Chapter 87

Nicholas

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Terry, my uncle and advisor to the King, and his hands on Piper as if he intended to touch her intimately. And Piper was practically passed out beside him, unable to give consent, unable to do anything more than cry.

Red hot fury burned through my veins. My hands clenched into fists.

I desperately wanted to beat my uncle into a bloody pulp for daring to lay a hand on Piper. Hands that were still on her.

“Get the fuck off of her.” Each word came out a growl as I strode forward into the room. I made my strides long and determined, intimidating.

Terry finally pulled his hands away, but still had the shame to look put out about it. “You continue to have the worst timing, little nephew.”

With Terry out of the way, I rushed forward and pulled Piper up into the safety of my arms. When I had her in a bridal carry, clutched to my chest, I could finally make out some of what she was saying.

“Don’t let him… Please… Save me… Nicholas…”

My heart seized in my chest as anger burned anew. I didn’t want to just beat Terry into a pulp, I wanted to chop up and burn the pieces that were left. I wanted to destroy him.

How dare he try to touch that which doesn’t belong to him? How dare he try to rape Piper?

“I want to go…” Piper mumbled against my collarbone. “Please, Nick…”

I couldn’t deny her that, even though I wanted to. Vengeance would have to wait until Piper was safe.

“Try something like this again,” I told Terry. My voice broke; my wolf pushing through. “And I don’t care if you are family. I don’t care if you are an advisor to my father. I will kill you.”

Terry lifted his chin high in defiance, but I saw the way his bottom lip trembled ever so slightly.

Satisfied with his fear, I turned then and carried Piper out of the room. We were almost to the next side room in this bizarre path when Julian came running.

When he spotted Piper in my arms, he started to smile. It totally vanished when he came closer, enough to see Piper’s pale face with her tear-stained cheeks.

“What happened?” he asked at once. I recognized the sudden burst of flames in his eyes, as the same fury that I felt boiling in my veins.

“Terry drugged her,” I said. My wolf was still in my voice, clipping my words. “He tried to assault her. I found them in time.”

“Thank God,” Julian said. His lip began to curl with disgust. “Get her out of here, Nicholas. I’m going to have a word with our dear uncle.”

How much I wanted to join him. Still, even Terry would be formidable alone. “Be careful,” I said.

“Don’t worry,” Julian said. “Brian is not far behind.” He wasted no more time. He stormed away from us and toward Terry. Brian came running soon after, hot on his heels.

Just before the door closed, I heard Julian shout, “You despicable son of a bitch!”

“Give him hell,” I grumbled in encouragement, before turning away.

In my quest to return Piper to her room, I had to go a few longer routes through connecting side rooms. Maybe it was my sense of protectiveness, but I didn’t want anyone to see her as she was now, trembling and pale.

That even Julian had seen her so vulnerable made me want to break something.

Once we finally entered her room, it was empty. She must have given Charlotte the night off.

I carried Piper to the bed and slowly lowered her down. Somewhere in our journey, she had fallen asleep.

Her eyelashes were fanning her cheeks. Her lips were still the same cherry red as they had been when I had nearly kissed her out on the balcony. She had been beautiful in her colorful mask, but without it, she stole my breath away.

I could stare at her forever. I used to, back when we had been dating, on the rare occasions that she stayed the night. We didn’t do anything sexual. We just liked to hold each other.

I would wake up earlier than her, just as the sun was creeping in through the windows. It would shine on her, covering her in a soft golden glow. She’d looked like an angel. A woman out of my very dreams.

Even now, I thought the same. There was no golden sunlight here, just the dull tungsten light from the bedside light. But she was no less beautiful.

She had made the sunlight brighter, not the other way around.

Looking at her helped dwindle some of the bonfire of anger I felt. I could feel the fury buzzing under my skin, begging me to run back down there and pummel my uncle.

But I couldn’t leave Piper unattended. In fact…

I pulled my phone from my hip pocket and quickly texted Mark, urging him to be careful with Elva, especially around Terry. By no means, was he to let Elva out of his sight.

Once Mark had confirmed, I returned my phone to my pocket and took a seat at Piper’s side, leaning at the very edge of Piper’s bed.

I took her hand in mine. It was cold, so I tried to warm it, closing my other hand in over top of it.

Then I waited for her to wake up.

Before she did, Julian joined us in the room. I glanced up at him and was more surprised than I should have been to find him sporting a swelling bruise around his eye.

“Brian went to get some ice,” Julian said, with the same cocksure smirk he always wore. The expression practically screamed, You should see the other guy.

As he walked closer to the bed, Julian touched his bruise, having noticed Nicholas eyeing it.

“It’s not that bad, is it?”

“It’s an improvement,” I said.

Julian laughed. “A gift from our uncle. He did not take kindly to some of the accusations I made.”

“Did you lay him out flat?”

Julian shrugged. “Brian did. I didn’t even have time to react. Talking, yelling, Terry hit me, Brian hit him, and then we were making a smooth getaway.”

I hummed, satisfied at least that someone was able to knock that fucker out, even if it wasn’t what he truly deserved by far.

With Terry temporarily handled and Piper somewhere safe, I could now let my mind wander to how this had come to happen, and why.

Nothing was adding up.

“I don’t understand why Terry would go after Piper.” Other than she was overwhelmingly beautiful, of course. But she wasn’t exactly to Terry’s previous tastes. He generally preferred rail-thin redheads. As incorrect as it was, Terry would have perceived Piper as being fat.

“Did something happen? Something that would bring Piper into his radar?”

I looked at Julian for my answer. He was avoiding my gaze.

I went from very hot with anger to very cold with trepidation in a split-second.

“You know why,” I accused, not a question.

Julian crossed his arms. “Come on, uncle’s never needed a reason before.”

That was a non-answer. “You are avoiding the question.”

“Nicholas, really –”

“Julian. The truth.”

Julian sucked in a breath. “Fine.” He waved to Piper’s sleeping form.

I instinctively squeezed Piper’s hand.

Julian cleared his throat. He was stalling.

“Julian.”

“Fine. Okay. Yeah. Piper and I have been investigating the underground organization, and it led her straight to Terry.”

I saw red.