Chapter 95 - You fell in love with him

EMMA

I carry my load of clean clothes to my room and I have to pull the door handle down with my elbow. The figure sitting on my bed in the dark scares the bejeezus out of me and it sends my clothes flying from my hands. I turn the light on and it reveals my brother sitting on my bed with his arms crossed and eyes narrowed.

I cover my other hand over my beating heart. “My god, Lucas, what are you doing here?”

“You have some explaining to do.” Lucas has his attention locked on me and I feel exposed under his scrutinizing gaze.

My heart finds an even more racketing pace. I sink to the floor to pick up the scattered clothes. “About what?”

“About Prince Charming being here.” He swings his hands in the air. “What else would I be talking about?”

My hands freeze when I reach for a pair of jeans. *So much, Lucas, so much.*

“Right…” I rise from the floor with the now crumpled pile of clothes. My temperature rises as fear courses through me. “Are you going to tell anyone?”

“Are you crazy?” Lucas asks as he rises from the bed. “You think anyone would let him live?” He realizes too that Hadrian will die if they find out and I sigh a breath of relief.

Lucas crosses his arms. “But I need you to talk right about…” He looks at his bare wrist for a moment. “Now.”

My eyes burn and pain hits me in the chest when I am forced to confront it. “I don’t know. I never expected to see him here. He just showed up. I told him he shouldn’t have come. If anyone finds out…” The words get stuck in my throat and tears stream down my face. Big, fat and ugly tears.

My throat completely constricts when the dam breaks and releases all my fears and every emotion I’ve bottled up for the past months. I cannot live with the idea of Hadrian getting killed.

Big arms wrap around me and they enclose me in a tight hug. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come at you like that.”

I sob into his chest and the big, ugly tears flow freely. My brother pulls me even closer. “You fell in love with him, didn’t you?”

A sob gets stuck at the direct hit in my chest. The truth is exposed and lies open and bare. “Yes,” I whisper softly and I fear the reaction of my brother. Hadrian is a werewolf, he’s our enemy.

“Did he break your heart?” Anger rumbles in the tone of his voice.

I stay very still, I can’t say that he hasn’t. The moment he recognized Gaia as his mate did break my heart, even if he didn’t have a say in it. “It’s complicated.”

“Do you need me to get Dex to kill him?” My brother grumbles with a hint of annoyance.

My mind procures an image where a silver arrow hits Hadrian in the chest. Panic sears through me, I pull back and feverishly shake my head. “No, please don’t.”

Lucas runs a hand over his face and I can see the relief releasing the tension in his shoulders. I didn’t expect my brother to be relieved.

I take deep breaths to calm down my heartbeat and swallow the emotions down my throat. “Are you not angry?”

Lucas chuckles. “Are you kidding, this means I was right all along. Dex had me convinced that they were torturing you or something.” Lucas gives me a once-over as if to check for any signs of said torture.

He spins around and throws a hand towards the wall connecting the two houses. “Meanwhile you were just snuggling up against a giant werewolf.”

I blush at the idea of snuggling up against Hadrian. I fidget with a piece of fabric sticking out of the pile in my hands.

“If Dex or anyone finds out…” A visible shudder runs through him.

“Yeah.” Blood will shed if that happens. The people in town will not be satisfied until his heart stops beating. A shiver runs over my own spine and tears threaten to spill again.

Lucas pulls me in a bone-crushing hug and my cheek squeezes against his chest. “I can’t believe my little sister fell in love with a werewolf.”

“Me neither,” I say with a soppy laugh.

———————

HADRIAN

The night is dark and the only light comes from the large bonfire in the middle of the square. Many bodies mingle around the fire. There are a few stands where food is made. The smell of scarred meat reaches my nose and my stomach growls. My body is catching up on the many missed meals. I’ve scavenged every crumb of food I could find.

I’ve been here two days and the presence of Emma in town is affecting me even if I haven’t seen her today.

Lucas shows me around and gives me a drink that tastes like bitter water. I grimace when the drink flows through my throat and leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.

They pass the brown glass bottles around and everyone gladly accepts it. Crates are filled with them. The people take large swigs as they put the bottles directly against their mouths. The label on the bottle says that it’s called beer. It tastes more like piss to me.

“You have to get used to it,” Lucas says with a shrug when he notices my grimace.

“Don’t you have something else? Something with a little more taste.”

Lucas slaps his hand on my uninjured shoulder. “This is a rebellion, we don’t have top-shelf whiskey lying around, Your Highness.” Luckily we're standing off the side of the square, so nobody can hear his remark.

I know what he's saying isn’t true. There is whiskey here, the tall girl has some. I would go ask her, but I don’t want to deal with the constant touching and suggestive angling of her body.

“Anything is better than this waste of grains,” I say, but take another swig. The second swig is not as bad as the first.

I look around the square and search for Emma. I know she isn’t here, because I cannot feel her presence. Still, I search for her.

I search through the sounds of the bustle for her laughter or the ring of her voice.

I search through the scents of meat, beer and burning wood for the sweet vanilla, custard and lemongrass.

I hear her laughter first when the clear melody travels through the noise. It triggers memories and the sound travels over my skin.

I look around the crowd in the direction of her sound. I don’t see her through the wall of people.

I find the trail of her scent next when it comes closer. It deepens all the other scents around me and it makes my mouth water.

I see her last when a line breaks through the mass of people. She appears with long, bouncy waves cascading down her body. She’s dressed in a short forest green dress that shows her shapely legs. She has a flush on her cheeks and a bright smile as she breaks out in laughter.

A long arm filled with tattoos is wrapped around her neck. There’s a laugh coming from her when Dex talks. He leans close as he tells her an embarrassing story about how he once got stuck in a well and had to spend the night there until he was rescued the next morning. I can hear everything he says even if they don’t realize it. They stand there in their own bubble.

She doesn’t notice me watching her. If she did, she would see the fury emanating from me. It burns hot through my body, it makes my muscles swell and strain the stitches in my shoulder.

She would see the sharp edge of my canines and how they bare for their target. She would know the tension in my body makes my knuckles crack. She would hear the growl starting to rumble in my chest.

“Oh shit,” Lucas says next to me.