Wolf's Bane

by Nancey Cummings

  “It’s not much,” she said, aware that Alek had not been in her bedchamber since they were children.

  Once safely settled on the bed, the book on the nightstand grabbed his attention. “Page 72?” He flipped through the pages before turning to the marked page and read the passage. His brows rose. “Well, that’s certainly something to aspire to.”

  Dr. Webb’s examination was thorough and efficient. The entire time, she worried that he would know what she and Alek had done in the bath. If the doctor had any suspicion, he kept that to himself. The maid who delivered a breakfast tray, however, gave Solenne a knowing wink.

  The claw marks on her legs would scar, but it did no lasting damage to the muscles. Her ankle, however, was badly sprained. She was to have several days’ bedrest, put no weight on it whatsoever, and he’d know if she defied his orders.

  “Do not worry. I’ll keep her in bed,” Alek said. When the doctor turned to pack up his bag, Alek licked his lips and winked. Solenne nearly spilled her tea in a coughing fit.

  “Sorry. I swallowed poorly,” she said, grimacing at the lame excuse.

  “Absolute bed rest,” Dr. Webb warned one last time. Alek locked the door as he left.

  She cleared the plates, barely tasting the meal as Alek occupied so much of her attention. Her mind kept spinning about what they did in the bath, what it meant, and his announcement of their engagement. Her proposal had been sincere, but she had not expected Alek to agree so quickly. She had been prepared to fight against whatever arguments he had to decline.

  It was silly to feel disappointment at not having an argument. Simply silly. She loved Alek, always had and always would. His affliction changed nothing. He returned her sentiment, touched her, and had been inside her. So the matter was settled.

  Well, they still had to break the news to her father, so she’d get her argument after all.

  Eventually, she realized how intensely Alek watched her eat.

  “Are you going to eat? There’s more than enough for two,” she said, the slice of buttered toast with honey hovering at her mouth.

  He took the slice of toast from her hands, leaned in, and licked the honey from her lips. “I plan on eating,” he growled, and she ached at his tone.

  Carefully, he moved the tray to the floor, kneeling at the edge of the bed by her knees. Instinctively, she parted them, making room for him.

  “Aleksandar, what are you doing?” she asked, though she knew.

  “Is this not in your dirty little book?” He lifted her nightgown, exposing her bare thighs, and pushed open her legs further.

  “Page 34.” She read it several times and made notes.

  He chuckled, because he saw the highlighted passages when he flipped through. His fingers brushed the gusset of her undergarment, then pushed the fabric to one side. “You will no longer wear these. I want nothing between us,” he said.

  Before she could protest, he gave the undergarment a tug, tearing the thin fabric.

  “Oh,” she breathed. He pulled her forward by the hips and she fell to her back. “Oh!”

  He leaned to the juncture of her thighs and breathed. She felt a moment’s self-consciousness about her hair and smell, but none of that seemed to bother Alek. He kissed the soft flesh of her inner thigh, working his way from her knee back to her sex.

  She tensed.

  “Relax,” he murmured, switching to her other thigh. His kisses lulled and soothed her. She forgot about her awkwardness and inexperience and focused on the sensation of him touching her. His breath heating her skin. His lips caressing her flesh. Her fingers tangled in his hair.

  “I imagined this,” she said, eyes closed and voice breathy.

  “You touched yourself thinking of me?” Hot breath gusted on her most sensitive area.

  “Yes. So many nights.” During her brief stay at university, frustrated and tired of waiting, she tried to form an attachment with another. Every man there paled to Alek. No one piqued her interest that way, and she developed a rather robust fantasy life to satisfy her needs.

  “I’ve imagined this as well,” he said, before leaning in.

  His tongue, hot and wet, lapped at her inner folds. She jolted at the unfamiliar sensation. Not odd or unpleasant, but new and unexpected. Breathing out, she closed her eyes and let herself drift. Distantly, she was aware of the sound of his trousers being opened.

  Alek growled against her sex, licking and sucking like a starved man. Her thighs trembled. Her fingers twisted in his perpetually messy hair. Before she could ask for mercy, her hips lifted as her climax broke. She was overheated and shivering at once, her flesh too sensitive.

  “Gorgeous,” Alek breathed, licking his lips. He rose to his feet, stroking his member. Thick and veiny, his cock stood proud in a thatch of dark hair.

  Solenne slid to her knees, kneeling before him with her hands on his hips. She was fuzzy and tingling all over, flush with warmth, and she wanted Alek to feel the same.

  His hand stroked from the base of his cock up to the head; his thumb smeared the leaking fluid across it. Her mouth watered, wanting to taste.

  “Did you fantasize about sucking my cock?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she breathed. “So many times.”

  “Have a taste.”

  She opened her mouth obediently and her lips closed around his pre-cum coated thumb. The fluid was salty but not unpleasant, much like Alek himself. “More,” she said.

  He obliged, feeding her his length slowly. She licked the skin, relishing his salty taste, before swallowing the head. Her tongue swirled around, unsure what to do. She watched him for direction, but his eyes closed with a look of pure bliss.

  With one hand, she held the base of his cock. Wet from her saliva, she worked the hand up and down, imitating how Alek stroked himself.

  Using her other hand, she cupped his testicles. They were…odd. Warm, soft, and lumpy at the same time. The skin immediately contracted, growing dense and harder. She gave a light squeeze, and Alek groaned.

  He tapped her head. “Solenne, I won’t last.”

  Encouraged, she increased her pace. His member pulsed, and his fingers twisted into her hair. His body tensed, and her mouth flooded with his salty release. She pulled back, unsure what to do. The substance was more substantial than water, not so thick, hardly had a taste at all.

  She swallowed.

  Alek's eyes gleamed violet before he blinked, and they returned to his velvety brown. “My love,” he breathed with utter reverence.

  They stayed like that for some minutes, him stroking her hair and her nuzzling into the skin at his hip. The golden thread between them sang, filled with joy and contentment. She didn’t want the moment to end. The sounds of the house drifted up through the floor. A soft breeze through the open window carried in the sounds of someone’s arrival in the courtyard.

  If she listened close enough, she could hear his heart.

  “You need to rest,” he said, breaking the silence.

  “I’m resting.”

  “Doctor’s orders.”

  “Only if you stay with me,” she said, batting her lashes and giving her all at a sultry glance.

  Alek looked as if he would deny her, then nodded. He helped her back into the bed, careful to avoid any weight on her injured foot, and elevated said foot on a pillow. He leaned over her, caging her in with his muscular arms, and gently kissed her. Sweet and soft. She wondered if she was still asleep in the stone circle and had dreamed the last few hours.

  “Let me bathe. I’m filthy. I’ll ruin the clean sheets,” he said.

  A fist pounded on the door. Alek tensed, as if he might fly out the window lest he be caught by a wrathful father and ruin her reputation.

  She grabbed his hand, unwilling to let him leave. She loved him, but his dramatic noble streak made him act a fool. “Stay,” she whispered.

  “Solenne, have you seen Alek?” Luis asked through the door.

  “Go away, Luis. I’m trying to sleep,” Solenne a
nswered.

  “I must find him. Chambers has trapped the beast in his barn.”

  Chapter 18

  Solenne

  Boxon Hill

  Marechal House - Solenne’s Bedroom

  * * *

  Sleep remained elusive, despite exhaustion. Solenne lay in bed, watching dust motes drift through the air. Her mind felt too full to concentrate on reading one of the numerous books stacked next to her bed. She kept replaying Alek’s words and actions. Her fingers drifted to her lips, swollen and tender.

  At some point, she must have drifted off to sleep because she woke in a sweat. Her entire body ached. Fumbling at her bedside, she knocked over the glass of water. The room was too bright.

  Pain rippled through her stomach. Stumbling on one good foot to the half-bath attached to her room, she kneeled on the tiled floor. The cool porcelain tiles soothed her heated skin.

  This wasn’t right.

  Aleksandar

  Boxon

  Vervain Hall

  * * *

  Flames already consumed the barn when Alek arrived. Rather than forming a bucket brigade to save the structure, people idly sat by, watching the blaze.

  “They’re just letting it burn?” Luis asked.

  Godwin sat on the ground next to a full water bucket, soot covering his face. “They trapped the beast inside. Chambers made the call. Fire will kill it, even if silver won’t.”

  “Are you sure it’s the same one that attacked the house?” Alek asked.

  Godwin leveled a stare at him with his one good eye. “What else could it be?”

  “But did you see it?” Alex turned to Luis. “Did you see it? Can you identify it?”

  “What else could it be?” Luis said, repeating his father’s words. Meaning that no one caught a good look at the beast.

  “Does no one think it unlikely that a beast old enough to ignore silver could be so easily trapped?” Alek asked, finding the situation unlikely.

  “Easy?” Godwin lumbered to his feet, leaning heavily on his staff. Only then did Alek see the scorch marks on the back of his shirt. “Nothing about this night has been easy. Luis, Chambers, and I chased down the beast and finally cornered it while you were, what? Chasing a rumor in Fallkirk? We needed you here.” The staff thumped against the ground, and his eye sparkled in the morning light.

  Alek nearly bit his tongue. Godwin knew exactly how to rile him, always had, and seemed to derive joy from it. He remembered all that had transpired last night and that morning with Solenne, and he swallowed back the urge to lash out. He needed to be on Godwin’s good side, at least for a few days, until he solidified plans with Solenne.

  Discussing the trivial details of their spending their lives together had paled compared to the pure joy of celebrating that decision. He now faced several uncertainties.

  Did Solenne wish to remain in Boxon with her family? Even with the beast eliminated, the Marechals needed another hunter. Or should they seek their fortune elsewhere? Fallkirk needed a hunter. He presumed plenty of other smaller towns and villages on the fringe of the West Lands needed hunters. Finding a post would be as simple as deciding where to settle, in theory. Did he even want to go back to hunting? Could he do anything else?

  He always had his ancestral home. The house needed care, but it was solid and the land was viable. The tenant farmers did well enough. Raising any kind of animal or crop seemed preposterous to him, but he could easily imagine Solenne in a garden. The Marechals kept sheep and a greenhouse, so Solenne had more of an idea how to earn a living from the earth than he did.

  Perhaps Solenne wanted more than to keep his household and teach him how to raise sheep? Did she wish to return to university? He had some money. Not enough for tuition, but he’d figure it out if need be.

  Fuck. There were too many questions, and Godwin kept staring at him, like he could smell his daughter on Alek.

  “Unless you were successful in luring the Fallkirk beast here?” Godwin asked.

  Alek ran a hand through his hair. “I thought I had lost the trail when it doubled back but yes, it’s possible it followed me from Fallkirk.”

  “Papa, the beast attacked Solenne. Alek saved her,” Luis said.

  “She what? And you didn’t tell me?” Godwin spun to face his son, and Alek enjoyed the brief respite from Godwin’s ire.

  “We were busy.” Luis waved a hand toward the conflagration.

  “Well?” Godwin looked from Luis to Alek. “Report.” Alek ran through what the doctor had instructed. “Good luck keeping her in bed,” Godwin eventually said.

  Alek grinned, unable to help himself. He had a few ideas on the matter.

  He filled and hauled buckets of water when the fire threatened to spread when the wind shifted. They doused nearby buildings to keep the fire contained. By the time the sun reached the day’s zenith, the barn was a smoldering ruin. If the beast still lived, it was badly injured.

  “Dismember the corpse and salt the earth,” Alek said, before dunking his head under a water pump. The scent of smoke filled his nostrils and clouded everything else. All he detected was char, burnt grass, and an acrid chemical stench of whatever Chambers stored in the barn. No longer used for livestock, it served as storage for any number of highly flammable items.

  Convenient how Chambers’ sacrifice cost him little. Such a loss would devastate any other farmer, even a gentleman farmer.

  The wind shifted as a storm rolled in from the west, clearing the smoke. The dark clouds bisected the sky, one side summery blue and the other an ominous gray. Badly needing a bath and a meal, he wanted to return to the Marechal home before the downpour arrived. Beyond exhausted, he had pushed his body to its limits since last night. Even the beast required rest.

  A fair-haired woman approached him.

  “Aleksandar, may I speak with you?” She drew him to the side. “I’m sure you do not remember me.”

  “I remember you, Miss Wodehouse.” When they were younger, Solenne and Charlotte burst into giggles whenever Alek entered the room. Since his return, he witnessed the same charming chatting and giggling like conspirators.

  “Oh, excellent.” A warm smile spread across Charlotte’s face. “I need to beg for your help.”

  “If I can.” Honestly, he did not understand how he could assist Charlotte. He was tired, covered in soot, and had burns on his hands and back. He wanted to return to Solenne as quickly as possible.

  “I’m afraid this is rather delicate—” She glanced behind, as if to make sure their conversation would not be overheard.

  “Miss Wodehouse, please,” he snapped. Then gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Do not be concerned about my delicate sensibilities. I assure you, I have none.”

  “Yes, I see. Well, I have a piece of news, and I know Solenne says she had no attachment to Lionel—Colonel Chambers, I mean. She seemed to encourage my affections for him but I’m uncertain. Hearts are tricky things. There’s what we know and what we know.” She gave him a look that implied he understood, which he did not.

  Displeasure rumbled low in his throat. Solenne had no attachment to that man. None!

  Charlotte paled, as if alarmed. “Yes, but what I want to know is would it upset her if Lionel and I were engaged?”

  Such a tiresome way to ask a simple question. Alek rolled his shoulders. “Are you engaged?”

  “Yes, as it happens, we are. Lionel proposed last night, and I accepted.” A smile bloomed across her face. “Do you think it will crush Solenne?”

  “No. She is already claimed.”

  “To you? Did you propose? Was it terribly romantic?” Charlotte clasped her hands and sighed. “Oh, this is wonderful. We’ll have a double wedding, just like in the novels she reads.” She frowned slightly. “Without all the stabbing, treachery, and doom, of course.”

  “I’ll do my best,” he replied, unsure what type of books his mate read.

  “There’s so much to plan and so many details to consider. A double wedding will
cut down on expenses, I presume. I positively have a mountain of work to organize.” Her eyes sparkled, as if she could think of nothing better. “This is wonderful!”

  Charlotte launched herself at Alek, throwing her arms around him in complete disregard to propriety and cleanliness.

  “What’s this now?” a gruff voice said from behind them. Alek turned to find Godwin glaring at them. Correction: him. The glare was specifically for Alek’s benefit.

  Charlotte pulled away, beaming with excitement. “Mr. Marechal, it’s the best news! Solenne and Aleksandar are engaged!”

  Solenne

  Boxon Hill

  Marechal House - Solenne’s Bedroom

  * * *

  “Solenne!” Heavy footsteps thundered up the stairs, waking Solenne from her fitful half-sleep. The air felt charged, as if a storm were about to break. “Explain yourself!”

  She sat upright, head spinning. Food wouldn’t be amiss, and perhaps a cool bath, though going downstairs to the bathing room seemed like an impossible journey. Hot and sticky from the fever, she had sought the cool tiles of the toilet floor. The small necessity was built into her room but only offered a wash basin, not a tub.

  “Tell me it is not true!”

  “Please, do not yell, Papa. I’m feeling rather poorly,” she said, rubbing her forehead. Her entire body ached, like a werewolf had mauled her. Well, it stood to reason.

  “Air this room out. It smells.” She heard the rattle of the window being raised. Cool air flooded in on a strong breeze. “What are you doing in the toilet?” Godwin stood in the door, blocking the dim sunlight.

  “Not vomiting, though my stomach is trying its hardest.” Solenne set her hand on the closed toilet lid and pulled herself to her feet. She needed another dose of willow bark.

  “Don’t be vulgar.” Godwin offered his arm as she hobbled her way to the bed. She sighed with relief as she sat down. He seemed to have finally noticed the bandage on her ankle and her leg. “How bad is it?”