Another deep sigh. “You survive. Somehow, someway, I did just that. My father arranged for me to marry Sierra. She helped me greatly. She’s a hell of a woman and I love her so much, but it took so much time for me to even look at her as my wife. The magic is so powerful, Killian. I understand what you’re feeling. The intensity. You would go to war with the entire world for this Daphne. But that’s why you need to do what’s necessary.”
Was he suggesting….killing her?
“No!” I snarled. “I will not harm her, and if anyone comes near her, if you try to hurt her, I will—”
I bit off the words.
I’d almost threatened him.
My wolf exploded out of my skin and ran in a frantic, furious circle. It took everything I had to pull myself back into human form.
Slowly, stiffly, I walked back and sat down next to him.
I had to admit the truth to myself—being with Daphne but not moon biting her was threatening to drive me mad.
I closed my eyes and took deep breaths. I thought of Daphne, how calm I felt when she was with me. Slowly the rage ebbed.
I opened my eyes and looked at my grandfather.
He stared at me steadily.
With what he had told me, I understood my grandfather a little more. Love was more a curse than a blessing for him.
“Do you see how out of control you are? I am not suggesting you kill her, although I’d gladly do it for you. I am saying, send her away, Killian. Don’t tear this pack apart,” Grandfather said. “Be rational. Think with your brain, not your dick, not your instincts, but your brain.”
My brain was the only thing keeping me from committing violence right now.
I shook my head and forced a calm expression on my face. “I’m all right,” I said to him. “I am standing here, in human form, and everything is okay. It was a little hard on the full moon, but everything’s under control now.”
“So you’re dooming us all for the sake of a woman you just met. I should never have let you be my heir. You’re not worthy of the title.” His words slashed me like a knife, and he leapt to his feet, shifted back to wolf form, staggered a little, and then ran off, vanishing into the woods.
Twenty-One
Daphne
It had been two days since the full moon, and the sensation of fizzy magic was gone. It was a normal day at the pack’s property—normal, except I hadn’t seen Killian since he ran off and left me. I slept in my room alone. I ate with the other pack members. They could sense it too—they were all overly kind to me, asking me again and again if I needed anything, but Maeve and Max had stopped asking about the wedding.
Did they know something I didn’t?
Was Killian tiring of me already? I mean, that was what I wanted, wasn’t it…to escape, to go back home…?
But what home? I’d missed paying this month’s rent. My stuff was probably already in storage, and my mother hadn’t exactly made me feel welcome the last time I saw her.
After breakfast, I sat on the front steps of the house, staring off into the distance. Pack members were moving through the property, living their daily lives, trimming hedges and going into shops and pushing baby carriages and shifting and chasing each other…
And here I sat, in limbo. My heart was a giant ache. How much longer would this go on? And how dare Killian sweep me off my feet, seduce me, and then ghost me right here in his own home?
“Daphne? Will you braid my hair?” Sarah walked up to me and sat down on the steps next to me. She held out a comb to me. She looked a little down. I hoped she wasn’t picking up on my mood.
“Of course.” I quickly parted her hair and went to work.
“Did your mother teach you how to braid hair like that?” There was a faint wistfulness to her voice. Her mother had died in childbirth, her father had died in a fight.
And my mother had basically left me to raise myself.
“No, I learned it by watching YouTube videos.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of YouTube. I wish we had that.”