Chapter 23
The house had quieted down. Byron had gone for a long run in wolf form.
Running always helped him think more clearly.
It hadn’t been a surprise that Jude wasn’t happy about his and Charlotte’s relationship.
No matter. Rome wasn’t built in one day, either.
He would keep chipping away at Jude’s resistance.
After all, Jude had married into the Gallagher family.
And suddenly the Gallaghers weren’t good enough for his sister?
The little devil sitting on his shoulder made his opinion known: No, not all Gallaghers, just you.
Well, he knew that already. It was true, he wasn’t as good a person as Charlotte.
He had done plenty of things he wasn’t proud of.
But the dead deer? No, that hadn’t been his deed.
He hadn’t laid a finger on that animal. There were plenty of other Gallaghers who could have easily done this.
Truth be told, he wouldn’t put it past Eve, given how upset she’d been about the whole situation, even before it had become known that Jude and Danielle had mated in secret.
After his run, he’d showered and poured himself a drink in the living room.
Only Owen had been there, watching a game on TV.
It had suited him fine, because it meant he didn’t have to make conversation.
At some point, Owen had gone upstairs. Byron had waited a little longer, listening for sounds in the old house.
He heard the floorboards creak above, doors opening and closing, until finally, there was silence.
He rose and walked to the door, ready to flip the light switch off, when Flora suddenly appeared from the open double doors to the dark dining room, startling him. Had she been there all this time?
“Oh, good, I was looking for you,” she said, glancing past him into the empty hallway.
He raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize you were still up.”
“Well,” she said, her voice low. “I’m glad I got you alone. There’s something I need to know.”
Knowing that there was no way for him to get to Charlotte’s room unseen, while his aunt was still up, he asked, “Yeah, what about?”
“About Charlotte.”
An uncomfortable pause spread between them. Was she gonna read him the riot act again? Hadn’t she done that already in the afternoon, when she’d cornered him with Violet and Eve? He grunted in displeasure.
“It’s not what you think,” she said quickly and leaned in. “It’s about our talk three nights ago. Remember? When you left pissed off at Jude?”
“So? What about it?”
“I need to know whether you’re playing with this girl, with Charlotte. I mean, you suggested as much before you left. You know, when you thought it would be a good way to get back at Jude.”
Her words annoyed him. “I didn’t say that.”
“That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking whether you’re seducing her just to hurt Jude.”
He went toe-to-toe with her, growling.
“She’s a nice girl, and I don’t think she deserves that, no matter how much you hate Jude,” she added, undeterred.
“Damn it, Flora. Stay out of my business. I have no intention of hurting Charlotte.”
Or Jude, for that matter, because it would only hinder him in getting what he wanted: Jude’s consent to mate with Charlotte, and his help in convincing her parents and the Werewolf Alliance to accept him.
“So you’re saying what’s between her and you is real and not just an act?”
“I’m warning you for the final time: stay out of this, Flora. Charlotte and I are meant for each other, and frankly, I don’t care who her family is. It doesn’t matter to me. Is that clear enough?”
Flora’s mouth turned into a slim line as she clenched her jaw tight enough to crack a walnut open.
“I see. Very well.”
She blew past him, her head high, her shoulders pulled back, clearly not happy with his answer.
Had she really thought that he would go through with his half-baked idea of how to get back at Jude?
He hadn’t even thought about it from the moment he’d met Charlotte until Flora had brought it up again.
It was a stupid idea, and he wasn’t even sure whether it had been his idea in the first place.
The conversation he’d had with Flora that night was just a faint memory now.
Byron waited until he was sure that Flora had reached the second floor.
The opening and closing of a door indicated that she’d entered her room.
Finally! After returning from the city, he’d tried to catch Charlotte alone, but she’d always been in the company of a member of the Werewolf Alliance.
He didn’t think it was a coincidence. Jude had probably orchestrated this so he and Charlotte couldn’t communicate.
Unfortunately, Byron hadn’t asked for the number of the cell phone Jude had given to his sister.
He should have thought of that earlier, but there was no use crying over spilled milk.
He ascended the stairs to the second floor.
Austin had moved into Cameron’s room after the arrival of Jude’s team, and he knew that he’d given his room to Charlotte and would share Mason’s room while she was visiting.
The corridor was dark, and he didn’t switch on any lights, not wanting to draw any attention to himself.
He treaded silently, avoiding those floorboards that creaked.
Having grown up in this house, he was familiar with all of them.
In fact, it had helped him and his brothers sneak out in the middle of the night when they were young, without their parents hearing them.
The house had a few other aces up its sleeve that only a family member would be aware of, and he certainly had no intention of giving away all their secrets.
At some point, he might have to draw on them should he ever get into a situation where he had to make a quick escape.
In front of Charlotte’s room, he stopped. Should he knock, risking somebody hearing him? Better not. He reached for the doorknob, already turning it, when he heard a sound behind him.
He whirled around, and only his superior Lycan vision allowed him to see that somebody was hiding in a dark corner diagonally across from Charlotte’s room.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Wendell said, stepping out of the shadows.
“What the fuck!” Byron hissed below his breath. “You can’t stop me from seeing Charlotte.”
Byron lifted his chin in defiance and growled.
“Maybe not by himself. But he’s not alone.”
The second man who’d hidden in the shadows and now made himself seen was Austin. Clearly, somebody had put them up to guard Charlotte’s room. Jude didn’t want to give him a chance to speak with her.
“So that’s how Jude thinks he can keep us apart?” He scoffed. “By imprisoning her? Does he really think that’s gonna work? Wait till Charlotte finds out about this. He’s practically driving her into my arms.”
Charlotte hadn’t escaped from her parents because they were trying to push her into a mating she didn’t want, only to let her brothers make decisions about her life. No, Charlotte had her own mind.
He shook his head. “Maybe tonight Jude has won, but trust me, neither you nor your team can watch her twenty-four-seven. She won’t tolerate it.”
Austin pinned him with a glare. “If you think you’ll get another chance at fucking her while she’s in heat so you can get her pregnant and think that will sway my family to accept you as her mate, I’ll let you in on a little secret: that child will grow up without a father.”
“You think I’d get her pregnant so she’ll mate with me?
Then you don’t know Charlotte at all! She isn’t ready for children.
If I tried to bind her to me by getting her pregnant, it would be over before it begins.
I respect Charlotte’s wishes. And I don’t need to resort to dirty tricks to get her, because I love her, and she loves me.
You’ll see! All this interference by you and your family will only lead to one thing: her turning her back on all of you.
Do you really want that? Or do you want Charlotte’s happiness, even if that means you’ll have to accept me as your brother-in-law? ”
Austin’s lips turned into a thin line. For a few seconds, there was no sound in the dark corridor other than their breaths and their heartbeats.
Byron turned on his heel, went back to the stairs, and headed for the third floor, where his own bedroom was located.
This night wasn’t over yet. If Jude and his team thought they could prevent him from seeing Charlotte, they had another think coming.
He’d grown up in this house, and he and his siblings had explored every nook and cranny.
He’d escaped from his room whenever he’d been grounded by his parents, and therefore knew how to get in and out of his room and many of the others in this house without being seen.
He entered his room and locked the door behind him, then rid himself of his shoes, before changing into a black T-shirt and jogging pants of the same color.
Barefoot, he walked to the door leading to a tiny Juliet balcony and opened it.
It was purely for decoration and to let fresh air into the room.
He glanced around. His room overlooked the driveway.
Cameron’s old room, which Charlotte currently occupied, was one story below him, though not directly beneath his.
It was to his left, and he could see light coming from the window.
Charlotte hadn’t drawn the curtains closed yet.
Byron lifted himself up onto the banister, then reached for the iron fire ladder that ran between his room and the room next to his, all the way down to the first floor.
It was hidden under the heavy ivy that had grown over it in the last few decades.
Newcomers like Jude and his men had no idea the ladder even existed.
If they did, they would have had another man standing sentry outside to make sure nobody entered Charlotte’s room through the window.