Chapter 60

Elena

Killian knocked on my door before going to bed. I did not open it for him, knowing he had a key and could do so if he wished. I pressed my head against it, imagining him doing the same on the other side.

“Elena, I’m sorry,” he said through the thick pice of wood. “I have to keep the best interest of the Pack in mind, as my priority. I would do this to my own mother, and the council would do it to me if I was suspected of wrongdoing.”

I kept quiet. Partially to make him squirm, but mostly because I knew if I tried to speak he would hear the heartbreak in my voice.

I had returned home today with my hopes high, imagining a future life for me and Killian and the child I would bear him. But now it seemed things could turn back into the tragedy that I had experienced before. I had fallen for it, for him, once again.

“I’ll leave you be,” he said, crestfallen even though he had no right to be.

I heard his footsteps retreat down the hallway, hearing his door open and close. Then the house fell into silence, and I counted the minutes until I could escape.

Killian was kind enough not to put a guard outside my room.

I knew that I had to be careful, but also recognized that most of the house guards wouldn’t know about the cellar door from the kitchen. And if they did know of it, they would never expect a woman from my station to use it.

The hallway was dark and the air was still. I felt like I was getting stealthier by the day, able to make it down the stairs and through the kitchen without rustling anything along the way. I had thrown a dark robe over myself so I could more easily blend in with the shadows.

I had the forethought to grab a bottle of oil off a shelf in the cellar, wary of the creaking hinges of the bulkhead door. It felt like five minutes had passed before I had the door fully open and felt the cooler night air kiss my face.

I clung the wall of the house, my face hidden in my hood and my eyes darting about searching for any signs of movement. After a moment I wondered if I was being stood up, and worried that maybe my accomplice had decided to become an enemy.

“Good evening, Snow bunny.”

The gravelly voice of Jaxon Adler was a low vibration that I felt in my bones and made my skin tingle. He always carried a sense of menacing threat, but in a way that was intriguing and made you want to let down your defenses.

“You came,” I said to him, relief and a bit of disbelief in my voice.

“You called,” he said, sounding a bit smug. “I’m not sure I have you to thank, but the drama around your family has definitely been helping my campaign. I look like a saint in comparison to his philandering with two sisters.”

I made a face that I wasn’t sure he could see, and saw the white of his teeth flash in a sarcastic smile.

“That’s not why I called you here,” I said stubbornly. “I need your help.”

“And you got my help,” he snapped back, taking a small step closer to me. My heart rate increased as he did. “And as I recall, you were meant to get your husband out of this race. Part of the deal. Now, his numbers are all over the place, but he doesn’t seem to be backing down.”

“I know,” I said, taking responsibility. “I promised something I could not give. But perhaps I can offer you something else in return.”

“I’m listening,” he said, his tone sinful.

I rolled my eyes at him. “I don’t need a big favor, no traveling this time,” I told him, “just information. About Toro.”

It wasn’t often that Jaxon Adler was surprised, and I felt almost triumphant when he was too stunned to speak right away.

“I know you spoke to him about Natalie, and chose not to tell me,” I didn’t know this, but was hoping to goad him into talking with my confidence. “I just want to know what happened to her, before she was kidnapped.”

“Ah, Snow bunny,” he said sighing, “when will you learn not to stick your little nose where it doesn't belong?”

“Probably never.”

He laughed, a low rumble of far-off thunder. “Alright,” he said, caving, “Toro and I did hit it off, and I did get to know his operation a little better than I let on. And yes, I knew about Natalie.”

“Okay…”

“She knew Toro beforehand, before the kidnapping, can’t say I know how those particular paths crossed, maybe only the goddess knows,” he began, seeming tired of the story already. “She and Toro made a plan to embezzle some funds from a planned attack, Natalie giving up the defensive secrets. It seemed she changed her mind on toro partway through, and he didn’t like that. So he took her.”

It was as I expected, and yet it was still hard to hear.

“And I imagine if he let her go with you,” he continued, “it’s because she’s promised him something else in return for her freedom.”

I sat with that. Something else was coming, and I just had to figure out what.

“Thank you,” I said, “for being honest with me.”

“Not sure what power you have over me, Luna Elena,” he said, his fingers brushing against my cheek, “but I seem willing to do just about anything for you.”

I was frozen in time, this hulk of a man standing over me. His breath was strangely sweet, his touch softer than I imagined him capable. It would have been so easy to give in to him…

I took a step back, not offensively but stating my stance.

“I should go back in,” I said, hoping he couldn’t see the flush in my cheeks. “As promised, I do have a valuable offering.”

I took the necklace from off my neck.

“Where did you get that?” His yellow eyes widened, and his fingers hovered over the twisted metal loop as if he was afraid to touch it.

“An heirloom, of sorts,” I said to him.

“Funny, I’ve only seen this style once before, a long time ago and far from here.”

His voice was almost trancelike with wonder.

“It is a style likened with the Lycan royal family.”

Killian

It must have been two hours since I had tried to get to sleep, and I had given up and tried to turn on a light and read a book. Then the words bled into one another in front of my eyes, and I threw the book onto the table next to me.

My mind was a pendulum, swinging back between the story Natalie told me and the pain I was feeling by blaming Elena. It was true, Elena had harbored a crush on me for years, and perhaps felt strongly enough to arrange to have Natalie removed from the situation right before our wedding.

It was entirely plausible, and yet I couldn’t believe that the kind, nature-loving Elena could be that duplicitous.

A sound from the hallway caught my attention, and for some reason I went into high alert mode. Not thinking, I picked up a heavy fire poker from where it rested by the mantle as I walked towards the door.

“Elena?” I hissed into the darkness when I saw her white hair. “What are you doing?”

She was frozen in place with her back to me, having just come up the stairs. She turned slowly, standing still as a statue and looking ethereal like a ghost in the dim light.

“Are you alright?” I asked her specter, but she didn’t answer.

When she turned to walk away, I closed the distance between us and reached out to stop her.

“Elena, please know,” I said, keeping my voice soft, “I want to believe you.”

She ripped her arm from my grip.

“It doesn’t matter what you want, it matters what you do.”

My brain was vibrating from the sting of her words passing through our link. She kept moving, opening the door to her room and slipping inside.

“Elena, —“

My voice was cut off as she slammed the door in my face.