JOSHUA
Three weeks had passes, and the son of a bitch hadn’t shown himself yet. The police were getting tired. The patrol car was pulled out. Even though the fugitive was never found or captured trying to escape borders, the police strongly believed he didn’t break out of prison to come after Isabella; he escaped because he was guilty and only wanted to flee the country, if he hadn’t already.
I didn’t care about the police leaving. We were more capable of protecting her than any human.
I, alone, was.
But to tell her she didn’t need any shifters around was only going to add to her distress. They made her feel safer when they were around. That was all that mattered.
We worked as a hive around her, in harmony as though we were best friends, not eternal enemies— even the brown bears got along with us— and she was our queen.
A tired and sad queen.
My gaze drifted to her as she stood by the bay windows of her bedroom. She still looked so damn beautiful, but I hated to see her like this. Hollows in her cheeks. Her clothes hung off her body loosely as if she had been on one of those trendy diets. A diet might carve away the softness in her cheeks, but it sure as hell didn’t put those shadows in her eyes or give her the haunted, hunted look she couldn’t manage to conceal.
That bloody Montgomery had been consuming her from the inside out for the past three weeks. I wished she could have understood that whatever he would do, it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t get anywhere near her. If he even thought about it, I would take him out in no time. I would be there to help her through whatever she was going through. We all were.
Yet nothing had convinced her to stop being afraid. He had tampered with her mind severely. The psychological tricks he had worked on her were worse than magic. She needed a lot more time to heal than what was given to her.
“Admiring the curtains, Professor?” Alec joked—bragged.
Kayden slapped the back of his twin’s head. “Not because you bought the fucking curtains, you get to mention them every five minutes.”
“Quit picking on each other.” She dropped the edge of the curtain. “As much I love your taste, no. I’m cursing at the ass of the last officer walking away. How could they leave like that? Declan must be watching, waiting for them to leave so he can pounce.”
“They weren’t doing much. We’re better off without them.” Alec left his brother’s side on the floor and stood.
“Yeah. They’re full of shit. I can’t buy that the fucker didn’t escape to have Belle back.” Kayden rose, too, and they both flanked her as she walked to her bed. “If you had given anything with his smell, we would have tracked him down for you and brought him to his knees at your feet.”
“I didn’t take anything when I left, not even my old clothes. I didn’t want anything to remind me of him or my old life,” she said.
“I just don’t understand why he hasn’t made a move yet? It doesn’t make any sense,” Alec said.
“Psychological warfare.” Isabella swallowed and glanced at me as I leaned against her dresser. “He’s failed to kill me the last time he tried. Now he’s doing it slowly, until I break and go find him myself to beg him to stop.”
I straightened up. “That will never happen. Not on my watch.”
Alec glared at me. “Not onourwatch.”
“I told you to stop picking on each other. That includes Joshua,” she said.
“But—”
“No buts.” She wet her lips as she lay down on the bed. The wolves set pillows behind her back and sat on either side of her. “Look, there’s something that I need to discuss with you. I’ve been putting it off for so long with everything that’s happening, but now is the time.” She held Alec’s gaze. “But you have to promise me to stay calm and understand that this’s really how I feel and what I want.”
He held her hand. “Anything you want is yours, sweetheart.”
“Oursweetheart,” I retorted.
“That’s precise. This is exactly what I want to say.” She glanced at Kayden for a few moments, longer than usual. Then she held his hand.
His lips shivered. “Belle.”
“No,” Alec growled and darted off the bed. “You can’t… This is…” His fists clenched and unclenched. Then his fingers turned into claws.
I blurred to stand between Isabella and him. “Hey, you need to calm down.”
“Stay out of it, Parasite. This is between me and my fucking brother.”
