The Wolf's Choice (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 4)
Page 24
I tried to avert my gaze, but I wasn’t quick enough and Hattie met my eyes and gave me a small wave. I offered her a tight smile which was apparently welcoming enough for her to come over and join us. Annabelle stepped back as Lisbeth took my arm, both of them moving to guard me.
“Hello, Hazel, Annabelle, Lisbeth, how have you been?” Hattie asked.
“Fine,” I said, and the other girls responded similarly. The responses were kept curt, but Hattie didn’t seem to notice.
“Hazel, I never got the chance to congratulate you on your engagement,” she said. “I’m so happy for you.”
I’ll admit, this threw me. I blinked at her a few times, my mind blank. “Oh, thank you, Hattie.”
“I’ve long thought that you and Adam are perfect together,” she said. “You two absolutely deserve happiness, and I’m sure your wedding will be absolutely stunning.”
She had never given me this many compliments in one breath. In fact, I don’t think she had ever given me a compliment before. I was shocked, and from the look on Annabelle and Lisbeth’s faces, they were as well.
“I appreciate that, Hattie,” I finally said. “Have you been well?”
“I have.”
“And Lillian?”
Her face darkened. “I haven’t spoken to her since she was put away.”
I could only nod. Words failed me.
“I should be going,” Hattie said after a pause. “I have some shopping to get done before Christmas.”
“Of course.” I was nodding again. It felt like my brain was broken and all I could do was nod.
When she was out of earshot, I turned to the other girls.
“Well, that was odd,” I finally said.
“Very unexpected,” Lisbeth agreed.
Annabelle held a pair of earrings up beside her face and tilted her head in the mirror. “Clearly she feels guilty.”
Lisbeth scoffed. “Hattie Thorn? Guilty?”
“I think she’d actually have to care about other people in order to feel guilty,” I said.
Annabelle rolled her eyes. “She clearly feels guilty. Has she ever been nice to you before?”
“Only once,” I murmured, thinking back to the time she warned me about Lillian.
“She’s being nice to you because she feels partially responsible for Lillian’s behavior,” Annabelle said. “I know she’s a wretched woman, but perhaps give her a bit of a break.”
“Fine,” I muttered, glancing over at her. She did struggle to meet Anna’s eyes, did keep her gaze on the ground and her words soft. Perhaps what Lillian had done had changed her. It certainly had changed me.
I’d grown up with Hattie and her friend Lillian, and they’d always gone out of the way to make my life miserable. They’d teased me about my weight and my freckles, they’d tripped me, kicked me. Their torture only escalated after our time at Wolf’s Peak.
In order to explain what happened at Wolf’s Peak, I have to explain my fiance, Adam. I’d grown up with Adam as well; he was my next–door neighbor and my brother’s best friend. We’d been in love with each other since childhood, unbeknownst to the other, and it all came to a head one night almost a year and a half ago. It was the end of summer, Adam’s birthday, and we’d both had a bit to drink. We made love on the forest floor, and I spent the next week dreaming of when I would become Lady Wellington.
I didn’t hear from him again for almost nine months, and when he did reappear at my doorstep, it wasn’t the romantic greeting I had expected. Instead, he sat down with my parents and explained that the duke, whom he served, was looking for a wife.
Adam was a councilman to Jasper Wolfric, the Duke of Faolancaster, and the alpha of the werewolves in England. My parents were ecstatic that Adam wanted to bring me to meet the duke. I wasn’t so much. I’d spent my entire life pining for Adam, and now Adam wanted me to marry another. I didn’t understand it.
It wouldn’t be until I left Wolf’s Peak, the duke’s estate, that Adam told me the only reason he had done it was because he thought it would be a better life for me. Of course, had he just consulted me, the whole situation wouldn’t have happened. Our communication skills were much better now.
Each of the duke’s councilmen, plus Annabelle, had brought someone they thought should marry Jasper. Hattie and Lillian were contenders as well, but it was ultimately Annabelle’s pick who had won the duke’s heart and hand.
“I wish Christine could have been here today,” I said, fingers skimming over a pearl comb.
“Oh, she wishes too,” Annabelle said, “but she wasn’t feeling well.”
“Of course, I only want her to feel better,” I said. “She’s got the little one to think about.”
“Standing for too long on her feet has been difficult as well. They swell quickly, and she has a tendency to feel faint. Low blood pressure, I think she said. Luckily, she hasn’t been constantly ill like my sister was.”
After the drama of Wolf’s Peak had finished, Adam and I had spent more time together. A few weeks later, we were officially courting. I was as happy as could be, but as it turned out, someone else wasn’t so happy, and that was Lillian. She’d set her sights on Adam, and she planned to do whatever was necessary to get her hands on him. That turned out to mean that she threatened me, harassed me, and to the shock of the entire town of Weylyn, turned into a werewolf and tried to murder me. Thankfully, my brother and Adam came to my rescue, and though I was bedridden with broken ribs for about a month, they healed, and so did my relationship with Adam. Now Lillain was in an asylum, her parents had fled town, Hattie was embarrassed, and Adam and I were engaged.
To my disappointment, because of Adam’s position with the duke, I didn’t see my new fiance often. He was probably thankful; it meant he didn’t get drawn into wedding planning. Though to be fair, my opinion hardly seemed to count for anything. My mother had forged ahead, with Annabelle working sort of as a buffer so that I could still have things I wanted. Despite that, we were still holding the ceremony in the cathedral where my mother attended church, even though the Catholic church had been responsible for systematically hunting down and killing lycans in the medieval times. She either didn’t recognize or didn’t care about the irony and was adamant that we wed in the church. I’d given up on that fight so long as she let me have my pops of green in the decorations. She’d resisted at first, but we’d settled on a soft sage and she’d finally relented. Annabelle promised me it would look perfect; we’d have green sashes on the bridesmaids gowns, sprigs of green in my hair, and green table clothes with a lace overlay. The only problem with the last was we hadn’t found a place to host the reception. My parents’ house would have been the traditional setting, but it wouldn’t be large enough for the number of people my mother wanted to invite and Adam was obligated to invite. I never broached the subject with my mother, however, because she flew into a tizzy every time I so much as mentioned the lack of a reception venue.
I hadn’t realized just how overwhelming wedding planning could be. We had the event planned for spring, a few months after the duchess was due to give birth. I’d hoped to ask both her and Annabelle to be in my wedding party, but I hadn’t worked up the nerve yet. Although we we had become close over the last few months, I was still terrified they would say no. Lisbeth already knew she was in my wedding, and thank god, because other than Annabelle she seemed to be the only person able to talk sense into my mother.
Speaking of my mother, she had been quiet for the last several minutes. I searched the store for her until I found her at the front desk, examining our winter and holiday gowns.
“Are you ready, ladies?” my mother asked, closing up the dress bag. Anna carried the gowns out to the driver, and we all climbed into the carriage, huddled together for warmth. We were about a day’s journey from London, but the weather here was just as cold and wet as the weather there. Despite heavy coats and fur muffs, we were still shivering all the way home.
We dropped off Annabelle and Lisbeth
at their homes and continued to ours. When we pulled up to the house, I caught sight of a familiar figure coming through the trees. The moment our carriage came to a stop, I lept out and rushed across the yard into my fiance’s arms.
“Oh, darling, I’ve missed you,” he said, picking me up and twirling me around in the fresh–fallen snow.
“It’s been too long,” I said as I clutched him tightly.
“I know, and I’m sorry, but things have been a little stressful for the duke as of late.”
I was aware. Just a few weeks before my ambush by Lillian, Wolf’s Peak had suffered its own violence. Jasper’s brother had paid a visit, and in an attempt to steal Jasper’s titles, tried to kill Christine. He hadn’t succeeded, though the duchess had been injured and the duke nearly killed. Jasper’s brother had escaped, and Jasper and his men, including Adam, had spent the ensuing months attempting to track him down and bring him to justice.
This was one of the reasons I had grown closer with Annabelle and Christine. Christine was often alone at Wolf’s Peak as Jasper hunted down his brother. Annabelle’s husband, Stephen, was Jasper’s right–hand man, so when Jasper was gone, he was gone as well. Though Adam was the newest member of the council, he wasn’t excluded from the hunt in any way, although he wasn’t sent on nearly as many goose chases as Jasper and Adam. The three of us ladies had bonded together in the absence of the men, and I thanked the heavens that I still saw Adam roughly once a week.
His lips met mine, warm in the cold air. My hands slipped from my muff to touch his face. He must have just returned; his face was rough after days without shaving. He pressed his forehead to mine, our panting breaths leaving little puffs of steam in the cold.
“I’ve missed you so,” he said.
“I’ve missed you too.”
I moved my hand down to grasp his, the ring on my index finger digging into my skin as I clutched his hand tightly.
“What have you been up to?” he asked me.
I gave a sly smile. “Nothing much. Just getting fitted for my wedding gown.”
He offered a wide grin in return. “Just a few more months, and you’ll be Lady Hazel Wellington. How does that feel?”
“Much better than Hazel Ackerman,” I told him. Our lips met once more in a kiss, his arm wrapped around me and pulling me in tight against his warm body. We didn’t bother to move inside; despite the frozen temperatures, I never wanted to leave his arms. We stayed their, embracing, kissing, snowflakes collecting in our hair for several minutes.
We didn’t know someone was watching.
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
Epilogue
Sneak Peek