Clapping wildly along with them was Lucas. Next to him, applauding politely but with none of his vigor, was the girl he’d been dancing with. She looked downright bored.
Desmond kept an arm around my waist, and we thanked the crowd with an awkward bow, then he led me to the wolf king. Lucas was beaming, and when we reached him he put his arms around me, lifting me off the ground and out of Desmond’s hands.
“That was marvelous! Where did you learn to dance like that?”
Actually, it was Keaty who had taught me to dance. We’d been investigating a dance studio where the council believed a rogue Russian vampire was offering more than lessons to his most promising ballet students. Keaty and I posed as a couple taking ballroom lessons to spice up our pending wedding ceremony. Long story short, the Russian met a violent end, and Keaty managed to teach me how to use my agility for something other than killing.
“I, uh, picked it up over the years. ” I was blushing.
Lucas clapped his hand on Desmond’s shoulder. “Quite the show! I bet you never thought those dance lessons we took in grade school would pay off. ” This bit of new information surprised me. Had Lucas and Desmond really known each other since they were children? Lucas had told me they’d recognized each other before they were turned, but I’d sort of thought he was exaggerating. No wonder Desmond didn’t want to discuss the possibility he and I might share a connection. He’d known since childhood his best friend was destined to be king and that certain sacrifices would have to be made.
A bubble of guilt swelled in my gut for forcing him into this scenario with me, even if Lucas seemed to be tickled pink by the whole thing rather than flying into a jealous rage. Nothing about the werewolves was what I had expected.
“Secret, Desmond, please allow me to introduce Sophia Sullivan. ” Her name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t pin down why. He was directing our attention to the brunette he’d been dry humping. I no longer considered her willowy but rather lanky instead. Gawky, even, as if her long limbs were not really hers and belonged to a different body. I wondered what it was about her that had interested him when he hadn’t given the stunning Genevieve a second glance.
“Charmed,” Sophia said, giving a noncommittal wave and not offering to pick up either of the handshakes offered by Desmond or myself. Lucas laughed again, but this time it sounded forced. He was pardoning her rudeness, and I couldn’t understand why.
“Sophia is the daughter of the Alpha in Albany, New York. Marcus Sullivan. ” He looked directly at me as he said it, his eyes narrowing for emphasis so he could be sure I understood him.
I understood all too well.
This rude wisp of a girl was the one I had killed a man for. This was Marcus Sullivan’s ruined daughter. She didn’t seem permanently scarred by her unfortunate past, unless being bitchy was a symptom of damage. When I’d left Albany, Sophia had been human, and it didn’t take a supernatural detective to know that was no longer true. The smell of wolf radiated from her, and it wasn’t just a byproduct of being near Lucas.
He had danced with her to keep the peace. He was showing the other wolves that, if they were to find out what I’d done to William Reilly, not only did he know, but he accepted what Marcus had to do.
At least that’s what I thought it meant.
Lucas’s heart was in the right place, but it didn’t seem like Sophia was deserving of his kindness. She shifted her cold gaze to me just as I saw several large men moving to block all the doors.
“You’re Secret McQueen,” she said, her voice emotionless and flat.
“Yes. ” I wasn’t really looking at her anymore. I was trying to figure out why the exits could no longer be exited. Something bad was coming.
“You killed Billy Reilly. ”
A few wolves nearby heard this, and it distracted them from what was happening at the doors.
“Yes,” I admitted. “I would think that you of all people would be happy I’d done it. ”
“Happy? Happy?” Sophia’s voice cracked, her lower lip trembled. Lucas stepped back from her as she jabbed a bony finger into my chest. Both he and Desmond moved to stand between me and the angry girl. She didn’t seem to notice them as she continued her shrill tirade. “Billy was my fiancé, you stupid whore. You killed the love of my life. ”
It was like I’d been slapped in the face and dumped into cold water all at the same time. “Your father told me he’d raped you. ”
She barked out a harsh laugh. “Liar. My father knew Billy had proposed to me. ”
In the silence that followed, dark realization settled in for all of us. First on me, before it spread to Lucas and finally dug itself into Sophia. She grew pale and looked to have aged a decade in seconds.
“My father had my fiancé killed? No. No, that’s not possible. ”
“By an outsider, so no one in the pack would suspect,” I mused, ignoring her protests.
“But why?” She still hadn’t accepted it, and who could blame her?
“Because,” a deep, booming voice responded, “William Reilly was a lowlife junkyard dog, and you were meant to be a princess. ”
We looked over to see Marcus Sullivan step up onto the marble bar, surrounded by burly wolves who flanked him on the floor.
“And I,” he continued, “was meant to be king. ”