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don’t
you think?” Asia said, pushing away from the table and taking a
closer look at another piece of art. “Lancaster and the others may
have met the legal interpretation of the stipulations but not the
spirit. Wonder what Konstantin would say if he saw how the Liege
operated now?”
    “His son died.” Hawke looked up at her and
then continued reading.
    “What?” She spun around.
    “Konstantin had a son who took his place on
the roundtable after his death. He thought his father foolish to
leave so much to animals and redirected funds to his personal
pursuits. Within three months he died from some type of disease.”
Hawked met her gaze. “Whoever wrote this spent a lot of time
describing how bad the disease was and how it crippled the young
man. I don’t know if this person was a sadistic bastard delighting
in the other’s misery or wanted it explicit to serve as a warning
to the others.”
    “Could be a combination of both,” Asia
murmured, looking at the spine of a book on the shelf. She pulled
it out and looked at the pages. The small, neat handwriting hid
secrets. Looking at another page she frowned.
    “Have you seen this before?” She showed
Radoff.
    He took the book and stared at the small
design. “No. It looks like a crest and something else. I can just
make out Konstantin’s initials, badly smeared but they are there.”
He pointed at the design.
    “Okay, I see that now, but what is the rest of
it? I’ve seen this before.” She continued to stare at it a bit
longer and then snapped her finger.
    “What ?” Hawke asked, watching
her.
    “One sec .” She looked at Radoff. “This
has Konstantin’s initials and what else? Can you make it
out?”
    “Looks like an upside down wolf, look here.”
He pointed to the design. “That looks like a snout and a paw.
Considering all he did for the Black Wolf Clan, I’m not surprised
he made some type of brand or seal for them.” He turned and looked
at the other books. “Let’s see if we find another one that might be
clear enough to make out. He handed her a book and took one for
himself. They looked through the pages and in each book found a
similar symbol, which resembled the birthmarks she had seen on La Patron’s
pups.

Chapter 7
     
    Night fell and Hawke continued to read through
the books, gaining more insight into the purpose of the Liege and
Konstantin’s fascination with full-bloods. If it had been within
the Lord’s power he would’ve become a wolf. Asia had asked about
the connection between Konstantin and the Alpha Nikolas, Hawke had
not ruled out the possibility of the Alpha biting the Lord. During
his time with Lancaster, the Liege played with the idea of
full-bloods biting humans and as far as he knew nothing had ever
come of it. Perhaps there a link had been formed between the Lord
and the Alpha back in the 1800’s that caused the lifelong bond. It
was something to think on as he continued searching the
records.
    He asked Radoff to check the dates of the
other books to help find answers. These journals were of the
Roundtable and took place years after the initial meeting of the
black wolf and noble Hungarian.
    “Asia?”
    Jasmine stood and walked toward the corner of
the room. She would’ve preferred to walk outside for fresh air, but
Hawke would insist on accompanying her which would delay the
translations of the journals. Stubborn man.
    “Yes, Mistress .” There were a few
things she wanted to share and questions that needed answers
regarding the birthmark.
    “I had a meeting with the Goddess
–”
    Asia straightened, and her thoughts scattered
at the announcement. “ She contacted you?”
    Hawke looked over his shoulder at her.
“ What’s wrong?”
    She waved him down and listened
harder.
    “Yes, earlier today. I had a
mutiny on my hands otherwise I would’ve contacted you
sooner.”
    “Mutiny? With who?” Asia couldn’t
imagine anyone crazy enough to confront her Mistress.
    “From Silas’ pups,