Jessamine
I didn’t try to run. I didn’t have it in me to. When I return to Darrock, he’s sorting through my bag, looking for Goddess knows what. I proceed to where he stands, attempting to snatch it from his grasp, but he holds it up, above his head, well aware that I’m too short to reach.
Not. He’s just a tall moron with red eyes and a stupid attitude.
He pulls out my locket and peers at it with interest.
“Give that back.”
He slips it into his pocket, ignoring me, and he pulls out my mother’s journal next. I lunge for him, snarling. Not the journal. That is private. He opens it and it violates my mother’s most private thoughts. Only two people have the right to those words. Me and my father. The latter is dead, in mother’s words. “That’s mine,” I rage, pouncing on him.
Darrock plucks me off him with one hand, his fingers gripping the back of my collar. He dumps me on the ground with half a thought. “We travel by foot,” he says, flipping through the pages before I can recover and he laughs breathily, shutting it. “Interesting.”
“Then it would take forever to reach Dawn.” My voice is a half-growl as I take back the journal.
“We’re going the long way, to avoid…miscreants. With the horses, it’d take a week and some. On paws, four days.” he murmurs, and for some reason, he’s looking at my legs with a distaste. “Nimble, yet weak. Why didn’t she train you?”
My nostrils flare. “She did train me.” He doesn’t respond to me and pulls off his bag. He holds it out, expecting me to take it from him like I’m a damn squire. I stare at the bag for all but three seconds before he throws it at me.
I yelp as it hits my chest, the weight of it throwing me back into the grass. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? Do you happen to have no manners at all?”
He blinks, a contemplative expression crossing his features. “Mannerisms are for women. Hold the bag properly. There are breakables in there.”
“I AM NOT your servant.”
Darrock shrugs impassively as he pulls off his jacket and hurls it at me. “You’ll find that my servants earn more than nobles, and absolutely love it when I call on them. It’s not a terrible thing to be. Mine.”
I have a perfect retort on the tip of my tongue as I stand, clutching the bag, but it dies when Darrock's shirt comes off, and he further proceeds to rid himself of his boots and pants. I stumble in a bid to turn around from his glaring nakedness, but I cannot unsee it or burn the image from my mind. He’s so disgustingly perfect, and I’ve never seen a man pack so much muscle and retain a certain leanness that makes it all so wonderfully proportioned. I’m not even going to talk about the area below his legs, because I didn’t look there.
I think.
“A little warning wouldn’t harm, you know,” I say through gritted teeth.
His tailored pants land on my head the next second, and I look back to growl at him, only to find him standing in the sun, his skin almost glistening in all its naked glory. Idiot, I think as I snap my gaze forward.
“Does my nakedness bother you?”
“Should it not?!”
“Not to worry. You’ll see plenty of it in the coming days.”
“You’re a mad man,” I respond, burning my eyes into the tree in front of me.
A strange sound vibrates behind me, and it takes me a moment to realize he is laughing. I cheeks burn with embarrassment and my heart suddenly jumps when I feel something wet on the back of my forearm. What in the world…?
I turn around and fall back on my ass, screaming. A massive creature stands before me, its fur of obsidian and silver, rippling with each breath. Sinewy muscles that promise power and violence bunch on its colossal frame, and panic seizes me, an urge to flee overwhelming me.
My body jerks into movement, sensing a danger that my brain is unable to understand, and my legs pound against the forest floor fiercely, succumbing to the fear and the untamed wildness I feel rolling off him. I don’t make it very far, as I am suddenly lifted off the floor by my collar, a wolf’s cackle filling the air.
I stop screaming when he unceremoniously deposits me on the floor, so that I’m staring into eyes that scare the hell out of me. He’s the biggest wolf I’ve ever since in my entire life. I’ve never seen Alpha Kier shift, but when I do see him shift, and he tops this, I will wet myself.
Darrock prowls forward gracefully and a black tongue curls from his muzzle. He lowers his large head and sticky wet fluid runs up my neck to my nose as he licks my skin.
Irritation overcomes fear and I lash out, smacking its muzzle. “The fuck? Get your slobbery tongue off me, moron!”
He licks me again, clearly into the business of pissing me off today, and when I try to wipe his gross saliva from my skin, he shoves me with his nose, hard, like he doesn’t like that I’m doing that. I pick a stone and hurl it at his stupid head, but he ducks without even trying. His red eyes narrow to the bag and clothes the forest floor pointedly.
Growling, I stand to my feet. “Why don’t you do it yourself?”
The wolf almost looks bored, and I crouch low, shoving his clothes into the bag, grumbling in annoyance with every movement, and when I have both his bag and mine over my shoulder, he grabs me with teeth strong enough to break my bones and sort of hurls me over his back in the weirdest, most fluid motion.
And without warning, he lurches forward, running past trees with maddening speed. I’m screaming again, and in total, I fall violently off his back five times before I learn the proper way to hold his slippery pelt.
Kier
I stare hard at Lloyd as he makes his way over to my desk. “You shouldn’t be back for another five days.”
His green eyes are angry and tired. “I suppose I wouldn’t be if she didn’t run off.” He collapses in the chair opposite from mine. “She’s gone Kier.”
I sit up straighter, the pen in my hand snapping in half. “What do you mean…gone?”
“I gave her a bathroom break, and that was it,” he growls, rubbing his hands over his face. “I combed the area in fright that she might have been taken, but I found a note by the stream.” He pulls out a white sheet from his front pocket, and hands it to me.
My fingers tremble as I calmly take it from him and read from it. I changed my mind. Darrock is an amazing man, way more pleasant looking than you and Kier put together. I’ll be his Luna. Tell Kier he can rot in hell with his shrimp of a Luna. Don’t look for me. – JH.
Frowning at the arrogant scrawling, I retrieve Jessamine’s last note to me and compare the writings. They are not at all alike. I sniff the note and there’s a foreign scent dripping off it. I crush it, tossing it in the trash. “Darrock wrote this.”
Lloyd blinks. “He took her? I’ll send out the men to search—"
“Don’t,” I murmur, returning my attention to the petitions on my desk. There have been too many of them since Aldenwood, and I haven’t let a single one of them wait over till the next day. It keeps me grounded and diverts my mind from the glaring absence in my castle, my study, in my entire fucking world. It also keeps me holed up enough to avoid visiting Moira like I should. “It doesn’t matter if he took her or she chose to leave with him. She’s off my back.”
Lloyd’s expression is a mix of shock and rage. “It’s that easy for you to just…let her go? After everything she went through, humiliating herself, getting whipped and the unending insults and isolation?”
“I never asked her to go through any of that. It was her choice,” I mutter leisurely, stamping the scroll.
“Yes, because she believed you were worth going through hell for. She was bold. She was fierce. She was strong. No one else has half the courage that woman does. Had it been you, she wouldn’t have hesitated going after you! Fuck, when it came to you, there was no hesitation at all. Where in the world do you meet a woman who knows what she wants and fights the world for it, even when she has no strength?”
“Proper women do not behave like Jessamine. She was insane.”
“Save it for someone who doesn’t know you,” he snarls at me. “You’ve always liked them unhinged.”
“At least I don’t like them old enough to be my best friend’s mother.”
Lloyd bares his teeth at me. “Fuck you, Kier. I have no idea when you became a miserable coward, hiding behind the robes of the council because you’re fucking scared of taking something you want for once. You’re a fool for sending her off to Goddess knows where, and I’m going to laugh in your fucking face when someone who’s willing to fight for her takes her from you, and you’re stuck with Moira who only cares for the power you can give her.”
The stamp shatters, but my control does not. I suck in a deep breath and reach into the drawer, taking another seal. “Are you finished?”
Lloyd growls, and I cock my head at him, releasing the leash on my aura. He lowers his eyes and gets out of the chair. “I’m going to look for her.”
“You will not. There’s being a disturbance in the Northen Packs of Eldora. Go there and sort it out, and do not return until I call for you.”
Something stirs in his eyes and he grimaces. “I expected this would happen sooner or later. I apologize—”
I lean back in my seat. “This isn’t about my mother. I need you to curb the rogue attacks in that area. I’ll send some men with you. But more importantly, I need you to find them.” I pull out a locket from another drawer and toss it on the table. It opens, revealing the portraits of a woman and a little girl. “I believe the little angel’s name is Mallory.”
He takes the locket. “What do I do when I find them?”
“Nothing. Watch the mother. If the news that I killed her rogue mate reached Eldora, I assume she’ll have run to Atticus for support. Tail her and report back to me discreetly. There are rumors that Eldora is overrun with rogues. Should they suspect that you’re getting too close to finding the leader, you’ll be dead before I can reach you. Randale’s busy with another, and there’s no one else I can entrust with this.”
“Kier—”
I hold up a hand. “You may visit Nadine while you’re close to the borders.” He starts to speak, but I add, “Atticus adores Nadine. He’ll let you see your sister, but that’s secondary. You’re going there to find out why my mother has been sneaking out to visit Atticus.”
He stiffens and the change in his gait tells me he knew about the visit. I quell my anger and the feeling of betrayal rising within me. Lately, it feels like I’m losing grasp of everything I thought I had. Lately, it feels like I’m losing myself as well.
“For me,” he whispers, remorse shining in his eyes. “I had to hear from Nadine and I had her try to help me get to her.”
I fold my hands on the table. “Why didn’t you talk to me about it?”
“Because you wouldn’t have done shit about it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No? Like you’re doing shit now for Jess?”
“This isn’t about Jessamine,” I growl, and contain myself before my anger can explode. “And no. Mother hasn’t been meeting Atticus because of you. She has been feeding him information on the pack and you, Lloyd, are going to find out what she’s gaining in return for selling us out.”
When Lloyd is gone and the castle is silent as a graveyard, I slip into Jessamine’s old room, kick off my boots and lay in her bed. Her scent is everywhere, and merely breathing in eases a bit of the heaviness in my chest, only to be replaced by a vicious hunger and jealousy. Did she really leave with Darrock? Will she heed my advice and be his Luna?
Fuck, why did I say that to her? What am I doing?