The Delta's Daughter Chapter 313

TAWNY

“Yes, yes, I’m ready!” I shout to Mason through the bathroom door. Checking myself out one more time and running my hands down the deep red dress. I brought it with Crimson in mind, the color of the sheer fabric was close to his eyes when they turned that deep shade of blood red.

The dress was full-length, perfect for a coronation ball. Its haltered strap left my back bare, the neckline dipped with a deep V. And small clear jewels encrusted the bodice of the dress. My had grown out and was now shoulder length. I had it dyed black last night, with a few dark red highlights, to cover its natural bright orange.

Satisfied with my appearance and finally emerged from the bathroom.

“Whoa!” Mason gave a low whistle, and his eyes greedily ate me up. I smiled, scrunching my nose at his obvious ogling.

“I take it I will do then?”

“You will more than do, Princess.” I palmed the back of his neck and a blush crept over his cheeks. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you,” I replied, needing to hear that. His words gave me a confidence that had been absent over the past weeks.

“Ok, let me take a picture.” My father bustles around us, shoving Mason to stand next to me. “Smile and say Wolf Scat!” He beams, cracking both Mason and me up. I laugh at Mason laughing because this is what he has always said to make me genuinely smile for a picture. “Now one of just my beautiful girl.”

Mason moves out of the way and my father pushes to stand by a nicer wall and proceeds to click his camera furiously. “Ok dad, that’s enough. You won't have any film left.”

He scowls and looks at his camera, inspecting it. “It's digital, they said there wasn’t any film.” I roll my eyes and pull my lips between my teeth. My dad never did get technology.

I hadn't spoken to Mike or Kellen since I’ve been in New Moon. I’m sure they are aware that I’m here. Word would travel fast to them when civilians found a werecat amongst them. I was definitely anxious and excited to see them. Anxious because they would give me shit for not seeing them earlier and when they found out about Crimson they would probably want to kill them. Although they would have to line up behind Mason. I was excited because I hadn't seen them in forever. Since the battle for Riocht. I hadn’t even reached out to Tyron or Damon.

I showed Mason around the city, drove past the Palace, showed him all our favorite spots, and even took him down to the lake we hang at in summer. Though, it was iced over now. But I was happy to show my friend around the city that brought me my happiest memories. I talked his ear off with stories about Lamia and Kellen and of course Mike.

I think I blush at the thought of the Royal Beta. Everyone had a crush on Mike. Guys and girls alike. No one was immune to his charms. He was a lady's man through and through, but a genuine person. Super nice and easy to get along with. That is until you piss him off. Then you really got to see the Beta in him.

Over the years, I have concluded that Michael Pike Jr. could be a scary motherfucker at times. I had been in an interrogation room with him. Watched him sweet talk prisoners into confessing but I’ve also watched the dark side of him command the prisoner and if they were too scared to talk. Well, he had a technique that made them talk. The thought sent a shiver down my spine straight to my toes.

Yeah, never wanted to get on the bad side of Mike.

“Your car is here,” My father informs us. I frown with confusion because I never ordered a car.

I peek out the window to see a large black car with tinted windows and the Royal Crest marking the side of the vehicle. Someone knew I was here. I smile wondering which of the boys sent it for me.

“Wow, you really are in with the royals here.” Mason chuckles. “But hey no less than Queen should be treated. Princess,” Mason offers up his arm and I slide mine through his. Saying goodbye to my father and pecking him on the cheek, Mason and I walk out.

Just as we step up to the car, The driver's side door opens and when the figure steps around the car to open our door, I grin like a child when I see the familiar face. “Holy shit! Rhett!”

“Princess, Mason.” He smiles back with green twinkling eyes. “I heard from a really leggy blonde that you would be here.”

“I had no idea you would be here,” I tell him still astonished that he came to pick us up.

“Only the best security for the future Queen of the werecat Kingdom.” He winks.

Mason greets him with a handshake and a manly pat on the shoulder. Those two served in MacTire together for two years. They were friends, good friends. Once upon a time when Rhett first joined Lamia, he was her Gamma. Now, he is still a Gamma, actually turned down the rank of Delta so he could stay mobile, but now he served under Alpha Travis of MacTire.

He was a superb investigator, as well as an advisor. His role as Gamma with MacTire still allowed him to build his growing teams of Enforcers. He was a man with a sense of justice and smell a lie a mile away.

When Lamia first met Rhett, he was a Hybrid, one parent wolf the other Human. He didn’t have a wolf spirit but had shifter abilities like speed and strength. It was nowhere near what a full-blooded shifter's abilities were. Except all that changed the night, he was Knighted by an unseen force. Just like Kellen, Mike, and Hunji. They became the Queen's Knights.

Rhett bore the mark of a Knight, and ever since that night, he could grow fangs and claws and even heal himself. The shifter abilities he was born with were only heightened but he never gained a spirit animal. It was truly a bizarre mystery. Like Crimson, he was a little bit of an enigma.

Rhett was Ria’s older brother, and he was a damn fine specimen of a man.

“Come on in the car, I’m actually on a break.” He laughs holding the door open for us to climb in. “Mike asked me to come in and run security for the weekend.”

In the car, Rhett proceeds to inform me that he had come down from the Kodiak Kingdom where they had interrogated the prisoners they caught when attacked last month.

Of course, I asked about Xander and Ria. And I was happy that Rhett could report that they were good.

He and Mason chatted a little, while I listened. The drive was only twenty minutes, as my father lived on the outskirts of a neighborhood.

Apparently, their prisoners hadn't cracked at all. “They still alive?” Mason asks.

“Surprisingly, one is. Hunji wanted them kept alive and Finn wanted to rip their heads off. But the male just keeled over and died. Autopsy didn’t find anything unusual.” I see his shoulders shrug as peer at him from the back seat.

“You couldn’t crack them either?” I ask joining the conversation.

“No. It was the strangest thing. It’s like they were immune to our questioning. Then one of them just… died. He hadn't even been worked over well. And the female,” He chuckles, “She’s tough. But again, she doesn’t respond to commands, threats, or sadly torture.”

I scowl, wondering how someone can stay that silent. I’ve witnessed these men at work. I know they can pull information out of the most stubborn and toughest. “What race are they?” Thinking that might hold a clue. “Uhh, Hybrids. Both of them were. Not quite like me, but similar.” This time Rhett's shoulders bunch beneath the fabric of his suit jacket. Cleary vexed by the situation.

Lamia called Rhett a Hunter. Which he is. But hunters are few and far between. When a shifter mates with a human, you are usually one or the other. Human or shifter. To be born with shifter abilities but have no spirit animal was rare.

Not as rare as a Grimalkin or Skinwalker. But still not common.

We pull up outside the palace, the white sandstone walls lit up by colorful lights. The marble columns glistened from the reflection. I had forgotten how big and beautiful the New Moon palace was. It was a work of beauty.

“Here,’ Rhett passes a black fob to Mason. “When you are ready, click the fob and a driver will come to take you home.”

“You’re not staying?” I question with disappointment. “No can-do little kitty, I’m on duty tonight.” Rhett winks before hopping in the car and leaving us to enter the all too familiar Palace.

“This place is really something,” Mason breathes out, taking in the riches of New Moon and its exquisiteness.

“Wait until you see the inside,” I chirp, excited to show him more.

MacTire is a huge castle and Lamia did a wonderful job alongside Hunji and Travis restoring and upgrading it. But The New Moon Palace was just… It made Cambiador’s Palace look tiny in comparison.

*****

Mason and I skirted around the ballroom, greeting familiar faces and meeting new ones. We danced and laughed and filled our faces with food you didn’t find in Cambiador.

When we first walked into the ballroom, I was taken aback that I was to be announced. And even more taken back when they formally announced me as Princess Tawny Phanton, Heir to the Cambiador Kingdom. Poor Mason was only announced as ‘accompanied by her Beta.’

Even though I smiled and was having fun, a part of me ached for Crimson to be by my side. After watching Mason’s reaction to everything and I couldn’t help but wonder if Crimson would look at the lavishly decorated ballroom the same way.

I knew he would charm the pants off of every Alpha and ranked wolf in this place.

“Should I be calling you Princess now, or do you prefer your highness?” I turned only to find a well-recognized smile.

“Wow, long time no see Tyron,” He pulled me in for a brief hug letting me go quickly. “And it will always be Tawny to you.” I look at the woman on his arm. A beauty with skin almost as dark as mine but not as light as Tyron’s.

I give her a friendly smile assuming this is his mate, “Marie, I assume?” I hold my hand out to the woman and she eagerly takes it, pumping my arm up and down excitedly. “Oh my gosh! I have heard so much about you from Tyron and Damon!” She squeals.

“I giggle at her excitement, “All good I hope,” I question with a cocked eyebrow.

Marie’s face suddenly becomes serious. “Oh, goddess no! Not at all, but I promise you if it wasn’t good things they were saying it was how much of a badass you are!” The twinkle in her eye came back her voice raised an octave or two.

“Princess Tawny is most definitely badass.” Mason supplies, and I introduce him to New Moons Delta. The position Lamia always wanted. Oh, but how the tides turned. Tyron was trained to be a Gamma, but with everything that happened, and of course, Lamia not being a Delta, Tyron filled the gap. He most definitely had some big shoes to follow in after Marcus Langley held the position for so long.

Another familiar voice that I had missed pushed its way into our conversation. “I may be an omega, but I’m pretty sure I heard my name mentioned.” Damon strode up to us his usual confidence written on his face. “It’s good to see you Tawny,” Damon winks and he too leans in for a brief hug. His eyes scanned Mason.

Again we make introductions and I explain who Mason is. Damon's posture becomes relaxed again once he finds out Mason is my Beta. Not my mate.

Damon is a short wolf, even by omega standards. Only standing a few inches taller than me. Yet that has never stopped him from achieving anything. In short, no pun intended, Damon was a genius. His mind grasped the complexity of technology, and he was known for his advanced inventions in the northern parts of this continent.

His father owned a construction company, one that lent their workers to Cambiador to help us rebuild what we had lost.

We hang out with my old friends for about an hour before Mason decides I’m going to dance with him and leads me to the middle of the ballroom floor, twirling me as we find out place and footings before he glides me across the floor to the classical music a big band plays.

“I think,” Mason says slowly, and I’m just on the cusp of saying something smart-mouthed when he gives me a look so I keep my sassy comments to myself “When you and Crimson are crowned we should hold a party as grand as this.”

My footsteps falter and I end up stepping on Mason's feet. “Crimson and I?” Just his name brings an ache to my chest. My eyes dart around the room, almost like I would see him standing there watching me. It was hopeful that he would be here. And I knew it hopeless that he would be. “Do you think there is still an us?”

Mason tuts. “You may have tried to reject him again, Princess, but we both know it won't stick. You two were meant to be together. The goddess wrote it in the stars.” His deep brown eyes look down at me with a complexity of emotions. The most obvious is tenderness.

“I made a mistake, didn’t I Mason? I was too rash.”

“He also made a mistake, Princess.” Mason opens his mouth to say more but the rising mummers of panic cut him off.

The band stops playing, and the murmurs of the guest become clearer. “A murder,” I hear one woman whisper.

“Two bodies,” Another contributes.

And before you know it, nosey shifters are congregating by the doors to find out more.

I see Damon making a beeline for the back exit and manage to snag him by the arm, “What's going on?” I ask seeing the urgency in his eyes. “Has someone been murdered?” I lower my voice.

“I’m not sure but we have a situation and I’ve been called into security.” I let go of his arm and as soon as I do, he rockets out of there like a fire had been lit under his ass.

My mind moves a mile a minute, as guest brush past some in curiosity to find out the gossip others in a panic because of the threat of danger.

I brush a hand over my face wanting to follow Damon. But this isn't my home anymore. I have no business butting in.

“I uh, clicked for our driver,” Mason says, “Unless you want to stay? But I’m pretty sure the party is over.” He states the obvious.

“No, This isn't our business,” I speak but my words seem far away like a whisper. As I battle with the decision to stick my nose in and see where I can help or to walk away.

I decide on the latter. If they need me, they know I’m here. This isn't my turf. I don’t get to call the shots here.

All the way back to my father's, I feel like I did the wrong thing. And even when stepping through the door, finding the house empty of my father's presence the urge to go back to the Palace and find out what the heck happened eats at me.

‘Curiosity killed the cat’ Crimson's words came back to haunt me.

I really was a curious person and really couldn’t let things lie.