Chapter Twenty-seven
As had become usual, the front door opened in welcome as Ripper vaulted up the porch steps. He stalked inside, rage firing through his blood. He’d been pissed at CeCe before. But having learned what Emberlyn had gone through in his absence, he was even more furious.
If he hadn’t been called away, he would have gone to Bellcrest with Emberlyn. He could have had her back; could have kept those fucking assholes from getting anywhere near her.
‘Emberlyn?’ he called out, prowling through the manor. ‘Emberlyn?’
Footfalls came thundering down the steps. He halted, his gaze on the empty staircase. A cold breeze fluttered past his left side, ruffling the sleeve of his tee. Fuck, this house gave him the creeps at times.
A creak came from the direction of the kitchen. He tracked the sound, his pace slowing as Emberlyn stepped out of the door that led to the basement. She closed it behind her and turned to him, her face composed and showing no trace of anger.
His woman was good at hiding her emotions.
Visually taking stock of her, Ripper walked straight to her. ‘You all right? I heard what happened at Bellcrest.’
‘I’m fine,’ she said, her voice as empty of emotion as her expression. ‘Just a little agitated.’
Yeah? She didn’t look agitated. ‘You should have called me,’ he said, inching closer.
‘I did. You weren’t home. I figured Kerr would hear of it from one of the Watchers and tell you about it once you were done doing Alpha stuff,’ she added with a slight shrug, as if the incident hadn’t been noteworthy enough to warrant his immediate attention.
‘No “Alpha stuff” is more important to me than anything concerning you,’ he firmly stated, not missing the flare of surprise in her eyes.
‘I want the names of who circled and attacked you.’ The Watcher from the coven who’d relayed what happened had refused to name anyone, not trusting that Ripper wouldn’t hunt them all down.
‘I already dealt with them.’
‘So I heard.’ He was proud of how well she’d handled the incident. ‘But now it’s my turn.’
‘It would be playing into the hands of whoever bespelled the Rabid. We’ve established that our little shit stirrer wants to isolate the coven and make Reena look bad.
If you go to Bellcrest on the bounce, she’ll have no choice but to defend her people even if she agrees that you have a right to your anger.
That’ll make things worse, which the shit stirrer will love. ’
Annoyed he couldn’t honestly refute that, Ripper felt his jaw tighten.
‘I think they were hoping she’d blame me; that she and I would go head-to-head, and then I’d have done their dirty work for them.
Except it didn’t pan out that way, so they took it a step further and riled up the crowd – it was clear that somebody had.
They seemed sure they could gather enough people to “storm the manor”. ’
He tensed. ‘That was what they were planning?’
‘According to Mari, yes.’
Motherfuckers. ‘Was Reena there?’
‘She showed up after the crowd launched their sad little attack. Apparently, she’d already told them that she didn’t believe I was responsible for the Rabid’s appearance at Bellcrest. They’d gone against her orders to leave me be.
She apologized to me on their behalf and made it clear that they’d be punished. ’
As Reena didn’t have a great history of dishing out punishments that properly fit the crime, Ripper wasn’t mollified by that. ‘Why did you even go to Bellcrest?’
‘Mari called, telling me she had some info I’d want to hear. I was a little suspicious, but I couldn’t think what ulterior motive she could have for asking me to come see her. And I didn’t want her showing up here at my home.’
He felt his teeth grind. ‘She set you up?’
Emberlyn pulled a face. ‘Maybe. She claimed it was to prevent the whole storming the manor thing from occurring. I don’t know if that’s true.
But she did seem genuinely upset about how everything went down.
Or it could be that I want to believe that because it bums me out to think my own blood would lure me somewhere to be attacked. ’
His chest clenched at that. The urge to comfort an itch beneath his skin, he nuzzled her face and curled both his arms around her shoulders. ‘I’ll have a little talk with Mari; find out for sure.’
Emberlyn’s hands settled on his hips. ‘She wouldn’t confess to any such thing, so there’s no point in questioning her over it.’
‘Do you think the people who came at you could be the rebellious faction?’
Thoughtful, she absently touched her tongue to the inside of her lower lip. Just like that, his attention zipped right down to that mouth he was a little obsessed with.
‘I would’ve thought they’d avoid drawing so much attention to themselves, but I could be wrong,’ she said.
He forced his eyes to return to hers as he considered her point. ‘Their actions will make Reena look at them closely. It doesn’t make sense that the faction would want that. Or that they’d officially make themselves enemies of you.’
‘But it’s very possible that whoever riled them up is part of the faction.’
The best way to confirm that would be to ask the members of the crowd. Placing his nose behind her ear, he breathed deep and gently pressed, ‘I want the names of those who confronted you today.’
Impatience flitted over her face. ‘As I said before, going after them will only make things worse. I get why you’re angling to huff and puff and kick some asses, but you’re smarter than that.’
‘Right now, I don’t care about what’s smart. My concern is you.’
A little softness leached into her expression. ‘And I’m fine.’
‘I know you are. I know you’re too tough for them to ever break you. But you can’t tell me it didn’t sting big time that they yet again tried to pin something on you. You can’t tell me you were blasé about them surrounding you, coming at you from all sides, and trying to cuff you.’
She looked away, exhaling heavily. ‘It stung because I’m tired of it. And no, I wasn’t blasé about the scene that unfolded. But I don’t care about those people, so their actions don’t hurt me. They’re just irritating.’
Hurt, irritated – it was all the same to him. Any negative emotions they caused her would be completely unacceptable to Ripper.
The air chilled abruptly, and then a chair skidded across the floor and clanged against a cupboard. Like it had been angrily shoved by someone he couldn’t see.
He couldn’t lie, his pulse jumped.
The fine hairs on his nape lifting, he refocused on his witch. ‘The entities in this house aren’t happy right now, are they?’
‘Nope.’
‘They can take a ticket and get in fucking line. I want the names of the witches who went at you, Emberlyn.’
‘Oh my God, you are beyond obstinate.’
As was she. So he knew he’d have a hard time changing her mind. Unless . . . he made a suggestion she’d support; came up with a way of handling things that wouldn’t worsen the situation. ‘How about you come with me while I talk to each person?’
Her brow pinched. ‘Go with you?’
‘Yeah. Together, we’ll pay them each a quick visit. I’ll make my feelings clear to them. In doing so, I’ll get the message across to the entire coven that I will personally seek out anyone who comes at you.’
Pale-hazel eyes narrowed for the briefest moment. ‘How exactly will you make your feelings clear? You can’t beat them all up. They weren’t all guys, Rip. Some were women. Some were elders. There were even two teens in the group.’
‘There’ll be no violence. Well, not much.
Providing they apologize to you.’ He swept a hand up the back of her neck and sank it into her hair.
‘There needs to be consequences, Emberlyn. I want the coven as a whole to see that. They already know you’re under my protection.
They ignored that so, yeah, I agree that someone riled them up. Let’s make them resent that person.’
She twisted her mouth. ‘Intriguing approach.’
‘That a yes?’
Her phone rang, snaring her attention.
He reluctantly released her and watched as she walked to the wall-mounted phone. She plucked up the receiver and answered, ‘Hello?’
Muffled words came gushing down the line, the voice loaded with anger. Paisley.
‘I did call you, you didn’t answer,’ said Emberlyn. ‘If you had, I would have told you . . . I wasn’t gonna drive to your place just because you didn’t pick up . . . I had no reason to assume you were sleeping; I thought you were out.’
It was no surprise to him that Paisley had overslept to such a degree – a werewolf’s first full moon tended to massively exhaust them.
‘Calm down, it’s not really me you’re mad at.
’ Moments later, Emberlyn’s body stiffened, her eyes going squinty.
‘Already worked up about what, exactly?’ Whatever response she received made her gaze snap to Ripper and harden.
‘I see. No, I hadn’t heard . . . He’s right here, but we were discussing the Bellcrest incident . . . I will . . . Yeah, later.’
Emberlyn returned the receiver and then faced him. ‘So, it seems that there may be something you’d like to share with the class regarding CeCe.’
He sighed. ‘I did intend to tell you. Paisley just beat me to it. How much did she say?’
‘Just that CeCe tried embarrassing her for having a threesome. Is there more?’
‘A lot more.’ He crossed to Emberlyn and cupped her hips. ‘Basically, CeCe decided to make a fool of herself last night. She came onto Kerr. Taunted Paisley. Challenged Clem. Toilet papered Logan’s house. And . . . and she was seen in her wolf form pissing on one of my truck’s tires.’
Emberlyn stared at him, her expression turning creepily vacant – a sign of fury, he’d come to learn. Her muscles were locked in place, tight with tension. ‘She took a piss on your tire?’ Each word was soft. Quiet. Dangerous.