by Noelle Marie
My mouth twisted until I was sure it formed an ugly grimace. “Wisp,” I muttered, her name falling from my lips like a curse.
The way Thane perked up at the familiar way the syllables rolled from my tongue only caused the rage to burn hotter. “You want Wisp, huh?” I asked, voice thick with anger and something else… bitterness. “That it?”
Thane had the nerve to yip at the question, and he rose to his feet, his tail thumping on the floor behind him.
In the back of my mind, I was aware I was being cruel – teasing him like this, forcing Thane (the most innocent of us all) to take the brunt of the emotional storm brewing inside me – but it was like someone else was in control. (Not him either.)
“Well, that’s too bad,” I snapped. “Wisp is gone. Don’t you get it, you dumb dog? She’s not coming back.” I pulled at the roots of my hair in frustration, and then louder… “She’s not coming back!”
For a long minute, the only sound I could hear was the harsh, raspy inhales of my own breathing. Ripping my hands from my hair, I shoved the palms of them as hard as I could into my eye sockets, trying to get a grip on the rage rippling beneath the surface – trying to get a fucking grip, period.
When I finally got my breathing under control, I dropped my hands, eyes immediately seeking out Thane.
The dog hadn’t run away at my ridiculous shouting; he’d approached me, instead. Thane sat at my feet, rubbing his head against my thigh, comforting me.
Something in me broke at the sight, and I fell to my knees, gathering the huge lab in my arms. “Fuck,” I muttered, burying my face into his coarse fur. “Goddamn it, boy, I’m sorry.” I stroked the short hairs between his ears. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me,” I admitted.
But it was a lie. Of course I knew.
I swallowed hard. “It’s just… it would have been selfish to keep her,” I said, taking him by either side of his face and trying to explain. “Worse, dangerous. I can barely control myself around her. And, anyway, what could we give her besides a life of isolation and instability, huh?” I scoffed, shaking my head. “She’s better off without us.” A pause, then softer… “She’s better off without me.”
Knock. Knock.
It was proof of how out of it I was that I hadn’t heard anyone approach the cabin. Hell, I hadn’t even heard the rumbling of an engine or the sound of tires crushing gravel.
I frowned. I had no idea who could have decided it was a good idea to traipse out here. Maybe a worried Gemma, coming to make sure I hadn’t drunk myself into a coma. (Regrettably impossible.) Or a righteous Ash intent on arresting me for kidnapping or some other bullshit charge.
My glower melted away.
Or maybe… maybe it was Wisp. Perhaps her stubborn little self had made a break for it as soon as she was given the chance, and she had made her way back to me.
And why would she do that? a sardonic voice demanded. Come beg to stay with you so you can insult her some more, tell her how much you don’t love her?
I grimaced.
It was impossible.
Regardless, it was clearly what Thane was thinking if his reaction to the rapping was anything to go by. He had rushed the door, scratching at the wood with his paws as he demanded I open it.
And despite the impracticality of it, I felt a ribbon of hope curl in my chest, and with more urgency than was strictly necessary, I scrambled to the door and jerked it open.
The absolute last person I expected to see was standing on the other side.
Thane quieted, and surprise so strong reamed into me that, for at least a moment, it blanketed the other turbulent emotions warring inside me. It was accompanied by a side serving of confusion and the sting of betrayal that I always tried to deny was present whenever I thought of the man.
“Abram,” I muttered.
He stood, looming on my porch, appearing almost exactly as I’d remembered him. I swatted away the bittersweet memories that attempted to assault me.
I hadn’t seen him – at least not in his human form – for years.
He was as tall as I recalled, still towering over me by a few inches despite my own impressive height, his burly chest as wide as mine. His hair was graying at the roots and straggly – the result of years’ worth of neglect – but was still mostly chestnut brown. There were a few more wrinkles on his face, and his beard was longer, but his brown eyes were the same as before: hard and unforgiving.
I didn’t know what I wanted more: to pull the man into a hug or punch him in the face.
Ultimately, I did neither. Instead, I crossed my arms over my chest, unconsciously stretching myself out to my full height – posturing.
Abram would have been a welcome sight on my porch years ago, but now… I wanted as little to do with him as he did with me. “What are you doing here?” I demanded.
It fucking figured. This was just the sort of shit the universe would pull on me. The man had disappeared during the worst time of my life, only to reappear the second worst.
Instead of answering, Abram thrust forward an empty container. I frowned at the small piece of Tupperware I hadn’t noticed he was holding until then.
“What’s this?” I asked, unable to keep the agitation out of my voice – not even trying to.
“You tell me.” Abram’s voice was gravelly from lack of use, and he shoved the container forward again, forcing me to take it. “That little mate of yours keeps setting them out, filling them with burnt muffins and other shit for me to find. I don’t know what you told her, but-”
Mate.
My stomach clenched, insides twisting like they were made of shrapnel instead of guts. I’d stopped listening as soon as the word slipped from Abram’s mouth, vaguely aware that he was still talking, but unable to process a thing he was saying.
“What are you talking about?” I demanded harshly, not giving a rat’s ass that I was interrupting him mid-sentence, my voice nearly as rough as his.
Abram frowned, his thick eyebrows pulling together. “That little girl you got living here with you,” he clarified, like I didn’t know who he was talking about. “Doesn’t she know the implications of presenting me with gifts? Trying to feed me? Does she not realize how easy it would be for me to take her actions the wrong way?”
I felt my hackles rise at what he was suggesting. I was still getting over the shock that Wisp would be stupid enough to do such a thing, but if I thought about it long enough, I could believe it. I’m sure she thought she was helping somehow in that tender heart of hers.
That she would try to approach him for the reasons Abram was suggesting, though…
“Don’t you have a handle on her?” he continued when I didn’t answer. “Or do you think it’s acceptable to let your mate” – my jaw tightened – “proposition other men? To go roaming around the woods by herself? She could get hurt,” he added like I didn’t already know. Then he had the nerve to glance past me, into the cabin – clearly seeking her out. “Where is she, anyway?” he asked.
And even though Wisp wasn’t even there, and she never would be again, I felt my protective urges flare, and closed the door enough so that all he could see was me.
“What the hell do you care?” I demanded sharply.
He hadn’t given a shit about anyone in years. Decades even. Not since the fire – those fucking hunters – had killed his wife and daughter. He hadn’t cared about me. Certainly not about himself. Anger and guilt was a toxic mix, burning my insides.
Why would he concern himself with an eighteen-year-old girl he’d just met – if one could call roaring in her face meeting – half a week ago?
Abram crossed his arms over his chest, a mirror of my earlier position. “Someone has to explain our customs to her. She’s obviously unaware of them. If you aren’t going to, then-”
“She’s not here,” I grit out between clenched teeth.
Abram frowned. “Don’t tell me you’re letting her run loose around the woods some more.” The worry that l
eaked into his voice set me on edge. Wisp was mine to worry about.
“No,” I spat. “I mean that she’s gone.”
I tried to slam the door shut after that, but a boot-covered foot in the doorway stopped me. Abram pushed it back open, and against my better judgement, I let him.
He stared me down, fathomless brown eyes drilling into mine. I stared right back.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” he asked after at least a minute had passed.
I snorted. “I mean that she’s no longer staying here. Wisp…” – my mouth curled around her name “…she’s not my mate or whatever the hell you thought.”
Abram grunted, disbelieving. “Sure looked like it, the way you defended her from me in the woods. Not to mention that she’s the only bearer that’s been around these parts for years.”
My blood ran cold. “What are you talking about?”
Abram cocked his head to the side, examining me like he wasn’t sure I was being serious. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”
I clenched my jaw. “Fucking explain or get off my porch.”
Abram raised his eyebrows. “That little girl. What’d you call her… Wisp? She’s a bearer.” He snorted at my blank look. “Couldn’t you smell it on her – that honeysuckle scent?”
I shook my head, denial sitting like a brick in my stomach. It didn’t make sense. It couldn’t be true. “Wisp. She’s not-… It doesn’t-…” I stumbled over my words, feeling like that fucking lost fifteen-year-old all over again.
Abram only laughed, the noise loud and derisive in my ears. “Hell, kid, she smelled so ripe, I would be shocked if you haven’t fucked her into the wall by now.”
I stiffened.
I don’t know if it was what he’d called me – Kid? Who the hell was he kidding? I hadn’t been a kid in a long time. – or what he’d said about Wisp, but a rage so intense fell over me that white noise buzzed in my ears and red bled into my vision.
Doing what I’d longed to do since I had opened my door to find Abram standing there, I curled my hand into a fist and punched the unsuspecting man in the face.
CHAPTER FIVE
When I turned around, my heart all but launched itself into my ribs, slamming against them so hard that I was half-shocked none of them had cracked upon impact.
Swallowing down a startled scream, I took in the figure sitting idly on the edge of my bed. “What are you doing in here?” I demanded when I finally felt in control enough to speak.
Felix only grinned.
* * *
“Sloane.”
Felix had a way of saying the name – your name, a nagging voice reminded me – so that it rolled off his tongue, almost like a purr. “You were starting to worry me. Why, I almost thought your father would have to report you missing… again.”
It was meant as a joke, I think, but the sharpness of his smile belied him.
I licked my lips, unsure what to say. “I… well, it’s just…” I fumbled, playing with the fringe of my shirt. “I was only in the garden,” I finally managed to force out. “I guess I lost track of time.”
Felix hummed, making an understanding noise in the back of his throat. “I suppose it’s easy enough for simple minds to get distracted in such a place.”
My face burned. Partly because the insult had been delivered so blandly that it almost wasn’t an insult at all. And partly because he’d worded it in such a way that I couldn’t say anything to refute him. If I disagreed, it would give away my lie. Seeing as the other option was to agree that I was simple-minded, I didn’t address the insult at all.
I cleared my throat. “You haven’t explained why you’re in my room,” I pointed out.
Instead of answering, he peered purposefully slowly around the space, actually tsking at the mess I had made that morning. I squirmed uncomfortably as he took in the drawers hanging off their hinges and the clothes flung about the floor. There was a lacey bra only a few inches from his foot. “Yes, your room. What exactly happened to it?”
I brought my ear up to my shoulder in a shrug, hoping the movement looked as casual as I intended it. “I was just refamiliarizing myself with everything is all.”
Felix nodded. “I suppose that makes sense,” he offered benignly before rising to his feet and approaching me where I stood near the door. I forced myself to stand my ground, even jutting my chin out a little.
He stopped a few feet away.
“Look, Sloane, sweetheart,” he said, reaching a hand forward, palm-side up.
I stared at it, unsure what he wanted. When a few seconds passed, however, and then an entire minute, and he didn’t so much as budge, I hesitantly (reluctantly) placed my hand in his.
Felix grinned, looping his fingers around my wrist. He rested his thumb against my pulse, and I wondered if he had done it on purpose. Judging by the grin that pulled at his mouth when my heart hiccupped in my chest, the answer was “yes”.
“I’m afraid we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot, you and I,” he began cordially enough. “I understand that perhaps you were too… nervous to meet with me today, and as such, I’ve given you your space. But let me be clear.” His grip tightened, almost imperceptibly, around my wrist. “I will not be so considerate tomorrow. When I ask you to do something,” he said, lowering his voice so that it resembled something menacing, looming nearer to me until his face was mere inches from mine, “like how I asked you to meet me in my room this morning, I expect you to obey.” He paused, allowing that to sink in. “Am I clear?”
I hated the way my heart jackrabbited in my chest at the almost-threat. What I hated even more was how the man could obviously feel it.
It didn’t seem right. Felix was an employee, my pseudo-bodyguard of sorts from what I understood. It didn’t give him the liberty to… to boss me around like I was some hapless child!
I wondered vaguely if my old self had allowed herself to be bullied like this.
Felix squeezed his fingers around my wrist when I didn’t answer – so firmly that the grip was almost bruising. “Sloane?”
I pressed my lips together. “Crystal,” I muttered.
“Wonderful.” Felix released my wrist. Before I could feel the least bit relieved, however, he was reaching forward, and I stiffened when he tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “Now, I know that may have seemed a bit harsh. Unfair, even.” He lowered his hand, but his eyes remained glued to mine. “But it’s my job to protect you, to shape you into the woman you are to become. I only want the best for you.” He paused, tilting his head to the side. “You believe me, Sloane, don’t you?”
I couldn’t speak around the lump in my throat, so I forced myself to nod.
Felix grinned. “I knew you’d understand. Now, I believe your father is waiting for us to join him in the dining room.”
Without further ado, he sidestepped me and opened my bedroom door.
I stared blankly ahead at the damask wallpaper, trying to get my racing heart under control. It hadn’t escaped my notice that Felix had never answered my question.
Though I supposed the answer was obvious enough. Felix was in my room because he’d been waiting for me.
“Sloane?” the man called from behind me, the faintest hint of warning in his voice.
I tensed at the tone and took a deep breath in through my nose before forcing myself to follow him out the door, stiffly trailing him down the stairs and into the dining room.
Sure enough, my father was there, sitting at the table. He had a phone pressed to his ear, obviously in mid-conversation, but he shot me a welcoming smile before gesturing for me – for us – to sit.
Unfortunately, it appeared that Felix would be joining us for supper.
I sat in the chair my father had indicated, biting viciously into my bottom lip when Felix took the one next to me. I caught a few words of Cornelius’s conversation – something about “troublesome lobbyists” and the “waning campaign budget” – before tuning him out.
I turned my atte
ntion to the table instead. It was set impeccably with a crimson tablecloth and matching napkins. In front of each of us sat a plate, set of silverware, and a tall glass already filled to the brim with ice water.
I took a sip of mine as I eyed the tossed Caesar salad and basket of steaming garlic bread that had also been set on the table. The enticing smell of tomato sauce wafted from the kitchen. Marianne must have made spaghetti.
I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and my stomach clenched longingly at the thought. I reached for a piece of garlic bread.
My hand didn’t get anywhere near the basket, however, before Felix’s own hand darted forward and, faster than I could process, snatched up my wrist in a way that was getting gallingly familiar.
I blinked. “What-?”
He slowly lowered my hand back into my lap before releasing me. “It’s hardly proper for a lady to serve herself. Especially before the men have filled their plates.”
I stared incredulously.
What?
“What did you just say to me?” I demanded, disbelief lacing my voice.
I turned to see if Cornelius had heard – if he was going to allow Felix to get away with such a chauvinistic comment – but the man’s eyes were stationed carefully away from mine, phone still pressed to his ear.
I frowned, debating whether it would be worth it to interrupt him when Marianne bustled into the room, a pot of spaghetti in her hands. She set it carefully on the table before leaving and returning with a pan of simmering sauce.
“Ah, the food is here. I’ll have to let you go, dear man,” my father said, speaking into his phone. “Yes, yes, we’ll discuss this some more tomorrow. Until then.” He hung up, tucking his phone into his pocket before offering Marianne a beaming smile. “This looks delicious.”
“Thank you, Mr. Radcliff,” Marianne replied. “If you don’t mind, I would like to be excused a bit early this evening. Gabby is coming home from cheer camp tonight. I will, of course, make sure to tidy up in the morning.”
“Of course, of course,” Cornelius agreed, waving her away. “Go home to your family.”
