“Could I put my pants on?” Howard asked.
“Fine,” Jasper said, throwing up his hands. “Adam and Bridget, keep an eye on him. Christine, I’ll explain everything.”
Not wanting to watch Howard change, I slipped out into the hallway with Annabelle and the Wolfrics.
“Do you think you can get rid of my mother?” I asked Annabelle. “I don’t want her to know about this.”
Annabelle shrugged. “Yeah, probably.” She went off down the hall.
“Oi! Someone help!”
The cry came from the great hall and we rushed inside. Howard was lying on the floor next to the fire, body seizing, foam coming from his mouth.
“What happened?” Jasper asked as he fell to Howard’s side.
“We had turned to let him get changed,” Bridget said. “It was just a moment, but when we turned back around he stuffed something into his mouth. I think he swallowed a handful of pills.”
Adam had the rucksack in his hands and turned it upside down. A few loose white pills tumbled out. “Must have nicked them from the asylum,” he said.
Jasper had rolled Howard onto his side so he wouldn’t choke, but we could all tell it was too late. Even Howard’s werewolf healing couldn’t save him. His seizing slowed as his heart stopped.
“Well,” Jasper said, looking down at the corpse.
Annabelle came back to the room. “What did I miss...oh, is he dead?”
Jasper had his butler fetch the coroner, and the rest of us sat around the table in the library. No one wanted to sit with the corpse.
“So Lillian was behind everything,” Annabelle said.
“It appears so,” Jasper said as he nodded.
I glanced at Adam, whose hand was tight in mine. “He said they were in love, but they weren’t, were they?”
“He might have loved her,” Adam said, “but I doubt she loved him.”
“I can’t believe she manipulated him like that.”
“I can’t believe no one told me,” Christine said.
“Christine, I didn’t want to worry you,” Jasper protested.
“So you thought it best to keep me in the dark?”
Adam nudged me. “Shall we leave?”
“Yes please.”
We rode the carriage back to Adam’s house, the place I’d be calling home in just over a week.
“Would you like to come in for a bit?” he asked me. “Maybe have some wine?”
“That sounds wonderful,” I sighed, following him inside the house. He poured us two glasses and we sat down in the living room.
“I’m just glad it’s over,” I said, taking a sip. “Lillian is locked up, and her henchman is dead. Of course, I wish it’d had a little bit of a happier ending.”
Adam nodded. “She clearly hadn’t told him anything about being a werewolf. He was clueless. Doesn’t excuse attempted murder, but she basically ruined his life.”
I set the glass down on the side table. “Thank you for saving my life.”
“Thank you for saving mine.”
I leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips, my hand lingering on his cheek. His kiss was sweet like the wine. One arm wrapped around me and drew me closer to him on the couch. He leaned back and pulled me on top of him, holding me against his body as our lips continued their dance, all the worry and stress and relief of the past day mingling together in urgent breaths. His hands skimmed across my back, plucking at the buttons until I felt a rush of cold air against my spine. I shed the gown, tossing it on the floor, and once naked I straddled Adam. He was still fully clothed, and that just wouldn’t do.
I teased him, pulling at the buttons of his shirt slowly, dragging my fingers down his scarred torso. I ground against him, the hardness rubbing me through his trousers. I took my time with the button there, letting my fingers grasp and play before releasing his cock.
“Fuck, Hazel,” he panted.
“That’s the plan,” I said.
He sat up and lifted me backward, my bum landing on the arm of the couch. Adam leaned forward, lying down on his stomach, kissing up my thighs. I was so wet now I was beginning to drip in anticipation. He planted feather-light kisses everywhere but where I wanted it most, my pulse throbbing in my clit. After an eternity of torture he let his tongue into my folds and I threw my head back, spine arching in ecstasy.
His tongue danced along my clit, a new wave of bliss washing over me with every contact. He slipped one finger inside me, hooking it so it hit my pleasure spot. I reached down, hands tangled in his hair, pulling him closer to me, needing him to fill me.
I was going to fall backward if I wasn’t careful. I planted my hands on the table behind me as my legs began to shake and the tension burst through my abdomen, racking my body with waves of ecstasy hitting me. When I could catch my breath I looked down to see Adam grinning at me proudly.
I growled and pounced, knocking him backward, straddling him once again. I didn’t give him time to react or think or protest. I sank down onto his cock, the width filling me all the way. He let out a groan as I rocked, and after a moment we fell into a pattern together. Our thrusts in rhythm, he continued to drive deeper inside of me, taking the breath from my body with every movement. My hands clutched at his chest, nails digging in. They’d draw blood if I wasn’t careful, to go with the gash across his shoulder, but I was in too much pleasure to think about that.
Adam’s thrusts became deeper, faster, and once again I had reached the apex, a tingling starting in my toes and spots crossing my vision.
“Hazel,” Adam gasped, his orgasm washing over him too. I collapsed onto his chest, his heartbeat thundering in my ears.
“Only a lifetime of this to look forward to,” Adam murmured as he kissed my forehead.
“Harry?”
Harry doubled back, poking his head in my doorway. “Yes?”
“Can you help me?”
“Depends,” he said, leaning against the frame. “With what?”
“I was going to bring a few things over to Adam’s today. Would you mind carrying a few boxes?”
He shrugged. “I suppose. Need to go over a few things with him anyway.”
“You just saw him last night.”
Harry grinned. “Then I need to make sure he’s feeling all right.”
I rolled my eyes. I hadn’t seen Adam in two days. The men had held their bachelor party the night before, and while no one was telling me exactly what had gone on, Harry had implied that they’d had plenty to drink.
“Grab that box, would you?” I asked him, pointing to the one sitting on the bed. It was full of books and would be heavy. Good.
“God, Hazel, do you need this many books?”
I rolled my eyes again.
We left the house and crossed through the forest to Adam’s house, Harry complaining about the box the entire way. We reached the back door and I paused, frowning.
“What’s wrong?” Harry asked.
“The door’s open,” I said. Not wide open, but a crack, like someone hadn’t pulled it shut all the way. I pushed it and it swung all the way, revealing the dark house.
“Adam?” I called out, stepping inside. I didn’t receive an answer.
“We’re going upstairs, I’m guessing?” Harry asked.
“Yeah, come on,” I said. We passed through the house. No candles or fires were burning, the only light were the thin rays of cloud-covered sunlight filtering through the windows, dust dancing in the beams. My eyes took a moment to adjust. Luckily I knew the house well enough I could walk through mostly blind.
We climbed the stairs and turned down the hall. The door to my bedroom was shut, and I balanced my box on my hip so I could reach over and open it. It hadn’t been touched since the last time I’d been here. I added the box to the pile by the window, and Harry followed suit.
“Adam?” I called out again. I left my room behind and turned toward Adam’s room. The door was wide open. His bed was a mess, but that was to be expected after the wil
d night he’d probably had. He still was nowhere to be found.
“He’s probably at Wolf’s Peak,” Harry said with a shrug. “Just didn’t shut the door all the way.”
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. I missed him.
Thinking nothing of it, we returned home. In fact, the worry didn’t begin to creep in until the next day. It was a week before the wedding and I was sitting at the table in the dining room with Annabelle and Lisbeth. The girls were taking care of tying little green bows on bells for our party favors while I finished the alterations to Christine’s dress. From the dining room we could hear a knock on the front door and our butler answered. A few moments later, Jasper and Stephen came through the house and stopped in the dining room.
“Hello, darling,” Annabelle said to her husband. “Would you like to tie some bows?”
“I really would not,” Stephen said.
I paused what I was doing to look up at the men. Their foreheads were wrinkled and their lips were pressed tightly together.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“When was the last time you saw Adam?”
I shrugged. “A few days ago, after I was attacked by Howard.”
“You, Harry?”
Harry came through from the kitchen. “The party the other night.”
“Jasper, what’s going on?” I asked.
“Adam was supposed to meet us both yesterday and today for council meetings. He hasn’t shown up to either one. The meeting yesterday, we would have understood, but the one today there was no reason for. He’s not at home either.”
I swallowed, setting the gown on the table. “Jasper, what are you saying?”
Jasper sighed, looking at me with worried eyes. “Hazel, Adam is missing.”
THE END
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Chapter One
I rubbed at my temples, taking a deep breath to try to stifle the panic rising in my chest.
“I’m sorry, let me get this straight. You’re telling me that my wedding is in one week, and my fiancé is missing?”
The duke, Jasper, ran his fingers through his dark hair. “It appears so.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. I swallowed. The blood had drained from my face, and my hands were shaking. “What do we do?”
“Hold on, now,” Annabelle said, tucking a stray strand of blond hair behind her ears. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” I asked. “My wedding is in a week!”
“Jasper, tell us what you know,” Annabelle said.
“I don’t have much information,” he said. “The last time I saw him was the last time Harry saw him. The bachelor party.” Jasper motioned to my brother, Harry, who was leaning against the doorframe separating the dining room from the kitchen.
Two days. Two days since anyone had seen him.
“What time was he supposed to come to the council meeting yesterday?” I asked. As a member of the duke’s council, Adam was at the whim of the duke’s needs, which resulted in frequent meetings with Jasper and the other five councilmen. Annabelle’s husband, Stephen, was one of them, He spoke from the far end of the room.
“Two ‘o clock,” he said. “We assumed he’d overslept. He had been quite inebriated when we put him to bed..”
I looked down at the bridesmaid dress in my hands. Would it even be used now? I set it on the table and pushed it aside.
“You think he left me?” The words came out as hardly a whisper.
“Unfortunately, that’s not what we think.”
“Unfortunately?”
Jasper pinched his lips together. “If he left voluntarily, we wouldn’t be so worried about his safety.”
“You don’t think he left voluntarily?” Was that good or bad? I had no idea. Then the pieces began to form. “You think someone took him?”
“It’s a possibility we’re considering, yes.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand. Seth is dead, his minions are in prison, Howard is dead. Who is there left who would want to hurt him?”
“We’re not sure that this is related to Seth,” Jasper said. Seth was the duke’s brother, and he had attacked Adam several months before. “However, Howard was swayed by Lillian. We’re considering the possibility that others may have been as well.”
“Why would they come after him? It’s me she hates,” I said. “She loves Adam.”
“We don’t have answers,” Jasper said. “Just discussing possibilities.”
I thought of something. “Harry and I went over to Adam’s yesterday so I could move in some of my things. The door was open, but he wasn’t there.”
“What do you mean by open? Unlocked?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Open. Ajar. Just slightly.”
Jasper’s eyes flickered to Harry, who nodded. “Like he hadn’t clicked it shut all the way.”
Annabelle stood up from the table. “Since Adam’s home is where he was last seen, perhaps we should go over there.”
My cousin Lisbeth sat across from Annabelle, and for the first time she spoke up. “I think that’s a good idea.”
I swallowed again, the lump in my throat painful as I held back tears. Lisbeth helped me out of the chair and wrapped an arm around me.
“Yes,” I said. “If that will help, let’s go.”
I pulled on my shoes. My hands were shaking so badly it took several minutes to tie the laces. When I stood up, Annabelle and Lisbeth were right beside me.
All of us left out the back door. Adam’s house was on the other side of the woods from mine, it was why we’d known each other for so long. We traipsed through the woods, down the well-worn path we’d taken to see each other as children. We’d had our first kiss in these woods. The first time we’d made love had been in a clearing just off the path. My heart ached as we passed by it.
We broke through the woods onto Adam’s property. The sky swirled grey above it, as if it knew something bad was going on. There were no lights on inside the rectangular stone house, so it stood dark against the cloudy sky. We crossed the wide lawn, lush and green from the spring rain. It was too bright for the pale sky and dim sun.
The backdoor was closed but unlocked. Jasper took the lead, turning the handle, a click echoing through the silence. The door creaked open, revealing only the dark back hallway. Grey light spilled into the hallway from our left, and we followed the dusty beams into the kitchen.
As far as I could tell, nothing had been touched since the last time we’d been here. A few plates were piled in the sink, a bouquet of wilted flowers on the round table.
“What about servants?” Jasper asked.
“He doesn’t keep any at home,” Harry said. “He didn’t see the use for it, since it’s just him here.”
I swallowed. “He said we’d hire a cook full-time once I moved in.”
“Someone to clean?”
“Just once a week,” I said. “She comes on Thursdays.” That would be tomorrow.
“There’s no one else who regularly comes to the house?”
“A gardener. But I don’t think he comes inside very often.”
“All right,” Jasper said, clearly disappointed. He picked up a kerosene lamp from the countertop and lit it with a match from the box nearby. “Let’s keep going.”
Our footsteps creaked across the wooden flooring as we crossed through the first floor, the kitchen, dining room, living room, and parlor. All rooms were dark, no lights on anywhere, so we could only see with the light from the lamp. The living room was n
eat and untouched, no clutter, a blanket folded over the back of the settee. On the far side of the living room a pair of french doors stood open, leading into the small and darkened library, a black box in the plum-purple papered wall.
The parlor was equally empty, and the high ceiling and arched windows made the room fell achingly huge, too open, too spacious. Usually the room was bright and happy. Not today.
“This is the door?” Jasper asked as we passed into the entry hall. The front door faced a wide staircase attached to the left wall with a thick wooden banister on the right. The stairs turned to the right at the top, and underneath the staircase was a coat closet. All appeared untouched since the last time I’d been in the house.
“Yes,” I said. Jasper lifted the lamp to look at the door and frame, even opening the door and taking a look at the other side.
“It doesn’t look like the door was forced,” he said.
“That’s good, right?” I asked. “Maybe?”
“Maybe.” He didn’t sound convinced.
We took the staircase up to the second floor, Jasper still in the lead, the rest of us following the light of the lamp. At the top of the stairs we turned left, down toward where my bedroom and Adam’s bedroom were. The door to Adam’s bedroom was still open and the door to mine was shut, just as we’d left it. I opened the door to my bedroom and looked inside, but nothing had been disturbed. I shut the door behind me.
I followed the others into Adam’s bedroom. Unlike my bedroom, with the pale green walls and airy curtains, Adam’s room had heavy mahogany furniture and walls in a peacock shade of blue. The room was it’s usual level of neat, but the bed was unmade and the adjoining bathroom door was open. While the others looked for clues as to Adam’s disappearance, I slipped into the bathroom. On the shelf above his sink was his hairbrush, toothbrush, and toothpaste. His soap was still in the shower, but the towel was dry.
When I returned to the bedroom, Jasper had something in his hands.
“What’s that?” I asked.
The Wolf's Betrothed (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 5) Page 24
