Brent frowned, and his eyes began to glow.
Holy shit. This guy had an ego.
Cups clanged together, causing all of our attention to turn to the poor waitress who obviously felt uncomfortable waiting on us. Her face was pale, which was saying something for her. "Here are your drinks." She passed them out quickly as Mason and Brent glared at each other, only adding to her anxiety.
This was going well.
She scurried off, leaving even more tension in the air somehow.
"You're right, tending to your pack is your job." No wonder this guy gets along with Richard. He had to be more about making money and maintaining status than his pack’s wellbeing, which meant there was no way I could right this wrong. We'd insulted him by not visiting, and no excuse would resonate with him. "But it's ours too. The other packs needed our help. Vampires were attacking our kind. As far as we know, that hasn't been happening here."
"Of course not." He cleared his throat and glanced at his glass.
He was lying. His heart began beating faster, and the smell of rotten eggs surrounded us.
"Is that so?" Mason narrowed his eyes as if he was going in for the kill.
Don't do it. The last thing we needed to do was bruise his ego more. It'll only make things worse, and he already knows we know. Let it slide.
I glanced at Ella, worried she would go off too, but she and Louis were looking each other in the eye. He was handling her for me. Thank God for that.
"Are you doubting me?" Brent lifted his chin in the air, trying to regain some semblance of control.
"It's good news." I locked eyes with him and arched an eyebrow. I was going to make him break eye contact with me. "So no other random things are happening that would warrant us providing your people with some help?"
"He already said no." Richard's voice raised, and the words were rushed. "Do you want to keep insulting him?"
"Oh, dear cousin." I wanted to barf at the words, but I forced them out without wincing somehow. "I'm not insulting him. We only want to make sure that we don't need to offer more protection or help with any endeavors involving any of the other supernatural races."
Something almost akin to doubt filled his eyes. "No, everything is fine here." He cleared his throat and grabbed the cup of coffee that had been placed in front of him. "Why were the other places being attacked?"
"Not sure." That wasn't a lie. They'd said that they'd been having issues with the vampires before my arrival. "They just stated that the vampires had gotten out of control and were acting a little more brazen than in the past."
"That has to be an overstatement." Richard placed his hands on the table.
He chose his words carefully. My stomach soured at how well my family was at manipulating everything.
This whole thing is ridiculous. Mason was becoming more and more agitated. "Well, seeing as you weren't there, how would you know?"
"Because he's a know-it-all that lies through his teeth." Ella stared him down.
"I don't have to stay here and be insulted." Richard pushed back and stood. "I thought we could come here and talk family to family, but all you're doing is throwing accusations at me and my parents."
"It'd probably be best if we left." Brent stood as well and glanced at me. "I'm sorry, but I'll be petitioning for your cousin to take the crown. You falsely accused his father of attempted murder and locked your own family up in prison. You hadn't even bothered to call or check on the southern packs until you heard of our move against your reign. It proves that you have favoritism and are only out for your best interests." He cleared his throat and nodded at Richard. "Let's go."
Despite his entire speech, there was something about his eyes. Uncertainty or maybe even fear shone there.
"And I expected better of you, young prince." Richard scowled at Louis and shook his head. "This won't bode well for you."
The two of them turned, heading toward the door, leaving us all in the aftermath.
"What the fuck was that?" Ella's voice was a little too loud, making the closest table to us turn in our direction.
"Calm down," Mona warned.
"Hey, at least, I waited this long." Ella pointed her finger at Louis. "You better be glad I love you or you'd be missing an important appendage, considering how many times you told me to