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Chapter 92: Sarah
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2021-08-08 18:41:23Aiden wraps me into his arms. I feel his emotions shift from satisfaction and worry to something both worried and more predatory. “Won a battle, maybe, not the war,” he tells me comfortingly, and I wonder if he is already plotting the next move. “Not if their goal is Blackmarsh.” He falls silent. I draw back enough to look into his face, and his expression is distant. He focuses on me again after a long minute. “Let’s talk,” he says. “I have things to explain.”
We snuggle on the sofa. I want the strength and reassurance of him against me, holding me. I could face this alone, if I had to. I need to remind myself of that. I don’t need to face it alone.
“I asked my friends from college to join my Pack,” Aiden says when we are settled. “Most of them said yes, and the only one w
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I’m doing this for Sarah, but I’m putting her in more danger. Or maybe, making some things less dangerous for her in one way but more dangerous in another. The protection from Cavendish has never been enough to keep her safe from vampires as a whole. She’s proved she has power to face them herself, with the help of Blackmarsh. I’m so twisted up about this. Partly because I don’t really know the true value of any of it. Sarah seems to think that having a vampire controlling their next door neighbours is a threat to the whole country. Why there, instead of the places owned by the British royal family? Does’t Blackmarsh have other neighbours anyway? There’s the coast on the West side of them. A bit more than one side, the coastline cuts in on the South side. East of Blackmarsh is wild moorland. Why wasn’t that under threat too? Trying to answer that, I found the
Last Updated : 2021-08-09Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 94: Sarah
As the taxi drives away, I wonder if I should have gone with Aiden. Stood by his side. Werewolf or not, it seems I’m the one the vampires should be afraid of. Have I let down the whole of my gender by standing back and letting my man face danger on his own? Perhaps, but I’m glad I don’t need to face Cavendish.Besides, I have no idea how much control I really have over Blackmarsh’s army of ghosts. Bellmouth has always just seemed to show up on his own. Mind you, he shows up when I am not in mortal danger, and merely feel in need of comfort. Have I been summoning him all this time, and not realising it? The Grey Woman and Great Uncle Mathewe showed up for me when I had no idea I needed rescuing, though, so I couldn’t have summoned them. Then again, I don’t think any of the ghosts except Bellmouth have ever left Blackmarsh for anyone else in the family.
Last Updated : 2021-08-10Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 95: Aiden
Nobody’s laughed yet. That’s good, right? If they haven’t straight up mixed the idea, they’ll maybe think about it. So they’ll want time to talk about it without me in the room. “You’ll want to get back to your guests, and I’m keeping you.” I’ve been talking to all of them, but I look at Cavendish now. “There’s just the matter of a favour.” Maybe he’ll want to discuss that alone. Maybe not. He waves a hand in a ‘go on’ gesture, without even pausing to think about it, so I carry on. “You know of Walther Sutcliffe.” I pause just for a moment, checking. I’m pretty sure of it, but pretty sure isn’t certain. The vampire I think is the Prince keeps his expression blank. I guess he’s had a lot of practice at that. Hell, he’s got the right sort of unreadable face to keep every secret in the world. His lack of expression now is the blank of not giving away what he thinks about Sutcliffe, not the blank of someone w
Last Updated : 2021-08-11Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 96: Sarah
Mary has gone. Back to Blackmarsh, I presume, but clearly she is not confined there so who knows. Perhaps ghosts take holidays and have night clubs and a life… a death?... beyond what we see of them. I am pacing the floor, which is not productive. I should have gone with Aiden. I would know what was happening. What use is Aiden being able to speak to me in my mind if he doesn’t? Rationally, I know he’s probably concentrating and doesn’t need the distraction. Perhaps he’s not even there yet, and has nothing to report. Perhaps he cannot use the link at any distance anyway. His emotions remain steady, wary and anxious but no worse. It seems like hours but it is more like five minutes that go by. I am still pacing the floor, and will wear a hole in my rented carpet, and lose my
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I fumble with the door key. I feel clumsy. Werewolves need as much sleep as humans, and I haven’t had enough. I get the key into the door on the third try and stumble inside, letting it close behind me. It’s Sarah’s apartment, not my own room, but it feels like home anyway and a weight rolls from my shoulders now I’m back. I lift my head, and there is an angel standing in front of me. An angel wearing a silky little top and tiny lacy panties. An angel with a gleaming halo of black hair framing her face. The light of the lamps paints the softness of her dark skin with an aura of rich gold. Her feet are bare, the nail of each toe glittering silver. My eyes follow the long sweep of her slender legs, past the enticing sliver of skin between her panties and her top, up past the bow of her collarbones and the soft skin at the side of her neck where I set my Mark on her. There’s no makeup to hide her beauty, no
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“/...Imogen?/” I hear Aiden’s voice. I can’t see him. I am floating in a mist, but I am warm and relaxed. It feels the way that clouds look. Soft and fluffy. It smells faintly of candyfloss. “/Father?/” I don’t recognise the voice. It’s a girl’s voice, or that of a young woman. “/No, it’s Aiden./” Aiden is talking to someone? I can’t see either of them, just this peach-pink fluffiness. I don’t feel scared. Am I drugged?
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When I wake up, I’m in a comfy tangle of Sarah and bed clothes. I can guess the time by the faint light creeping past the curtains. I don’t think it’ll be too long before the alarm clock reminds us that I have college. I mumble some sort of complaint, and get a sleepy response from my Mate that makes even less sense than I did.I spit out a few strands of Sarah’s glossy hair. “What time is it?”She gropes for the clock and turns it so she can see the numbers. “Early enough to mess about in bed before getting up?” she suggests, squirming around until she’s nose to nose with me and winding her arms around my neck.“We should probably talk,” I say with a sigh of regret. Messing about in bed sounds way more fun. “I couldn’t sleep at first, las
Last Updated : 2021-08-16Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 100: Sarah
We do manage to get out of bed, dressed, and breakfasted, in good time for Aiden to be on his way to college. By now we almost have a routine. Give it another week and it will probably have become a habit, unless we are interrupted by further disasters. Disasters do rather seem to have become normality.I am uncertain whether to contact Blackmarsh now about the sale, or whether to wait until it’s obvious that Cavendish has been able to stop it. I don’t want to get everybody’s hopes up and then find that Aiden’s plan fails. Nor do I want them to be driving themselves to their wit’s end trying to work out what to do to stop the sale, only for them to learn that their efforts were wasted and everything in hand. In the end, I leave a message on the answerphone saying that Aiden has put a plan into action that might stop the sale, but we won’t know for certain that it’s
Last Updated : 2021-08-17
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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
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 138: Sarah
“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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“Fly?” I swap a puzzled look with Sarah. “That’s not one I know about. Command any werewolf, speak to any werewolf like a Pack link. And immunity to silver. Sort of. Still hurts like a… still hurts, but it’ll heal up as fast as any other wound, won’t knock me out. Been like that since forever.”Ian harrumphs. First time I’ve heard someone actually do that. “How long is forever?”“Few thousand years at least. Far back as I can remember any lives. Not that I’ve remembered all of them, there's way too many.”“That’s not a problem most werewolves have,” Ian says quietly, frowning. “What’s your… plan? Your intentions. Your Majesty.”I can feel my sho
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 136: Sarah
The earth is cool under my butocks and Aiden is a furnace above me. I’m pinned on the ground with my jeans around my ankles and I can’t quite remember how I got there. Rough bark tugs at my hair and prints itself into the back of my wrists. Urgent, demanding hands ruck my shirt and bra up and free my breasts.“Please. I need you.” Aiden’s voice is soft and pleading. His hands, his body, they are anything but. They don’t plead. They demand, they take. One hand tangles with my hair and wrists, yanking stray hairs, splitting fragments of bark from the tree bole beneath and behind us. The tang of sap fights against the musk of sweat and desire. Aiden’s hips thrust between my legs and my back scrapes against the dirt and leaves and brown pine needles beneath us.He’s inside me already, driving hard and fast. His sweat
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 135: Aiden
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. &
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 134: Sarah
Black’s arrogance wins out over any caution he might have. He signals to one of the werewolves with him, announcing his Second.“What’s he playing at?” Baxter mutters when he realises that Aiden isn’t just buying time with Black’s Challenge, but is actively looking to fight that way.Baxter isn’t Pack, not yet, not officially. I doubt I can speak to him with the Pack link. It’s Aiden himself who can do that. I don’t even want to risk whispering. Werewolves have good hearing. I nudge his arm, to get his attention, and take my phone out.Aiden is considering Baxter as a Packmate. Blackmarsh trusts him. I don’t think Aiden will mind. “immune 2 silver” I type. “knows sword”. I turn the screen so Baxter can see it but, hopefully, nobody e
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 133: Aiden
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
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 132: Sarah
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
