Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
I finally let my head fall to the side, my gaze lingering on the empty space beside me. My heart constricted.
What if she needed me and I wasn’t there?
What if I never saw her again?
“Knock, knock.” Hadriel called out to me from just outside the tent flap. “Rise and shine.”
After a pause where I still said nothing, his head slowly pushed through the flap. His gaze darted around the interior before he stepped in, slipping the flap back down behind him.
“I’m going to pretend I am waking you up now, yes?” he whispered, moving into the space. “We have a duty to this pack and to Aurelia. We need to play this off. You have to feign outrage at being drugged and we have to storm the town to look for but not find her. I have no clue how we are going to pull that off because she is not great at being sneaky, but I’ll come up with something.”
“How’d you know it was a sleeping agent?”
“I had a little listen at the side of the tent, obviously. I wanted to be prepared for today and also make sure no one else was eavesdropping. Come now, up we get.”
I didn’t move to get up. I couldn’t be bothered.
“Sir, you need to keep up pretenses. Doing so will help protect her.” He nudged my arm.
“Is this what you do to the dragons? Annoy them until they do what you want?”
“Yes, but it is never what I want, it is what is necessary. I often worry their tempers will flare and one will bite something off that I love, like my cock. They’re spiteful like that. You’re a wolf, though—a calmer, more balanced species that can see the duty he must perform and doesn’t explode in a temper when asked to perform it.”
“What if she gets in trouble?” I ran my hands through my hair, gripping the roots in frustration. “What if she needs me and I’m not there? It feels wrong to let her go.”
“That woman is also a wolf, right? And your true mate? She is certainly a balanced sort of lady who is only prone to explosions when incensed--by you, usually—but I have no doubt she’ll rise to the occasion as necessary. She has lived through some extraordinary circumstances and survived despite terrible odds, through both her childhood and Granny’s reign of terror. She will prevail, and if she needs help, she’ll ask for it. She’ll find you again, sir. Give her a chance to clear her name and then she’ll find you again, I know it. At the very least, she’ll find me. I was the favorite, obviously. She and I have a connection, you see. She’ll definitely seek me out when she’s ready.”
I didn’t know why, but that last part was actually reassuring. Even if she hated me, she might still find him. Given he served the same court I did, it was quite possible I’d see her again.
Gods, how I wanted to see her again! I’d been awake mere minutes and already I missed her fiercely. I’d rather her be by my side and hating me than forgive me and not be here. It was selfish, but there it was.
I sighed and sat up.
I wouldn’t allow myself that luxury at her expense. Her happiness was the most important thing, and she hadn’t been happy here with me; she’d made that abundantly clear.
“There we go.” Hadriel stepped back. “Fantastic. A wonderful start to a dismal day. It could be worse—you could be back in the demon dungeons, being loaned out on a nightly basis.”
“Do not bring that up again.”
He shivered at my release of aggressive power. “See there? I proved my point. It could be worse. Like the terror shart I might’ve just released. Not ideal to shit oneself right before we cause an uproar about a missing prisoner. I’m going to go ahead and check things out, probably change my knickers, and then I’ll be right back. You just roar and growl and wander out there in your fabulous nudity and get the show started. I’ll be back momentarily.”
He dashed out, holding his ass. He was such a strange wolf, but he did know his stuff.
Stopping myself from reaching for my clothes, I then conjured up faux frustration and anger and stormed from the tent.
“She’s gone,” I shouted, gathering everyone’s attention. “She drugged me. Aurelia left sometime in the night.”
Tanix jogged up with his brow furrowed, Sixten with him. Nova stood from a crouch near the breakfast station where Sylvester was chopping fruits, the cook not looking up.
“Start getting the camp broken down,” I told Tanix in curt tones. “Get everyone ready. I’ll send a few people into the nearest town to hunt her down. The rest of us will continue on our path slowly, waiting for the hunt to return with her. She’s not worldly—she shouldn’t take long to recover.”