Tempest of Passion (18 page)

Oh, but won’t she be a tasty meal.

William pulled back from Emily, a growl trapped in his throat.
Emily gasped. The horse went wild, pawing and neighing in fear.
William pulled at the reins. Emily cried out. They were
surrounded.

His shackles rose. His blood boiled. He could feel the animal
taking over at the sign of eminent danger. Goosebumps spread over
his flesh. His eyes narrowed and focused. The world around him
changed. Scents became more distinguishable. Sweat, sand, forest …
and wolves. Five of them. Grey, dirty, bloodied. The leader barred
his teeth at him. Blood dribbled down his chin. One of his eyes was
missing, and William guessed it was the result of a previous
contest.

“
William.”

The fear was unmistakable in his mate’s voice. The one-eyed
wolf leered at him. Slowly, William backed away from the horse. The
wolf didn’t move.

“
Did you know that the prey always tastes better when there is
fear running through its veins? I can almost taste her fear on my
tongue.”

The wolf’s maw opened wide, displaying its teeth. Emily’s
nails dug into his hand. One-Eyed laughed hoarsely.

“
Over my dead body.” William’s voice came out more beast than
human and he didn’t have to hear Emily’s startled gasp or feel the
desperate tug of her hand away from him to know that he’d made a
mistake.

“
Emily.”

He wanted to explain. He needed her to understand what was
happening. It was too late. The wolves attacked. Some of them threw
themselves at the horse viciously tearing its neck open and not
giving it time to rear back and throw them off. Others aimed for
him and Emily. He shifted without thinking and jumped to his feet
in front of the couch, defending it. Emily’s scream of distress
barely registered in his mind, only one thought stood clear above
everything else: protect his mate.

He fought with a strength he didn’t know he possessed. Left
and right the beasts came at him, attempting to get past him and to
Emily. He snapped his jaws and tore pieces of fur and flesh. Teeth
sunk into his flesh. Blood dripped on the sand. Animal cries filled
the air. He didn’t back down. One by one, his enemy retreated until
he was left panting and in pain. The one-eyed wolf surveyed him in
silence.

“
It will be fun to see you beg for mercy, but it will be even
better to watch her go mad and then taste her creamy
flesh.”

“
Is that all you’ve got?” he sneered. “A few distasteful lines
pulled from a text book?”

Pain
lanced his body as he crouched before the other beast, awaiting its
attack. He knew he was baiting it, but he also knew that if he beat
the leader the others would cater to him.

The wolf
laughed hoarsely.

“
No, my friend. I have much more.”

William’s
heart jumped to his throat as the wind changed and he caught the
scent of other animals. The grey wolf’s nose wrinkled in a demonic
smile and he traced its line of vision.

“
Emily.” He screamed out her name even though she could not
hear him. He spun around and sprinted in her direction as the
shifters in human form closed in on them. The air left his lungs as
the one-eyed wolf lunged at him, catching him by surprise and
throwing him down. Its wide jaws went straight to his throat.
William grappled with it, barely keeping its maw at bay while
attempting to discover what was happening to Emily. Anguish ran
through every pore in his body. His heart tore open and bled. He
could smell her panic and hear her scream his name.

Suddenly everything went quiet. Bile rose to the back of his
throat. With super human force he kicked back at his enemy. They
rolled to the side. William tasted blood as he finally grasped a
handful of flesh. The other beast cried out. William caught sight
of the coach. The horse lay dead and Emily was nowhere to be seen.
Anger and desperation clashed in his mind and the beast in him
reacted. He sank his teeth further into the animal.

“
Who has taken her?” he asked in his mind. “Tell me where she
is and I will spare your life.”

A gurgling sound resembling laughter came from his enemy.
“Spare my life? What life can a Wolf have, when he has been bested
by another? Kill me and be done with it.”

“
Tell me where she is.”

“
Over my dead body.”

The grey wolf threw back his words at him, his laughter fading
with his life. William didn’t waste any time. His nose to the
floor, William raced to the coach. Flowers, and blatant fear.
Emily’s scent was ripe in the air, mingling with others such as
strange wolves, and…

“
Your nose isn’t what it used to be, Will.”

Chapter T
wenty-One

Emily kept her eyes closed. Certainly, she was dreaming. Her
mind reeled. Her body hurt.

There had been wolves and men. Men that
turned into wolves. William had been one of them.
William
. She scrunched
her eyes tighter, willing the image that came into her mind to
vanish.

One minute, he’d been at her side, holding her hand and giving
her the warm and steady comfort she was quickly getting used to.
The next, he’d spoken and his voice, deep yet soft, was gone. The
growl of the beast still reverberated in her mind. With her own
eyes she’d seen him transform into an animal. She’d watched,
paralyzed as his eyes turned yellow and his dark hair turned red
and white. She’d called his name, but he was gone. He’d jumped
before the coach and growled like a savage animal.

Then,
they came.

From the forest that surrounded the path, they had appeared.
Brigands and thieves were the first words that came to her mind,
but as one of them climbed onto the seat next to her and she’d
looked into his eyes, she’d realized that they too were
shifters.

They abducted her––she was powerless to do anything but scream
and curse and tremble until her teeth chattered.

They bound her, gagged her, blindfolded her and set her atop a
horse. She became silent. Fear coursed through her veins like a
river flows after a storm. Her heart beat like circus drums
revealing a new spectacle. She lost all sense of time and place as
they travelled for what seemed like hours, yet knew it could not
be, for when they set her in her prison and removed the blindfold,
she’d seen a sliver of sunlight sliding through the dark
drapes.

A wolf howled somewhere outside the house and another
responded some way off. She was surrounded by the creatures. Emily
swallowed. She breathed through her nose, willing the nausea to
vanish, feeling powerless and scared. She hated it. Hated the fear
coursing through her veins. Hated not being able to fight back, to
do something, anything.

Yet, what
could she do against creatures that were not human?

A man she could kick and scratch and kill, but a man that
turned into a wolf? A man whose sharp teeth could rip out her
throat with one bite? An animal whose only purpose was to hunt down
prey and eat it––how could she possibly win against
that?

Her head snapped up as she heard the murmur of voices outside
the room they’d placed her in. What would they do to her? She
clenched and unclenched her hands, feeling the burn of the rope
against her wrists. Oh, how she’d wished she were a fainter when
they brought her into this bedroom. The man who’d tied her to the
chair had not been pleasant to gaze upon. There was blood on his
face and though he appeared to be a man, his teeth were long and
sharp. She’d attempted to maintain her composure, to keep her head
high against the threat of the enemy, but he’d leered at her. Emily
shuddered, recalling how he’d purposely run his fingers over her
breasts as he tightened the rope around her.

Abruptly, the bedroom door opened.

A man slid inside and closed the door firmly behind him.
Emily’s breath hitched. Her heart plummeted to her stomach. What
would they do to her?

“
How discourteous of my pack.”

Emily’s
blood turned to ice. She’d heard that voice before.

“
I apologize, Mrs. Dalton, I should have told them to open the
curtains. It is after all, a lovely day, is it not?”

Mrs. Dalton. William
. She refused to think of him. She refused to care about his
wellbeing. He was an animal like them. Mrs. Dalton. Tears prickled
the back of her eyes and slid down her cheeks as the curtains were
thrown open and sunlight streamed into the room. She blinked,
wishing them away. Her heart hurt as William’s image resurfaced in
her mind. The gentle scrape of a chair against the carpet had her
forcing her attention back to the man in the room. Her tongue stuck
to her mouth as he sat before her.

“
Mrs. Dalton …may I call you cousin Emily? We are family,
after all.”

It could
not be. She pressed her lips together. Uncertainty swam in her
head.

“
You do recognize me, right? I know we were barely formally
introduced this morning, but I’ve been keeping a close eye on you
for quite some time.”

George
smiled. The gesture was cold and unpleasant and didn’t reach his
eyes. There was no trace of the handsome young man she’d met
earlier that day.

“
Keeping an eye on me?” Her voice cracked as she spoke and she
realized she had had nothing to drink or eat since that
morning.

“
Of course. Well, to be honest with you, my dear, I was
keeping an eye on William, but he took a liking to you and…” He
shrugged. “It made everything so much easier.”

“
Easier?”

George
chuckled.

“
My poor cousin. You have no idea what you’ve gotten into,
have you?” He leaned forward and stared into her eyes. “Of course
you don’t. William hasn’t explained anything, has he?”

She recoiled as George patted her knee. The flecks of gold in
his green eyes darkened and the pupils narrowed. He too was one of
them. George laughed.

“
No, of course not. If he had then you’d be one of ours and
not reeking of fear and panic. Sweet, cousin Emily. Forced to marry
a man that does not love you simply because he has a penchant for
being a hero.”

The pain that lanced through her heart must have shown in her
face, for George’s gaze softened. He crossed his legs at the ankles
and looked at her with pity.

“
I’m sorry, Emily. Surely you knew that your marriage was a
fake. For our people, marriages are more than standing before a
priest and saying vows. For a shifter couple to be considered truly
married, the male wolf must bite the female in the shoulder and
draw her blood. You have not performed the mating ritual, have
you?”

Emily shook her head. She should have known. William had never
trusted her. Now, she understood. She wasn’t like them and she’d
never be. Tears prickled the back of her eyes. Lies. Again, she’d
fallen for lies. And to think she had started caring for the
man.

“
I’m sorry, Cousin.”

She
swallowed her grief and focused her gaze on George.

“
Why am I here?” She cleared her voice. “If William does not
care for me as you claim, what do you want with me?”

“
Did you not hear me earlier? William enjoys being a
hero.”

“
I do not understand.”

George
sighed. He uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. He placed his
elbows on his knees and created a triangle with his hands over his
mouth.

“
I will not go into detail, for I do not have much time for
such nuisances. William has always played the role of the good son,
the good man, the good everything. Yet, William is a criminal. He
broke the law, was caught and was punished for it by banishment. Of
course, he should have been sentenced to death but being who he is,
Charles Dalton’s son, he was simply ousted. A grave mistake, in my
opinion.”

Emily’s
eyes widened as George’s face transformed into a mask of
fury.

“
You wanted William dead? Why? Why did it matter to
you?”

George shrugged. He clasped his hands together before him
until his knuckles turned white.

“
It’s not a question of me wanting him dead, my dear. It is a
question of justice. He should have gotten the punishment he
deserved. Anyone else would have been killed, yet the law was
warped in his favor. All his life he has received certain
privileges that have been forbidden to others.”

“
William says he’s innocent.”

“
What did you expect him to say to you? He’s been pretending
to be your hero. I’m sure he didn’t want to tarnish that
image.”

“
He’s not my hero.”

George’s
lips curled into a voracious smile.

“
No? Pray do tell … he saved you from that rushing horse we
set and the wolves near your home and that first day you fainted.
That, I must say, was an accident. The pack member I sent was a
fool. I apologize.”

“
You sent that animal to watch William at the ball, but I saw
it and you decided to do away with me.”