Chapter 3
THREE
VIVIENNE
The rain was coming down hard, drenching me at once but I made it to the Silver Ghost Rolls Royce that Carter had left me before my composure broke. I kept my back straight because I knew people were probably still watching but I could feel myself dissolving inside.
Goddess of the Moon, what had I done? I had bet my whole future on an untried Alpha—one I didn’t even know. I didn’t even know if he was safe to be alone with—he could be a murderer for all I knew!
But…I didn’t get any sense of menace from him. Not like I got from Harris Murdoch—the ugliness and menace rolled off of him in waves. It was one reason I couldn’t stand him—that and the fact that he was a bully who never bathed.
The rain was still pelting me as I fumbled in my purse for the keys. I found them but they slipped through my trembling fingers and fell in the mud at my feet.
With a little cry, I bent to pick them up—only to feel a hand on my arm.
“Please, let me, Vivienne.” Korwyn had a deep, gentle voice and he stooped easily to get the traitorous keys.
He still had his coat and shirt under his arm, so he was wet too, I saw. Beads of water ran down his broad back and shoulders and his hair was plastered to his head.
“Got them.” He rose at once and offered them to me.
I started to take them but then I stopped.
“Actually…would you like to drive?” I asked him. “Carter never let me much, so I’m afraid I’m a little out of practice.”
“Sure, if you want me to.” He unlocked the car and then escorted me around to get me settled in the passenger’s side.
I wondered if this display of care was genuine or for the benefit of the Pack members still watching from the funeral home.
Either way, I didn’t care. It was a nice gesture on his part—one Carter had never made once in our whole marriage.
My late husband didn’t believe in “babying” his wife by holding the door or pulling out my chair.
He seemed to think any little act of consideration might spoil me—as though I was a tiresome child who would start whining for favors if he treated me with any kindness.
I slid into the cushioned seat of the Rolls gratefully, glad to be out of the pouring rain. The veil covering my face was wet along with all my other clothes, but I didn’t want to remove it yet. I feared what people would say if they saw me getting too comfortable with my new houseguest.
So I simply sat ramrod straight in the passenger seat as Korwyn slid in beside me into the driver’s seat.
“Whew! It’s really pouring out there.” He shut the door and pushed the wet hair off his forehead.
In the dim light I could see that his eyes were brown.
Also, he seemed to take up a lot more space in the car than Carter ever had.
Maybe because my late husband had been a head and a half shorter than him and shriveled by age.
Korwyn was young and fit—his abdominal muscles bunched appealingly as he reached down to slide the key into the ignition. Then I realized I shouldn’t be looking there and returned my gaze to his face.
“This is a beautiful car,” he said to me. “Must be vintage.”
I nodded.
“Cars were one of Carter’s obsessions. He liked to collect them.”
Korwyn gave a low, rumbling laugh I couldn’t help liking at once.
“Nice hobby if you can afford it,” he remarked. “You’re sure you don’t mind letting me drive this baby?”
“It’s fine.” I shrugged. “I don’t like driving myself.”
Which was a lie—I hadn’t been allowed to drive enough to know if I liked it or not. I liked the freedom it gave me to get places on my own, but I was still extremely nervous behind the wheel.
“Well, I love it.” Korwyn shot me an easy smile as he turned the ignition and started the car. “Tell me—what made you decide to take a chance on me back there?” he asked, putting the car into drive. “I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”
“It’s what Carter would have wanted,” I said automatically. I wasn’t about to tell him how Harris Murdoch had threatened me. Knowing I was desperate for him to win the Alpha Challenge would give this handsome young man far too much power over me.
“Really?” He shot me a sidelong look that seemed skeptical.
“Because I thought he would hate me. I wanted to come meet him while he was still alive, but my dad told me to stay away from him. He always said Uncle Carter carried a grudge against him because of the way they parted and that he would carry one against me, too.”
That was probably one hundred percent correct but if I admitted it, I would lose the reason I had invited him into my home.
“I know he and your father didn’t get along—though I don’t know why,” I said slowly. “But I don’t believe he would have refused to take in kin.”
“Oh, you don’t know why they fought?” Korwyn shot me a surprised look. “He never told you?”
Carter had never told me much of anything, but I didn’t say that. I just shrugged.
“He was…a very private man,” I said. At least that was true—my late husband had never told me anything about his business or personal affairs if he could help it.
“Well my father wasn’t—a private man, I mean,” Korwyn said. “Look, tell me where we’re going and I’ll give you all the details, if you want,” he offered.
Actually, I did want to know what had separated my late husband from his younger brother. What could have been so bad that it made Carter cut Daniel out of his life forever?
I gave rapid instructions and then settled back in the seat.
Korwyn’s driving was smooth and competent so far and I found that I felt comfortable around him.
Also, in the confines of the car I couldn’t help smelling his scent—it smelled like warm fur, dark masculine spice, and clean laundry—I liked it a lot.
“Okay, so the reason my dad and your husband parted ways was over a woman—my mom, actually,” Korwyn told me.
“Really?” I looked at him in surprise. To my knowledge, Carter had never been married before he had bought me to be his wife. “What happened?”
“Well, they both fell in love with her—both dated her. When it came time to choose, everyone was sure she’d pick Uncle Carter.
He was the oldest brother, after all—he stood to inherit all my grandfather’s vast fortune.
And my father, of course, wasn’t getting much of anything—he was the poor and penniless second son. ”
“Obviously she chose your father over Carter, though,” I said, frowning. “Did she ever tell you why?”
Korwyn frowned.
“When I asked her, she always just said, ‘his hands were cold—as cold as his heart.’” He laughed and shook his head. “Sorry if that’s disrespectful now that he’s gone.”
“No.” I shook my head. “No, your mother was right.” Then I turned away and looked out the window, remembering the last twenty years with my late husband, who had indeed been cold-hearted.
“Oh, er…” Korwyn didn’t seem to know what to say.
I was at a loss myself.
“So…you came after you heard my husband was dead hoping for an inheritance?” I asked.
He shrugged.
“Sure. My father always claimed that Uncle Carter had taken some assets that weren’t his.
See, my grandfather did leave a little to his second son in his will, but Uncle Carter found a way around it.
He kept absolutely everything. My dad used to tell me that our family was cheated—that we were owed at least some of what your husband kept for himself. ”
I could well believe that was true—Carter had always been a greedy, grasping man. And if he hated someone or bore a grudge against them, he did everything he could to ruin them financially. If he had thought that the woman he wanted had been stolen from him, he would have retaliated in kind.
“I see,” I said a bit stiffly. “Well, we can, of course, have the lawyers in to go over Carter’s will—”
“Oh, no-no,” Korwyn said quickly. “Please—I’m not here to take anything my uncle left to you.
I’m doing fine on my own, actually—I have my own business and I’ve done quite well so far.
I mainly came for curiosity’s sake. All my life I heard my father and mother talk about Uncle Carter and what a cold bastard he was—sorry. ” He shot me an apologetic look.
“No, it’s all right.” I shook my head. “Go on.”
“Anyway, I guess I just wanted to see him—just once, even if it was when he was already gone.” He frowned. “And now, of course, I have to stay and see about the Pack Leadership. I’m not going to hand over my birthright to that bastard. That—”
“Harris Murdoch,” I said, supplying the name.
“Right. I don’t like his attitude, and I don’t back down from a fight.” His frown deepened. “Besides, I’ve always been a Lone Wolf before, but I think I have enough management experience that I’d be good at running a pack.”
I gave a mirthless laugh.
“You don’t need any business acumen or management experience to lead the Pack—not if you do it like Carter did. You just need a cold heart and a willingness to kill anyone who gets in your way or breaks the Pack Laws, that’s all.”
He shot me a wide-eyed look.
“So the rumors are true? Uncle Carter really was that much of a bastard?”
“And then some,” I said softly.
Then, hearing the bitterness in my own voice, I tried for a lighter tone.
“I’m glad you’re here. Whether Carter would have welcomed you or not, it’s good to know Carter left an heir. I thought I was alone in the world after he passed.”
“Well, I’m afraid I can’t offer you a whole extended family,” Korwyn said. “My mom died of breast cancer back when I was a kid and my dad passed a few years ago.” He shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling with the motion. “So it’s just me.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I’m still glad you came. Ah—here we are—you can turn in here.”
I gestured to the entrance to Wolverton Manor which led to a long and twisting road that meandered through thick woods until it finally came to the house itself.
The road was so narrow that only one car at a time could drive it and there were only a few places along the way for one car to pull over so another could pass.
“Be careful and go slow,” I advised Korwyn. “It’s a really twisty road.”
“You’re not kidding.” He peered through the windshield as he carefully navigated the twists and turns. “Why in the world didn’t Uncle Carter widen this some?”
“He liked it this way.” I shrugged. “Said it made the Manor more defensible.”
“Well, it certainly does that.” He was still frowning as he finally came to the end of the road, which opened onto a huge, circular driveway that was paved with smooth river stones in muted colors.
“And this is Wolverton Manor,” I said, gesturing out the window at the vast building rising above us.
It was built in the same style as an English Lord’s house—as I said, Carter had done extensive traveling in the UK and all of Europe before coming back to build his home—and wouldn’t have looked out of place in the production of a movie based on a Jane Austen novel.
It wasn’t quite as big as Pemberly, but it wasn’t far off.
“Wow…” Korwyn’s eyes went wide again as he stared up at it. “This is huge.”
“It’s built in the Georgian style,” I said automatically. I remembered having the same awed reaction myself the first time I’d seen Wolverton, but the place held no more mystery for me now. It was nothing but a prison—a beautiful and elegant one to be sure, but a prison just the same.
Korwyn parked the car and started to get out, but I put a hand on his arm.
“Korwyn,” I said when he looked at me. “I want you to know, you’re welcome here as long as you want to stay. You’re Carter’s true heir—you belong in his home.”
His face broke into a genuine smile.
“Thank you, Vivienne. But you can call me Kor if you want.”
“Kor.” I said and nodded. “You’re welcome here. This is your home until you choose to leave it.”
I don’t know why I said those words to him or why I trusted him to stay with me. I knew almost nothing about him—he could be dangerous.
But he didn’t feel dangerous. And even the little bit of conversation I’d had with him had convinced me that he was the exact opposite of my husband.
He seemed genuine and warm in a way that was foreign to me.
Also, I was all alone in the Manor now. I had dismissed the servants after Carter died—what was the point when I could clean up after myself?
I only had a groundskeeper in once a week to trim the gardens, and a group of maids came monthly to do a thorough tidy of the most used rooms.
Not that any of the rooms were getting much use now that I was alone.
I was lonely, I admitted to myself. I liked the idea of having another human being living with me—even if it was only for a little while. The Manor felt so empty now, without Carter and the staff. I wanted some company.
I swear that’s the only reason I invited him to stay—that and the fact that I feared what would happen if Harris Murdoch won the Alpha Challenge. I never meant for everything that happened after to come to pass.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into.