The Lonely Wolf (25 page)

The clock on the wall had been stuck at four fifty-nine for the last millennium in Lupo’s mind. He had been pacing the cel
l
for the same amount of time. He was surprised he hadn’t excavated a trench in his manic motion.

The warden’s footsteps echoed in the hallway at the same time the clock’s hand finally moved to the five. “You keep exalted company,” was the man’s comment. “Who’s going to show for your third visit? The Pope?”

If the warden was making an attempt at humor, Lupo wasn’t in the state of mind to understand it.

“An hour today as well.” The warden opened the door to the visiting room for him, but he didn’t have to push him through this second time.

“Son,” Quintilius greeted him. Today, he wore clean clothes, and his eyes sparkled with joy.

He wasn’t alone. The archangel sat beside the alpha, a foreign smile on his usually stern face.

“What’s going on?” An official visit from the angel didn’t bode well for Lupo.

“We have some news for you,” Quintilius said, taking the angel’s hand in his. “But we wanted to talk to you about something first…”

Ludwig Barnes brought Quintilius’s hand to his lips for a chaste brush. “I’m here to ask you for your father’s hand.”

Lupo blinked several times. “You’re asking me what?”

“I understand our announcement might sound unconventional to you, being that we are from different species, but we—”

With a raised hand, Lupo stopped Quintilius, then looked at the angel. “You’ve really come here to ask
my
permission to marry my father?”

Quintilius’s eyes grew three sizes and filled with tears he didn’t shed. Lupo realized only a moment too late he had called the alpha “father.” He also realized he liked the sound of it.

“Of course,” Ludwig Barnes answered.

“Archangel, I—”

Barnes smiled again. “It would please me to no end if you could call me Ludwig.”

“Ludwig, then. I don’t understand why you would come all the way here to ask me that.”

“Because we will be a family soon,” the angel said matter-of-factly.

“I… I don’t know what to say—” Lupo felt a tug to his heart and his eyes swelled too. “Congratulations?”

The two men thanked him, and Lupo saw the angel breathe a sigh of relief, as if Lupo’s opinion had really mattered to him. That gave his tears the push they needed to fall freely. Drying his face with the back of his hand, he said, “What are the other things you mentioned?”

“Iris died during the night. Overdose of curare,” Quintilius answered.

“She killed herself?” Lupo thought that the woman hadn’t looked like one who would take the easy way out. She was too mean.

“Her death is on Claudius, but with her out of the picture, it will be difficult to prove he was behind the assassination plot against his own nest. But, in any case, per vampire law, he had the right to kill the vampire, so who knows what it is all about.”

Lupo scratched his head. “Something else?”

“I demoted the angel who was after me, and since she is a fallen now, she decided to have her memories removed. The sentence was carried out early this morning. A full confession was recorded before she became a demon, but the Holy Nation will push to have the recording sealed. I’m afraid the Immortal Council will grant their wish. Politics.”

“You had a busy twenty-four hours,” Lupo said, trying to wrap his head around everything he had just heard.

“You have no idea.” Quintilius laughed.

They spent the rest of the time chatting about his father’s wedding plans.

When he went back to his cell, sadness filled his heart, because the hour had passed too soon, but he was also looking forward to Quintilius’s next visit, and that filled him with a happiness he hadn’t thought he would ever experience again.

Later, lying on the narrow cot, he thought of Jasmine, and instead of letting her memories overrun his mind in a destructive loop, he started talking to her and told her what had happened to him in the last few days.

“And next year, we’ll all travel to Seattle, where they will marry,” he finished his tale much later. Then, before closing his tired eyes, he said, “I love you, Jasmine.”

“I love you, my wolf,” she answered…