Cedric headed towards Evelyn's railcar with little enthusiasm. He knew that the two of them had been together for the entirety of the trip and could care less.
Evelyn's railcar was two cars down from Cecil's car, with the cars in between reserved for Cecil's and Evelyn's guards and attendants and their things.
Springing up the two steps that took him up the gangway connection that led to the doorway of the railcar, Cedric banged on the door with a careless fist.
"Cecil. I know you're in there." He called out in a loud voice. "Don't bother hiding."
The door yanked open as Cecil's blond head poked out the door. His green eyes were bloodshot and his normally pristine hair was in damp dreds.
"Keep your voice down, you imbecile." He whispered harshly.
Cedric glared at him with baleful eyes and kicked the door open with one solid foot. It banged inward, causing Cecil to jump out of the way in surprise.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, breaking into a woman's railcar?" Cecil reached out to close the door behind them.
He turned back to face Cedric, naked as a jaybird. His shaft was standing upright and covered with some sticky looking whitish discharge.
Cedric turned away from his brother in disgust.
"For crikey's sakes, put on some clothes. I haven't seen your for two days and wasn't sure if you were dead or alive."
He looked around, sniffing at the air. The smell of sexual fluids and sickly sweet tobacco was thick in the railcar. Over by the bed, there was a lump under the bed covers.
Cecil grabbed a robe and covered himself. "I saw you go down with the werebears. I thought you were dead."
"Wouldn't you have been happy if that was the case?"
"Why would I be happy that my brother was struck down by werebears?" Cecil assessed his condition, looking at him up and down. "But it looks like you're doing just fine. You're looking as healthy as ever."
"It's a good thing Andre Kossova was onboard the train and got to me in time, because YOU were nowhere in sight."
Cecil looked away. "I was sleeping and didn't know that anything had happened."
"You slept through that much screaming and howling?" Cedric sneered, throwing a look over at the lump on the bed.
"Or was it that you and Evelyn were so stuck together, you couldn't pull yourself away from her to try and save your own brother?"
Cecil waved a dismissive hand. "By the time I came out and saw what had happened, Andre had cleared up everything."
"Amazing what a real Alpha can do in a situation like this."
"Watch your tongue, Cedric." Cecil hissed. "I am still the Alpha King of Faria."
"Not for long, you won't be." Cedric bared his fangs. "Already, word has spread to all the rank and file that you were hiding in cowardice while I was attacked by the werebears and Andre had to show up to help."
His eyes narrowed. "I was so badly injured, they thought I was going to die, leaving the Alpha position to Andre."
Cecil snarled. "Andre is just a shill. He cannot be Alpha as long as I'm still alive."
Cedric spat with disgust. "If I do not take up the Alpha King position, Andre would be the next choice. He's a better man than you are."
Cecil's face turned dark as he lunged at Cedric with outstretched claws.
Cedric easily dodged the strike with a twist of his body. Reaching out with a powerful forearm, he yanked on Cecil's upper arm and slammed him to the floor.
"Aaaarghhh!!!" Cecil squealed as he lost his balance and sprawled on all fours.
His green eyes glittered with rage as he turned and stared up at Cedric. With a kick to the torso, Cedric flipped him onto his back and stomped a solid foot on his ribcage.
"Haaahhh!!!" Cecil panted as he struggled to fill his lungs with air. Cedric was not allowing him to rise back up.
"You are done, Cecil. Get off this train. Go anywhere you wish, but you are no longer allowed in the palace."
"But you told me you didn't want to take up the throne!" Cecil cried in distress.
"That was before you left me to die among the wild beasts. Even Andre acted more heroic and was more of a brother to me than you." Cedric shot a disgusted look at the lump on the bed.
"And take that noxious smelly Larabee bitch with you." He snarled.
Evelyn poked her head out of the covers.
"How dare you! You will hear from my father about this!"
"Oh? And what will you tell him? That I came and interrupted your love-fest with my oldest brother?" Cedric laughed.
"Regardless of what happens, I'm still your fiancée!" She huffed. "You can't get rid of me that easily."
Cedric threw her a repulsed look. "If you still want to live through today, take your slimy odious self away from my sight. If I catch you anywhere near my mate and my nephew, you will not live to regret it."
"We shall see about that, Cedric." Evelyn's green eyes glittered with rage.
Cedric gave one last growl, and with one swift kick, sent Cecil's body rolling over to the bed near Evelyn.
As he turned and walked away, he threw back some final words of warning.
"You two are allowed to go to your land holdings and live out the remainder of your days. Do not loiter around the capital city of Faria. You will not be treated well here."
He disappeared through the railcar's doorway and the door closed behind him.
BANG!!!
A heavy metal pot hit the door with a clang and fell onto the floor, spilling out a smelly ashy liquid mixture of tobacco and water.
"Fool. You just broke my hookah pot!" Evelyn screeched and slapped at Cecil's head.
Away from the stink of Evelyn's railcar, Cedric made haste to return to his mate and nephew.
The air outside was cold, but pure and fresh, easing the olfactory assault on his wolf nose.
Cedric didn't think he could handle being inside Evelyn's railcar for another moment. The smell was cloying and sickly sweet, a disgusting mixture of rancid body sweat, sexual fluids, indolic musky perfume, and boiled tobacco.
He shuddered at the remembered stench and quickly made his way back to his Talia and his nephew. He could not wait to bury his nose into his woman's hair and take in her natural beautiful clean scent.
Cedric's brows knitted with worry for Talia and Devin. Even within the capital city, danger lurked everywhere for anyone associated with him.
Even though Vander was with them, he could not leave the three of them alone for too long. He had seen the way Vander looked at Talia when he did not think anyone was watching.
As long as Vander did not make any overt attempts at Talia, Cedric was content to maintain his relatively calm demeanor. There was no reason to act like the jealous mate if nothing had yet to occur.
Cedric had made the first move to eliminate Cecil without having to physically challenge him in a public arena. If Cecil was smart, he would take the easy loss and slink the hell out of the city.
If however, Cecil was stupid and wanted to publicly challenge Cedric to retain his crown, it would be a fight to the death.
As much displeasure as he was feeling towards his brother, he did not want to have to be the hand that struck Cecil down. He still had his father and Cecil's mother to deal with.
Evelyn was something entirely different. It would have been a simple thing to also banish her from his sight. However, she was still his fiancée, at least on paper.
Removing a legal fiancée was a bit gnarly since that normally meant the rejected fiancée would have a difficult time to find another man to marry her.
In Evelyn's case, it wouldn't matter. Her family was simply to rich not to be able to find a fool to marry her even though everyone knew she was Cecil's long-time lover.
Evelyn had only agreed to be Cedric's fiancée to satisfy her father's demands that she be the legitimate first mate of a Grand Duke, as opposed to a seventh consort of the reigning monarch.
Of course, everyone knew this except Evelyn's father, Count Edwin Larabee. To him, she was as pure as the Farian virgin snow. A slight on her virtue would cause embarrassment on his over-inflated family honor.
Edwin Larabee was someone who would not think twice to raise whatever military might he controlled to go up against whoever besmirched his daughter's purity.
Cedric heaved a sigh and took the two steps up onto the gangway connection that led to the doorway of the railcar.
No matter what happened, he had to clear up the situation with Evelyn or he would lose Talia forever. He could not allow that to happen.