Chapter 82. Even Worse News

Ainslee

The gardens are lovely, except for the body in the middle of the rose bushes.

Rafe stands between me and the dead messenger, who is still clinging to the missive we had tried to send to Alpha King Striker.

“We thought we’d introduce ourselves in style,” the half wolf-shifter/half vampire before us grins, finally letting go of the two servants he had by the throat.

“Go.” Rafe waves them away, and the servants run. The envoy from King Dartmouth of Tormentians full of half-breeds. All of them are dangerous.

“King Dartmouth always says you should make a splash if you’re going to be introducing yourself in his name,” the half wolf-shifter continues while I watch a vein I didn’t know Rafe had pulse in his forehead.

My Rafe is angry. I see his hands forming into stone fists at his sides.

“I’d say you’ve done that,” Rafe says evenly, indicating the blood-soaked body.

“Good. We’d hate to disappoint our leader,” the half