I wake before Merrick, which makes it very difficult to want to climb out of bed. He’s sleeping soundly, one arm behind his head, his bare chest bathed in the early morning sun as it sneaks into our room from the window.
As he sleeps, I study the scar over his eye as well as the ones marring his chest. He’s so damn brutally beautiful it steals my breath. Though I won’t vocalize how excited I am over the fact that the curse may be broken, I cannot help but feel a bit of hope. After all, he never shifted.
And he always shifts at night.
With a smile on my face, I slip out of bed and pull on a robe. Then, with my hair loose and my feet bare, I head out of our room and downstairs. I no sooner reach the bottom step then that little flame of hope is doused.
Lying in the living room are seven white wolves.
“So the curse is not broken, then,” I say sadly.
Maynard’s wolf drops his head in a half nod and then continues lounging before the fire burning in the hearth.
“Morning, Beta.” I turn as Peter carries in an armload of firewood and sets it beside the hearth.
“Morning,” I greet.
“How are you doing?” he crosses his arms, gaze turning pitied.
“I will be better when I have the king’s head on a spike,” I reply.
“Vengeance is a bumpy road.”
A low growl escapes the mouth of one of the wolves.
“I mean no disrespect,” Peter adds quickly. “Just wanted to warn you that sometimes it can lead you to far darker places.”
“He murdered my family. I’m already in a dark place.” Irritated, I turn away and leave the room, heading for the kitchen.
“Kiya, wait!”
With a deep breath, I stop and allow Peter to move around in front of me.
“I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to offend.”
“No offense taken,” I reply. “No apology needed. We simply disagree.”
“Listen.” He reaches out and touches my arm, which sends a shiver of unease through my body. I’m not entirely sure why, just that his touch is unwelcome. “Why don’t we go for a walk? Clear your head a little?”
“No, thank you.”
“I—”
“You’d better remove your hand should you wish to keep it.”
A delicious shiver runs up my spine as Merrick’s deep baritone wraps around me. He steps in closer, his body heat pressed against my back. Given our substantial height difference, I just barely reach his shoulders.
Peter removes his hand then offers a nod and leaves without another word.
“One of these days, I’m going to kill him.”
Turning, I wrap both arms around Merrick’s waist and rest the side of my face against his chest. He embraces me and presses a tender kiss to the top of my head. “He’s harmless.”
“If you could sense the way he feels around you, you would think quite differently, mate.”
I pull away, leaving one arm wrapped around his waist and letting the other dangle at my side as we move toward the kitchen. “He told me that vengeance is a bumpy road.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not worth traveling,” Merrick replies.
I stop us then tip my face up to him. “Exactly.”
His answering grin is blinding. “I will never be a voice of reason,” he says. “Sometimes there is a diplomatic solution. But more times than not, blood must be spilled before any real change is made.”
Taking a deep breath, I try to envision any way this could have ended without war. And every single one of those solutions went out the window the moment Julius slaughtered Bonnie and Ezra.
Lea is kneading fresh bread on the counter, her hands coated in flour. “Morning,” she says, her tone far less friendly than usual.
“Are you alright?”
“The curse isn’t broken,” she says. Then, with a guilty look at me, she shakes her head. “I’m sorry. That was quite negative of me.”
“It’s true, though.” I reach out and rest my hand on hers, offering her a smile. She’s head over heels in love with Maynard. Something that has been apparent to me since the moment I saw them both in the same room.
My heart breaks for her shattered hope just as it did for my own. “We will break it. One of these days,” I promise her.
“The king must be dealt with first,” Merrick says. “Otherwise, we will be dead and there will be no reason to break it.”
“Merrick!”
We both turn as Ferris, Merrick’s uncle rushes in. Face red, breathing ragged, he looks terrified.
“What is it?” Merrick demands.
“You need to come see. I—” He trails off, closing his eyes before opening them again. “You just need to come see.”
Merrick follows his uncle, and I trail behind them. When we reach the door, he turns to me. “Stay here, Beta.”
“Not a damn chance.”
“You’re not fully dressed.”
“Neither are you,” I point out, gesturing to his bare chest.
He shakes his head and mutters something under his breath but turns and rushes out the door without giving me any further shit for my lack of dress. I bolt, sprinting after them and toward the two horses Ferris already has waiting.
Merrick climbs onto Boots and then reaches down and pulls me up to situate me between his thighs. We begin to run. Hair wild, I do my best to tame it as Boots sprints after Ferris’s horse. We race through the trees toward the boundary line between us and Aurum.
Even without enhanced senses, the stench hits me before we leave the tree line.
Merrick slides Boots to a stop and leaps off before reaching up to pull me down. My leather house shoes hit the soft dirt near soundless, not that I could have heard them if they’d been loud as thunder, though.
No, the only thing I can hear is the pounding of my heart as I take in the carnage before me. At least a dozen wolves lie in the road, their bloated bodies mutilated. I cover my mouth with my hand as much to stifle a cry as to keep the scent from sending my churning stomach into overload.
“I found them this morning,” Ferris explains. “The scent is potent in town.”
Merrick nods as he kneels beside the body of a grey wolf. “The wind is blowing that way, which is why we didn’t smell it at the house.” His tone is one of fury, his gaze hard.
“This was a message,” I whisper. “Another way for him to remind us that he’s close.”
“We cannot wait much longer,” Merrick says. “The type of violence this fucker is sending our way cannot be tolerated.”
“He is angry that we didn’t immediately respond after Bonnie and Ezra,” I tell them both. “This is his way of trying to push us.” Merrick turns to face me, so I add, “He’s going to continue escalating until he gets the rise out of you he desires.”
“We’re not going to give it to him until we’re ready. And it will be on our terms, not his.”
Merrick straightens, expression unreadable. I can’t tell whether he agrees with me or wants to run to the castle and slaughter Julius as he sits upon his throne.
“Go home and tell Lea what happened. Have her send Peter this way.”
“I’m not leaving you, Merrick. Not when I can’t trust you not to do something rash.”
He takes a deep breath then reaches forward and cups my cheek. “I will never do anything that will put you at risk. Killing Julius after this will be what he expects. He will likely have an ambush waiting for me, in which case, I have a very low chance of survival. My death leaves you vulnerable.”
“I have your word?”
“You have my heart, Beta. And that is far stronger a declaration.”
I swallow hard as the very thought of him leaving me at all, especially on the heels of Bonnie and Ezra, places a heavy weight on my chest. This man has become everything to me.
Therefore, losing him is not an option.