Redlynn nodded and leaned to the right. The stretching of her neck pained her shoulder and collarbone. Redlynn winced and bit her lip.
Hanna hummed, gently working the soap into the wound. The tune was familiar, but Redlynn couldn’t place it. “What is that you are humming?”
“An old lullaby my mother used to sing to me. Do you have a family, Red?”
Redlynn swallowed hard. “Not anymore. My father was driven off by a Were when I was young. It broke my mother’s heart. She missed him every day. She died a few years ago, and the only other person I called family died two nights ago. Killed by the Weres that I was in the process of eradicating when I was brought here.”
“How do you know it was Weres?” Hanna asked.
“The Head of my Order confirmed seeing them.”
“Hmmm…” Hanna mused, rubbing the soap down Redlynn’s arms.
“What?”
“Oh, it’s probably nothing, but I was just thinking. How would wolves grab a girl and carry her away?”
Redlynn’s mind raced. It’d always been the Weres that’d taken the girls, or so they’d been told. But Hanna was right, how’d Weres get the girls out? There would have been a trail of blood leading out of town to the woods, but there wasn't any.
A knock pulled her from her thoughts. “Is everything all right in there?”
“We’re good,” Hanna called. “But we need some towels.”
“Of course,” said Adrian.
Hanna looked at Redlynn and smiled. “He’s a noble man. He’s tough and scared to let anyone in, but a decent man.”
“You know him well?”
Hannah nodded. “We all know each other well enough here. But, they’re all good men- for the most part.” Hanna stood and put the soap away.
“All?”
“Most of his subjects are men. There are about fifty of them here right now.”
“No women?”
“There are a few of us here. But let’s be honest,” Hanna laughed. “The forest isn’t the kind of place most women want to live in.”
It was true. Redlynn loved the woods. She always had. But she couldn’t imagine many people did. “Why don’t the men leave?”
“This is their home. They know nothing else.”
There was another knock. Hanna slid the door open slightly, and Adrian passed the towels through the gap to her. Hanna held up the towel like a shield and averted her eyes. Redlynn grasped the right side of the tub and got her feet underneath herself. She tried to stand but the tub was slick with soapy water, and she slipped, crying out.
“I can’t get up,” she grunted.
“Here, let me help.” Hanna dropped the towel and wrapped her arm around Redlynn’s waist. She tried to lift Redlynn, but Redlynn cried out again.
This time the knock was loud. “What’s going on?”
“I can’t take her out,” Hanna called.
The door swung inward, and Adrian stood at Redlynn’s back. She hunched over, letting her hair cover her nakedness. Her body flushed with heat.
Adrian bent down into the water to draw her up, but she pushed him away.
“I’m naked.”
He took a deep breath and turned away. “I’ll close my eyes.”
“You can still feel me, can’t you?”
Redlynn let out an indignant ‘Hey,’ as he bent down a second time and lifted her.
She protested and slipped in his grip.
“Don’t do that, or we’ll both go down,” he commanded.
Redlynn swallowed and put her good arm around his neck for support. Their eyes met, and she licked her lips involuntarily. His hard muscles flexed around her, and her thighs warmed, even though the air chilled her skin. Walking out of the bathing room, Adrian sat her on the end of the bed and turned away.
“Get her in a gown, and then I’ll set her shoulder,” he said in a gruff voice.
Hanna returned with the nightgown and lifted the soft cotton over Redlynn before maneuvering it over her arm and shoulder. She winced but refused to cry out yet again. The soft material fell down to her ankles. The protection of the gown comforted her. She rubbed the soft cottony fabric through her fingers. Why does everything here feel so nice?
Redlynn took a deep breath. She couldn’t afford to get used to it; soon she’d be back in her breeches, sleeping on the ground, sword in hand and drenched in blood.
Adrian listened as Redlynn dressed. The heat from the fire was nothing compared to how his imagination was heating him. The glimpse of her breast the night before was more than enough to get his blood pumping. And now that he’d felt her skin on his, his mind conjured images of what it’d be like to have her soft body pressed beneath him as— Stop! His wolf paced and grumbled wanting to be let out to sniff her, to touch her, to mark her.
No. He was more than twice her age yet acting like a lovesick pup. He couldn’t let this happen. He focused his thoughts. He needed to get out and run off his tension. He needed to take a cold bath in the river and then he needed to get her out of his bed.
“She’s ready,” Hanna called.
He coughed, pulled from his thoughts. He rolled his shoulders and turned. Her thick, red hair hung to her hips, and her skin had regained a bit of its peachy glow. She was impossibly more beautiful without the dirt, and blood smears on her angelic face. Remember the plan! Get her shoulder set, get her into her own bed and when she was healed, get her a mate of her own.
“Hanna, move to the other side, please. Put your arms around her waist and hold her.” Adrian surveyed Redlynn, trying to find the best angle. He was going to have to touch her. There was no way around it.
Hanna obeyed his directions.
“All right.” Adrian sat on the bed trying not to stare into her beautiful golden eyes. “This is going to hurt.”
“I assumed it would.”
He admired her strength, but having been through dislocations before, nothing could prepare her for the pain that was coming. “I’m going to get your arm in position first.”
Redlynn took a deep breath and nodded.
He mimicked her breathing. He could do this. He reached up and grasped her wrist lightly; his heartbeat quickened at the feel of her pulse fluttering under his touch. His wolf snarled. He did not like the idea of hurting her.
“Make a fist.” Moving her elbow in toward her body, he positioned her hand close to her stomach. “I’m going to rotate your arm outward, slowly. Do you need something to bite down on?”
Redlynn shook her head. She breathed slowly several times, but her eyes betrayed her fear. Hanna wrapped her arms around Redlynn’s waist and leaned backward to add counterweight. Adrian's fingers ran over her wrist and hand. Her skin held the faint scent of herbs, and her fingers sported callouses from years of using a bow.
Focus, he needed to focus. Adrian pulled out on Redlynn’s wrist while making sure her elbow stayed by her side. The grimace on her face told him the pain was building. She shut her eyes tight and as he moved her wrist out further. She whimpered and his grip faltered. He wanted to stop. His wolf wanted him to stop, fighting for control to force Adrian to stop. But he couldn’t. Not when they were so close. When he had the wrist almost parallel to her body, Redlynn screamed.
“Hold her!” Adrian yelled at Hanna.
“Stop! Stop!” Redlynn cried.
“Just a little more.” Seeing her in such pain made him wish he could rip his own heart out for hurting her.
Redlynn cried out again, and Adrian let go. She pulled her arm instinctively to her side, cradling it. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she made no sound except for her labored breaths. A ripple skimmed over him, and he had to get up and stretch, trying to keep his wolf from clawing his skin off. Several sets of footsteps rushed down the hall. Adrian turned. Blain, Dax and Hanna’s husband, Fendrick, burst in. Fendrick’s wild eyes scanned the room. He rushed to the bed and gathered Hanna into his arms.
“Are you alright, my darling? I heard screaming.”
> “No, no, Sweeting.” She stroked his cheek. “It’s Red. Her arm’s dislocated.”
Fendrick looked over at Redlynn and then at Adrian. “I apologize, M’lord, for bursting into your private rooms.”
Adrian continued to stretch. “It is completely understandable.”
“Can she leave now?” Fendrick scanned Hanna once more.
“The arm is still out. I need to try again,” Hanna said.
“I’ll help.” Blain stepped closer and locked eyes on Adrian. “Let Fendrick and Hanna leave.”
Adrian didn’t want another male anywhere near Redlynn, but Hanna kept Fendrick stable. The wolf had been barely clinging to a thread of sanity by the time she'd shown up. Honestly, they were all lucky he’d only burst into the room. Fendrick wasn't known for using his brains instead of his instincts.
Adrian often wondered why Hanna had chosen Fendrick of all of his eligible men. Possibly it had been her mothering nature and her desire to fix those that needed help. Either way, it was good for all of them that she had.
He nodded. “Go, Hanna.”
“Is there anything I can do?” asked Dax.
Adrian tried to concentrate. The room seemed unusually warm. “Get her some whiskey for the pain.” He walked to the window and opened it, letting the cold breeze rush over his skin, calming him.
“Give her this.” Hanna reached into her bag, pulling out a bottle.
“What is it?” Redlynn croaked.
“Opia.”
Redlynn laughed. “And you are only now offering it to me?”
“It is hard to come by, and the addiction factor is very high.”
“Give the girl a dropper full,” Blain said. “She’s earned it from what it sounded like out there.”
“Come, darling.” Fendrick pulled on Hanna. Dax followed them out.
“Blain, you do it.” Blain gave Adrian a quizzical look, and then took the bottle from Hanna, filled the dropper, and placed it on Redlynn’s tongue. She winced but swallowed, relaxing almost immediately, and her eyes glazing a bit. Sadly, her skin regained the waxy sheen from the night before, and a fine layer of sweat covered her body. Adrian watched her from across the room. The bitter scent of pain wafted off of her.
“I’ll pull, you hold.” Blain moved next to her.
Redlynn’s eyes met his, pleading. His chest squeezed.
“It’ll be all right. Blain’s better than I at this.” Adrian crossed to the bed, taking a deep breath. He could do this.
His arms shook as he pulled her tight into his chest. Her hair fell over his arms as he wrapped them around her, the scent reaching into him and making his head fuzzy.
“Hey, Princess.” Blain moved next to her.
“I’m not a princess,” Redlynn slurred.
“Oh, sorry, huntress then.” Blain laughed. “I’m going to do this in one shot, alright?”
“Just get on with it.” She gritted her teeth.
“Easy,” Adrian soothed. His gaze met Blain’s, hoping Blain made quick work of it.
Blain nodded, grasped her wrist, locked eyes with Adrian, and began to turn her shoulder out once more. Her body quaked, and Adrian tightened his grip. Blain had her arm almost extended entirely before she cried out. His wolf snapped and snarled as she screamed, begging them to stop. Adrian held her closer and murmured comforting words into her hair, as much for himself as for her. The ripples started in Adrian’s gut and spread through him like wildfire. His wolf would allow no more. He was close to shifting.
Blain had been with Adrian long enough to see the signs. There was a quick jerk and a pop. Redlynn screamed and then cut off. Pulling her arm close, she curled into Adrian’s chest.
He wrapped his arms around her protectively and lay back on the pillows. Her breath burst from her chest. And after several minutes, she sighed and relaxed. He was far from relaxed, however. He’d fought the shift, his heart beating wildly against his ribs, threatening to burst outward. Energy coursed through him, leaving him needing an outlet.
“I’ll leave you two alone.” Blain moved to the door.
“Remind me to return the favor sometime,” Redlynn said.
“I hope not,” he laughed.
Blain left with a silent close of the doors. Adrian reveled in the feel of Redlynn in his arms. It felt so natural for her to be there. It had been too long since he’d felt the touch of a woman. She looked up at him and licked her lips and Adrian’s heartbeat quickened. He told himself that he needed to get her into her own room. But his body didn’t move.
“That, I think, was the worst pain I’ve ever felt,” she said.
“I hope so. I'd hate to think what you had experienced that was worse.”
“Pain has always been part of my life, one way or another. The emotional pain lessened when I was nine, to some degree.”
“Pain is something I am very familiar with; on a daily basis, sometimes.” The wolf change was nothing short of excruciating. “For someone who had a dislocated shoulder, you didn’t show signs of distress until the end.”
“Until you started pulling on my arm pain was something I thought I could handle. Broken bones, cuts, bruises, something called a concussion. You say it, I’ve probably had it. I even had a dislocated finger once. My mother always said I had a high threshold for pain.”
“Why so many injuries?”
“I was always trying to prove myself to the Sisterhood, my father, myself. I pushed myself harder and further every day.”
He stared down at her flushed cheeks and ran a finger down one side of her face. “What happened when you were nine?”
“That’s how old I was when I got the concussion. My father left us soon after. He was… a hard man.”
She stared off as if remembering.
Adrian’s gut clenched and his wolf snapped in anger. “He beat you.”
She looked up. “No. My mother wouldn’t have stood for that. He had other ways of making us feel like nothing though. He drank and talked. He liked to talk. My mother took the brunt of it. But I was the object of his wrath nonetheless. I can’t remember him ever saying even a kind word to me.” She stared off again, her eyes glassy from the opia. “It was my red hair and strange eyes. When I was nine he went into a drunken rage, it was nothing new, but this time he lashed out. I don’t really think he meant to strike me, but my mother didn’t give him a second chance. She tended to me and sent me to the woods for the night. He was gone before I returned in the morning.”
The anger inside Adrian bloomed into a heating inferno. “A male abusing his mate and child.”
“You sound surprised. Surely you’ve seen it here in Wolvenglen.”
Adrian’s gaze hardened. “No,” he said firmly. “Females are sacred here. If one of my men hit his mate or child, he would be cast out of Wolvenglen forever. If not worse.”
“Cast out?” She shook her head. “Wolvenglen is quite different from Volkzene. There everyone turned a blind eye to my mother’s plight. No one asked, no one helped. But everyone knew.”
He stared at her, silent for a minute. “Humanity truly has fallen far in Volkzene. Even though it pains me to stay here, without my mother and father, I am glad I live in Wolvenglen.”
“You miss them. Your parents.”
“Do you miss your mother?”
She swallowed. “Every day.”
“So it is with me. Like your father, my mother left when I was only fift—teen,” he finished.
“But you had your father.”
“He was here in body, but his spirit gave up after my mother disappeared. He shut everyone out, including me.”
His gaze traveled to the portrait of his mother and father above the fireplace.
“I would have loved growing up all the way out here. One of the things that used to anger my father the most was that my mother would bring me into the forest to gather herbs and roots and berries. I always felt at home amongst the trees and animals and the sungolds. We don’t have yellow flowers like sungolds i
n Volkzene. Only wolfsbane is permitted. My mother used to let me pick them to bring home.”
“That’s how I feel running through Wolvenglen. The rush of wind on my face, the dew on my tongue. A handful of draepon berries to suck on. It’s where I’m truly happy.”
“When I was sick my mother used to lay me in the riverbed and let the cool water flow over me. Then she would lay me on the moss, and we’d stare up at the stars until the fever passed. I used to think that one day I would be queen of the wood and I’d live in it forever.”
She glanced at him quickly and then looked away.
“You’re embarrassed?”
“I’ve never told anyone that. It’s all stupid girlish fantasies.”
“Every girl should have fantasies.”
“Not where I come from. Not in my father’s house.”
“But you said your father is gone.”
“Some lessons stick with you, no matter how far away the teacher goes.” She shrugged her good shoulder. “It doesn’t matter, that all changed for me anyway.”
“Why?”
“My mother died. It wasn’t the same without her. For a while I would still come, but not too far in. Then Lillith forbade us, and the Were attacks started and it just– It no longer felt like home. I’m not surprised though. I knew it couldn’t last forever. I’ve never fit in anywhere.”
He chuckled. “I have a hard time believing that. You must have had men lining up to marry you in Volkzene.”
Her brows knit together. “Are you mocking me?”
He dropped his smile. “Why would I mock you?”
“Men have never been interested in me.”
“Surely you jest.”
“Look at me. I’m stubborn, opinionated, strong. I dress like a man. I don’t sew or cook or clean or do any of the things a wife should do.”
“Who told you that?” he asked. Who’d been so cruel as to break her spirit? A fool, that’s who.
“It doesn’t matter because he was right.”
“He was wrong, and you’re wrong for believing him.”
Her cheeks flushed, and she looked away. He turned her face back.
“Maybe you just haven’t met the right man. Cooking and sewing are useful, but they don’t make women desirable. Out here we like our women strong and opinionated. If they weren’t, nothing would ever get done.”
Red the Were Hunter (Fairelle Series Book 1) Page 7