“I didn’t think I’d have to be when I told you we were kidnapping her!”
“You told me you needed to keep her alive until the duke gets here. If she doesn’t eat, she’ll die. If she gets too cold, she’ll die. If she gets sick from the dirt in the room, she’ll die. By helping her, I’m keeping her alive!”
“Fine!” Seth spat. “Do what you want. Be as nice to her as you want. Just don’t get too attached. She and the incoming brat will be killed once my brother gets here.”
“Understood.”
I paused. I had assumed there was some reason that Seth was keeping me alive. I had figured he wanted more drama; he thought that would be more memorable. What he really wanted was Jasper here. He was luring Jasper in, using me as bait. It still seemed simpler to tell Jasper that he had me and then kill me anyway, but I wasn’t going to argue if he wanted to keep me alive longer.
My hand reached down to cradle my belly in the foreign dress. Christoph’s wife must have been a bit larger than I was; the dress wasn’t cut in a maternity silhouette, but it still managed to fit around my convex stomach.
I sat down on the edge of the bed. The baby was due soon, and if I got a chance to meet him, it would be for a very short time. A wave of immense sorrow washed over me, and I realized it was grief. I was mourning. I was mourning the son I would never get to know, and I was morning the family I would never have. I was mourning the perfect life I’d lived, though it was only for a short period of time.
Once again, Seth burst through the door. He had left the doctor outside, and now I was alone with him.
Seth turned to me, a lecherous grin on his face as he took in the room. “I so wanted you in a dungeon,” he sighed.
I rolled my eyes. “You mentioned that.”
“It just would have been so much…” he shrugged as he struggled to find the right word, finally settling on “better. Oh, well. One can’t have everything he wants.”
“That’s a rather mature–sounding statement coming from you. You killed your family to get what you wanted.”
He tilted his head at me. “You keep bringing that up as if that’s supposed to make me feel guilty. You can’t force someone to feel remorse, you know.”
“You have no regrets at all? None? You don’t regret growing up without your parents?”
He paused. “Of course I have regrets,” he said. And I had to admit that surprised me. I hadn’t expected him to be the regretful type.
“I regret that I was sloppy and didn’t finish the job.”
Of course. He didn’t regret the harm he’d caused. He regretted that he hadn’t caused more.
“I should have made sure that my brother was dead. I’ve been fighting for his title for years!”
I said nothing.
“Oh, well,” Seth continued. “I have you here now, and I’ll finally get what I want.”
I scoffed. “You really think that this will force Jasper to abdicate his title?”
“I’m counting on it.”
“Jasper is much stronger than you give him credit for,” I said. “He’s not going to give up because you kill me.”
“Perhaps. But if you and the baby are dead, he doesn’t have an heir and he’s forced to pass over the title. Those are the rules.”
“You stupid man. There are exceptions to every rule. You think that once the elders find out what you’ve done, they’ll let you take his position?”
“Of course I’ve considered that,” he said. “That’s why you’re here.”
“You’re talking in circles,” I told him. “We already established that me being here won’t get you the title.”
“Don’t you understand? I never took you for being dim. You’re here,” he said, using his hands to demonstrate. He was speaking slowly as if he thought I was a child. “Jasper will come here. For you. To save you. But once he’s here, I’ll kill you both.”
This was all a trap. I sat there, my mouth agape, the terror of the situation setting in.
Seth cackled. “There we are, there’s the proper fear.”
He headed for the door, pausing for a moment. “Goodnight, Christine. See you in the morning, if I decide not to kill you before then.”
He slammed the door behind me and turned the key in the lock. I heard him speak to the men outside, no doubt instructions not to leave me unguarded.
I curled up on the bed and cried myself to sleep.
Chapter Twenty–Five
I woke up freezing cold, despite the blankets. The fire was low, only glowing embers in the fireplace. I slipped from beneath my covers and wrapped one of the blankets around me. I limped over to the fireplace and jabbed at the embers with a poker. The fireplace that we’d had at my old home had been small and easy to stir. I had no idea what I was doing with the fire in this massive fireplace. After some awkward, blind prodding, the fire came back with a new life. I sighed as I sat down, cross–legged on the cold hearth, holding my hands out to get some blood flowing back into them.
I was filthy. My hands were clean, thanks to the washbasin in the restroom, but blood and dirt were still wedged firmly under my fingernails. The clean clothes helped, but they couldn’t make me feel too fresh when my skin was caked in layers of dirt and sweat and blood.
Once I had warmed up, I pulled myself slowly to my feet. The larger my stomach got, the more difficult it was for me to stand up. Every week it felt like I was using another method of assistance. I climbed to my swollen feet. They had been warmed by the fire, and the floor was like ice instead of stone. I padded across to the bathroom. There was no hot water here, only cold, and I had no bucket or basin to carry it in. I stripped off my clothes down to my slip. I pulled a new dress from the wardrobe and rested it by the fire so it would absorb some heat. I ripped off a piece of cloth from the lining of one of the dresses and picked up the container that Christoph had brought me the soup in. I rinsed it out in the washbasin, then filled the small bowl up with water. It wasn’t nearly enough, but it would have to do.
I sat down next to the fire, still in my slip, and dipped the cloth in the water. I sat with my knees bent as I squeezed the water over my legs. The streams left patterns of clean lines dribbling down my legs. The water dripped off my skin onto the hearth, sizzling as it rolled toward the fire. In the icy room, the water made me even colder, and I huddled as close to the fire as possible without getting burnt. The skin against the fire was turning bright red. I didn’t care. It was better than the goosebumps or the debilitating chill.
I ran the cloth up and down my legs, rinsing off the dirt and grime of the last few days. It was far from perfect; I had no soap, and I had to constantly get back up to switch out my dirty water for clean. Still, it felt good to return my skin from the pebbly brown color it had turned to the ivory it usually was.
Once I was clean, I stayed sitting in front of the fire, my knees up to my chest, arms wrapped around my legs. My chin rested on my knees as I enjoyed the fire. I basked in the glow for a while as I thought about where I was.
Not merely my physical position—I knew that I was in a castle in the middle of nowhere. I knew that I was sitting by a fire. I knew that my ankle and wrist were injured.
I knew I was going to die here.
I cried. I couldn’t keep the tears in. They dripped down my face, the same way that the water had wiped the dirt from my body.
The baby kicked, and I reached one hand down to rest where his feet had hit. I was never going to meet this little man I had been growing for the last nine months. For all these months, I had been dreaming about his first steps, his first words. I had wondered which of us he would look most like. Now, I was never going to get the chance to see what he would grow up to be. I wouldn’t get to hold him. I had spent months dreaming about holding him to my chest, kissing his curls, if he had them, cradling him in my arms. Seth had destroyed my dreams of life. He had ended this child’s life before it had ever begun. All I wanted was to shelter this baby, and there was nothing I cou
ld do. I was failing in my one job as a mother. I was supposed to protect him, and I had failed at that.
Even if the baby was born, which was a possibility at any moment, what sort of life could I give him in these few days? I could hold him and hug him all I wanted, but I wasn’t going to be able to give him real life.
He hadn’t even been born, and I was a failure.
I cried for a long, long time. The sun was high in the sky by the time I picked myself up off the floor. I tucked myself into bed and fell asleep.
The doctor came to check on me a few times, bringing me food. It had been two days since I had been brought here. I was desperately bored, and he had brought me a book.
“Thank you,” I said, taking it from him. Alice in Wonderland. I had read it as a child.
“We bought it for my daughter, but she’s still a bit too young for it yet,” he said.
“What’s her name?” I asked as the doctor unwound my ankle to take a look at it. The ankle was still purple and swollen, but didn’t look nearly as bad as it had before. He applied a pack of ice onto it.
“Alice,” he said with a smile. “That’s why we bought the books for her.”
“That’s sweet.”
“Have you been elevating this?” he asked me as he carefully turned my foot from side to side.
“I haven’t.” I had tried to sleep with it propped up on a pillow, but with my constant tossing and turning at night, it had turned into more of an annoyance. During the day, I preferred to stay huddled up against the cold. In either situation, keeping my foot elevated had been uncomfortable.
“It’ll help the swelling go down faster,” he reminded me. “Now, let’s take a look at your hand.”
I outstretched my left hand and he unwrapped it. He gingerly pressed along the swelling. The wrist was slightly green, but most of the purple had faded by now.
“How old is she?” I asked, trying to make conversation as he wrapped it back up.
“Just turned one,” he said. “She’s starting to walk. Not by herself, but along the furniture.”
“That’s exciting.” Our small talk felt forced and stilted. It was hard to talk about lighter subjects when I was being held against my will.
Christoph listened for the heartbeat. “The baby sounds healthy,” he said after a minute.
The appearance of the stethoscope reminded me of another question I had wanted to ask.
“So, you aren’t a werewolf?”
“I’m not.”
“Then I still don’t understand how you ended up in all of this.”
He paused what he was doing and sat down with a sigh. “It’s like this. I’m one of two doctors in the nearby village. The other is a man who is astonishingly old. He’s got no wife, no children, and has lived a long life. Essentially, he has nothing that can be used as leverage against him. I do.”
“Your wife and daughter.”
“Yes. When Seth came to me, he didn’t try to hide what he needed me for. The plan was to steal you, and he wanted a doctor here to keep you alive until your husband arrives. As I mentioned before, he offered me power once he got what he wanted. He said he’d give me a new position, a higher position when he became the duke. He said he’d make me rich. I said no. If someone had kidnapped my daughter, I’d like to think someone in my circumstances would do the same. Then Seth snapped his fingers, and the men began to transform. I was horrified.”
“It’s quite a horrifying thing to witness,” I agreed.
“The teeth falling out, the bones breaking and twisting! It’s biologically impossible!”
“One would think,” I murmured. “And yet, they do it.”
“The only one who didn’t change was Seth. I was surrounded. I tried to run, but they grabbed me and dragged me back. Seth told me that if I didn’t agree to help, they would kill me. But first, they’d kill my wife and Alice and they’d make me watch. I had no choice.”
“I hate him,” I said.
“I do as well.”
I paused as Christoph looked into the crackling fire. “Would you be able to help me with something?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
He looked at me, startled. “I can’t let you out of here.”
“No, I know,” I said. “But do you think you could get a message to my husband? Tell him not to come for me.”
“You don’t want him here?”
“It’s a trap, I’m sure you know that,” I said, and he nodded. “There are too many men here. If Jasper were to come, he would need a lot of backup. He has no idea what’s waiting for him here, how outnumbered they’ll be. I need to get word to him. I don’t want him stumbling in here unprepared.
The doctor’s face had turned as white as a sheet. “I think it may, perhaps, be too late.”
My blood ran cold. “What do you mean?”
He was reticent to tell me, fiddling with his hands and seeming to choke on his words. “If the things I’ve heard are accurate, the duke is already here.”
“No,” I whispered. Jasper was strong, the strongest man in my world. He could take on Seth, possibly, though their last encounter hadn’t ended well. There was no way that he was going to be able to take on Seth plus his army. That was one against six. It didn’t matter how right or noble Jasper was, those were terrible odds.
Tears sprang from my eyes. I was done fighting them. I rested my head in my hands as I cried.
“I’m sorry,” Christoph said, not reaching out to try to comfort me like I would have expected. Seth was right. Any sort of bond or care that Christoph developed for me would be severed once my head was on a platter.
Without saying anything else, Christoph got up to leave the room. Before he reached the door, I called out to him.
“Please,” I whispered.
He paused, turning around, finally meeting my eyes.
“I don’t know what you want me to do,” he said.
I climbed out of bed and put my feet on the floor, wincing at the pain in my ankle. I limped over to him, and he stayed in place, not coming to meet me. I took his arm. “Find Jasper. Warn him. Please, I’m begging you.”
He shook his head. “I can’t risk my family like that.”
“Slip him a note. Pass him a warning. Something. Something so he knows what he’s walking into.” My eyes welled up with tears again as I implored him, pleading with him. “Like you said, imagine this was your daughter.”
“I’m doing this so it’s not my daughter,” Christoph said, his voice cold like steel. He pulled away from me. He shut the door behind him, the sound reverberating through the room.
I collapsed to the floor, my sobs echoing off the walls. I wrapped myself up as tightly as possible, crying into my dress. I cried for a long time. I had done a lot of crying in the last few days; I was surprised I had any tears left. When was the last time I had drunk a glass of water? The single meal I was getting a day wasn’t nearly enough to keep me going. My body felt weak, and merely lifting my head up off the floor was beginning to become too difficult. The baby was still kicking, but the kicking had slowed now, only a few times a day. I was scared that meant that something was wrong, that the baby wasn’t getting enough nourishment.
Despite this, I couldn’t shake this maternal instinct. Despite knowing that the baby wasn’t going to survive, I still wanted to do everything in my power to take care of him.
I was wrapped in myself, crying and rocking and rubbing at my pregnant belly when I heard it.
At first, I wasn’t sure what the noise was, or what it was that I was hearing. It started as a low whine. A squeal, then another. Followed by a bang. Loud, resounding through the thick castle walls.
I started to uncurl, stretching out my legs, my head turning in curiosity. I slowly pulled myself off the floor, brushing my dirty hands off on my skirt. Desperation and curiosity flooded my mind, but I had no way to discover what was going on. I tried climbing on the chair by the window, my feet sinking into the dusty velvet cushions. I pulled myself up on t
he ledge of the window and peered out, but I saw only the gray sky. I tried stretching up to my tiptoes, but it was no use. I was too high up and at too low an angle.
The pounding and clanging throughout the house intensified, interspersed with snarls and howls and whines. Something was going on, and while I had my suspicions, I had no idea exactly what it was. Surely Seth had other enemies, but I doubted any of them were here. This had to be Jasper, and the fight didn’t seem to be going well. It sounded like there were many wounded, in addition to a lot of wreckage. For all I knew, Jasper could have been killed by now. I could be a widow, about to be a corpse.
I tried one more time to peer out the window, attempting to stabilize myself on the table, but it did nothing. I was blind to whatever was happening outside and downstairs. All I heard was chaos.
And the chaos was getting closer. The sounds of pounding and slamming were drawing closer. The battle was upstairs now, right outside my door. I heard door after door open and close, right across from me, right next door to me, until my door burst open.
Jasper stood there, out of breath. When he caught sight of me, relief washed over his face. He raced across the room and enveloped me in a hug, holding me tightly.
“Christine,” he murmured, saying my name over and over again. “Christine, Christine.”
“Jasper,” I cried out, clutching him tightly. “How did you—? What did you—?” I seemed unable to complete my sentences as I held him close.
“I’m so glad you’re alive,” Jasper breathed.
I pulled away from him. “Jasper, we need to get out of here now.”
“It’s fine,” he assured me. “Seth isn’t even here. I took care of the three he left in his place.”
My heart lurched. “Three? Jasper, he has six wolves working for him.”
He shook his head. “No, I only counted three.”
I clutched his arm. “Something’s wrong.’
“Christine, it’s all right. Let’s get out of here.”
He set me gently on the ground, although I still held him tightly to keep my balance. As we turned around to go to toward the door, it slammed shut behind us. A key turned.
The Wolf's Bait (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 2) Page 19