Theo entered the portal in his wolf form. All of his senses were sharper in his wolf form, and it would be easier to move around without being noticed. Hopefully Gia had done the same.
Her scent was easy to follow, because it was a scent he knew well. He had grown up with his cousins and their scents were familiar—as recognizable as they would be if David and Gia were his own siblings. In fact, in many ways he felt closer to them than he did to his own sister, because she was still so young.
After his parents had him, there was a very long stretch of time when he was the only child, and it was thought that perhaps he would continue to be Graeme and August's only heir. His sister Evie was a huge surprise that didn't come until Theo was seventeen. Now his mother was occupied most of the time by chasing around the little four year old who acted as if she alone ruled the pack, and she may as well have. She looked just like his mother, and she had every pack member wrapped around her little finger—including Theo.
Entering Gray Vale, he was reminded of Evie in particular. She was still so young, and it was her sweet face and fiery spirit that came to him when he thought about how precious his pack family was and how they must be protected from anything that had to do with the vampires.
Why on earth had the Goddess given him a mate that was so inaccessible? He couldn't understand how he was expected to save her from this dimension. It was more daunting than anything else he had encountered. He would likely die trying to get to her.
He thought the time of vampires crossing paths with lycans had passed. There was the ancient one who had taken their alyko, but that threat no longer existed. He had become mortal and was living amongst the humans somewhere with his family. But it seemed that the fates of vampires and lycans had kissed again. Hopefully it would be brief. Hopefully he would just be able to claim his mate and go somehow without much of an issue. Pfff. Unlikely.
The gray haze of daylight was slipping into night as he followed Gia's scent through the white trees. She seemed to have followed the scent he left here when he tracked Cora, because he was following the same path he had walked before. Thankfully there were no vampires in this area close to the portal. They seemed to be concentrated further in where the city was.
As he got closer to the home where Cora lived, a thick smoke rose, shrouding the sky even more. His heart sped up. There was a fire ahead—a large one. Shit. What did that mean? It couldn't mean anything good. Fires were classic purification rites—burning away what was unwanted or feared. Destroying that which was deemed evil or guilty in such a way that it could never return.
Theo ducked low, slinking along the ground and between trees, praying to the Goddess that it wasn't either one of the females here, his mate or his cousin, who was caught in those flames.
His suspicion about the source of the fire was confirmed as the house where he had found his mate the previous night came into view. It was engulfed in a roaring fire, and there was a crowd of those stinking immortal creatures gathered around it. They smelled wrong. That was the only way he could think to describe it. They smelled like the grave.
He flattened himself against the downy white earth behind a tree, watching the flames lick the sky and consume the air, paralyzed with the crippling fear about whether Cora was in there. He would feel if his mate was no more, wouldn't he? He would know if she was in pain. And where was Gia? Her scent had led him here, but it continued straight to that house and that fire where he was unable to follow.
—————
"This is becoming unbearable," Cora growled, pacing the large dark room while her mother stayed seated on the bed. "They have to let us see him."
"They will," Penelope said as calmly as she could.
She was not liking these rooms or this palace any more than her daughter was, and her desire to see Zane with her own eyes to make sure he was okay was just as acute, but one of them needed to remain calm. There was nothing they could do about this situation at the moment. They had to remain patient.
A knock finally came to the door before it was slowly pushed open, and a woman appeared from behind it. She smiled shyly, entering with a large box that she carried to the table and set down before introducing herself.
"Hi, my name is Ekaterina," she said, hands clasped in front of her. If Penelope and Cora didn't know better, she would seem very young—possibly even Cora's age. "I am to be your assistant, Miss Cora."
"My assistant?" Cora repeated with a frown. "What does that mean?"
The girl smiled brightly, and just as she was about to answer, more people entered the room. Penelope jumped up from the bed as two men approached, stripping it of the old linens that had been on there collecting dust for who knows how long.
"Don't mind them. They are just going to make sure this room and your mother's have all new bed sheets and that everything is clean and fresh. No one has been in these rooms for ages," Ekaterina said. "I brought some clothes for you two to try on."
She opened the dress box on the table, removing some garments and laying them out for Cora and her mother to see. They were exquisite dresses, and Cora's frown fell further. Seriously? What was this? Dress up? There was no way she was going to wear those.
"Do you not like them?" The girl asked, seeing the expression of the human she was meant to serve.
"No. I will just wear my own clothes. We have bags somewhere that were brought with us from home. Perhaps you could find those instead," she said.
"I am sorry, Miss Cora. Her Majesty instructed for you both to receive new clothing," she said nervously, her eyes darting from Cora to her mother. "If you do not like these, I can make you new ones. I am one of the palace's fashion designers. I have served the queen for some time, and I can assure you of my ability."
"Where are our bags?" Cora growled, making the girl's eyes go wide in fear. It was comical how she was the one any of these vampires would fear.
"Is there a problem?" Grayson asked, entering the room with his usual relaxed smile.
"Yes. Many. We want to see my brother, and we want our bags. I'm not wearing that," she said, pointing to the dresses that were laid out on display.
Grayson rolled back on his heals with his hands clasped behind his back as if he were thinking.
"How about we make a deal? You allow Kat to design something for you that suits your tastes—she works quite fast," he said, shooting the girl at the table a smile, "and in the meantime I show you the royal lawn where you will be free to do as you wish. Unfortunately, you must wait a bit longer to see Zane. But he is safe, I promise."