Relic - Jaid Black Page 0,33

from the hunting party, but that was precisely his intention.

The hunt would begin this very eve. His dark gaze flicked toward the stairwell where even now the servants were putting Octavia’s belongings into his bedchamber. As soon as his wife fell asleep, the hunt would commence.

Chapter Eleven

Octavia awoke in the middle of the night to an aching head and an empty bed. “That son of a bitch,” she muttered as she sat up. No wonder he’d been plying her with mead all during the feast! He’d wanted her too inebriated to stay awake. What’s worse is the fact she’d fallen for it. She was going to kill Laird Angus Karrik if the Xenocann didn’t kill him first.

She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness before getting up and rummaging through her things. Just as she suspected, she had very few things to fumble through. All of her items from the future—her SA80 and prison breeches included—were nowhere to be found. She cursed aloud as she felt her way to the next chest and pawed around inside it. She stilled as her hand found one of her bags. Octavia’s teeth ground together when she quickly realized it was mostly empty. There were a few grenades, one flashlight, and two alien med kits. Everything else was missing.

She couldn’t remember a time when she’d been angrier than what she currently was. Angry and, she mentally conceded, horrifically worried. Angus might have believed he could dispatch the feeder, but he didn’t truly understand just what kind of a creature he was up against.

Octavia’s eyes narrowed as she wondered if James knew about this and took part in it. Who else would have innately understood what items to leave behind? She could have tracked them if she’d had her rifle and breeches. The damn dress she was still wearing was a liability and the lieutenant would have known that. “Judas,” she bit out, fumbling for the flashlight. She turned it on and set it on the nearest closed trunk.

Her heart was racing. Octavia stopped for a moment and forced herself to calm down. She realized Angus had done this to protect her, but said knowledge was not dampening her ire or her worry. It was, however, fucking with her pride.

She had thought Angus wanted her as she was—not a weakened version thereof. Despite everything he’d seen her do, he still didn’t have faith in her abilities. The knowledge was deflating as all hell.

Running her hands punishingly through her hair, Octavia forced herself to breathe. She was hurt, angry, worried, and a myriad other emotions. She blew out a breath as she glanced at the flashlight. She realized she couldn’t leave it on too long or it’d burn out. She also realized she had no clue how to light the damn candles in the room. She felt inept and she hated it. She dug through her meager possessions again. Aha. An IFAK was still in one bag—it would likely contain a lighter.

Within a few minutes, lighter in hand, Octavia had candles burning all over the bedroom that she barely remembered being carried into. Her teeth gritted all over again when she considered how calculated Angus’ actions had been. She felt betrayed and she hated him for it.

It was then Octavia saw the barrel that had been brought up for her to bathe in. The water, she quickly discovered, had long since gone cold. Good. She stripped off her clothing, laid it on a chest, and made her way into the punishingly frigid bath. She had thought to literally cool her anger off, but the water seemed to react to her body more than vice versa. Within a minute, the water felt tepid rather than punishing. She sighed, feeling dejected that she couldn’t even have this.

After washing her hair and body, Octavia climbed out of the barrel and padded over to the fireplace. She threw two more logs into it, stoked the flames, then sat down on the large animal pelt covering the floor. She would have liked to brush out her curls, but the IFAK contained only a comb. It was long, monotonous work, but she ran the thing through her long mane until all the tangles were gone. She sat there, naked and angry, drying off by the fire.

The sense of betrayal she felt was all-consuming. If Angus came back alive, which was a coin toss at this point, she didn’t know how she should feel towards him. She knew a part of