Chapter 229

“Caleb…” I sigh, confused and frightened by pliant all at once. When he kisses me like he just did, like he’s trying to mark me down to my bones, it makes me weak in the knees. I’m not immune to his charms, not even here with the threats all around us.

“If you die,” he says. “I will not be able to cope. Do you understand? Do you have any idea what will happen to me?” There’s always intensity in his eyes, but right now he stares at me with the kind of focus that would pin anyone to the spot.

I’m weak and vulnerable to all his words and looks. Right now is no exception. I’d be pinned where I am, even if he wasn’t holding me.

Then, for the length of a heartbeat, I see a flash of fear in his eyes. He’s furious with me. He desires me. But he’s also… afraid?

“Without you, I will lose myself,” Caleb says fiercely.

Caleb is strong, the strongest man I’ve ever met. He’s an Alpha, able to shrug off silver bullets. There is nothing in this world that could bring him low.

Except, it seems, losing me.

The admittance makes my heart thunder in my chest as love bursts out of me from the seams.

“I will keep you safe,” he says. “Or it will mean the end for us both.”

Not knowing what else to do, how else to reassure him, I push myself forward and press my lips to his once more. This kiss isn’t as passionate, but it is reassuring for us both. His hold on me softens somewhat, and when we pull away, I see more determination than anger and fear in his eyes now.

He lifts his hand to my face, cupping my cheek, and says, “No harm will come to you, Harper. So long as I breathe, I will protect you.”

We kiss once more, briefly, before, separating, he takes my hand and we continue rushing together into the woods.

Bethany has been sitting in a cell for a while, before she is roughly grabbed by a soldier in rebel dress and dragged toward the stairs.

From what she can tell, she is in an old fort, all of the walls made of stone and brick and concrete. She’s pushed up a winding stairwell all the way to the top, where she’s then shoved out into a large open room.

She’s dragged to a chair and then made to sit in it.

There’s a few other guards scattered throughout, but the leader of the room is a man Bethany recognizes.

Samuel, the rebel leader and Harper’s ex-fiancé.

This, then, must be the rebel stronghold. So it is here, just as Caleb predicted. At the other end of a long passageway behind a secret door in the library.

The guard who pushed Bethany here goes to say something to Samuel and then takes position standing directly behind Bethany’s chair.

Samuel waits a moment before turning and looking at Bethany.

“Bethany, was it?” he says. He smiles so wide it shows teeth, but it seems disingenuous, almost predatory to Bethany, who eyes him with suspicion in return. “A pleasure to see you again.”

Bethany, in all her years as a servant, has learned when to hold her tongue. Yet, her time with Harper, where Harper preferred her to speak rather than to remain silent has spoiled her. She’s forgotten the old ways, preferring now to speak her mind.

“The feeling is not mutual,” Bethany retorts.

Samuel stills, momentarily surprised. After a moment, smiling again, he reminds her, “You would do well not to test me, handmaiden.”

Bethany inwardly scolds herself and this time, holds her tongue.

She knows this man is obsessed with Harper. Her only goal right now is to keep him from finding out anything more about Harper than is absolutely necessary.

She will do this for her friend.

In her heart, she knows that Harper must have realized her absence by now and is probably looking for her. Hopefully, she can hold on long enough until reinforcements arrive.

“Caleb brought Harper to these hostile pack lands,” Samuel says. Forgetting pretense, he seems to prefer cutting straight to the heart of the matter. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Bethany lies. She knows Caleb and Harper are searching for Tristan and the rebel stronghold. They must suspect how very close they are to finding it.

“You are lying,” Samuel says. “I know Harper tells you thing. You are her confidant as well as her handmaiden. I would know why that brute brought Harper straight into this danger, and I will have an answer that satisfies me – or else.”

Fists clenching, he starts toward Bethany, malicious intent in his eyes.

“Sir, forgive the intrusion,” says a new soldier, who enters just before Samuel could reach Bethany. Samuel stops in his tracks. His smile is totally gone now, replaced with a vicious, impatient snarl.

Bethany remembers how Samuel used to be, when he attended the Alpha Council meetings and slipped secret notes to Harper. The man she thought she knew is difficult to see in this new man here, this rebel leader. A man driven mad with power, perhaps. Or one worn down to madness with countless denials over the things he wanted.

Bethany doubts he actually loves Harper, so much as he wants to be the one to possess her. If he loved her, he would want her to be free to make her own choices and find her own happiness.

This… whatever this is… is not love.

“What? I said, no interruptions!” Samuel snaps at the intruder.

The soldier bows in submission but persists. “You will want to hear this news, sir.”

Samuel growls, “Out with it then.”

“Lady Gladys has organized a hunt in honor of the Alpha King.”

“What do I care about that?”

“The one being hunted is the King’s consort.”

Bethany freezes, worry flooding through her. Harper?!

“What?!” Samuel rounds on the poor messenger. “Who gave her that right?”

“N-no one, sir,” the solder says. “She appears to be acting on her own authority.”

“She has no authority,” Samuel growls. “I want her here. Now. She will answer for this.”

“At once, Sir,” the soldier says, and starts to turn.

Samuel grabs him roughly by the shoulder and keeps him there. “If Harper dies, Gladys will wish she’s never been born.” He throws the soldier forward. The man barely catches himself before falling down the stairs. “Bring her to me! Now!”

The solider dashes to comply.

Bethany stands very still as Samuel looks back across the room.

In a fit of rage, he rushes forward, grabs everything off his desk and then throws it across the room. Inkwells break and splatter. Papers flutter around. One by one, he grabs the pieces of his tactical map and throws them so hard against the stone wall that they shatter.

He seems to have forgotten about Bethany. She does not move an inch, not even to flinch, as he rages, hoping she will forget him entirely. The guard behind her likewise doesn’t move, as if he, too, does not want to acquire the rage of this maddened alpha.

“I’ll kill her!” he shouts in his own madness. “She’s undermined me for the last time!”

Not for the first time since entering this room, I hope Samuel never gets his hands on Harper ever again.