Savage Satisfaction
Page 19
Christoffer shook his head. “In the wild the cubs of the higher-ranking females get priority access to food and shelter. If the wolf was living here she would feel the people in the house were her pack, and if she were pregnant she would want to eliminate any females she felt were higher ranking.”
William curled his fingers into a fist.
“What happened?” Mirela asked quietly.
William turned over the second picture.
It was not a formal picture but a candid of William’s mother sitting in a chair by a Christmas tree. Her hair was now snow white, though her face didn’t seem much older.
What there was of her face.
The right side was covered in ugly scars and she wore a beige patch over her eye.
Her right arm, below the elbow, was missing.
“The wolf waited until my father was in London because Parliament was in session. I was there with my mother and saw it all. The wolf walked into the kitchen and said she was sorry, but that she had to protect her baby. She stripped off her clothes, and I remember my mom putting her hands over my eyes. Then there were some odd noises and then a snarl, like a bear. My mother pushed me away and when I looked there was this huge wolf attacking her. My mother was screaming and screaming. She’d curled up in a ball on her side with her hands over her head. The wolf bit off her arm, then ripped away half her face, destroyed her eye.”
There was a small sob and William looked up from the photo to see tears in Mirela’s eyes. She touched the scar she’d made on his cheek and William smiled lopsidedly.
“How did she get away?” Christoffer asked.
“She didn’t. The wolf would have killed her but somehow my grandfather had found out she was pregnant, and his wolf warned him what could happen. They came racing up from Cornwall. There I was, sitting on the ground watching my mother being eaten alive by what I thought was a monster, and in races another wolf, a falcon and my grandfather.
“Grandfather’s wolf pulled her off my mother and held her long enough for the falcon to swoop down and blind her. As the wolf lay there on the floor yelping in pain, my grandfather shot her with a rifle.”
“You were too little to see that,” Mirela said.
“Maybe. I hadn’t known before then about the Hunting Pair. The next week, once we knew my mother would live, Grandfather took me away to his house in Cornwall. There he told me the truth about our family, and his falcon and wolf, people I’d always referred to as aunts, changed right in front of me. I spent six months there while my mother recovered. My father gave up his seat in Parliament. Everything was different.”
“So you grew up hating the wolf for what she’d done.”
“And the falcon. She knew and said nothing. She used the confusion after my mother was hurt to steal my mother’s jewelry and leave with it. Grandfather and his Hunting Pair found her and killed her.”
“You hated your father’s wolf and falcon, but your grandfather’s Hunting Pair were good,” Mirela said. “Your mind was torn.”
William gave a jerky nod. “Yes.”
Christoffer stroked his shoulder, kissed his neck. “You’re a strong and forgiving man. We’re lucky you didn’t just shoot us.”
“I’m so sorry,” Mirela said, touching his cheek again. There were tear tracks down her cheeks.
William pulled her to him, his other arm around Christoffer. There, in the cool, dark bedroom, they touched one another with hands that healed. There they were loved and in love, safe and whole in a way none of them had ever known before.
William’s story was the final piece of the puzzle, and the deepened understanding let Christoffer and Mirela shed whatever worries remained about him and his attitude toward them. Telling them of his terrifying past allowed William to put it behind him. He was not his father; they were not that Hunting Pair.
There was, among these three souls, a lifetime of happiness to be had.
The Lord and his Hunting Pair.
About Lila Dubois
Lila is a multi-published, bestselling author of erotic, paranormal and fantasy romance. Having spent extensive time in France, Egypt, Turkey, Ireland and England, Lila speaks five languages, none of them (including English) fluently.
Lila welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Lila Dubois
Betrayed by Love
Red Ribbon
Undone Lovers 1: Undone Rebel
Undone Lovers 2: Undone Dom
Undone Lovers 3: Undone Diva
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Savage Satisfaction
ISBN 9781419944017
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Savage Satisfaction Copyright © 2013 Lila Dubois
Edited by Jillian Bell
Cover design by Kendra Egert
Cover photography by Angela Hawkey, Stephen McSweeny, Helen E Grose & Studio10Artur/Shutterstock.com
Electronic book publication November 2013
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Table of Contents
Blurb
Title
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
About Lila Dubois
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