Chapter 212

I grinned back at him. “I vouched for both of you with the judge, and I'm glad I did. You prove my faith in you at every turn.”

David and Theo, with Charles and I, entered into the bowels of the courthouse and then through a panel that looked like a blank section of wall, simply by pressing an outlet. I would never have thought that someplace as boring and unassuming as a plugin was actually a secret door.

Once we were inside the passage, emergency lights flickered to life. David went first, and Theo followed behind Charles and me, sandwiching us in the middle. They led us through quiet, empty passages full of thick, warm air.

It was clear that the ventilation down here was minimal because it had a dusty taste to it, which coated my tongue every time I breathed in. David took us around several sharp turns and then behind a set of pipes. There, we had to go through a low opening covered by a grate on our hands and knees.

He replaced the grate when all of us were inside, and after crawling a short distance, we entered into another tunnel space where we could stand again. From there, we covered what I counted off to be approximately another ten minutes of tunnel.

At the end of this secret tunnel was another grate where daylight showed through. Again, we would have to get down on our hands and knees to get out of the tunnel. We exited into an alley somewhere in Packhaven. Outside this, cars drove by, and people passed without looking our way.

David brushed off his knees and let out a sigh. “We’re nowhere near the palace anymore.” He glanced around at the alleyway. “It doesn't appear anybody has added any cameras since the last time I was here. We should be good. I can't imagine any paparazzi looking for us here.”

“Thank you,” I said, giving his arm a squeeze.

I reached inside my sweater and pulled out the pack of papers. “I have a feeling that the judge is a sympathetic soul, at least to the concept of justice, if not to me specifically. She gave me a list of people, some of whom are going to come to work for me. And in this paperwork is the address of a safehouse. She said that if anyone who's not on this list manages to find us and claim to work for us, to get rid of them as quickly as possible.”

Here, I looked between Theo and David. “She said do whatever you have to.”

David and Theo both nodded.

Theo took the paperwork from me and scanned it. “I know exactly where this is. We're actually not that far from it. I wonder if she knew that or if that's just a lucky coincidence?”

David made a noise in the back of his throat. “Elena, you know, you can't go out on the street looking like that.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, glancing at my outfit. I thought I looked nice, though admittedly, my knees were a bit dirty now. But we’d gone through the tunnels without getting my court clothes dirty.

“If they broadcast anything from the courthouse this morning, you're in the same outfit.”

Theo pulled off his sweater and handed it to me, leaving him in an emerald-green T-shirt that pulled tight around his muscles. He was going to make some lucky werewolf lady a very tasty husband.

“Put this on,” he said.

I took a snuff of his sweater. It smelled like him, like caramel. “This will even help disguise my scent for anybody who knows me,” I said.

He grinned. “I can't imagine anyone who knows you well enough to actually smell your scent would give you away, even if they saw you out in public.”

I pulled the sweater on over top of my own sweater. Thank goodness the day was cold. I wouldn't get too hot inside all of the extra layers, but he was going to freeze.

“On it,” David said as if reading my mind.

He pulled off his jacket and handed it to Theo, leaving himself in just a sweater.

“I have another idea,” Charles said.

He took off his scarf and wrapped it over my head and around my neck, burying my chin in it, and then pulled his hood up, tightening the strings around his own head.

“The goddess must be on our side,” he said, “making the day so cold and all. Nobody's going to think twice that either one of us are bundled up.”

“Perfect,” Theo said. “Let's go.”

After a tense five-minute walk down the street, we turn onto a quiet, tree-lined lane full of low, small apartment buildings. Each one was only about three stories high and had separate entrances on the front so that you could see each of the apartments, which were three stories as well but quite narrow.

Theo led us up to the door of one of these, frowned, and scanned the work paperwork, looking for something. “Here it is,” he said. “The door has a code.”

He punched it in and turned to let in both Charles and me, getting us out of the public eye. Inside, I breathed a sigh of relief, finally feeling safe for the first time in days.

The next two days flew by in a flurry of activity. I had staff, or at least that's what they call themselves. I felt weird calling the cook, the taster, and the extra guards that the judge had sent over my staff. But Charles assured me that, for an alpha, it was actually a rather small staff. And as a princess, it was bare bones.

Mr. Wilcox, my lawyer, popped in and out frequently, bringing over papers. And when he wasn't in the safehouse, he was calling me what felt like every ten minutes to ask me a question. Every time I started to feel annoyed with him, I reminded myself that he was putting together my defense, and I needed to be available for him as much as possible so that he could save my life. And hopefully, in the process, put the king away for good.

The morning of the trial, I woke to rain pouring down, beating on the windows of the safehouse and creating a sobering mood that seemed to fit the day perfectly. I certainly wasn't in the mood to celebrate in the sunshine.

Next to me, Charles yawned and stretched, bringing his arm down across my chest and cupping my breast. I snuggled in next to him and reached between his legs, gripping his growing erection. He gave a happy snuffle and shifted until he was over the top of me, taking his weight on his elbows.

He kissed my neck and whispered, “I have morning breath.”

“So do I,” I said, licking at my lips.

He kissed lower and lower. “I don't think your nipples will mind,” he murmured, taking the little nub between his lips and sucking it into his mouth.

I arched my back, leaning into the pleasure.

Charles worked his hips between mine and thrust himself inside.

Like he had done, I kissed at his neck and nibbled his ears. I ran my fingers along his back, reveling in the pleasure he worked up as he brought us both towards a climax.

He must have been excited because he beat me to the finish. But always the gentleman, when he pulled his hips away, he replaced himself with his fingers, finishing me off until I writhed across the covers underneath him. In the shower, we took turns washing one another, patting each other, and basking in the afterglow, letting the good feelings linger as long as possible.