wanted answers now. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” answered James, wiping at his own cheek. He did not meet Will’s eyes, not even once, and Will guessed that he was simply exhausted. “Advisor Keanes went wild, and he showed me why he used to be in charge of the army. I wasn’t in the best shape after, not with waking up with hogstail messing up my mind. But I’m fine. I waited as long as I could by your side, hoping you’d wake up, but I had to talk with my father and the other advisors to discuss what happened. You had many visitors trying to call upon you while you were unconscious. Your friend Kytes and his father in particular were very worried. Even those two twin boys came by asking about you. Your father had the hard job of sending them away.”

“What happened?” Will asked for the second time that morning.

James ran his hand through his hair. “Where do I even start? It was Adrian who woke me up.”

“Adrian?” Will listened intently.

“That’s right. Somehow, I fell asleep, even though I was just waiting for the others to doze off before I went to meet you. Adrian came and shook me awake, telling me that he saw you were missing, and so was Advisor Keanes. He wasn’t sure if it was something important, but he said he felt like he ought to tell me in case. So I followed your trail, and I found him attacking you. It was horrifying,” he said, stroking the cut on Will’s cheek. “I threw him off, and somehow I managed to knock him out. I carried you back here.”

Will let out an exhale. Adrian was innocent, it seemed. “He swapped your teas,” he started.

James nodded. “I figured out as much. That’s the only reason why I would fall asleep and he didn’t.”

“And I think he’s been drugging you all this time.”

To Will’s surprise, James nodded grimly at that. “So I’ve just found out. We searched through Advisor Keanes’s bag and found a few things that he had not accounted for before. Twitchwood powder. Have you heard of that?”

Will shook his head.

“Neither had I,” James laughed darkly. “Very few people know of it. Advisor Keanes was one of the few. It dulls some of the innate senses of us shifters — one in particular being the sense that helps us find our fated mates. He’s been giving it to me all this time, and I never knew it. He even had some of the servants serve it to me from time to time, saying that it was a sleeping aid.”

That explained Adrian’s innocence. “Where is the advisor now?”

“He’s being locked up in his room, heavily guarded. Don’t worry, he won’t be getting off lightly, not for committing essentially what amounts to treason.”

Will’s heart pounded. “Treason?”

James nodded. “He had made a deal with the Redfang wolves. He would ensure that I would marry one of theirs, so that their pack could grow in power. In return, he would be rewarded generously in both power and money. Your east wing is now empty, if you’d like to know. When I brought back Advisor Keanes, they seemed to catch on that they were in danger, and they fled.”

Will gasped. “What’s going to happen now?”

James shook his head. “That’s what we’ve all been talking about for the past few hours. We’ve sent word for them to be chased down and apprehended, but all the same, the Redfangs will never be our allies again.”

Will couldn’t imagine what might happen next — thoughts of war suddenly flashed across his thoughts. But all that was distracted when he noticed James smiling at him.

“What?”

“You know what this means, don’t you?” said James, holding on to Will’s hand. “I’m not engaged anymore.”

Will’s heart quickened. “You’re not,” he said slowly, not daring to hope too much.

“I’ve spoken to Father about you already.”

“You did?”
 

Don’t hope too much, don’t hope too much.

“He…” James trailed off, looking down momentarily. “He had his reservations. He’d rather I wed with someone else… but in light of all that’s happened, well, he told me to come see you again and confirm if what you said was true…if we really are fated mates. He’ll allow us to bond if that’s the case. Since Advisor Keanes swapped our teas last night, I haven’t had any twitchwood for over day. Any traces should have faded, or most of it, at least. So…”

“Is that why you haven’t once looked into my eyes yet?” asked Will gently.

James blushed and nodded. “I think I’m overthinking it, and now I’m almost too scared to confirm it. I love you regardless of whether we’re fated mates or not, I want you to know that.”

“I know,” said Will, patiently, and he reached over to tuck his fingers under James’s chin. He lifted his head slowly, until his green eyes met with those ice-blue ones.