Chapter 38
Le Choix
BASTIEN
They took her.
My wife. My mate. My Claire.
It was my worst nightmare come to life. I’d been made to protect her.
To shield her from pain. If I’d possessed a scrap of humility, I would have taken her back to Chateau Corbin when news of werewolves first reached me.
I should’ve swallowed my pride. I should’ve chosen caution over conquest. But no. I hadn’t.
And now my pride had led me here. To this.
Gorrath, dead.
Devlinn, dead.
Warriors—good citizens of Roselyn—dead.
Her heartbeat was the only reassurance I had that she was still alive.
I surveyed the devastation and made a decision. I wouldn’t ask anyone else to follow me. Not again. Not anymore. Blood ran warm down the side of my face, and I wiped it away.
Stepping over bodies I had known by name, men who had toasted at my table and laughed in my halls, I made for the twisting corridors that led toward the stables. “I need a horse.”
Natalia planted herself in front of me and pressed her hand flat against my chest. As if she could physically restrain what I was about to do. “I know what you’re planning,” she said. “And you can’t.”
I shoved her hand away and kept walking. “Collect the dead. Take everyone else home.”
“No.” She circled in front of me again, forcing me to stop. “I’m coming with you.”
I snarled. “I thought you hated Claire.”
“I do.” Her throat worked. “I don’t.” She shook her head, almost angry at the confession. “Where you go, I follow. How else will I clean up your mess?”
I wanted to smile, but there was nothing left inside of me. Nothing but Claire. “You have your orders. Take care of the army. Lead them.” I unsheathed my blade. “I’m going to get my wife.”
We stared at one another. Then Natalia stepped back and dipped into a shallow curtsy. “Very well. I will assume command of the army.”
I saw nothing as I walked. Heard nothing. Felt nothing save for the bond between Claire and me. It was the only thing I could focus on.
That was, until my nephew fell into step beside me as I climbed the long set of stairs that led to ground level, Claire’s wolves trailing. At least Chastity had released them. Some small mercy in a field of ruin.
“You have Chateau Rose,” I told him, not sparing him a glance. “Natalia will be your commander. Don’t fuck it up.”
“An honor. Truly, Uncle. Thank you,” Tyson said. But he didn’t leave.
I shoved open an exterior door at the top of the staircase, and he went to follow after me. “Go. Lead your people.”
My nephew laughed tensely. “I know you’re going to get Claire. I want to introduce you to someone who can help you. Well, two someones.”
I spared a glance at the empty stairwell, then back at him. “You are not coming.”
He went to pat the head of Claire’s white wolf, but it dodged his touch. She climbed the last few steps and came to stand in front of me. I batted her away with my sword. I needed to get moving.
But the wolf growled before her fur began receding like morning mist. Her limbs thickened and lengthened. Her snout shortened. Where there had been four paws now stood a woman.
A woman whom I recognized. “You’re Claire’s sister.”
Except she had moon-white hair. Not lilac. And she was a werewolf?
“Wolves can sense each other when they’re wearing the moonstones,” Tyson said, gesturing to the stone around her neck. “It’s how Shayla knew where to attack us.”
I ignored him, holding the woman’s gaze. She had the same color eyes as Claire. There was a story here, but I didn’t have time to hear it. The only thing I cared about was finding Claire.
“Seraphina?” I asked.
She nodded once.
“That’s your name?” Tyson said.
She rolled her eyes. “I know where she is.”
I grabbed my bloodstone and held it up for her to see. “So do I. All I have to do is follow this.”
“But you don’t know who has her.”
I leaned in. “Who has her?”
She lifted her chin in a way that reminded me of her sister. “Our mother. Angelina Prideaux.”
The breath left my lungs. I knew there was more to Claire’s story, but I hadn’t expected this.
Then all the disparate pieces I knew about Claire began to slide into place.
And I finally understood that this was the thing she hadn’t been able to tell me.
That it hadn’t been convent sisters who had filled her head with hate, but the most venomous witch in the Unified Territories.
“Your mother, she’s the one who put that choker on Claire. Isn’t she?”
Sera nodded. “Yes. She convinced her, convinced me, that it was the only thing left to do. But I know she loves you. I’ve never seen my sister so happy.”
I stared into her eyes, eyes that reminded me of my wife’s, and hated that this life, this vicious life that I was giving her, was the happiest she’d been.
“If you want to save her, you’ll need me. Us,” Seraphina said, pointing to a man who had appeared at her side. One I also recognized. Alec.
Anger flared in my chest. He’d been the brown wolf? This whole time? I snatched his shirt and lifted my sword, ready to kill him where he stood for deceiving Claire and me.
Tyson grabbed my blade with his bare hand, stopping me from completing the kill. Blood ran between his fingers, a fierce look in his eyes. “He is here to help. Just like me. And her. You’ll need all of us if you’re going to get Claire back.”
I stared at him, bewildered by his behavior. I’d just given him everything he’d wanted. My castle. My title. Why was he still here? I snarled, and he snarled back. “Let him go, Uncle. He is not your enemy, and we are wasting time.”
Reluctantly, I released my hold on Alec. Tyson was right. This was taking up too much time. I needed to find Claire. “If you want to come, come. But if you interfere, I will not hesitate to kill you. Any of you.”
I made for the stables, but Sera grabbed my shoulder, stopping me. “My mother has made a deal with Shayla.”
“What kind of deal?”
Sera swallowed hard. “I don’t know. Mama didn’t share every detail with me. All I know is that she wants the Blood Treaty destroyed. And she knows you are the key.”
I tapped my sword against the ground. “The only thing I heard you say was that she has my wife. Everything else is just details.”
I didn’t care if they followed me or stayed. I had one focus. One need.
As soon as I mounted a horse, I closed my eyes and reached out through our bond. The world narrowed to a single point of heat inside my chest. “Hold on, my love. I’m coming.”
I rode hard through the dark, navigating by my heart alone. For the first time in five hundred years, I was my own man. And the only person I wanted to answer to was my wife.
An overturned carriage appeared on the road ahead of us, lying on its side. Claire’s scent was everywhere. I did not wait for anyone else to dismount. I threw myself from the saddle and tore the crooked door open with my bare hands.
Empty.
The brown wolf padded forward and dropped something at my feet. A length of rope, half-burned through. The white wolf had a strip of fabric in her jaws.
I took them in my hands, knowing my wife had been blindfolded and bound. And yet… she had still escaped.
“You heard what Sera said, Uncle. This is all a trap designed to destabilize the Blood Treaty. If she catches you, she knows you’ll do anything for Claire.”
I let out a hoarse laugh that held no humor. “I’m already on my knees. One day, when you have a mate, you’ll understand.”
The wind carried a sound to me. A voice.
I did not remember walking away from Tyson or leaving the carriage.
I only knew I was running. Branches tore at my coat as I plunged between the pines and vaulted over streams. Tyson shouted something behind me, but his words meant nothing.
I raced faster, legs and arms pumping. Nothing mattered. Nothing else mattered. Except her.