Red and Her Wolf (13 page)

“His heart will stop when he sees you.”

Her jaw jutted out and she turned her back to the rock. It didn’t matter how many times she screamed that that man was not her mate,
Marika
would insist he was.
Whatever.
She hadn’t learned much, but if he was leading her to
Malvena’s
keep, then she had a purpose and a direction. Kill the witch, and all the wolves.
Including him.
She’d find a way around that spell he’d placed on her.

Bowing,
Marika
smiled.

“It was my pleasure to serve you.” Then she turned on her heels, as if she planned to leave.

“Wait.” Violet rushed up to her elbow. “Where are you going? Are you leaving me?”

“
Sherbia
will come to get you for dinner. Relax,” she pointed to the pillows beside the rock mirror. Then she was gone, leaving Violet with her thoughts.

The dress and makeup was beautiful, but why did they insist on pampering her, dressing her up like some doll.
For what?
To whore herself out to the wolf?
Kermani
?
She shuddered.
Goddess forbid.

She plopped onto a large turquoise pillow and plucked at the hem of her dress. Wiggling her toes, she felt suddenly ridiculous, and missed the comforting weight of her knife.

Why hadn’t Aunt Mir told her the truth? In all the years she’d traveled with her, she’d never known her aunt to be anything but loving.
So why the secrecy?
Where was her aunt now?

And why him?
Why would her aunt send her with the wolf as a guide? She knew
,
Aunt Mir knew her hatred of the wolves. She was there that night when two had slaughtered her grandmother. Aunt Mir had nursed her back to life, given her a loving home to heal in.

Her aunt wasn’t a stupid woman, or even naïve.

Growling, she yanked the bit of charcoal off the counter
Marika
had used to paint her eyes with and began aimlessly doodling on the ground.

Violet licked her lips, not really looking at what she drew. There had to be an answer. Something she was overlooking. She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, aimlessly drawing, when she finally heard another voice.

“Daughter?”
A gentle sound, much more timid than
Marika’s
, intruded into her thoughts.

A beautiful woman stepped in, draped in dark greens and gold, she jingled from the gold chain around her waist as she walked. A golden stud adorned her nose and ink black hair fell in soft waves around slim shoulders.

For a brief moment, Violet experienced a swift pang of jealousy. Large eyes narrowed with fear, and then the woman dipped her head, never looking back at her.

Her reaction was strange and Violet frowned. Surely the woman wasn’t afraid of her.

“My name is
Sherbia
,” the dulcet voice whispered, “you are to come to dinner.”

“Okay,” she said slowly, unsure of protocol. Violet dropped the charcoal and stood. “My name is Violet,” she thrust out her hand.

“I know who you are. Follow me,”
Sherbia
said, and turned, leaving Violet to stare at her back in bewilderment.

Confused, she glanced down at her feet for a second and finally saw what she’d drawn on the red rock floor.

The Big Bad
Wolf,
and the eyes staring back at her were a beautiful almond shape.

Chapter 7

Ewan growled, tearing into the thin baked bread with animal aggression. She was beautiful.
Gorgeous, and draped in red silk, so reminiscent of that night.
And she wouldn’t look at him, wouldn’t return an answer to a simple question.

She was all that was kindness to their host, but him… he might as well not exist.

Pale blond hair peeked out of the hood, heating his blood, making him angry with need and desire. She felt it too, he’d seen it her glance earlier. Red wanted his body as much as he wanted hers.

Incense curled a sinuous path through the cozy stone room. Candles and lanterns spun light everywhere.

“Do you not like the food, daughter?” The one named
Marika
leaned in to whisper in Violet’s ear.

She’d not done much other than pick at her food, pushing the red curried lentils from side to side with her wedge of flat bread. She smiled and shook her head. “I do.
Very spicy.
Good.
Just not very hungry.”

Marika
patted her arm with a motherly smile.

Kermani
lifted a brow and shoved the last bit of stewed meat into his mouth. “Dancing, that is what we need.”

He reclined back, stomach bulging, and clapped his hands. Children entered from a side door, they scampered around, collecting the empty serving bowls.

“Bring my hookah,”
Kermani
commanded a wide eyed youngster, nodding, she jogged back toward the silk partition and disappeared once more within its voluminous fold.

Ewan licked his fingers and then downed a large tumbler of water, drinking slowly of its coolness to help take the sting of heat off his tongue. Sweat trickled down his neck.

“The lamb was delicious, I thank ye,” Ewan clipped his head, grateful for their host’s hospitality. He’d been washed by two maidens, dressed in a strange wrap below the waist, and fed until he’d gorged.

He’d worried Violet might take offense at the thought of strange women bathing him, but it’d only been a passing thought. The chit hated him.
T’was
fairly obvious to him she’d not come willingly or eager to his bed. Clenching his jaw, his stomach fluttered recalling the hard press of the blade against his bollocks. She’d meant to do it; he’d seen it in her eyes. Inhaling sharply he wondered how he’d get through to her.

Looking at her, he felt anger and grief. It shouldn’t be this way. She was laughing, blue eyes twinkling at something
Marika
said. If only he could have been there for her that night, held her and nurtured her back to health, things would be so different now.

“Have you had a moment to read the scroll I gave you earlier, wolf?”
Kermani
asked as the small child laid a gilded silver hookah before them. Reaching out, the slight man grabbed one hose and handed him another.

“
Sheesha
?” he asked, shaking the hose at him.

Ewan had smoked a time or two with Jinni and never found the taste appealing, but he took the tube and nodded.
“A little.”

Kermani
inhaled and reclined back once more, a look of contemplation drawn across his brows. “Have you read the scrolls yet?”

His countenance and voice were modulated, polite. But a greedy gleam burned like flame in his dark brown eyes.

Ewan shook his head, pulling in a small amount of the perfumed tobacco. There was a taste of ripe cherries, slightly bitter and astringent on his tongue, but better than the stuff Jinni forced him to inhale.

The scrolls
Kermani
referred to were the ones he’d handed Ewan the moment Violet had been taken to the bath. His second set of directions from Miriam, and though curiosity burned him, he wanted to study the document at his leisure. “Nay,” he said around a puff of water laced smoke.

“How many stops have you?”

Something about the way the slight man asked gave Ewan pause. Rather than answer directly he shrugged and said, “
several
.”

“Ah.”
Kermani
nodded, rubbing his jaw, eyes glinting with something akin to fascination. “Indeed.”

Talk ceased after that as a troop of women covered in sheer red and purple gauzy linens entered the room, heralded by the sounds of bells attached at their hips and ankles. Their laughter was effervescent as they swished and swayed, moving with the casual grace of a jungle predator. A seduction meant to tease, but nothing more.

Ewan glanced at Violet and this time, she was looking at him. Cold, violent hate glittering in the depths of ice blue eyes.

***

Grabbing his forehead, Ewan leaned back against the cold wall of his room. Again there were nothing but pillows scattered everywhere. A thin, rough mat would serve as his bed. He looked at the weathered scroll beside his foot.

Kermani
had insisted he’d not read the letter, but, something about the way he’d asked with that avaricious gleam in his eyes made Ewan wonder.

Where was she? Soon after the dancing ended, Violet had been spirited away, and save for that one moment when she’d glared at him with unconcealed hatred, she’d never acknowledged him.

“Bloody hell,” he growled rubbing at the ache spreading through his left temple.

Maybe he’d imagined it all,
Kermani’s
look and Violet’s distaste.

He
snorted,
she was safe and his mate. The rest would come with time, for now, he must focus on the task at hand, seeing her safely to
Malvena’s
castle.

Breaking the wax seal with his thumb, Ewan opened the scroll. It was blank. Flipping it over, he was shocked to notice it was blank also.

“What is this?”

The moment the words left his lips the scroll flew from his hands, hanging suspended before his face. Pearlescent light danced across its surface and then Miriam’s soft voice filled his room with a distant echo.

“Greetings, my wolf.
I am happy to know
ye’ve
made it safely to the thief’s den. A word of caution before I proceed, trust no one. Tell nothing of your trek. We can all be bought for a price.
Kermani
is a good man, but caution is always best…”

Frowning, Ewan glanced around. There were no doors, but he was all alone, in a separate section of the underground home.
Kermani
had thought it indecent to allow him to sleep too close to his harem.

He licked his lips.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell
ye
more before, there was no time. I hope
ye’ve
destroyed the map I gave
ye
earlier, there are spies everywhere.
Dani
and I will travel a circuitous route, our hope is to arrive at the same time ye do with Violet. Ye and the girl will travel by dream
stone,
I’ve hidden them along the way. Press the stone and a portal will open to
yer
next location. Do not engage
Malvena
until we have arrived. Violet is strong, but she is young and untried. I did my best and raised her with all the love I could…”

The scurry of feet caught his attention; he glanced down to notice a mouse scuttling through a small hole in the wall opposite. Hyper aware and sensitive to his surroundings, he prayed Miriam’s message would be brief.

“
It is time to tell
ye
of
yer
mate, of the darkness that keeps her soul captive…”

Like a fist had punched through his heart, he sat up straighter, desperate to learn more.

“
She was conceived of dark magic, as I’m sure
Dani
told ye by now,”
the voice turned distant and thoughtful,
“perhaps it was wrong, to keep her naïve of her past. But it was the only way I knew to nurture the hate. Ye see
,
her magic cannot be worked through good. She is powerful, very powerful, but it is only through hate that her magic can work. So I let her hate ye. For that, I’m sorry…”