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Chapter 46: Aiden
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2021-06-23 19:47:40I Shift to the wolf for a while, while we put some distance behind us, but then return to human shape so we can talk. So Timothy and I can talk, anyway. Expecting Baxter to talk is like expecting to win the Lottery. Frost frets at the slower speed. There’s an urgency at the back of my mind, wanting me to hurry back, but I think words are needed now.
Tim is angry again, understandably so. His hands keep twitching on the reins, as if he wants to wheel around and charge back to the Pack. “Can’t afford reparations? They couldn’t even be bothered trying to find some other way to apologise? And you’re suggesting we ally with them, with horse murderers? I should have just had the Marsh eat them all.”
“Hasn’t there been enough death already?” This is why I’m not Alpha material. I’m no battle commander. Unless someone is already on the attack and has obviously decided to use violence, I’d rather negotiate than fight. “Where does the killing stop?”
“W
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Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 47: Sarah
“I just about blew my top when he started on about how much money the horses were worth.” Tim illustrates the extent of his reaction with an expansive gesture of his hands, and Katie has to duck. Tony's face is dark with anger, but he's holding his tongue while Timothy tells his story. The kids have all been put to bed, although it wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve crept back downstairs and have their ears pressed to the kitchen door. Given Aiden’s hearing, he’d probably know if they had. “And then when their head guy starts puffing himself up about not paying, he-” Tim waves his mug in Aiden’s direction- “pulls a protection racket stunt. ‘Lovely territory you’ve got here, shame if something happened to it.’ So the head guy says that something already has happened to it, only I can explain that it hasn’t yet, and then the head guy throws out the name of the guy that’s behind the attack. Vampire, like we thought.” “Cavendish?” I ask. Ti
Last Updated : 2021-06-24Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 48: Aiden
Anthony de Montfort is a very smart man, he’s not afraid to show it, and he’s proud of it. I figured that out pretty fast, when he had me at his beck and call in the tack room. I guess I’d assumed from Sarah’s description that he’d be cussing people out the whole time for making stupid mistakes, and I’d be target number one because I didn’t have a clue about pretty much anything to do with horses. What I hadn’t figured from what Sarah told me, but realised pretty quick, was that he likes other people to be smart too. He’s not cussing them because they’re being dumb, he’s cussing them because they’re not trying to be smart. If they’re doing their best not to be dumb, he’s not cussing them out.He grilled me pretty hard about art school. What I was studying there, why, what I wanted to do with it. I try not to lie, and he’d make a good interrogation cop, so I ended up admitting that I&rsqu
Last Updated : 2021-06-25Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 49: Sarah
The time at Blackmarsh has flown past. We have only three days here, and this is our second night. It is still night now. The light that edges my curtains is moonlight and not the sun. Checking the time on my phone, I wonder what it is that woke me so early. It will not be dawn for some time yet.I persuade myself out of the cosy nest of my bedclothes into the cool air of my room. Blackmarsh House is seldom warm, even with the modern central heating system. I brush the curtains aside just enough to reach the window, letting them fall back behind my shoulders, and press my hands to the chill glass as I look out over the moonlit grounds.The rooms that Aiden and I have been given are tucked up within the roof space. The ceilings slope sharply beneath the tiles, and the doorways were made for the inhabitants of four hundred years ago, which means that anyone above six feet or so needs to duck. Being in one of the highest rooms in the house means there is an excellent view
Last Updated : 2021-06-25Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 50: Aiden
I was half expecting to be woken by Timothy at some point during the night. I wasn’t expecting him to come tapping on my bedroom door. I roll out of the bed and into my jeans, pulling on my sweater as I head to the door. “’sup?” I say, trailing off in a yawn. “Problem?”He stands in the hallway outside, eyeing me with disfavour, arms folded. “Planning on going somewhere?” he comments in a whisper as he looks me up and down.I catch another yawn. “Figured if anything happened in the night, I’d be wanted.”I see his eyes flick over my shoulder towards the open window. “Uh-huh. Come with me.” His voice stays quiet enough not to wake the others.Being prepared to stop Timothy from heading off on a one-man mission of vengeance is one thing. Being led away by him to places unknown, in the middle of the night, without anyone else being aware of it, is another matter. I feel for Sarah&r
Last Updated : 2021-06-27Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 52: Sarah
I can’t think of anyone it could be with Aiden except Tim. I feel a rush of anger at his presumption. He’s stolen my role. It is my place to lead my Mate there. Did he think that I wouldn’t? That’s Tim, though. No patience, unless it’s for horses.I can’t just go back to my bed, not now. I find my slippers and a dressing-gown, and tiptoe down to the kitchen. There is a piece of paper with my name on it, lying on the kitchen table. I’m sure of what it will say before I even unfold it, but the last two words catch my breath. I don’t think either of us have said those words aloud yet, not to each other.I sink into a chair, the paper in my hands. My mind is no longer in the room. It is out at the valley where the other half of my whole is facing his future.It was dawn, the second time I stood in the mouth of the valley. I was clutching Toby’s hand, trying to lend him courage. We hadn’t t
Last Updated : 2021-06-27Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 53
“Aiden!” Sarah’s scream knifes through the air, the caves throwing the sound back in a chorus of loss. “Aiden!” “Sarah, you can’t go in there. You mustn’t!” “Let go of me.” There’s the smack of flesh on flesh. “Let me go. Aiden!” “Sarah, stop!” “Aiden!” The lamps are dark and cold, but she throws herself blindly into the cave mouth, eyes too blinded with tears to see even as the flames flicker to life. Her scream is no word at all now, just a wail as she runs. I catch her. “It’s okay. It’s alright. I’m here.” The sense of her fills me, overwhelming grief abruptly replaced by an equally vast tide of relief and joy. “Aiden,” she says again, her hands seeking me out in the darkness. “I couldn’t feel you any more. You weren’t there. You’d gone. Oh, God, I’m a mess. I’m so glad you’re safe. Are you okay? Are you… you don’t feel hurt. What are you wearing?” “I’m not hurt. Come on. Let’s get back to where there’s more light. Y
Last Updated : 2021-06-28Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 54: Sarah
I allow myself to be ever so slightly smug about it when Tony also gives Tim a reaming over having taken Aiden off to the valley. Most of the attention is on Aiden, though, and he is embarrassed and a little shy about that. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of who should or should not have done what, the outcome of Aiden’s success is that nobody doubts him any more. He is enfolded into the family, and any further questions are for understanding, not for proof of his intentions. The kids don’t have nearly long enough with their new brother to satisfy them before they are packed off to school, from their point of view. From the adult’s side of things, it is plenty long enough to be watching the twins with hawk-like eyes, to be sure neither of them try to use Aiden’s new tokens. He asks, rather hesitantly, if he might leave his sword and shield here at Blackmarsh, because he doesn’t think the security at his apartment is good enough. The rest of us all look at each other, and
Last Updated : 2021-06-29Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 55: Aiden
The Laws and traditions have guided werewolves for hundreds of years. Anyone raised with them has generations of experience to help them make decisions, if things aren’t easy or obvious. If I were a proper werewolf, my father would say, then I’d already be calling myself Alpha of Blackmarsh, and I’d be meeting the visitors as ruler on my own Territory. My Luna would be by my side, lending her feminine touch to negotiations. “The Alpha guides minds and the Luna guides hearts,” my mother always said. With the constant wars, it was more like the Alpha being an iron fist and the Luna being a velvet glove to make it less painful to obey. If I was a proper werewolf I wouldn’t have a human Mate, who hasn’t a clue about werewolf traditions but has very firm views about the position of females in society. I have a short walk to try and persuade her to take the role I think will work best here. “They’re werewolves, they’ll have expectations about our roles,” I tell her, trying
Last Updated : 2021-06-29
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Everything is downhill now. Goldhawk’s mission is over pretty much as soon as they arrive. Everything else for them is just meeting people, and that doesn’t need much organisation. It’ll happen, with Badger’s Den giving them somewhere to stay for the night. The two new Mates are going to want the visit to go on longer, but Mark will need to get back. Either Paul will stay behind, or Caroline will visit London, probably. I hope it forces Ian into doing something. Join, Challenge, I don’t care as long as it becomes his job to keep the kids out of trouble until they’re a couple of years older. I finally get a bit of time without someone wanting me to do something,or decide something, or explain something. I prop myself against the wall of the building, and stuff my hands in my pockets. There’s a papery crinkle. I pull out the folded sheet, and remember why I put
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“Never rains but pours,” I sigh, linking my arm through Aiden and kissing his cheek with sympathy. “Or is it no rest for the wicked? My poor sweet Mate, pour yourself onto the quadbike, Reese can drive you to meet them, and I’ll come on one of the horses. Timothy’s perfectly capable of seeing our unwanted guests off, we can leave Shelley, Mary and Tom with him. Baxter too, unless he’s already seen more of Black than he wants to.”Aiden leans into me. I can fee him collecting himself before he speaks. “Goldhawk are here to talk to Badger’s Den anyway. I’ll talk to Caroline, or that other one, the one they had as spokesman. Let them know to expect guests and see if they can put the visitors up somewhere.”I elect myself to update Timothy and put him in charge of things in the village, and to give T
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An angry opponent makes mistakes.That’s what my father and Caleb never understood. Anger is a weapon to their thinking, not a liability. Black is cast from the same mould. I’ve wound him up by staying calm, by being polite, and most of all by humiliating him, and he can’t see clearly through the red mist of fury. He’s three hundred pounds of muscle and rage, as unstoppable, dangerous and terrifying as a runaway locomotive, charging down on me. His free hand is out with claws ready, blocking any escape. Blinding sunlight flashes from the silver of his blade as it sweeps down.Now, Frost whispers, lending me his speed. I slip beneath Black’s raised elbow, drawing a line of fire across his exposed stomach with my sword. I spin and dance backwards as Black skids and stumbles before he crosses the outside edge of the duelling square. &
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Nothing’s ever simple. Now I’ve got Caroline to look after. It’s irresponsible to bring her along, but it’d be worse telling her to stay out of it and expecting her to obey. There’s Alphas that nobody would dare disobey. My father, for example. I’m not him. “/Am I a bad Alpha?/” I make sure it’s just my Pack hearing that. The Peace Seekers. They’re not the right people to ask though. None of them are werewolves. “/You think we’d let you stick around if you were, boss?/” Sarah reaches over to give my hand a squeeze. “/If this is about Caroline, you said it yourself, if you tried sending her away
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I’ve never really watched war films. I’ve never really been that interested. It feels as if I’m in one now, although I have no idea how accurate that thought is. We’ve crossed the nature reserve as if it’s enemy territory, constantly on the alert even though we’re keeping to the public paths, so we’re not, technically, on Badger’s Den territory. “If we’re talking technicalities, that would be Aiden’s territory anyway,” Reese points out when I mention it. We see neither hide nor hair of the Pack that claims the surrounding land, and veer out of the reserve into farmland where we are coming up on the small coastal village where Baxter says he’s being held. It looks like one of those lost-in-time places where cosy TV murders are set, except half the houses are holiday cottages now and empty for most of the year. It’s ever so slightly spooky, riding past bl
