Ruler (Wolves of Royal Paynes #2) - Kiki Burrelli Page 0,66

of a fist. I couldn't be picky about order when the goal was simply to not strike. Compassion didn't keep me from hitting her. This woman wanted to take Storri from me and had tried to kill Hallie. Storri and his wants and needs were more important than my anger.

Movement caught my gaze, and I looked in time to see the wisp of a whisker as it disappeared inside the wall.

I felt a hand squeeze my heart. I could not let Storri hear that without me there. "I'll be back," I growled, offering no other explanation.

Running up the stairs, I sprinted down the hallway, taking the flight to the second floor. The closer I grew, the faster my heart pounded. It had nothing to do with the energy I exerted but with Storri. He knew something already. I could tell by the way my chest clamped tightly over my heart like a cage that had become too small.

The door to our room was still closed, but inside I heard whimpering. I closed the gap with two long strides.

"Storri?"

My mate lay on the bed, curled on his side while Dog sat behind him, whining softly.

"What did you hear?" I couldn't blame Storri for needing to know. I blamed myself for not anticipating this need. I had always planned on telling him, but after, when I could relay the information in a way sure to cause him the least distress.

"I'm sorry," Storri bawled.

The moment I reached the bed, he untwisted his limbs, wrapping them around me instead. "Shhh, it's okay." I kept my hands moving, patting his back, rubbing his hair. He sobbed, shaking harder as he squeezed me tightly.

"She's dead. My aunt. She's dead."

I kissed the top of his head, cursing myself for being so thoughtless. I'd needed Storri somewhere he was safe, but Storri had needed something else entirely. "Yes. I believe your aunt is dead."

Storri lifted his face from my chest. "Because of me?" His voice broke. Tears made his eyes shine.

"No. Not because of you. Because of Portal."

"Because they want me."

"Stop, Storri," I ordered as firmly as I dared. I kissed his head again. The action reminded me of how I'd almost lost the ability to kiss his head today. If that woman had been successful, if Portal had gotten him, this moment would've been stolen along with all the moments that would come after. "This isn't your burden. You didn't ask to be born a nephilim."

The anger I'd successfully restrained during the interrogation threatened to break through, but the focus had shifted. That woman downstairs might tell us answers, but that wouldn't do anything to curb the force that was after Storri. She was a blip in this war, not even a battle. Wasting so much energy on her when there wasn't anything to gain would be only that, a waste.

"I don't want to know, but I have to know, Faust."

From the beginning I'd encouraged Storri not to hide his needs but to tell me what he wanted. Now that he had, I wouldn't refuse him. "Then you'll know." Lifting him from my chest was the last thing I wanted to do. "That woman's name is Athena Harod. She killed your aunt and assumed her identity. That was why everything checked out. Portal found someone who looked enough like her that all she needed was hair dye and a good memory. Your aunt didn't have a lot of friends. No one to miss her."

"Like me."

I frowned. I could tell Storri he was valued in our pack a thousand times, but until he believed it, nothing would change. "Athena Harod works for Portal—"

"She admitted it?" Storri squeaked. "I thought she wouldn't say." My mate ducked his face quickly away, knowing he'd all but confessed to eavesdropping. "Tsk told me. It might have been Pbt, though. They were hard to keep track of."

Storri was adorable at a level normally saved for kittens lifting their paws in surprise or sneezing pandas. "She hasn't admitted it, but we don't need her to. She mentioned Jazz's father, in a roundabout way, saying he should've read his contract."

"Is the contract magic?"

Storri's question managed to lock together facts that had before remained unconnected. Jazz's father had ashploded after ranting about Portal. Athena wouldn't utter the name but confessed to every other misdeed without concern. "It's magic."

And that meant we needed to get back down there before it was too late. "Come on." I pulled Storri off the bed, settling him on his own two