Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Noah
In for a penny, in for a pound.
I’m sure I just signed my death warrant. I had no intention of kidnapping the Adalwulf Seeress, but I suppose it’s even better than stealing the tiara they want to use to enable her magic.
I’m not one to argue with Fate. I’ve never experienced the kind of clear guidance as I received today. While it may be that the wolf-witch sent the visions, it didn’t seem to be a trap.
Perhaps she needed rescuing. She was at the top of what appeared to be a prison tower, and she’s far too thin.
Either way, I’m certain destiny brought me to her.
If she were human, I would take her to a hospital to make sure she isn’t dying, but since she’s a wolf, I hold her in the rental car until she slips into unconsciousness, then take her to the nearby cabin I rented for the week.
She sleeps on the couch, her face peaceful, her breath slow. I crouch beside her, staring at her lovely visage.
She’s like a china doll. Perfect, smooth skin–too pale to be healthy. Long, dark lashes that fan in delicate feathers along her closed lids. She wears no makeup, and she’s in the same thin white shift she was wearing in the dream I had with her.
The one where she warned me I would have to pick a side before the war came.
I assume she meant a war between packs.
But I don’t know why she would think I’d be involved. That war has never been mine. I’m not a Blackthroat. I’m certainly not an Adalwulf, even if my mother is Moonborn. I have no allegiance to either pack.
I’d finally forced myself away from my fascinated study of her to cook dinner. She looks underfed, and after the fits she had, she’ll need her strength back.
Logic dictates I should tie her up. She’s my prisoner, after all. But nothing in me could make me do it. Nothing in me wants to do anything but brush the backs of my fingers along her cheek to see if it’s really as soft and smooth as it appears. So I do. Just once, just to see.
And it is.
But instead of focusing on her beauty, I should be formulating a plan. I have Brick Blackthroat breathing down my neck over the tiara heist.
I just stole the Adalwulf’s biggest prize. If the Adalwulfs decide the Blackthroats are behind her kidnapping, I could’ve triggered a war. And more than that, I have a slender, lovely but powerful she-wolf sleeping on my couch and no plan for how I’m going to keep her from running away.
Aster
The scent of steak wakes me. If the smell didn’t pull me from unconsciousness, the sound of my stomach growling would have. I feel fuzzy but comfortable. A fire crackles nearby, sending sweet, sweet heat to warm me through. I’m so relaxed and cozy, I’m definitely not in the tower.
But where am I?
I crack my eyes. I’m lying on a couch of faded blue fabric. Someone covered me with a soft, gray blanket. I’m so comfortable, I don’t want to move, but I make myself sit up a bit and look around.
I’m in a fire-lit room that looks like a cabin of some sort, with walls of knotty pine. There’s a small window framed by blue curtains to my right and a braided blue and brown rug on the floor, pitted with a few sooty black stains.
Behind me is a tiny kitchen area with wood cabinets and a small round table between two chairs. Everything is made of the same knotty pine–as if whoever built the cabin used the leftovers to decorate.
The door is across the room. Even as I spot it, a man comes to stand beside me. It’s him, the wolf who carried me through the tunnel.
The wolf who held me in the elevator.
The wolf from my dreams. Noah.
“Welcome back, Aster.”
He knows my name, too.
The firelight gilds his hair, picking out the golden streaks in the blond. He smells familiar, like warm amber and pine. My nose tells me I’m alone with him.
“Where am I? What time is it?” It’s dark outside.
“A little before eight. You passed out after your seizure and stayed asleep the whole way here. I let you sleep. I think you needed it.” There’s the shadow of a smile hovering around his mouth.
I swallow. He kidnapped me. I shouldn’t feel so relaxed. “I need to go to the bathroom.” I do, but I also want a moment alone to buy some time. I want to see how long a leash I have.
“It’s there.” Noah nods to a door near the kitchen. “Through the bedroom.”
My insides knot at the mention of a bedroom. Who is this wolf? What does he want with me?
Automatically, I glance at the front door, the closest exit. It’s a mistake because Noah catches it.
“Don’t try to run.” His expression turns serious. “I’ll catch you.” His eyes glitter with a golden light.
He’s a wolf shifter–alpha stock, judging by his size, and even if I were at my best, he’s bigger and stronger than me. Dangerous.
An enemy.
My stomach chooses that moment to growl. My mouth is watering, reminding me that I’m smelling steak. I glance at the cast-iron pan on the small stove.
Noah’s grim look softens when he catches my glance, and I see the glimmer of a smile. “Stick around, and I’ll feed you.”
I ease myself up off the couch. It’s a good sign that I’m still dressed in my shift–if barefoot–and allowed to move around freely. I’m not chained in a dungeon. I’m not being brutalized.
Yet.
My wolf wants me to hide how weak I am, but I can’t keep my legs from wobbling as I take my first steps towards the bathroom. A wave of dizziness sends my head spinning, and I lose my balance and have to grope for the couch to hold me up—
Noah’s warmth hits my back and side as he catches my elbow, supporting me with a hand at my back and my arm. His touch sets off a fresh burst of colors in my Sight, and I gasp.
I twist so he can see my lips. “I’ve got it,” I choke, but I definitely don’t.
“It’s okay, Seeress. We all need a little help sometimes.”
Seeress. Just hearing my title makes me stand a little straighter. I control the visions, banishing them for the moment. I nod with queenly grace and let him escort me to the small room.
Once inside, I grip the edge of the sink and give myself a pep talk. My eyes look sunken. I scoop water into my hands and drink it, then give up and drink straight from the faucet. Damn Aiden and the Warden for weakening me like this.
Damn, if this strange wolf isn’t treating me better than I’ve been treated by my pack, except for Liora.
Noah is waiting for me when I open the door. He offers his arm as if it’s the 1800s, and I need an escort to help me cross the street.
Respect. It feels nice. And maybe he’s just softening me up before he turns on me and starts an interrogation, but for now, I’ll play along.
This time when I touch his arm, I brace against the visions, but they don’t start. Instead, I feel the low thrum of a pulse between my legs.
What is this? Sexual attraction?
It can’t be. I sublimated all sexual desires to augment my Sight. That’s why the Seeress must remain a virgin. We lose our powers if we have sex.
I look up at the alpha wolf as we walk. He’s achingly handsome–more handsome in real life than the man in my dreams. His square jaw is lightly dusted with stubble. His sandy hair falls across his forehead in a way that softens the troubled storm behind his blue eyes.
“Noah.” Thunder rumbles outside, like nature is punctuating this moment.
He nods.
“You’re a Blackthroat.”
He shakes his head and pulls out a chair for me.
Okay. We’re playing Twenty Questions.
I sink into it and look at the place setting on the simple wooden table. Filled water glasses. Two placemats. Two plates. Cloth napkins with forks and steak knives resting on them. It seems like a consideration that a kidnapper wouldn’t take. I mean, he’s presenting me with a weapon.
But he told me not to run, so I’m definitely a prisoner. Rain descends in a sudden burst, pelting the roof and windows.
I glance at one of the windows, and he follows my gaze then flicks his brows.
“Are you kidnapping me?”
He doesn’t answer, and for a moment, I think he’s stonewalling until I realize his back is turned to me as he picks up the skillet. I wait for him to fork a large steak and drop it in the center of my plate and try again. “Am I your prisoner?”
Golden light rolls over his irises again, and I feel the prickle of danger. “For now.” He forks a steak onto his plate and serves us each a portion of broccoli drizzled with fresh lemon and salted butter, judging by the scent.
For now.
What in the hell does that mean?
He slides into the chair opposite me. “What do you want with me? Are you selling me to the Blackthroats?”
A frown creases between his brows. “No.” He taps his index and middle finger down on his thumb around his fork in what must be the sign for no. The syllable is decisive, and his distaste with my question is clear. He cuts into his steak.
I don’t smell a lie. I cut into mine and take a bite. I’m ravenous. I gulp down two more bites, hardly chewing before I notice Noah glowering at me.
“You were starving.”
Is it me, or does he seem angry about this?
I swallow down a hunk of meat and draw myself up straighter. I don’t want him thinking I’m weak. Especially not if I’m his prisoner. “Fasting aids in the Sight.”
He studies me without comment. I don’t think he buys it. He reaches across and cuts a corner of my meat into small squares, as if I were a child. “Smaller bites. I don’t want you choking.”
I glare at the smaller bites and then decide I’m too hungry to quibble. I stab one and swallow it down. “What do you want with me?” I repeat.
He shrugs. “It’s not you I want. But fate delivered you to me, and I know better than to argue with fate.”
Fate delivered me to him? A shock of surprise ripples through me as my mind quickly catalogs the events.
Grandmothers, is it true?
Maybe he’s right. Maybe fate was at work in sending me straight into his arms. I still don’t know how I got out of my locked and guarded cell, nor how I found my way to the tunnel entry.
The visions were coming too fast for me to interpret, and then suddenly I was out, and Noah was there waiting for me.