I started toward the library when I was stopped by Jasper.
“Are you about to retire for the night?” he asked.
“That was my plan,” I told him. “I thought perhaps I would get a book first.”
“Would you like me to come join you for a bit?”
I bit my lip, my stomach churning. Since I had come out of the woods, relations between us had remained strained, to say the least. I was happy he was safe, and he was happy I was safe, but beyond that, I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel. We hadn’t spent much time together since, only a few days and fewer nights. I had been claiming pregnancy–related problems, headaches and fatigue, but I didn’t know how much longer our marriage could last that way.
“I’m a little tired,” I admitted.
His face fell. “Oh, I see.”
The guilt festered, a tension constricting my chest, and I took a breath. “However, if you wanted to come upstairs with me in a little bit, that might be nice.”
He smiled. “I would like that very much.”
Truthfully, I missed him. I missed being that close to another human being, especially one I had fallen so deeply in love with. Still, I had a hard time ridding myself of the feeling of betrayal that rang through me every time I saw him, and to be honest, a feeling of fear as well.
“I’ve got some business to attend to,” he said, “but I can meet you in perhaps an hour? Will you still be awake?”
Undoubtedly. “I’m sure I will be,” I said.
“I’ll try not to take too long. I’m a bit exhausted as well, and we’ve got a busy day tomorrow.”
Lester’s head poked around Jasper’s shoulder. “Speaking of tomorrow, what time are we expected to arrive?”
Jasper rolled his eyes at the old man. “Try to get here around 6:00.”
Lester nodded. “I can do that.”
He and many of the other councilmen disappeared out the front door, apart from Stephen, who went to seek out Annabelle and see what sort of tinsel trap his wife had gotten into. Jasper turned back to me once they had all cleared away.
“Sorry about that,” he said.
“Do you think I’m not used to your men needing you by now?” I asked him, a smirk settling on my lips. “I think they need you more than I do.”
“That’s undoubtedly true.” It was meant as a joke, but there was sorrow behind his eyes.
This time, I could not seem to hold eye contact. I bit my lip and pulled my arms to my chest, looking down at the ground. Jasper cleared his throat.
“I’d better get started on my work,” he said, gesturing towards his study. “I’ll see you when I’m done?”
“Yes, of course,” I said, keeping my head down.
Once his study door was shut behind him, and I was sure he would be distracted, I slipped into the library, closing the heavy double doors. I leaned back against them, shutting my eyes and taking deep breaths. Why must things with my husband be so complicated?
The men had left a lamp burning in the center of the table. I rolled my eyes. Convenient for me, but one day a forgotten lamp was going to cause all of Wolf’s Peak to be engulfed in flames. I picked it up off the table, using it to light my way as I crossed over to the spiral staircase leading to the library’s second level, a loft taking up half the space of the library.
It seemed that no matter how many times I asked the maids to wipe the rails and shelves in here, they never seemed free of several layers of dust. The iron railing was thick with it, but I held on, knowing that with my unusual center of gravity, I was at an even greater risk than normal to take a tumble.
Once I had made it to the top, feet landing on the solid wood and thick rug, I wove my way around tables to the far corner of the library. Setting the lamp down on the nearest table, I knelt down to pull out the book on the bottom shelf. This was a section of the library I had spent weeks in since my time in the forest, and I never seemed to find the comfort I was seeking. Many of the books were hand–written in old languages I didn’t understand, and what I guessed to be some form of Celtic. The illustrations were certainly illuminating enough. None of them showed the process to be particularly beautiful. I had asked Jasper plenty of questions, and he had given me the best answers he could, but they weren’t good enough, weren’t the comforting answers I sought.
The illustrations of the wolves themselves were gorgeous works of art, showing the wolves as massive and majestic, overlooking trees or canyons. Everything leading up to that point, though was horrific enough that they’d appeared in several of my nightmares. Men in various stages of the transformation, from their teeth falling out to their claws ripping through the tips of their fingers, to their bones cracking and breaking to recreate their form.
Just like every night that I looked at these images, I felt sick to my stomach. I rested my hand on my belly. Tears sprung to my eyes as I thought about my son.
“What are you going to become?” I whispered.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty–One
Chapter Twenty–Two
Chapter Twenty–Three
Chapter Twenty–Four
Chapter Twenty–Five
Chapter Twenty–Six
Chapter Twenty–Seven
Chapter Twenty–Eight
Epilogue
Sneak Peek
The Wolf's Wife (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 1) Page 25