Chapter 32: A New Guest

Adrian spent a couple of minutes searching for Asher. He didn’t know why it was so difficult to track a human in this house. It was probably because every breath he took reeked of wolf, and their scents were a lot stronger than that of a normal human. Adrian hoped the boy was alive, and in one piece too. He knew how maniacal Conrad could get, he just hoped Asher hadn’t found out as well.

Adrian finally found him in a side corridor just off the main hall where the victory gathering was already beginning to swell with voices and the smell of roasted meat and strong wine.

Asher stood between two wolf escorts, still wearing the same clothes from the road, the side of his face visibly swollen and darkening into a bruise. The claim ring glinted under the torchlight every time he shifted his weight. He looked exhausted, angry, and carefully blank in the way he got when he was trying not to show how much something hurt.

Adrian’s first reaction was relief sharp enough to edge into pain. At least he was alive, Adrian thought as he stepped closer.

Asher’s eyes widened when he saw him. He was far more excited than the vampire lord, and he made his emotions very obvious. He had thought Adrian would die, but thankfully that hadn’t happened.

"Adrian— you’re—"

"Functional," Adrian finished quietly, already moving. He stepped between Asher and the nearest escort with the kind of casual precision that made the wolf hesitate. "You’re in one piece. Good. I was prepared for missing limbs."

Asher let out a short, shaky breath that was almost a laugh. "You’re one to talk. Last time I saw you, you were bleeding out on a cell floor."

"Your fault, and my poor judgment. We’ve established the hierarchy of blame." Adrian’s gaze flicked over him again, cataloguing injuries. The swollen cheek held his attention longer than it should have. Something hot and unfocused coiled under his ribs — a spike of rage that had no clean origin. He had no claim on this human. He had tasted his blood once to stay alive. That should not have been enough to make the sight of a bruise feel like a personal offense.

Yet here he was, already deciding which of Conrad’s men he would kill first for putting hands on the boy.

He wrapped his fingers around Asher’s upper arm, firm but careful, and steered him a half-step backward toward a narrower side passage.

"Listen to me," Adrian said, voice low and rapid. "We don’t have time for a long discussion. I can get us to the outer wall if we move now, before the gathering fully locks down the main routes. Once we’re outside the immediate perimeter—"

"Step away from the boy, Adrian."

Conrad’s voice cut across the corridor like a blade.

The Alpha stood at the far end of the passage, already dressed for the gathering, golden eyes cold and amused. Several of his personal guards filled the space behind him. The two escorts who had been flanking Asher straightened with visible relief.

Adrian did not release Asher’s arm, he had no intentions of doing so. Knowing Conrad, he wouldn’t give up something valuable to him without another thing in exchange. Now all Adrian had to do now was find out exactly how much this human was worth to the Alpha.

"Name your price," he said flatly. "Whatever you want in exchange for him. Territory. Blood. A formal concession from the Thorne line. Name it."

Conrad laughed, low and genuine. "I don’t need your money, Adrian. Or your brother’s. Or anything else you think you can offer me."

Adrian’s jaw tightened. The residual heat of Asher’s blood still moved under his skin, making every instinct sharper and less patient than usual. He took one step forward, placing more of his body between Conrad and Asher.

"Then take me instead," he said. "I’ll come back. Willingly. You let the human walk out of here unharmed, and I’ll stay."

Conrad’s laughter deepened, edged with something almost pitying.

"Isn’t it obvious, Adrian?" he said. "I’ve gotten over you."

The words were still hanging in the air when Conrad moved.

He crossed the distance between them faster than any wolf had a right to move. Adrian barely had time to shift his stance before the Alpha’s hand locked around his throat and the other seized his wrist, wrenching Asher free of his grip in the same motion. The strength behind the hold was staggering — denser, heavier, more absolute than the Conrad Adrian remembered from fifty years ago.

Adrian hit the wall hard enough to crack the stone behind his shoulders. The impact drove the air from his lungs. For a split second the world narrowed to the crushing pressure on his windpipe and the golden eyes inches from his own.

Conrad was stronger.

Not merely recovered or well-fed. Stronger in a way that spoke of deliberate, sustained growth — resources, alliances, perhaps something darker poured into the making of an Alpha who had already proven he would kill his own blood for power. At this rate, even Marcel—

The thought never finished.

A wolf in human form appeared at the end of the corridor at a run, breath short, expression tight with urgency. He stopped short at the sight of the Alpha pinning a Vampire Lord to the wall, then forced the words out anyway.

"Alpha. Forgive the interruption. There’s a Vampire Lord at the gates. He’s demanding entry. He won’t give a name, but the power signature..." The messenger swallowed. "It’s one of the Thornes. The elder."

The corridor went very still.

Conrad’s grip on Adrian’s throat did not loosen, but his head turned slightly toward the messenger. The scarred side of his mouth curved into a slow, considering smile.

Adrian, still pinned and tasting copper, felt something cold and almost like satisfaction cut through the shock of Conrad’s strength.

Marcel had found them.

And the night was about to become significantly more complicated for everyone involved.