I grabbed his hand. “No! Absolutely not!”
“Hazel—”
“You’ll be putting yourself in danger.” I was trying and failing to hold back tears.
“It’s my job, Hazel.”
“I can’t lose you, Adam.”
He pulled me in close. “You won’t.”
“You can’t promise that.” I brushed tears away. “I almost lost you once.”
“Hazel, this is my job. This is what I was brought here to do.”
“He won’t do anything tonight,” I protested, even if I had no reason to think that Seth would leave us alone. “He was just trying to scare us.”
“It was a threat, Hazel. I’m sorry.”
Luckily, Christine wasn’t having any of it either.
“We’re all staying here,” she said firmly. “We are locking the doors and we are staying in this house and you two are going to protect us and Adam will go only if absolutely necessary.”
Both men and Bridget looked like they were about to argue, but Christine stood her ground. “No. That’s an order.”
Conor hesitated, but finally sighed. “Fine. But if anything else happens, you let Adam and me investigate.”
“All right,” she said. They shook hands. “Now, let’s go to bed.”
I decided to sleep alone that night.
Chapter Ten
“I don’t understand why you’re mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you.”
“Hazel—” Adam paused, his eyes sad. “You didn’t let me in last night.”
“I didn’t hear you knock,” I said.
“You’ve never been a heavy sleeper before.”
“I must have just been exhausted.”
He paused. “All right. If you say so.”
Of course, I had heard his knock. I hadn’t been asleep yet, but I was frustrated and angry. Adam was always so quick to put himself in danger. I couldn’t live without him, yet he was more than willing to run the risk of getting killed.
“I love you,” he said, and I swallowed the guilt in my stomach. Perhaps I was being selfish, but every time my mind would go back to the image of him lying on the floor of the Great Room, his stomach slashed open, and my stomach would churn.
“I love you too,” I finally said.
He kissed the top of my head. “Do you think I can join you in your bedroom tonight?”
I took a deep breath. I could probably work out my emotions before then. “I would like that.”
Adam slept in my bed that night. And the next night, and the next. He would come to bed late, though; he and Conor were vigilant, watching out their windows, checking for attackers. Things were quiet most nights, and sometimes I fell asleep before he even made it to the room.
One of those nights, I woke up to a commotion across the hall. There was shouting, stomping, pounding. My heart hammered in my chest, each pulse thundering across my body as I grabbed my dressing gown and raced out into the corridor. Annabelle was coming from the other direction, and we both found ourselves outside Christine’s door. Bridget pulled it open and we rushed inside.
“What on earth is going on?” Annabelle asked.
“Seth found us,” Christine said, her hands shaking. “The men went out to look for him.”
My heart dropped into my stomach and I sat down in a chair by the fireplace. My body had gone numb.
“They did what?” Annabelle nearly shouted.
“I know,” I groaned.
Annabelle sat down on the loveseat, Daniel lolling sleepily on her shoulder. “We heard the commotion, but that’s not what I was expecting.” She looked at me for confirmation, but I kept my eyes frozen on the fire, trying not to recall the image of Adam on the floor of the Great Room.
Christine clenched her fists at her side. “Of course it’s Seth. Every bad thing that’s happened in my life has been because of Seth.”
“Now, that’s an exaggeration,” Annabelle said. “Only the bad things from the last six months or so are because of Seth.”
“Thank you, that’s quite helpful,” said Christine as she rolled her eyes.
“But then men left?” Annabelle asked nervously. Bile rose in my throat. I swallowed it.
“Yes. Bridget is supposed to save us.”
“Only if necessary,” Bridget said. I clutched the arms of the chair.
“Mark my words, when I see Jasper, he will hear about this.” Christine was pacing.
“My lady, why don’t you get some sleep?” Bridget asked Christine. “When you wake up, I’m sure they’ll be back.”
“You think I’ll be able to sleep?” Christine asked.
I certainly wasn’t going to be able to. The thought of lying alone in my bed was far worse than being here. I wouldn’t be able to keep my thoughts from Adam.
“What if we stayed?” I asked, speaking for the first time. “Until the men return. Would that help?”
“It certainly wouldn’t hurt,” she said.
“Well, then,” Annabelle said, laying Daniel down on the loveseat, “let’s play a game.”
“As long as it’s not charades,” sighed Christine. That was fine my me. Charades was the farthest thing from my mind.
“No, actually, I was thinking—”
We never heard the second half of her sentence, because an angry howl pierced the air. I jumped, my eyes wide. Daniel yawned and rolled over.
My hands twisted the hem of my nightgown. “It’s probably just—”
My words were cut off by another howl, this one joined by a chorus of voices. As the sound echoed in the open sky, I couldn’t tell if there were two or twenty. Fair enough.
“Oh my God,” Christine said, sinking down into the chair opposite me. “I’m going to die here. I’m going to die in this stupid castle in the middle of nowhere and I’m never going to have this baby and I’m never going to get a chance to tell Jasper I love him—”
Annabelle moved to comfort her. I still felt frozen, glued to my seat. “Christine, breathe. In, out, yes. That’s a good girl. Do you know why Jasper chose this place to send us?” Annabelle asked.
Christine shook her head.
“This is one of the most reinforced castles in the country. It is extraordinarily difficult to break in to. The doors are almost impossible to open from the outside. And see that stained glass? There’s a reason the windows are so small. Even if they break the glass out, they still aren’t getting in. I promise, Christine, you’re safe here. No one is going to get you and no one is going to hurt you.”
Bang!
Christine screamed. I screamed. Daniel yawned.
I thought I was going to pass out.
Bang! Bang!
“They must be throwing themselves against the door,” Bridget muttered.
“You said the doors were impossible to get through!” Christine cried out to Annabelle.
“They are, they are,” she said, her voice soothing. “They aren’t going to make it through.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The noise thundered through the house from the doors downstairs. I put my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. Anxiety had tightened the muscles of my abdomen and it felt like my lungs were in a steel trap. My breathing had become so shallow I was seeing spots.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Annabelle’s face had become pale in the firelight. She moved back to the loveseat and scooped Daniel up, holding him tightly. I rubbed my temples, trying to get ahold of my breathing.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Stop it!” Christine cried out, and amazingly, it did stop.
After a few moments of silence, there was a light knock on the front door, much softer, much more polite than what it had replaced.
“That’s the men,” Bridget said. “That’s how Conor told me he’d knock.”
She raced out of the room before we could stop her, and returned moments later with Conor and Adam. Adam was clutching his side, and somehow I wanted to slap him a
nd embrace him at the same time.
“It’s him,” said Adam. “It’s Seth.”
“But we’ve got bad news,” said Conor. “He’s got accomplices.”
“Where on earth did he find accomplices?” Christine moaned.
“He can be charismatic,” Adam sighed. “I’m not surprised at all that he was able to rope people to go along with him, probably with some sort of anti-government rhetoric.”
“Delightful. That’s just what we need. A cult,” Christine said.
“Adam and I will keep watch for the rest of the night,” Conor volunteered. “Why don’t the rest of you try to get some sleep?”
That was a laugh. Still, we split up. Adam gave me a kiss goodnight, but it was quick. I was angry that he had put himself in a life-threatening situation without telling me, without even saying goodbye.
He could tell I was upset. The next morning he woke me up with tea and pastries.
“Good morning,” he said gently. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. They were puffy from tears and a lack of sleep.
“Thank you,” I murmured as I reached over and took the tea from him.
“We need to go into the nearest down and have a letter sent to Jasper through the Lycan Network,” he said. The network was a series of post offices and wolf runners that could deliver messages in half the time as the traditional post. “I volunteered us to go.”
“Oh, did you?” I asked, keeping my voice neutral. Another decision that had been made for me.
Still, some alone time with Adam might be nice, no matter how angry I was at him. I finished my breakfast and got dressed, and together Adam and I rode into town with Mr. Henstridge driving the carriage.
I stayed quiet most of the trip, though Adam tried to engage me in conversation. My sentences and my tone stayed short. After we’d dropped the letter off and gotten back in the carriage, Adam turned to me.
“Will you tell me what’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
“You aren’t, Hazel.”
I pinched my lips together. “You left me,” I finally said, voice scarcely above a whisper. “You didn’t even say goodbye. You could have died.”
“Hazel, it’s my job.”
“Stop saying that!” I had tears in my eyes, and I hated it. “I understand, but do you think Jasper would want you to be so reckless? Do you think he would want you to leave me behind?”
He paused, looking like he was going to say something, when our horse let out a shrill whinny and the carriage pulled to a stop. Adam stuck his head out to speak with Mr. Henstridge.
“What happened?” I asked when he sat back down.
“A gun went off. We’re not sure from where,” Adam said.
“Seth?”
“I’ve never seen him use a gun before, but I wouldn’t put it past him.”
We waited, breathing short, but no more shots came. Instead, once the horse was calm, we proceeded to Ashford Castle. I had thought Adam would bring it up to Conor, but when we arrived, we had a bigger problem to deal with.
I didn’t see it until I had climbed out of the carriage. Then I screamed.
Hanging above the door was a twisted mass of blood, fur, and flesh. I wanted to vomit. I nearly did. Adam pulled me in close.
“What is it?” I asked, horrified.
“Someone was killed in the middle of their transformation,” Adam said.
“And they strung him up here?”
“Another threat.”
Everyone else had come to find out why I’d screamed. Christine was standing in the doorway, looking up at the dripping horror.
“All right, ladies, inside,” Conor commanded. “Adam, come on, let’s take this down before the others see.”
I obeyed, my whole body shaking. As soon as Christine and I were inside the threshold, we collapsed into the chairs by the door.
“Was that—”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Someone in mid-transformation?”
I could only nod.
Thankfully, things became a little quieter after that. Adam and I were tense around each other, but otherwise I savored the peace. I read, I drew, I pretended that I wasn’t fighting with my fiancé and that our castle wasn’t under attack.
That wouldn’t last. Several nights later, a chorus of wolf howls filled the sky. I climbed out of my bed immediately, terror filling my body. Everyone was running toward Christine’s room, and I followed suit.
“We needed to make sure you were all right before we go out there,” Conor said to her.
“You are not going out there!” Christine shouted. “Are you mad?”
Once again, I sank down into a chair, my body frozen. All I could do was look at Adam and whisper, “No.”
He looked away from me.
Christine and Conor were arguing. Like me, she didn’t want the men to leave. Like Adam, he insisted it was their duty.
Conor sighed. “Can we strike a deal?”
“I’m not going to make promises.”
“What if Adam and I go to investigate, but we don’t go outside? We observe from inside the house, make sure that the doors and windows are bolted and secure, and then we come back. That way we at least know what we’re dealing with, but we don’t put ourselves in harm’s way.”
Christine gave a curt nod. “I can agree to that.”
“All right,” he breathed. “Ladies, stay here. Adam and I will be back as soon as possible.”
Bridget nodded and Annabelle clutched Daniel to her chest. I broke. I jumped from my chair and gave Adam a hug, the most contact we’d had in days.
“Come back to me,” I murmured.
Adam leaned down and kissed my forehead. “I will.”
The men were only gone minutes, but it felt like hours. I had returned to my chair and stayed glued to it, suppressing the urge to vomit the entire time. When they finally returned, my entire body relaxed. I rushed to greet Adam, wrapping him in another hug. We sat together on the loveseat, my head on his shoulder.
The men had confirmed that the house was surrounded, but per Christine’s request, they would stay with us. The wolves pounded at the fortress, trying and failing to get in. We stayed in Christine’s room for hours while we prayed for the assault to cease. When the pounding stopped and all fell quiet, we looked around the room, not quite believing it.
We waited several minutes, just in case, but the wolves never returned. Bridget and Conor volunteered to go check, and I was simply relieved it wasn’t Adam this time. But the longer the couple was gone, the more concerned I began to get. They had been away for far longer than it should have taken.
Nearly a half hour had passed before they reappeared.
“We’ve got good news and bad news,” Bridget said. “The good news is, Seth and his men are gone.”
Christine swallowed. “What’s the bad news?”
“The bad news,” Conor sighed, “is that the Henstridges are dead.”
We all sat in silence before I whispered, “How?”
“We found their bodies outside,” Bridget said. “Their throats had been cut.”
I crossed myself, a habit from Sunday Mass. I had liked the Henstridges. They had been kind.
Armed with the knowledge that the attackers were gone, we all solemnly left Christine’s room to return to our own. Adam and I paused outside my door, and he gave me a soft kiss. He was about to walk away when I grabbed his hand.
“Stay with me?” I asked him.
He smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Chapter Eleven
Several days of anxiety passed. We hadn’t been attacked since, but I didn’t know if that had anything to do with the men barricading the doors and constantly being on patrol. I stayed by Adam’s side as much as possible, not wanting to let him out of my sight again.
Christine was hardly eating. None of us were eating much since Mrs. Henstridge had passed, but Christine was eating almost nothing. She claimed she felt sick. We all
sort of did after what had happened to the Henstridges. Bridget and Conor had found them at the back door, their necks slit.
We all tried to stay together as much as possible; there was strength and safety in numbers. Several days after the Henstridges were murdered, we were all lounging in the drawing room. I was reading a book, resting against Adam. He had stayed up most of the night walking rounds, making sure the castle was safe, so he had drifted off to sleep on the sofa next to me. Bridget and Christine were playing a game of mahjong by the window, and Annabelle and Daniel read books by the fire. The house was quiet, but the air held an uncomfortable tension.
In the stillness, it was impossible to miss the sound of a carriage pulling up outside. We all froze, unsure of who was coming to our door. Conor stood up. Cautiously, we all followed him to the entry hall. A knock rang out through the castle, and we all glanced at each other before Conor unlocked the door and held it open briefly before returning with an envelope.
“What was that?” Christine asked.
Conor held up an ivory envelope. “He came to drop of this for us,” he said. He slid his finger under the red wax seal and pulled out the piece of paper. We waited with bated breath, but relief washed over his face. “Looks like it’s time to go home,” he said.
I glanced up at Adam. Home. Safety. I was more than ready.
Christine clasped her hands to her mouth, tears springing to her eyes. “Finally,” she whispered.
We all went to pack our things. There wasn’t much ceremony to it; I tossed my gowns into my suitcase without a second thought. They needed to be washed anyway. I packed everything except my nightclothes and clothes for tomorrow. We weren’t leaving until the morning, since no one wanted to be traveling in the dark.
The next morning, Adam poked his head through my door. “May I come in?”
I tossed my brush into the trunk and turned around. “Of course.”
He shut the door behind him and crossed over to me, wrapping his arms around me. “You’re excited to go home?”
“You aren’t?”
“It will be wonderful to sleep in my own bed,” he said, “but I’m going to miss waking up next to you every day.”
I buried my head in his neck. “I’m going to miss that too.” I tilted my head up and our lips connected gently. “But in just a few short months, we’ll be waking up next to each other every day.”
The Wolf's Betrothed (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 5) Page 8
