Moon Child (The Year of the Wolf #2) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,72

argue, and I strode on out, heading straight for the kitchen. It was empty, with most of the staff about their business somewhere in the house, so I peered in the fridge, found the tray that I’d asked Elsa to prepare for Seth, and grabbed it, before heading for the central staircase.

As I loped up the steps, I bypassed the wing where we slept, where our quarters were housed, and headed for the guest wing. Maribel’s door was open—unsurprising, she was like that. Open in nature too—and I saw her napping on the bed.

She was barely even showing, but she was sleeping something fierce.

The second pup was wearing on her, that was clear. She’d lost weight, and I knew that might be because of her circumstances, what with her and her mate being separated and that not being good for either of them, but I just got the feeling it was the baby.

Sleeping more, eating more…throwing up more. It fit.

When I stepped past her door, and she didn’t awaken, it confirmed two things. One, she was resting so deeply that her defenses were down. Two, she knew Seth was a strange boy. Any other mother would have slept with one eye open, well aware that someone could be approaching her child.

That level of detachment wasn’t great.

Even if I got it.

Seth, before the other day, had made it hard to like him. Now? It was a whole other kind of crazy.

I went to his door and turned the key in the lock. When I opened it, I saw him sitting on the bed, staring at the wall ahead.

Like usual, he creeped me out, and in my time as enforcer, I’d dealt with all kinds of criminals. Anything from some human POS who’d been using a corner of our land to grow pot and who’d killed some of our pack while defending his farm, to some jacked up douches from the city who’d been riding down our streets drunk. I’d had guns shoved in my face, almost had my ear blown off by bullets, and as a wolf, I’d almost been shot by a hunter—until I’d torn his face off.

This wasn’t my first rodeo, but this kid?

Sheesh.

“Seth?”

He didn’t turn to look at me, just carried on staring at the wall, and call me the crazy one, but I got the sense that he’d been looking at the damn wall ever since he’d been locked up in here.

I stepped deeper into the room and placed the tray on the desk.

It was decorated simply, but then, most of the bedrooms were like that. The Highbanks had spent most of their fortune in making the public areas swank, not bothering to make a fuss of the guest bedrooms, so this one contained a simple bed, a couple of landscape oils, and a table and chair we’d brought in so he could do his homework. Maribel had also brought in a bean bag, which sat in one corner, and he had a small chest filled with toys.

The room was sparse, but you’d never know a young kid lived in this one.

Daniel’s, a few days after he’d arrived, had been chaos itself.

Maybe it was because I wasn’t the most fastidious guy in the house that his neatness put me on edge, but either way, I stated firmly, “Seth, eat your food.”

“When will I be able to leave my room?” he asked, his tone calm. Too calm.

Too old.

Too everything.

Wariness loading me down because I knew why he sounded so old now, I stared at him and stated, “When the alpha decides what to do with you.”

“And what if I don’t recognize his judgment?”

For a second, I felt sure my eyes were bugging out, then, when I figured they actually were, I sucked them back in—metaphorically speaking—and stated, “Where you’re concerned, Seth, there’s no higher law than the alpha.”

His smile, when it came, had me gritting my teeth. Especially when he looked right at me and murmured, “We’ll see, Ethan. We’ll see.”

The anger that filled me wasn’t something I was used to feeling. I considered myself to be a calm and rational man. One who prided himself on being logical and sensible.

I wasn’t someone who allowed fits of temper to stir me into action.

I wasn’t the kind of person who’d let a child goad me.

Yet, here I was.

Goaded.

I balled my hands into fists, and the sudden urge to beat the shit out of the kid hit me. It hit me so fiercely that I took a step forward, until