“I’m beginning to understand you now, although, I wish I had known this sooner,” Aiden said. “I wish I had known everything sooner.”
“I need to find out what Jamison wanted to keep away from them. Is it too late now? I wish he’d said what it was.” Her shoulders slumped. “Was it this estate? Was it something else? Something tangible? His business?”
“I don’t have those answers. How long do you have until you move out?”
“I don’t kn—”
Before Keira could finish her sentence, she was stopped short when a commotion broke out down the hall. They both rose from their chairs.
Chapter Five
Aiden pulled his gun from the holster tucked inside his jacket and urged Keira to remain behind him. She was equally as eager to see what had caused such an uproar at the front door. His duty, as her mate and bodyguard, was to protect her.
All of his senses were on high alert. An air of danger brushed against the back of his neck like a forceful wind, causing hairs to stand on end.
As they turned the corner, they nearly ran head-on into the guest and the two maids behind him.
Aiden froze in his tracks accessing the situation before him.
“Miss Ellis! We’ve been fired. How could you not tell us?” One maid exclaimed, holding up an envelope in his hand.
“Jonathan!” Keira’s voice came out in a rush. Her anger literally sparked the air around them.
Aiden’s wolf reared up under his skin and he swallowed hard to keep the animal at bay. The wolf immediately sensed the threat that this man standing before him posed.
“What have you done?” Keira demanded at the man, but he gave no answer.
He was too busy doing what Aiden was doing—calculating the odds of them running into each other like this.
Aiden’s mouth parted and his nose flared. He could literally taste the chilling awareness. He could smell it mixed with the pheromones and sweat fuming off the man’s skin. This man knew what he was. The shock in his eyes were dead giveaway. Aiden’s wolf sensed his panic as it rolled off the surface of his skin in waves.
Keira’s ex brother-in-law was Other. Possessing the spirit of the first Caedmon wolf, but not wolf. Her story made sense now. At least some of it. The rest of it…well right now, he was concerned about her safety.
“You carry guns now?” Jonathan leered at him.
“I carry what the hell I want to protect my client.”
“Client?”
“What authority do you have to sell this house?” Keira’s fiery voice demanded once more.
Jonathan grinned. “A signed contract, that’s what.”
“Where is—”
Before she could finish, Jonathan wiped out the contract and pushed it at her. Aiden jerked it out of his hand and handed it to Keira.
“I—I…didn’t sign this.” Her eyes flew over the paper. “This is ludicrous.”
“Somehow, it’s been signed. Your word against mine.”
“You sneaky son of a bitch!”
Jonathan laughed. “I only wished that weren’t true.”
“This is forgery, Jonathan. I will get my lawyers involved.”
“Miss Ellis, does this mean we have to leave?” the maid named Francine said from behind.
“No—”
“Yes—”
Both Keira and Jonathan spoke at the same time.
Thomas, the housekeeper, also clutched an envelope in his fist. “These letters say we have two weeks to vacate.”
“Your servants have two weeks to vacate.” Jonathan crossed his arms over his chest. “But you, Keira, will leave the home immediately.”
Thomas crossed his arms over his chest. “If she goes, we go. We never worked for you.”
“Very well,” Jonathan spat. “Get the hell out now you miserable fucking servants!”
“You would stoop so low and throw me out?” Keira asked.
Jonathan’s stare shifted from Keira to Aiden. “You would have been allowed to stay for two weeks, but now that I know you’ve got the real traitor here…I want you out now.”
Yes, the man knew alright. Without a doubt, he knew what Aiden was.
“Are you talking about Aiden? He’s my bodyguard.”
“Try again, Keira. I do not like liars!”
“I would not have had to hire one, if you would cease sending letters threatening me to leave. Did you send that intruder here the other night?” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Does it matter? You refused to leave on your own accord.” His eyes narrowed. “Take your traitor and leave now.”
“Why do keep calling him traitor? He was just hired days ago.”
Jonathan chuckled. “I see that he’s a traitor through and through. He hasn’t told you, hasn’t he?”
“Told me what?”
“Ask him.” Jonathan thrust his chin sharply toward him.
Aiden wanted to strangle the arrogant bastard since he’d arrived. He’d held his emotions in check for Keira’s sake.
Keira turned to face him and her eyes softened. “Do you know Jonathan?”
“Yes and no.”
She shook her head. “Do you care to tell me how?”
“It’s forbidden,” he said.
“That’s right,” Jonathan sneered. “Forbidden. You should have never entered this home. I want both of you out—quickly.”
“You have no right to anything here and you know it,” Keira said.
“In case you haven’t gotten it through your thick skull, Jamison died because of what he wouldn’t give up.”
She gasped. “Did you have anything to do with your brother’s murder?”
“That’s not what I said,” Jonathan said, slowly. “Pack your shit and leave before the same happens to you.” He pointed at Aiden. “Take your fucking guard dog with you.”
Aiden was tired of being talked to like an idiot. “If Miss Ellis had not been standing here, I doubt you’d have the candor to address me in such a manner.”
Jonathan’s diverted his eyes quickly and a hint of terror washed over his face. “Get out now. This is my territory.”
Aiden’s throat tightened and his wolf ignited every fiber of his being. “Your territory. My client.” My mate, he wanted to add. “Give Miss Ellis more time to pack her belongings.”
Jonathan took a step back. “I’ll give you until six this evening.”
“What!” Keira threw up her hands. “Do you have any idea how much stuff I have? I can’t pack it all in a day.”
“It was only a few years ago, that you came here with nothing,” Jonathan spat.
“You seem to have forgotten what role I played in your brother’s life. I was more than his wife. I was very much involved in the day to day operations of the majority of his companies. I may have come with nothing, but I’ve earned all that I claim is mine.”
“Very well. You will leave with what is yours. Nothing more. Nothing less. I’ll send a moving truck and they will assist you with your belongings so that you can quickly remove yourself.”
“I need more time than this evening.”
“Give her more time,” Aiden demanded.
Jonathan visibly swallowed. “Until midnight.”
“Unbelievable!” Keira threw up her arms.
“Take it or leave it.” Jonathan had now backed several feet away from them. “But I want him out now.”
“I stay with my client to ensure her safety.”
“You’ll pay for entering my territory,” Jonathan warned.
Aiden took a step forward. “Is that a challenge?”
Jonathan took a step back, and without a word he fled back down hall toward the exit.
When all the maids were out of sight, Keira spun around and glared at him. “How do you know Jonathan?”
“Through ties.”
“What ties?”
“I know of him and his family through word of mouth, connections, and ties. I had no idea they were the Ellis’ you spok
e of. There are thousands of Ellis’ all over the world now. What are the odds that you would have been talking about this family?”
Aiden shouldn’t have been talking and revealing so much.
“What do you know of them?”
“Too much.” He returned his gun to the holster.
“I’m calling the police and my lawyer,” she said, heading down the hall toward the study.
“They can’t help you.” He followed her. “That’s why they haven’t.”
“You’re not making sense.” She stopped in the hall. “I don’t even know if I can trust you now.”
“If I had known what I knew now, things would have been different,” he said. “Let me help you pack. I do not advise you to stay here. If you oppose and remain in this house, the outcome will not be pretty. Continued threats on your life will not be taken lightly. I will kill to save you. If you don’t want to see more bloodshed, we should vacate the premises.”
She paused for a long while and studied him. Her chest rose and fell quickly, and her fists clenched at her sides. “I’ve failed him. I’ve failed to keep my promise.”
Aiden grabbed her arm, and pulled her closely to him. “From what you told me, Jamison wanted you to live.”
“I know, but I can’t leave here, not knowing what he needed me to keep away from Jonathan.”
“I need your trust, Keira.”
“What did you mean back there?” She waited for his reply. “What’s forbidden?”
“You don’t want to know. Believe me in this one. There are some things that are better left unknown.”
She sighed. “I wish I could truly believe that.”
“Keira, we don’t have much time. If you know what Jonathan could be after, and it’s in this house…tell me now. My job right now is to protect you, but I also want to help you.”
“There’s no question in my mind that whatever it is, he’s learned that it’s here, and it’s the reason he wants me out.” A minute passed with them in complete silence except for her panicked breathing. “I don’t know what it is, but I think I know where it is.”
“Show me.”
***
There was uncertainty in Keira’s steps as she led him past the study where she’d taken the call. By the time they reached the door leading into her bedroom, Aiden’s blood pressure had returned to normal. If Keira hadn’t been standing in the hall with them, things would have turned out differently.
Jonathan Ellis was Other. He wasn’t an enemy for that reason, but because of what he and his family represented. If only he had done adequate research on the family before taking the job, he would have known. Would he have accepted it then? Probably. But had the information been readily available about who Keira had actually been married to, there definitely would be no question—he would have been prepared.
Others were part of the human branch of Caedmon. Non-shifters. Humans, but not entirely. The most potent powers, including the power to shift between man and animal, existed only through the wolf bloodlines. If one parent could shift, then the gift was passed on. Others possessed supernatural powers of the Caedmon, but only a limited amount of them remained in the world. Their bloodline, along with any powers granted them, had become muted by decades and decades of reproduction with regular humans as a result of the decree that isolated them from the original Caedmon Pack. When both branches were together with one united mission, they were stronger against those who allied against them. For this reason and many others, the current Alpha had welcomed Others back into the Pack.
But when Others allied against Caedmon, that was a different story. Jonathan and his family were allies.
Keira led him into the room, closed the door, and turned around to face him. “I thought I’d been confused before, but on the night the intruder broke in, I became even more puzzled.”
The master bedroom was open and airy, just like the rest of the home. The whole room smelled just like her.
“Did you recognize this intruder?” he asked, as he moved toward the windows and glanced outside at the front of the home. The driveway was empty.
“No. He wore a cloth over his face. It was dark that night. My gun misfired and he ran off.” She came to join him at the window. “Is he gone?”
“For now.” Aiden hadn’t known that she was equipped with a gun, but what did he expect? Walk around unarmed? The woman’s life was in danger. Now more than ever. “Did you shoot him?”
“I fired by accident. I had no intentions of shooting him…I think.”
He couldn’t help but grin. “Remind me to give you firearm training.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I have adequate training. Not as extensive as you, I’m sure. If I wanted to shoot him, I would have.”
“Where did he break in? This bedroom?”
“No, the study.”
“Then he knew what he was after when he came here…?”
Keira nodded. “He knew something was there.” She paused near the bed and opened the top drawer of the end table. “For the longest, I have been unable to sleep in the master bedroom. I was sleeping in the study on the daybed that night. I’m sure the intruder thought the room was empty, and everyone had gone to bed. It was late, and nearly midnight when he broke in.”
“Did he leave with anything?” Aiden asked as she pulled out a small safe. There was a small handgun near the safe, but she left it inside.
“No, but I could have missed something. I was scared.” Keira placed the safe on the bed, entered the combination which he stored to memory by instinct, and popped the lid. “He dropped this on the way out of the window.”
Aiden knew exactly what it was, and he’d never even seen it before. There was no mistaking the familiar markings and Pack insignia on the metal cover. The ability to detect a Caedmon relic on sight had been encoded in his blood from the moment of his birth. The book in the safe wasn’t just any book.
“Where did you get this?” Aiden’s eyes darted between Keira and the book.
She shook her head quickly. “I retrieved it from the floor of the study. It was the first thing he took from the nook behind the bookcase. It must have slipped from his jacket when it tore on the window sill.”
Aiden traced the markings on the front of the cover. This was impossible. What was Keira’s ex-husband doing with this?
“Had you seen the book before that night?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Of course, Jamison and I never had the same taste in books. The study is filled with nonfiction and literature. History books, he once told me. I had no interest in books like that. I read fiction. Romance.”
His fingers ran across the battered lock. “It’s broken.”
“It wasn’t me. Maybe it was like that. Or maybe the lock broke when the intruder dropped it. I opened to the first few pages. It’s not written in any English. There are symbols of some sort. It’s why I wanted to visit the museum. My searches at all of the local libraries turned up nothing.”
Curiosity pulled at him, as his fingers brushed the sides of the pages. He had to know if the book was legit, but it was forbidden to read the journal of a Caedmon leader without his sanction.
“What are you thinking?” Keira whispered.
Aiden swallowed dry air, and picked up the book without opening it. “You said there was a nook behind a bookcase.”
As Keira led the way back toward the study, it dawned on him that not only was her life in jeopardy, but so was the relic that he held. If it so happened to end up in the wrong hands, human or otherwise, the consequences could destroy his entire Pack. He needed to get the book back to where it belonged. It was a Caedmon relic. How did it end up here?
He felt helpless for not having all the answers. Devin Caedmon, current Alpha, was only a phone call away, but right now his duties rested with ensuring Keira’s safety.
“He pulled a book from this location.” Keira plucked out a book, going through the motions just as though she was reminiscing on that night.
> Aiden pulled a few more books from the shelf. “Looks like a normal bookcase to me.” There were no nooks, crannies, or anything of the sort that would lead to a secret door. Then again, if the book had been hidden on purpose, making the contents easy to access would not have been the intention.
“This very bookcase detached from the wall…like a door.”
It seemed possible, as the structure was built in to the wall.
“What did he touch? Did you see anything else out of the ordinary?”
She shook her head. “Nothing that I can remember.”
Aiden looked over the room, across the bookshelves, along the ceiling, and anywhere else that could have given him any hints or clues. “There are other ways to get to it…”
“I’ve thought of that before,” she said.
He turned and stared at her in surprise. “Damage to the structure would be a dead giveaway.”
“What would it matter if Jonathan already knows that Jamison had been hiding something in this house?” Her eyebrow arched. “There is an ax in the shed.”
As Aiden contemplated that option, he saw something like a thread peeking out from the bottom of one of the bookcases. He would have missed it if he hadn’t had his head bowed in deep though.
He bent down and confirmed that it was a thin plastic cord, almost like a wire.
“What is it?” Keira asked.
He stood and applied light pressure to the edge of the bookcase right next to the wire. It gave way, and popped open like a door.
They both gasped at first sight of the contents before them. Hanging on the wall was a shield and dagger. The shield was fashioned from the same metal as the book. The dagger was sharp, and a ruby stone was embedded in to the metal handle of the dagger.
“Oh my God,” Keira whispered.
Jonathan slowly removed the dagger from the wall, turning it over and over in his palm to examine it. He touched the shield which was dented and worn from the effects of battle. There were initials carved at the bottom near the edge. WC.
In that instant, he knew. William Caedmon II. The Fallen Leader. The Alpha who’d been killed in battle centuries ago. A battle that marked the separation of Caedmon into three groups.
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