Chapter 63

Atwood

Ruby comes so close to letting her wolf mark me, but then stops. It hurts, but I still have hope; even my own wolf feels like they’ll get to mark each other soon. I just have to be patient.

I watch as Ruby leaves the ballroom through the crowd. I want to follow her, but as I start to make my way toward the door, I’m stopped by my mother.

When I turn to look at her, she’s surprisingly smiling. She’s holding two champagne glasses and holds one out to me.

“Have a drink with your mother, will you?” she says.

“I just need to check on Ruby,” I answer. I try to walk past her, but she steps into my path and scowls.

“Oh, come now, Atwood,” she says. “Ruby just went to powder her nose. Give the girl some space.”

With a sigh, I take the glass of champagne offered to me by my mother. She holds hers up and we clink our glasses together before drinking.

“I know you’re cross with me for inviting Paine to the castle, but you must understand that I was truly worried about you,” she says, wrapping her arm around my shoulder and walking with me a bit as we drink. The string quartet dies down and is replaced by the DJ I hired, who starts playing pop music that Ruby’s classmates seem to enjoy. My mother and I watch as they all start hooting and hollering and rush to the dance floor to start dancing. Hopefully Ruby will return soon so that she can enjoy dancing with her friends.

“I just wish you would understand that I’m running the kingdom just fine,” I answer my mother. “I don’t need Paine here.”

“Well, can you blame me?” she says. “You’ve been completely out of it for weeks now. It’s very worrisome as a mother to see your son like that. I only thought that having some family around might raise your spirits a little.”

I look over to Paine, who’s sitting at a table in the corner, already drunk. Several high school girls are crowded around him and fawning over him as he makes brash jokes and unabashedly flirts with them. Nothing about his demeanor raises my spirits.

“Come,” my mother says, taking my arm and guiding me toward the door. “This music is loud. I’d like to be able to hear you.”

We leave the ballroom. The hallway is much cooler and quieter, which helps me to relax a bit. I take a couple more swigs of my champagne, and am soon finished with the glass. A servant comes and takes the empty glass from me.

“I’m very sorry for doubting you,” my mother says gently, which eases my mind a bit. “I promise that Paine will only stay until tomorrow, then I’ll send him home. Surely you’ll be marked any day now and your condition will go away.”

I hope so, too.

Suddenly, I hear a scream. My mother drops her glass, sending sticky champagne and glass shards all over the marble floor. A guard comes running from the upstairs corridor and stops in front of me, panting.

“I believe there’s been an incident with Miss Edith, sir,” he says.

“Where is she?”

He points up the stairs, toward my study. Worrying more so that something has happened with Ruby rather than Edith, I run up the stairs and into my study.

Edith is standing in the middle of the room, clutching her arm and sobbing hysterically. I don’t see Ruby anywhere.

“What the hell happened?” I ask, running over to her. She holds out her arm to show me a large gash in her forearm that’s gushing blood. In her other hand, she holds out a knife. Ruby’s knife.

“She attacked me,” she says between sobs. “I just barely managed to get the knife away from her before she killed me. I didn’t even do anything to provoke her! She just grabbed me in the hallway like a crazy woman and started cutting me!”

I find it hard to believe. Ruby? My Ruby, attacking Edith with a knife like this?

I take the bloody knife out of her hand and set it on the desk, then place both of my hands on her wound to heal it. It’s not so deep, so it heals easily. Once it’s closed, I fetch a rag and wipe the blood away.

“Where is she?” I ask.

Edith shrugs. “I don’t know. She just ran off. Oh, Attie, it was terrifying!” She erupts into more sobs and throws her arms around me, crying into my chest.

Suddenly, my body begins to feel strange and warm all over. Was there something in the drink that my mother gave me? My mouth feels dry and my tongue heavy. My head feels light as I wrap my arms around her, comforting her. I’ve never given Edith so much as a second glance, but… I’m attracted to her in this moment and I don’t know why.

She looks up at me and bats her eyelashes, and I’m unable to control myself by some force that is unknown to me. It feels as though I’m not in control of my body, like something else is controlling my actions. I pick her up and throw her on the desk, kissing her deeply. I travel down to her neck, kissing and biting as my erection grows in my pants.

“Oh, Attie,” she says as I start to kiss her chest. I feel as though I’ve gone feral for her, and I don’t know why, but my brain feels too foggy to care. The only thought on my mind is that I want to fuck Edith, but at the same time, I don’t really want to have sex with her. It’s as though my brain doesn’t want her, but my body does and I’m completely unable to control it. I feel possessed.

She reaches up and rips off my jacket, then loosens my tie and begins to unbutton my shirt. Her thin hands run down my chest and over my abs, then move down further to grip my erection over my pants. It causes a moan to escape my lips.

I rip into her dress like an animal, not caring that I’m ripping the expensive fabric. Her breasts become exposed in a lacy black bra. When I reach up her skirt to hastily remove her panties, they’re lacy and black too.

She gets up now and pushes me down onto the chair. She unbuckles my belt, then unbuttons and unzips my pants, sliding down my underwear to expose me. I don’t stop her as she straddles me.

Just before I enter her, however, the door bursts open.

“Sir!” Noah says. He looks at us both for a split second with a shocked expression on his face, but ignores the scene in front of him as he has more important news. “The Bears. They’ve broken through our defenses. They’re headed for the castle.”

Suddenly, the realization of what is happening hits me. Why am I about to have sex with Edith? I don’t even find her remotely attractive, nor would I ever want to be with someone other than Ruby. I shove her off and fix my pants, not caring as she falls to the floor and begins to cry as she tugs at my ankle with one hand while she holds her dress up over her chest with the other.

“Attie, wait!” she cries as I kick her off and follow Noah out the door.

There’s only one thing on my mind: I have to protect Ruby. Whatever my mother put in my drink can wait to be solved until I know that Ruby and my castle are both safe.

I order Noah to go and evacuate the guests as I run toward Ruby’s room. I have to find her and get her out of here before something terrible happens.

As I approach her room, the door is open and there’s light spilling out into the hallway.

“”Ruby!” I shout, bursting into her room. “You have to com-”

But Ruby isn’t there. Her room is empty.