Chapter 9
Meanwhile, Ella helps me stand. “Is it true what they said? Are you wolfless?” At once she
shakes her head. “We should go to the doctor. I hear they have ways now of helping a wolf
manifest. You won’t have to suffer, Ollie. We’ll find a way to help you and –
“Ella,” I say, gently stopping her. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” Ella asks.
Gods, I wish I could tell her, but it feels like too big a secret to utter anywhere inside of this
house.
“Thank you for what you did,” I tell her. “I’m really tired. I think I’m going to go to bed.”
Her concern stays on her face, but now it also adds disbelief. As I turn toward the back stairwell, on my way down to my room, she follows me.
“You are hiding something,” she says. “But why? Why from me?”
“Please, don’t ask me,” I say and keep walking. She follows me into the back stairwell.
“Then let me help you. There’s no reason to not see a doctor, unless…” She pauses.
I stop on a stair beneath hers and glance back at her. Her brow pulls together in confusion. As she is my best friend, it shouldn’t surprise me that she’s already piecing together the
truth.
“Is there anyone nearby?” I ask my wolf in my mind.
She stretches out from where she’s huddled herself into the corner of my mind. My senses
expand, and I can tell we are alone in the stairwell.
Scarlet retracts herself quickly. In all, she only revealed herself for a moment, but that was long enough for Ella to have caught her scent.
“You have a wolf…” she says. “Why would you lie about being wolfless?”
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Chapter 9
“Because I also have mates,” I reply. “Four of them.”
Understanding sparkles in her eyes and they go wide. “No.”
“Yes, unfortunately.”
“The quadruplets?”
“Yes.”
Her face crumples at once. “Oh, Ollie… I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I say. “I can hide it.”
“For the rest of your life?”
“Just until I move away.”
+25 Bonus
The brothers would never follow me if I left the pack, and that distance would provide the safety I need to be myself far, far away from them, without the fear of being discovered.
Ella’s sympathetic gaze remains. “And until then?”
“Until then, I’m wolfless.”
I say goodnight to Ella in the hallway. It’s been a long night for us both, and I truly just want to get some sleep and pretend like today never existed.
My wolf needs time too. I can feel her, in my mind, whimper with the pain of what our mates said to us. I fear she will hear much worse before we are finally free of this place.
There’s only one stairwell that leads to the basement, and to get to it from where I am, I must exit on the lowest floor, pass down a hallway, and enter the servants‘ stair.
My brothers each have a floor of the estate dedicated to themselves. This floor, unfortunately, has been mostly claimed by my brother Conrad. Typically, I would go up and around to avoid this floor, but I’m too tired right now after the day I’ve suffered.
What are the odds I would run into Conrad, anyway? He’s likely attending to his precious
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Chapter 9
little sister.
+25 Bonus
I’m halfway down the hall, when I hear a door opening. Right in front of me, Conrad steps out into the hallway from the bathroom, a trail of steam following him.
There’s a towel wrapped low around his hips, but he’s otherwise naked. His damp hair
clings to his forehead. Water droplets drip down in his chest, leaving long wet trails that I,
in a moment of madness, wish I could chase with my tongue.
Heat rises within me, my treacherous body reacting.
I need to get away before he sees me. I can’t be here!
Just as I start to turn away, Conrad grabs me by the shoulder and shoves me. My back hits
the wall, knocking the wind out of me.
He slaps his hands flat against the wall on either side of my head, fully boxing me in.
Voice low, he asks, “Where do you think you’re going?”
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