I blew out a relieved breath, eyes closing as a wave of exhaustion rushed through me. Despite the couple of hours of sleep I got, I could use about twelve more with that revelation. And a bath. A really long bath to just wash everything away.
“Let’s get you inside,” Maeve said, clearing her throat.
I couldn’t help the small rush of curiosity and excitement as we started for the doors. Each step had my heart pounding harder. I had no idea what to expect, especially not after the vague explanations Ry had given us before…
I shook my head of that memory. I just wanted to know what he’d done.
We ascended the short steps leading up to the doors and were immediately met with an empty foyer with a set of grand staircases either side of an arched walkway, with two more arches leading into adjacent rooms. The echo of thunder and our footsteps could be heard throughout the manor, but as soon as I stepped across the threshold, I felt it.
I felt that peace Orion had promised me.
Tears brimmed my eyes again, but I kept them from falling, especially as we approached the stairs.
“The rooms down here look empty,” Rowan murmured from beside me.
“There appears to be the remains of an office through there,” Maeve said, drawing my attention to the room to our right. From the foyer, I could see built-in shelves that tickled at all my dreams of a beautiful office with floor to ceiling bookcases where I could draw endless inspiration from.
Those dreams had been lost for a while, darkened by all the expectations thrown at me, lost to the last couple of weeks and the threat of war. I’d purposefully shoved them aside because they didn’t have any real purpose with what my life was shaping up to be.
Even now, I was too scared to think about what it might belike to fill those shelves with my collection of romance novels, with all my own published books. It felt like a lifetime ago. An entirely different life altogether. A life that meant everything to me.
“We can explore once you’ve had more rest,” Rowan said, a smile curving his lips when I looked back at him. “I noticed the tower and already know how badly you’ll want to see it.”
“Once I go down,” I muttered, clearing my throat, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to get up again.”
Was the swelling in my feet from pregnancy or the absolute crap they’d been through all day? The ache in my muscles and bones…if I were lucky, there wouldn’t be a fluffy bed here, because once I lay down, that’d be it. I’d either succumb to the nightmares or let myself get lost in dreams.
At the top of the stairs, Damon appeared, running a hand through his dishevelled hair. “I will give it to your Luna Prince, he planned for everything.”
“What do you mean?” Elias grunted, still carrying Hawk.
“There are a dozen beds up here,” Damon explained, resting his hands on the railing above us. “Of course, he likely didn’t expect so many mates. Some rooms are clearly for children. But he protected everything with sheets. I’ve put him in the room closest to what I assume he designed to be your suite, wife.”
I couldn’t bring myself to respond as I started for the stairs, everyone else trailing behind me. Tension leaked from my mates, their uncertainty palpable. But all I could focus on were the stairs ahead of me, taking each one slowly. I ignored the pain flaring in the soles of my feet, the aches in my thighs and calves. The burn in every one of my muscles didn’t slow me as I made my way up to the second floor.
The stairs were a deep honeyed brown wood, as were the banister and parquet floors. Some of the walls looked like they’d been refinished with new paint or wallpaper, but others still had water stains and peeling corners. How much time had Orion spent rebuilding this place? Especially on his own?
Damon’s eyes tracked me from the banister, but he saidnothing as he turned and walked towards a room with double doors. My heart raced as my eyes strayed to a half-open door. I could just see the bed within and the figure lying atop it.
I tore my eyes from the room as Damon gently opened the doors leading into what he suspected was my room. I bit down on a gasp as he stepped aside, allowing me to take everything in.
Directly in the centre was a four-poster bed, larger than anything I’d ever seen before. It was bigger than the one back at the palace in our suite, large enough to accommodate several of my mates—maybe all of them if they tried. A large white sheet covered the mattress, though gauzy curtains moved in an invisible breeze when I entered. At the end of the bed sat a large trunk, the metal embellishments shiny, as if someone recently polished them.
The hardwood continued into the room, though under the bed sat a huge, ornate rug that had to be antique. I was almost too scared to step on it considering how dirty and bloody my feet were. I stopped at the edge, taking everything else in with blurry eyes.
Beside the bed were built-in nightstands, bookshelves either side of them. They’d been emptied, save for a few things Orion obviously placed. A few books, a snow globe. Things that had my throat constricting, vision swimming with tears. I blinked hard, trying to swallow past the lump building in my throat.
The hands holding mine gave me tight, reassuring squeezes, as if reminding me they were there. In the background somewhere behind me, Elias said something to Damon as a door closed. He must have put Hawk in one of the other rooms.
“You okay?” Rowan asked.
I looked at him, nodding once. “This doesn’t feel real.”
Something flared in his eyes as he motioned to the rest of the room. “Let’s find the bathroom. Surely there’s one here somewhere.”
The rest of the room felt like a blur; a large balcony was set off to one side overlooking the forest and more of the manor below, even having a view of the ocean. It looked likeit connected to two other rooms, neither of which we entered.
The bed sat against a free-standing wall that hid a walk-in wardrobe and the bathroom, both of which blew the bedroom out of the water.
