Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Marc
My uncle’s house sits on the north edge of pack territory, bigger than mine by half.
His estate stands behind a gated perimeter, manned around the clock as pack law requires. The guard waves me through without checking. I’ve been coming here all my life. I park on the wide paved drive and climb the front steps. The door opens before I can knock.
Calder, the housekeeper, gives me a nod. “Mr. Steele, Master Nathaniel wasn’t expecting you. Is this a family call or business?”
“Family,” I tell him.
He smiles. “He’ll be pleased to see you.”
He won’t be, but I follow Calder down the long hall lined with pack photographs, three generations of them, and stop outside the study door. I knock once, then push it open.
My uncle is behind his desk with a tumbler of whiskey and a set of ledgers spread wide. He looks up and rises, already smiling.
“Marcus.” He sets down his pen. “What a surprise. Is everything all right? I heard Bella wasn’t well.”
“Something happened,” I say. “I need to talk to you in private.”
He nods and crosses to the door, pulling it shut. Then he waves me toward a chair at the side of the room and takes the other one himself, leaning back with his hands on the arms.
“Tell me,” he murmurs.
I lean forward, forearms on my thighs. “A few days ago, Bella stumbled across an open vial in the woods. She went down before I reached her. Somebody left it where she could find it, and she inhaled the fumes. She’s been very sick since, and she’s only just recovered.”
He lifts his hands off the chair arms.
“I should have come sooner,” I admit because he’s frowning. “But you had the inter-pack meetings, and I was focused on her. I didn’t want to pull you out when she was already being cared for.”
“She is my granddaughter.” His voice is soft. “If there’s anyone or anything that can pull me out of a pack meeting, it is Bella.” He looks at me steadily. “What happened? Tell me the truth of it.”
“It was wolfsbane.”
His face goes white. He rises slowly and begins to pace. I count the ticks of the grandfather clock against the wall.
“You’re certain,” he says at last.
“I received alpha training.” His shoulders stiffen mid-pace, and I pretend not to see it. “I know the scent, and I’m certain.”
He turns. The smile is still on his face, but his eyes have gone careful. “Alpha training was a long time ago, Marcus. Are you sure you’re not mistaken? Where is the vial?”
“It disappeared.”
He stops pacing. “That’s not possible.” He says it gently, as if correcting a child.
“Wolfsbane has been wiped out. Every pack, every territory, for over a century. If there were any trace of it within reach of this pack, I’d have known.
Someone would have told me.” He resumes his slow circuit of the room.
“Are you certain it wasn’t something she was allergic to, something in the yard? ”
Frustration tightens my chest. He’s too calm, too willing to find another explanation. “She inhaled a substance that put her down in seconds and had her sick for days. I know what wolfsbane does to a wolf. This was wolfsbane.”
“And your first thought is hunters.” He doesn’t make it a question.
“Who else has ever used it?”
He lifts a hand, dismissing it before I’ve finished.
“The hunters haven’t been active here in years, Marcus.
They operate as real organizations now. As long as we aren’t the ones causing trouble, they have no interest in us.
You’re making a big deal of something that may have a much simpler explanation. ”
“I’ll look into it myself,” I say. “And the other packs should be warned. If it’s crossed our border—”
He stops to look at me, and for just a moment, the warmth thins. “I see what needs to be done, Marcus. That’s mine to decide.”
“I know. That was advice, nothing more.”
His smile returns, his hand settling on my shoulder, a familiar weight. “I know, and I appreciate it.” He steers me a step toward the door. “Let me handle this. You focus on Bella. That’s where you’re needed. I’m more concerned about you and your single status.”
“Uncle.” I frown.
“Sloane came to me this evening, deeply upset.” My uncle gives me a disapproving look. “She’s a good match for you, Marcus. She comes from a good family, and her brother worked with you for years. The girl likes Bella, too. What more do you want?”
“I don’t like her that way,” I say sharply. “She’s seven years younger than me. And she’s vicious. I don’t like that about her.”
My uncle scoffs. “What woman isn’t? You had no right to insult her and throw her out of your home.”
I get to my feet. “I have every right. She insulted the company I was with. On top of that, I’ve already told you I’m not ready to get married or take a mate. Bella’s doing fine with me.”
My uncle studies me and sighs. “Fine. But give Sloane a chance at least. She’s in love with you.”
He walks me to the study door himself, and I let him. At the door he adds, behind me, “I’d have preferred you came to me the moment you found the vial. Whatever’s going on with the pack, it concerns all of us.”
“Understood.”
“Stay out of this, Marcus,” he says mildly. “You have enough on your plate.”
“How can I not get involved?” I ask. “Bella suffered because of this.”
“Bella is fine now, isn’t she?” His voice is gentle. “Focus on her and let me focus on the pack.”
I clench my jaw and leave.
The door closes at my back. I stand in the hall with the clock still ticking, and the frustration sits heavy in my gut.
I’m glad I didn’t tell him I asked Adrian to look into it.
He’s a good alpha, but sometimes he reaches for the convenient explanation instead of the harder truth underneath it.
My alpha instincts are going haywire, and I couldn’t tell him that either. I sigh and head back outside.
The drive home takes twenty minutes, cold air moving through the open windows. By the time I pull up my own drive, the house is dark, too large, and the only sound is the wind through the firs behind it.
Heading inside, I turn on the lights and head to my room to catch a couple of hours of shuteye.
But tonight sleep doesn’t come that easily.
I lie in the dark for the better part of an hour, staring at the ceiling.
Eventually I give up and pad down to the kitchen, where I pour myself a drink I don’t really want, then stand at the counter with it.
The house is too quiet. A few hours ago, this dimly lit room was lively with the girls chattering, Jessa making small talk and keeping them entertained.
It felt like a family. I don’t remember the last time I felt that way.
Bella and Mia have gotten so close so fast. My thoughts drift to the little girl who hates carrots. I catch myself smiling.
She’s brave and has strong protective instincts. I can tell she gets her fierce nature from her mother, but toward Bella she’s gentle. Bella takes after my brother, soft-natured. Mia draws her out of her shell. If the two were sisters, if Mia was mine…
I shake my head at the ridiculous thought. I haven’t considered taking a mate for years. That idea’s been wiped from my mind, but whenever I see Jessa and Mia, the thought of a family presses at me.
I tilt my head back and close my eyes.
I can’t bear this silence. There’s just me, the hum of the refrigerator, and a glass I’m not drinking from.
I last about twenty minutes of it before I set the glass down and take the car back out.
Town’s gone dark by the time I reach her street, the shops shuttered, a lone traffic light blinking amber over an empty crossing. I pull into the lot behind her building and cut the engine.
Her apartment is on the second floor, third from the left, a lamp burning low behind the curtain. I don’t get out. Hands locked on the wheel, I ask myself what a grown man thinks he’s doing parked outside a woman’s home past eleven at night because his own house got too quiet to stand.
The wolf has no such doubts. For the first time all night, it’s settled, ears pricked toward that glowing square of curtain, content just to be near her.
I came for Bella. That’s the story I told myself on the drive down, that she’s asleep in a strange bed and I wanted to be close in case she woke frightened. The trouble is, it isn’t Bella’s window I keep looking at.
A figure crosses behind the curtain.
I’d know that outline anywhere now, the loose knot of hair, her shoulders held tight even alone in her home. Jessa drifts from one end of the window to the other with a glass in her hand, as restless as I am. I watch her pass once, then again, and the tension my uncle left in me starts to ease.
My eyes go heavy. I’ll leave the minute her lamp goes out, I tell myself, once I know she’s turned in safe. That minute stretches long past its welcome. The wolf curls down warm and quiet inside me.
Sleep takes me before I know it.
A knuckle raps the glass beside my ear.
I’m awake at once, a hand half-raised before my eyes focus. Morning light floods the lot. Jessa stands at my window wrapped in a thick robe, hair loose around her face, a steaming mug cupped in both hands and a frown aimed straight through the glass at me.
I roll the window down.
“Good morning,” I offer sheepishly.
“Were you out here all night?” There’s an accusation under it.
I scrub a hand down my face. The dash clock reads past seven. “What if I was?”
“That’s either sweet or completely unhinged.” Her head tilts. “I’m leaning toward unhinged.”
“I don’t sleep well without Bella in the house.” It’s true, and saying it surprises me. “I got anxious.”
“You could’ve knocked and taken her home like a sane person.”
“I didn’t want to wreck their night.” I shrug. “It’s the first real sleepover either of them’s had.”
Her face softens for a breath before she shutters it. She studies me through the open window before she looks away and her voice drops low, words not meant for me. “I really don’t want to like you.”
The words catch me square in the chest. “What?”