Captive of Wolves (Bound to the Fae #1) - Eva Chase Page 0,101
say when I can’t discern the slightest thing about how that power of hers works?
“But—why?”
The same question twisting through my thoughts. The immediate impression may be gone, but the memory of the filmy image of her, of the misery on her face, has etched itself in my memory.
She didn’t even look as if she wanted to leave. Why now? She couldn’t have known what I was going to say to her tonight. What changed since she told me she felt safest by my side?
That question has barely crossed my mind before the obvious answer strikes me. I felt her gaze on me every time August and I interacted over the past day. I know she was taking in the friction between us. And she made it quite clear how she felt about any show of animosity to stake a claim over her.
“Perhaps she no longer felt secure while there was tension between us over her affections,” I say. “She’ll have picked up on it, as much as we held it back. She’s a sensitive one.”
August pales. “That would be just like her, wouldn’t it? To leave because she didn’t want to cause problems for us?”
My hands clench at my sides. I resist the urge to drive one of them into the wretched door that released her. “I should have heeded what she said last night more. She couldn’t have been clearer that any aggression to compete for her favor made her uncomfortable.”
Whitt coughs where he’s leaning against one of the islands. I’d almost forgotten he’d trailed in behind us. His forehead has furrowed. “She told you not to fight over her?”
August lets out a laugh, short and humorless. “She put us right in our places. But I didn’t think— We’ve kept the peace, even if we can’t completely control our feelings. What could have pushed her to this point so quickly?”
Whitt glances from one of us to the other, looking rather green all of a sudden. I’m about to shove a bowl in front of him in case he’s about to vomit all that absinthe up when he appears to shake the queasiness off. “It’s better for her in the long run if she’s rid of us, isn’t it? Puts us in a bit of a bind to be sure, but we’ve managed in the past well enough. She wanted to get home.”
My gaze travels back to the window. Another memory hits me—an observation that unsettled me at the time and now chills me straight through to the bones.
“If she makes it out of the Mists. If she’s not caught by folk worse than us. I saw evidence of trespass in the woods during my evening run. Someone’s been lurking in our domain.” I march forward, jerking my hand for my cadre to follow. “We have to go after her and hope we find her before our enemies do.”
In Whitt’s current state, I’m not sure he’ll come, but he hustles out alongside August, his eyes clearing with a gleam that looks almost frantic. “They wouldn’t dare—to attack what could be one of our servants in our domain…”
“Are you sure enough of that to gamble on it? We went right into another lord’s home to steal her in the first place, didn’t we?”
He doesn’t speak again—and then none of us can, because we’ve released our wolves. We all know we’ll cover ground much faster in lupine form.
We sprint toward the forest at the fastest pace we’re capable of on all fours, knowing we’ll have to slow as soon as we reach the trees. I drag the cooling summer air into my lungs, tasting every breath for a trace of her scent, training my ears to pick up whatever sounds they can over the thump of our paws. As we pass between the trees, we slow to a trot that won’t throw us headlong into a stump or boulder, but I keep going as quickly as I dare.
There—a scuff in the dirt with her smell and the imprint of the bottom of her brace. She made it this far unhindered. I run onward.
I could lose her—I could lose all the hopes I had for my pack. If this goes wrong, I will have failed everyone, and I’ll have no one to blame but myself. I delayed too long in my selfishness when I should have taken decisive action.
If we find her, I can’t let this incident become another excuse. I have to do what’s right, as hard as it may be. I