“Starving,” I said. “Didn’t even realize what time it was.”
I glanced out my window to see dark clouds gathering overhead. “That doesn’t look good,” I commented.
“Hopefully it will wait for us to pass,” he said. “Let’s go eat.”
We joined Christine, Jasper, Annabelle, and Stephen at a table in the dining car just beside the window. As we ate, large fluffy snowflakes began to fall outside.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Christine sighed.
“I’m not sure what you expected,” Jasper said. “We’re heading north. It’s colder here.”
“But it was so nice when we left England!”
“Well, we’re not in England anymore,” Jasper said, amused. Still, I could tell by the way he glanced out the window that he was concerned this could slow our journey.
Only a few hours later, the train came to a stop. Adam and I had been curled up on my tiny bed when the train stopped moving. I woke instantly, but Adam was a heavier sleeper.
“Wake up,” I whispered to him.
“What’s going on?” he asked after I had shaken him awake.
“We’ve stopped.”
That woke him. He was sitting up, tucking his blond hair behind his ears. He reached for his shirt and threw it over his shoulders, buttoning it hurriedly. “Let me go see,” he said.
I pulled the blanket around me, hearing my own breathing and the footsteps in the hallway. Through the silence was the sound of a door opening and closing. I leaned off my bed and peered out the window. I couldn’t see much in the darkness except the torchlights bobbing through the night. It looked like there were eight lights; Jasper and all his councilmen had gone out to look, and possibly the conductor as well. What would they find? Had the wolf followed us here, across the channel? Had he ruined the rails, thrown a body on the tracks?
My door opened and I jumped, suppressing a scream.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” Bridget said. “May I come in?”
“You’re practically inside already.”
She shut the door behind her. “My room is on the other side, so I can’t see what’s going on as well. May I open your window?”
“Why?”
“I’m going to crawl out.”
“You’ll freeze out there!”
She gave me a withering look. “Hazel, I promise I won’t.”
“Shouldn’t we wait until the men come back?”
“Aren’t you curious?”
“Yes, but—” That was all the answer she needed. She shoved my window open and shimmied out. I was left in the cold breeze until she returned several minutes later, covered in snow.
“Tracks are covered in it,” she said, dusting the white flakes off her gown and onto the floor of my compartment. “They’re probably not going to get anywhere until it stops.”
“That’s annoying,” I said, but really, I was relieved. Only snow, not a murderous werewolf. I could live with a little bit of snow.
Adam came back several minutes later and confirmed what Bridget had said; we weren’t going to be moving anywhere with snow on the tracks.
“Could be worse,” I murmured, my sleepiness beginning to overtake me.
“Could be worse,” he agreed. “You get some sleep.”
“Aren’t you glad it wasn’t the wolf?” I asked him as I began to drift off.
He kissed me on the forehead. “Exceedingly.”
The train was stuck for about twelve hours. Inconvenient, Jasper said, but not enough to cause a huge issue. As a result, when we finally pulled into the Swedish station, it was past midnight rather than the early afternoon in which we were supposed to arrive. When we disembarked, carriages were waiting to transport us to the castle. We all climbed in, rubbing at our eyes and covering our yawns in the dead of night. Through the dark it was impossible to take in most of the scenery, but as we traveled I could see moonlight sparkling over water as flat as glass.
I nodded off on the journey; it was nearly a three-hour trip to get to the castle. I finally woke as the sky began to turn pink and the carriage rode over a stone bridge leading up to the palace of the elders.
Chapter Twenty–Three
Our carriage pulled through massive stone gates to rest outside the castle. I let out a gasp as I caught sight of the building through the window. It must have been hundreds of years old, standing tall over the water, ivy wrapping around the massive turrets and narrow windows.
Adam helped me out of the carriage, and I could only continue to stare. “It’s incredible,” I told him.
“Wait until you see the inside.”
Adam and the other men began unloading the carriages and I joined Christine and Annabelle as we huddled against the cold by the doors. A few moments later a horde of servants came out and helped the men while ushering us inside. Just like the outside, the entire inside was built of stone, with rounded walls and arched doorways. A thick red rug covered the cold floors, and an impossibly wide and grandiose staircase led up to the second level. Suites of armor stood at attention against the tapestries on the walls. Hallways spun off of the entry. To our left was a small side room, a crackling fire burning tall in the grandiose fireplace. Through this arch a tall, thin man approached us.
“I’m so pleased you made it all right,” he said. He wore a heavy, dark blue robe with gold trim, and clutched his bony, wrinkled hands in front of him. Jasper gave him a slight bow as they met.
“It was a long journey, but I’m glad we’re here,” he answered. “Everyone, this is Benedict, the elder of Great Britain.”
“I will have Ms. Skarsgaard show you to your rooms,” Benedict said. “I’m sure you’re exhausted from traveling all night. Please, take the day to relax before we begin the trial tomorrow. We do ask, though, that you all try to make it for dinner.”
“We would be more than happy to do that,” Jasper said.
A small woman came from the opposite direction joined alongside Benedict. Though they had to be close in age, with their equal number of wrinkles and hair that had turned silver long ago, they couldn’t be more physically opposite, as she was short and stout.
“If you’ll come with me, dears,” she said, her English heavy with her Scandinavian accent. “I’ve sent the servants up with your trunks already.”
We followed Ms. Skarsgaard up the tall staircase, and she led us under an archway to a long hallway. She let us each into our rooms, unlocking the door with a heavy skeleton key. Just like the rest of the estate, the bedroom took my breath away. The furniture in here must have been as old as the home, the massive oak bed taking up most of the room across from the wide stone fireplace. My bedroom overlooked the back courtyard, though all I could see through the window was snow.
Even Adam was exhausted, so we curled up together on the bed and napped, taking lunch in the room before unpacking and meeting some of the others in the lounge. Before dinner, I returned to my room to change into an evening gown. Adam was waiting for me in the hallway, and he took my arm as we started toward the dining room.
“You look lovely tonight,” he said.
“Do you think?” I asked, glancing down at my blue gown with green flowers.
“Perfect,” he assured me, leaning down to give me a soft kiss.
We met up with the others in the dining hall. A large table was dressed in the center of the room, covered with a white tablecloth. At each place was a small folded card with names on it. I was seated between Bridget and Adam, who was to the left of Jasper. We stood beside our chairs until the clock struck six and a bell chimed through the castle. The elders filed into the room in a single line, taking their places across from us. Directly across from Jasper was Benedict, the elder who would be presiding over the trial, as he was the elder for our region.
“Good evening, everyone,” he said, addressing us all. “Welcome to Castle Lycan. Though we are not brought together under the happiest of circumstances, we are pleased you were all able to join us. W
e are all familiar with who you are, but many of you don’t know us, so we shall introduce ourselves. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Benedict Wallace, the elder of Great Britain.”
The other elders went down the line to introduce themselves. Each part of the world was represented: men from the Americas, Africa, Asia, even as far as Australia. Some of them needed translators, but most of them spoke English. I wondered how long it had taken them to learn it. They certainly must be dedicated to their position to learn new languages to preside over their people.
As dinner was served, the topic was turned to lycan lore. Christine hadn’t been raised in the world of werewolves, so she asked many questions, some of which I knew the answers to, but also some that surprised me. I listened with interest.
Benedict smiled. “Christine, have you ever heard of imprinting?”
“I’ve come across the term in books but I don’t know what it means,” she told him.
“It means that you’re fated to be with someone.”
“All right?”
“Werewolves who inherit their lycanthropy will imprint on someone. You’ve heard of the term ‘soul mates’? Essentially, when the werewolf meets his soul mate for the first time, he becomes drawn to her. They are fated, and as such, they will end up with each other.”
“Wait,” Jasper said, interrupting, “I thought imprinting was a myth?”
Benedict shook his head. “It is not.”
Jasper’s demeanor changed. His jaw almost dropped open, and his gaze flickered to the table. “That explains so much,” he murmured.
Tears sprang to Christine’s eyes, and I wondered if she was touched, or if she was thinking about Jasper’s marriage to his first wife.
“So, the werewolves can imprint on anyone?” she asked, running her hands along her skirts.
“It has to be someone who also has werewolf blood running through their veins,” Benedict explained. “For example, if a woman was bitten, a man wouldn’t imprint on her. But if her father, or in your case, grandfather, was a werewolf, then you could be imprinted on.”
“My case? I’m sorry, I don’t follow.”
Adam and I shared a look, a small smile tugging at the corner of my mouth.
Benedict glanced between Jasper and Christine again. “Jasper imprinted on you,” he said slowly, as if speaking to a confused child.
“That’s impossible. Jasper was married to Cecilia,” said Christine.
“Many men have married a woman who was not their soul mate.”
“I didn’t know it was real,” Jasper said, still looking shocked.
“I’m sure—I mean, there’s no way. You were happy with Cecilia.”
“But I never forgot about you,” he told her. “Remember, I met you first, when you were just a baby and I was a small child. I was devastated when your father took you away, and even though I grew up and married, you were always at the back of my mind. Once I saw you at your father’s funeral, all of those feelings came back. I couldn’t put you out of my mind. I think I mentioned once before, if Annabelle hadn’t come to find you, I would have done it myself.”
Adam and I exchanged another glance. I’m sure the same question was running through both our heads; had Adam imprinted on me?
Before we had a chance to bring it up in conversation, the clinking of a glass rang out from a few seats down. Once he had everyone’s attention, Conor pushed his chair back, stood up, and turned to Bridget.
“Bridget, my darling,” he said. “Do you remember when we first met?”
“I don’t think I could forget,” she said.
“Bridget had been attacked in an alleyway in Ervine,” he said, for those who didn’t know the story. “I found her dying, and I took her in, helped her heal.”
She smiled. “You were beside me the whole time,” she said.
“The moment I laid eyes on you, I knew I couldn’t let you die. I did everything in my power to keep you alive.”
“You bit me,” Bridget said, nodding.
“It was the only way your body would heal,” Conor said. “I hadn’t turned anyone before. I was afraid I’d kill you. But you survived. Then you left, and I never thought I’d see you again. I searched everywhere for you, with no luck. And then I happened to stumble into you at Wolf’s Peak.”
“I was surprised to see you, to say the least,” she said with a smile.
Conor took her hand. “I was equally as surprised to see you, but now I think I understand. It wasn’t coincidence that brought us together, it was fate. From the moment I found you in the street, I have been irrevocably in love with you. Bridget, on that day in the street so long ago, I imprinted on you. And perhaps it had taken seven years for us to find each other again, but it was meant to be.”
Conor pulled a small box out of his pocket and I gasped, clutching Adam’s hand. I knew exactly what was going to happen, and as Conor opened the box, the realization dawned on Bridget’s face too.
“Bridget, my darling, will you marry me?”
“Yes,” she said, choking out the word. “Yes, a thousand times yes!”
The two of them embraced before Conor slipped the ring on her finger. When Bridget sat back down, I reached over and hugged her.
“Congratulations,” I told her.
“Thank you,” she said. She glanced at her new fiancé. “I can’t believe it! I certainly wasn’t expecting this.”
“Let’s see that ring then,” I prodded her. She crossed her arm across her body and held her hand out to me. The red ruby sparkled in the setting, glinting in the candlelight.
“Oh, it’s perfect for you,” I told her.
Dinner resumed as normal, with the addition of celebratory champagne and thick slices of chocolate cake. When we’d finished, we stepped away from the table and Christine came rushing over to Bridget to congratulate her.
“When do you want to have the wedding? Any ideas?” Christine asked.
“We haven’t discussed it yet. We had hardly discussed marriage before this! But between the two of us, perhaps by the end of the summer?”
“No, summer is for me!” I teased.
“Hazel, you’re getting married next month. That’s not even technically summer yet,” Christine said.
“Oh, I was only teasing,” I told her as I gave Bridget another hug. “I’m just so happy for you!”
After dinner we relaxed in the lounge again, chatting about upcoming weddings and babies and teasing Daisy about the deliveryman. As the sky became darker our eyes became heavier, and soon it was time for bed.
“Ready to retire?” Adam asked me, threading his fingers through mine.
“I think that sounds wonderful,” I admitted.
In my bedroom, Adam shut the door behind him. “You don’t mind if I stay the night with you tonight, do you?” he asked. “I think it would be good for Conor and Bridget to have some alone time.”
“They’re probably desperate for it,” I said. “Remember the night you proposed?”
He stepped close to me, running his hands along the side of my bodice, lingering just beside my breast. His breath was hot on my cheek.
“Do you?”
I stepped back, and his face fell for a moment.
“I just want to talk first,” I explained. “Do you mind?”
“Not at all.” He sat down on the edge of the bed, and I sat beside him. “What’s going on?”
“Benedict was talking about imprinting,” I said, looking down at our hands, still entwined.
“You want to know if I imprinted on you?”
“Yes.”
“Would it matter?”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if you didn’t, you might imprint on someone else later. And you heard Benedict, when you imprint, it means you’re fated to be together. I couldn’t handle you leaving me.”
He sighed. “The truth is, Hazel, I don’t know.”
“I see.”
“It’s
just that...when the stories talk about imprinting, they say it’s like their whole world stopped when they met that person for the first time. But Hazel, I scarcely remember meeting you. We were so young. Just children.”
He cupped my face. “Here’s what I do know. As long as I can remember, you’ve filled my thoughts. Being away from you is a pain unlike anything I’ve ever known, and being with you is the most perfect bliss. I’ve longed to be with you even before I was old enough to understand what that meant. Do I know for certain that I imprinted, because I don’t remember that moment of the world falling away? Perhaps. But if I were a betting man, I would wager that all those years ago, when we were just children, when I still thought it was legend, I imprinted on you.”
Warmth blossomed in my chest. “That’s good enough for me,” I told him. I leaned in, kissing him softly. Adam wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back onto the mattress, our kiss never breaking.
His hands reached behind me to unbutton my gown, and I pulled my hands between us to unbutton his shirt. Somehow, despite my gown having more buttons, he finished before me, and I tossed my gown to the floor as he shrugged off his shirt. His hot skin pressed against mine as I reached down. His harness was straining against the fabric of his trousers, and I worked at the button to free him. We rolled together across the bed, a tangle of limbs as he pulled off my underclothes and his.
He knew I’d protest if he gave warning, so instead, as soon as he had thrown the last item of clothing to the floor, he knelt between my legs and flicked his tongue along my slit. Once he touched me there, I couldn’t go back. All I wanted was that pleasure to crash over me.
Adam teased me, running his tongue from my center to my clit. He didn’t let me reach that crest, though. As my muscles tightened and my fingers tangled in his hair, he stopped, quickly putting on a condom before climbing on top of me.
“I need you,” I whispered to him.
He placed himself at my entrance and with a hand on his hip, I gently guided him inside me, his cock filling me just the way I craved.
He started slow, our lovemaking full of kisses and closeness, but his pace began to build. He thrust deeper, harder, going a little faster. My hands clutched at his arms as the pleasure began to build. I could feel before it started, a warmth and tingling, a clenching and contracting, the waves cresting over me, stars appearing in my eyes. Together we reached the precipice of pleasure, crying out in unison before collapsing to the bed.
The Wolf's Betrothed (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 5) Page 18
