Page 42 of Wolfsbane

Altair nodded again, smiling up at Leo like he’d hung the moon with his own hands. “Beautiful, darling. And entirely true. I did things I would like to never think about because Ivan forced me to. Ermengarde wasn’t any better. To say nothing of the fact that you’re terribly young.”

Daire clearly wanted to deny that, but he was blinking back tears, swallowing repeatedly. Instead of opening his mouth again, he just turned toward me, his shoulders shaking with the weight of his mother’s monstrosity. I scooped him up into my arms and carried him toward Mama’s house, holding his trembling body against me.

CHAPTER 22

Daire

They were being nice to me, which was absolutely horrible, because I had no choice but to tolerate it. Arguing would only make them nicer to me, and I was pretty sure if they kept it up, I was going to crumble to pieces.

Which would’ve made it a mite harder for Viktor to carry me. I sniffled pitifully against his chest, no longer bothered by not walking on my own two feet, because now we weren’t fleeing.

Or something.

Maybe it was just that I was exhausted, sadder than I knew I could be, and everything felt kind of pointless, so why not be a terrible imposition to everybody who’d been kind?

He carried me through pack lands to a part I’d never seen before. Here, the houses were clearly newer. They were built of huge, freshly treated logs, instead of the rotten planks of the old houses.

It was surreal, to get to the biggest of the new houses and find that it was lit by candlelight.

Leo took a deep breath before we got up on the porch, but Viktor? He was perfectly in control. Locked down as ever.

Inside, there were a handful of wolves waiting for us, including the alpha and, given his glare, a man I assumed to be Cash. When we came in, he stood firmly behind a chair, like he’d rather be anywhere but in a room with me.

“It’s been a long day,” Viktor announced to the room at large. I heard Tristan scoff from the couch. “This can wait until tomorrow. We’re going to bed.”

Okay, I had zero doubt that was for my benefit. I was falling apart, and Viktor was trying to give me a reprieve, and as much as I appreciated it, there was no way he’d leave his pack hanging of his own accord.

I squirmed in his grip, and it only took him a second or two to shift his arms to let me gently place my feet on the floor. “No we’re not,” I whispered, throat too tight to talk aloud. I slipped my hand into his and squeezed. I appreciated his support—needed it, really—but I could manage one conversation before we went somewhere I could collapse in on myself like a dying star. “I’m fine.”

The second I was out of his arms, a blonde woman crossed from the kitchen and wrapped her arms tight around Viktor’s middle. When she pulled back, she pressed her pointer finger into the middle of his chest, narrowing her bright blue eyes up at him.

“You were reckless,” she accused.

Viktor’s lips narrowed into a thin line. “I knew I could handle it, Mama.”

Mama? She . . . she looked just like the alpha, and he’d said we’d talk at his mother’s house. So Viktor was the alpha’s brother.

It explained why he’d leapt in front of the spell for him, but a whole new wave of guilt swelled in my belly.

His mother arched a brow high, hands on her hips. “Did you? And what would you have done if Aleks or Leo had run off with nothing but a note, hm? Would you allow them to ‘handle it’ on their own?”

Viktor said nothing.

Awkwardly, Leo scratched the back of his neck. “You would’ve come after us for sure.”

The way his mother smiled then, it was like Viktor had been caught.

“Mmhmm,” she hummed. “But you ran off, leaving nothing but vague scribblings, no promise when you’d come back, no hint where you were going. Do you know what that did to us?”

Viktor took his first deep breath. “Yes, Mama.”

“But, what, you think we do not care about you?”

He shook his head, just once.

“So you think that you’re expendable? That we would survive losing you again?”

To that, Viktor had nothing to say. I squeezed his hand, but I wasn’t sure he even noticed.