The Wolf's Pursuit (25 page)

"The Wolf devours Red."

Hunter lifted her off her feet and cradled
her body as he stalked through the trees to the fireplace. He laid
her softly across the fur blankets and hovered above her.

"So beautiful," she whispered as she gently
touched his muscled stomach. He closed his eyes and then lowered
his body over hers.

"Not as beautiful as you."

"Why, Hunter, did you just admit to being
less beautiful than another creature?" She laughed nervously as his
lips descended and began working their way down her stomach.

"Minx," he whispered as he kissed her navel
and then jerked her body up so their chests were touching. "You are
more beautiful." He kissed the side of her neck. "More unique." His
lips nipped her earlobe. "More desirable." He kissed her eyelids.
"Than any woman I have ever come across." The last part he said
looking directly into her eyes. The warm golden glow of his eyes
seemed to flare to life just before his mouth crushed hers, his
tongue begging entry into her mouth.

She opened herself to him — to
everything.

Wolf—

I didn't know you had such patience, though
after last night… I'm yet again proven wrong. Apparently it is not
just wolves that beg, but spies, and Hunters as well…

—
Red

The woman was killing him. Every touch, every
kiss, every caress, nearly drove him mad with want. Mad with
passion, with lust, with so many emotions he wasn't sure what was
up or down. What his name was, or why he had been so scared to
become one with someone again.

A soul mate was just that, someone who saw
into the depths of one's soul and instead of retreating, held on
for dear life.

That was Gwen.

He nestled her tightly into his body and
kissed her cheek. A lock of hair had fallen across her face. He
brushed it away and sighed.

He was bound to her. Promised to her. His
heart felt as if someone had taken it and fused the broken pieces
together. The fire blazed behind him, his stomach growled with
hunger, but all he wanted to do was watch her sleep. He imagined
her belly swelled with his children and pride burst through his
body.

Home. Finally he was where he belonged. Next
to the woman… he sighed as his hand shakily rubbed her arm. Next to
the woman he loved.

****

Hunter awoke to complete darkness. Gwen
moaned next to him, and then he heard a door shut. He jolted awake
as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Someone was there. At his
house.

He quickly searched for one of the discarded
candles on the table and lit it. His eyes had yet to adjust as he
made his way through the trees and out into the entryway.

Nothing looked amiss, but the door was wide
open. He went to shut it and cursed. As he turned, his eyes caught
something on the far wall.

He walked closer and lifted the candle. In
blood red lettering was one word.
Traitor.

Hunter almost dropped the candle. He steadied
his breathing and studied the handwriting. It did not appear
familiar.

Something was horribly wrong. The only people
who even knew of this house or knew he would be here had been
Dominique and Montmouth. Then again, he had told Wilkins,
considering just a few days previous he had turned in his
resignation to the Crown.

He began pacing across the floorboards.
Someone must have followed them home last night, which meant they'd
either waited for him and Gwen to fall asleep or broken in early
this morning.

The clock in the hall chimed six. Well, it
seemed his honeymoon was already over. He could not have Gwen in
danger. He refused to allow anything to touch her. He quickly went
into his study and wrote a note to Dominique and Montmouth, letting
them know of what had just taken place. As he finished up, he
looked down and saw the packet of codes Wilkins had recently given
him.

He lifted the first code to the light and
then reached into his desk drawer for the older note, the one
Redding had tried to burn, and compared them.

The first part of the note, where it named
the location, was in one code, but the word
death
was in an
entirely different one.

The same code as on the supposedly old
ciphers. Which meant Wilkins had given him entirely new ones? What
the devil would he do that for? Why would Wilkins give him packets
of new codes, ones that had yet to be seen by anyone, if…

Suddenly feeling ill, he took a seat as he
replayed images of his meetings with Wilkins, his sudden
cheerfulness and changed body language, and then finally the last
meeting, where he'd given Hunter the ciphers as evidence.

Why give him new evidence?

Unless he was planting it.

He cursed and ran back into the ballroom to
wake Gwen.

The minute he walked into the room, it felt
different. Call it a sixth sense, or perhaps insanity or paranoia,
but when he reached the fur blankets…

She was gone.

And in her place was a note.

In code.

Hunter donned his clothes as fast as
possible. Knowing he probably looked a wreck, he ran out to the
stables and saddled his horse, and made for Lainhart's residence
straightaway.

****

A sharp pain inched itself across the back of
Gwen's skull. She opened her eyes in confusion. Blurry images stood
before her. After blinking a few times, she was able to make out
the first person. Hollins glared at her with cold, lifeless
eyes.

"How do you feel?" he asked as he pulled a
knife from the inside of his jacket.

Gwen glared and shook her head. A gag had
been stuffed inside her mouth, so she wasn't able to respond.

"Ah, such expressive eyes, don't you think,
Wilkins?"

What?

Gwen's eyes focused on the other figure
across the room. Wilkins sat in a chair, a predatory smile gleaming
from his mouth. "She's always been hard to tame."

Outraged, Gwen kicked her feet and moved the
chair, trying to free herself from the bonds that held her.

Hollins laughed and took a long swig of his
drink, then nodded to Wilkins. "How much longer?"

"About an hour." Wilkins examined his pocket
watch and sighed. "He will need to take the code to Lainhart. By
the time he figures out where we have her, it may be too late.
After all, I've been wanting to taste her for over a year. And now
that her blood will be on Hunter's hands, I find myself even more…
aroused."

Gwen screamed against the gag but the sound
was muffled.

Wilkins approached her. His clothes were dark
and dirty, as if he hadn't bathed in days. He leaned down, his
knees popping as he came to eye level with her. "Stupid woman,
thinking she can do a man's job. Though I have to admit to being
impressed. After all, you tamed the Wolf, the man who I
thought
I had broken."

Gwen tried to speak again but the gag ate it,
so all that came out was another scream.

"Do you love him?"

She stilled.

"Ah, you do! This is even better!" He jumped
to his feet and slapped Hollins on the back. "Imagine that! We aim
to catch a Wolf and we gain another sad ending to a love story. He
shall take his own life the minute he finds out he lost another
woman by his own hands. It will be such a tragic tale, don't you
think?" Wilkins' fingers moved to Gwen's chest. When she was
kidnapped, her dress from the night previous was discarded. The man
who abducted her had thrown a much too tight dress in her direction
and ordered her to put it on. It resembled something a prostitute
would wear. The gown was dangerously low, and of course red, as if
mocking what she had done for the Crown for a year.

Hollins smirked and tilted his head to Gwen.
He was dressed impeccably in tight pantaloons, boots, and a
perfectly fitting jacket, almost as if he were getting ready to go
pay a visit to someone important.

Who pulled the strings? Was Wilkins the
leader, or was it Hollins? Gwen's mind worked fast as she tried to
put things together.

And then it dawned on her.

There never was a mole.

There never were codes that were being sent
back and forth.

The course of the war wasn't at stake.

She looked up.

"Ah, she figured it out. Didn't you,
sweetheart?" Hollins laughed. "Too late, though, my dear. Just as
it was too late for Redding. After all, he was getting too close.
He accidently took one of the wrong codes and then approached me
about a new code, wondering why he wasn't aware of it. Threatened
to go above us, and finally took it to Wilkins. Poor fellow. Should
have let well enough alone."

Wilkins smirked and patted Hollins on the
back. "Now we will wait. The trap is set for the Wolf. He will not
be able to escape this."

"No," Hollins agreed. "He will finally die as
he was supposed to nine years ago."

Gwen closed her eyes and prayed that Hunter
would never find her. She could not live with herself if something
happened to him, and she would rather sacrifice her own life than
see him lose his.

Red—

For you, I would beg. For you, I would plead.
For you, I would sell my soul. If only it meant that I would have
you in the warmth of my arms. If only it meant that I could keep
you safe from the evil of this world.

—
Wolf

Hunter barged into his grandfather's house
and took the steps two at a time. It was early, but he did not
care. He'd wake Lainhart up. He'd wake the whole blasted city of
London if he had to.

"Grandfather, I—" He pushed through the room
and saw Lainhart sitting in his bed, reading by candlelight. His
eyes flickered to Hunter's hand where he clenched the note then
back to Hunter's face, and then he pointed down and shook his head
back and forth.

"N-n-o."

"Someone has taken her." Hunter paced in
front of Lainhart. "They broke into my home not but an hour ago. My
wall now bears the mark of
Traitor
in blood red. And they
left this where she was lying down."

He put the note into Lainhart's hands and
waited.

Lainhart examined the note for some time and
then smiled.

Why the devil was he smiling?

He pointed to his chalkboard and wrote the
word
Easy
.

Well, at least Hunter had that going for
him.

Lainhart focused hard on the chalkboard and
shook his head then pointed to his empty water glass.

"Water?" Hunter looked at the glass. "You
need water to work?"

Lainhart pointed his finger up.

Hunter left and within minutes quickly
returned, to find that Lainhart had already decoded part of the
address.

After several more minutes, while Hunter was
sure his heart slowly died with each passing breath, Lainhart held
up his chalkboard.

"Impossible." Hunter shook his head. "No, you
see that is impossible."

Lainhart pointed down and shook his head
slowly.

"But…" Hunter examined the numbers and street
name again. "This is Wilkins' house, this is part of the War Office
headquarters."

Lainhart nodded slowly and then moaned. With
great effort he opened his mouth and said, "L-lucy K-kill." He took
another deep breath, his face turning red from exertion.
"K-k-iller."

Hunter's mind reeled back to the original
meeting with Lainhart, and then to the packet of information he had
been given about all of the men who used to work for Lainhart,
including Wilkins.

"Lucy's killer took Gwen?"

Lainhart gave a curt nod and pointed to the
address again.

Hunter's hands began to shake as he noticed
the time. It was a twenty-minute ride, pushing his horse the whole
way to Wilkins' house. What if he couldn't make it in time before
they killed her? What if history would indeed repeat?

He did not even thank his grandfather. He
simply ran out of the house and jumped onto his horse. Not caring
that he was riding dangerously fast toward the other side of town,
but needing to get there before it was too late.

After seventeen minutes of heavy riding,
sweat poured from his face. One minute, he had one minute. And then
the town clocks began to chime.

"Please, please let me be there in time," he
begged.

The house came into view just as the clocks
struck seven. A gunshot went off in the house as he ran up the
stairs and burst into the room.

Wilkins and Hollins sat calmly near the
fireplace. Gwen was tied to a chair, tears streaming down her face.
A gag had been stuffed into her mouth, but she did not seem harmed.
He could not bring himself to do anything except stare at her. Was
it a figment of his imagination or was she truly alive?

She nodded to him. Anger poured through him
as his eyes took in her red dress. A mockery. They were making a
mockery of her.

He cursed and turned hate-filled eyes to
Wilkins and Hollins.

"Bravo!" Wilkins clapped. "Truly better than
watching a play. You should have seen your face the moment you
barged in here. I thought the gunshot was a great effect, didn't
you, Hollins?"

Hollins laughed. "Agreed. Now tell us,
Hunter, what was your plan? Save the day as always? Become a war
hero?"

Hunter's hand flinched by his side. He
clenched his fists to keep from charging the men, especially
considering they were both armed. "No, I was simply planning on
rescuing the fair maiden."

"Not so much a maiden anymore, right, my
dear?" Wilkins directed this toward Gwen.

An intense fury burned in Hunter's head, and
he stepped toward the men.

Hollins raised his pistol while Wilkins
sighed.

"You cannot outsmart us, Hunter. I know your
every move," Wilkins answered. "Though it wasn't always that
way."