A Wolf's Duty (36 page)

“I’m sure you do, but
don’t come crying to me when he gets bored of you and tosses you
aside.”

A low growl floated
through the air and Tobias felt his heart swell with pride as Alex
took a menacing step towards her father in his defence. The low
rumble emanating from her chest wasn’t as aggressive as his, but
the message was clear. “You don’t even know him.”

“And exactly how well do
you think you know him?”

“I know Tobias as well as
I know myself, he’s offered to give up everything so that we could
stay together and that’s a lot. I don’t want you to talk about him
anymore, he’s not your concern.”

“I’m sure that’s exactly
what your mother’s lover told her, but he left her high and dry and
she had to stay with me.”

“Mum never had a lover,
for all your fucking faults she loved you. I can’t understand why,
but she did and she was always faithful to you!”

Silence reigned
as both reflected on the accusations they had flung at each other.
A thought occurred to Alex, but she shook her head in denial
refusing to believe that could have been the case.
Not even he would be so cruel.
Her eyes stared intently at him as he lay huddled
in a corner of his cell and his responses to her questions flooded
her mind. “You knew,” she hissed in accusation. “You knew that she
considered the plants in her garden part of her family and you
killed them anyway!”

He shrugged, disregarding
the accusation and she felt on the verge of tears, her heart
breaking at his simple movement. “You killed her. I know I’d always
blamed you for what happened to her, but now I know that you might
as well as taken the knife to her wrists yourself. She stayed with
you despite all that you did, all the beatings, all the abuse and
you killed them!”

Could she hear
them calling out to her? Asking for help? Did she feel their pain
when he mowed them down?
She shuddered at
the last thought, remembering the sole occasion that the whispers
that resided at the back of her mind had flooded it, almost
crippling her with their demands.
It would
have been worse. She raised those plants from seeds, if my orchid
is any indication, she would have been able to hear their voices
clearly, each and everyone. Her family.
Her
mind floated back to the first time she had used her ability,
remembering the open acceptance into a new family the whispers had
given her.
My family.

“I remember you tore down
the curtains.” Her voice was low as she recalled the events of that
day, her mind far away. “You tore down the curtains so that she
couldn’t just pretend it wasn’t happening. You took a pair of
shears to all that she had grown; her family and you locked us in
the house so we wouldn’t be able to stop you. Mum was never the
same after that; she couldn’t cope with the world anymore. Those
voices had probably been there for years supporting her and when
you took them away she just couldn’t deal with it anymore and she
killed herself.”

“She deserved everything
she got,” Fred spat.

It took a moment for her
mind to process what Fred had just said but when it did she felt
her anger rising and a red haze of fury fell over her eyes.
Stepping forward Alex moved to stand in front of her father. She
pulled her arm back and slapped him hard. Her palm stung from the
force of impact but the sound of her flesh meeting his was more
satisfying than she had thought possible. After years of abuse she
felt that she was owed at least one moment of
retaliation.

“Bitch!” Fred screamed, he
moved as though to stand up but as Tobias stepped forward
menacingly, he chose to remain seated. While the slap had stung, it
was nothing compared to the pain that Tobias had inflicted upon him
yesterday and he didn’t want to invite another beating of that
brutality.

“Mum deserved better than
you. She didn’t deserve what you did to her, but you…you deserve
everything that’s going to happen to you. Did you know that I kept
you safe when we left England because of some misguided sense of
family loyalty? I asked Tobias not to go after you and he kept his
promise but here you are, literally walking into the wolf’s den and
there’s nothing I can do to help you this time. In fact, the truth
is after hearing all of that, I don’t want to help you. I have a
new family now and I don’t want to have anything to do with you.
There’s nothing you can do or say to make up for what you did to
mum so the only way to pay for what you did is with your life.
Tobias?”

“Yes dearest.”

“I’ve made up my mind
about what should happen to him.”

“You?” Fred spluttered.
“You get to decide what they do with me?”

“Why on earth shouldn’t
she have the right to make that decision?” Tobias asked, stepping
forward and wrapping an arm around Alex’s waist to pull her against
him. “She’s my mate.”

“What exactly does that
mean?!”

“It means that she’s my
wife, a Princess of my people and one day she’ll be Queen, but
right now she’s your judge and she’s about to pronounce your
sentence so I suggest you listen. What do you want to happen to him
dearest?”

“He’s going to die no
matter what I say?” He nodded. “Well then I don’t see the point of
putting off the inevitable, especially after what I’ve heard.
Tobias I want him dead, I never want to see him again.”

His wolf roared in
triumph, beyond pleased with her decision. “You’re
sure?”

She turned to regard Fred,
her mind already distancing her from him, before stating calmly.
“Yes.”

“Alex, you can’t do this,
I’m your father.”

“I don’t have a father, I
only ever had a mother and when she died I became an orphan as far
as I’m concerned. We have nothing to do with each other.” It was
far easier than she would have imagined to distance herself from
the man in front of her, but she supposed that it was only
reasonable after all that he had done to her. She couldn’t even
find it within herself to feel anger towards the man. He wasn’t
worth the effort it would take to feel such an emotion.

“You’re going to let him
kill me?” Fred screamed waving his hand frantically in Tobias’
direction.

“No.”

“No?” Tobias demanded
confused, while he struggled to restrain himself from simply
following through with her original instructions on Fred’s fate and
killing the man where he sat.

“No Tobias, you aren’t
going to kill him. I don’t have a problem with someone else doing
it, but I don’t want you to do it,” she stated calmly. Now that the
decision was made she felt relieved, but to allow Tobias to take
his life was something that she couldn’t allow.

“But you still want him
dead?” She nodded. “Fine, I won’t kill him, but can I at least
teach him a lesson before the deed is done?”

“If you have
to.”

He pulled her
close against his chest, allowing amber to flood his eyes as he
stared over her head at Fred. “Trust me, I do.”
You’ll be begging for death when I’m done and only then will
I let someone come in and finish the job. I want you to earn it,
after all the crimes that you have committed against my mate, I’m
owed at least that.

I still would
have preferred to kill the bastard myself,
the wolf groused.

Something is
better than nothing,
Tobias
counselled.
She could have decided to let
him go.

After all that
he just confessed to? I doubt that.

“Can we get out of here
Tobias? I don’t want to be here anymore,” she admitted, turning
away from her father as she began to put him and all that he had
done behind her. Fred was the past and she was determined to move
forward to her future with Tobias, even if that future, with her as
a Queen, absolutely terrified her.

“Of course dearest.” He
pulled her close to his body, shielding her from Fred’s hateful
glare as they headed for the door.

“Wait! You can’t do this!”
Fred shouted.

His wild
screams followed them out of the door and she began shivering
against him. Pulling her head deeper into his chest he covered her
exposed ear with his hand, hoping that she would soon be able to
put the whole thing behind her.
I, on the
other hand, have a lot of work to do.

Correction, we
have a lot of work to do. I want a piece of him too.

Yes, we do
have a lot to do before the man dies. We’ve only got a short while
to make him long for death; I don’t want this burdening Xandria any
longer than it has to.

Don’t worry; I
have already got plans for Fred. Wonderful plans.
The wolf practically purred before retreating
within his mind.

Chapter Thirty
Four

Skulking around the
perimeter of the estate, Sean felt his ire towards Fred increase
with every anxious step he took. He hadn't heard from his friend
since he had stormed off and entered the estate, insistent on
simply demanding Alex’s return.

He’s probably
dead by now and I’m no closer to finding a way to sneak into this
place. It’s more like a fortress than a home. Who needs guards on
every entrance and then feels the need to scatter more guards
around the place? I swear the Queen probably has less security than
this,
he scoffed.
Maybe I should just give this whole thing up and head home.
I’m no closer to finding a way of getting to her than I was when I
first came here and I’ve been here for days. I’m sick and tired of
living like an animal. Besides, whatever attacked me, I’d rather
not meet again and it’s probably not treating her too well judging
from how it nearly killed me. It would have done if I didn’t have
the ability to heal myself and now I’ve exhausted that power, it’ll
probably be able to finish me off if I meet it again. I’m not sure
I’m willing to risk the chance that it’ll just leave me for dead
instead of finishing me off this time. She’ll probably be dead
before the week is through. I’m sick of this! I’m going home; this
just isn’t worth it anymore.

“Now what do we have
here?” The dark voice crept over his skin, filled with menacing
promises. His body froze, unresponsive to his mind’s demands to
run. The voice crept closer and the hairs on the back of his neck
rose, filling him with a distinct sense of unease. “An intruder? A
human? You aren’t welcome here.”

A slight breeze against
his skin was the only warning he received before he was tossed
against a thick tree. He crumpled to the ground at its trunk,
wheezing as he tried to catch his breath. He forced his head up so
that he could catch a glimpse of his assailant. His breath hitched
as he stared into black eyes, the cold smile on his attackers face
was, if possible, more frightening than a snarl would have been,
promising intense pain. The man towered over him and for the first
time in a long time, Sean felt fear course through his
veins.

“You shouldn’t have come
here. Whatever it was you thought to achieve, you’ve failed because
I’m going to kill you.” Sean gulped, terror now running rampant
through his system. “You aren’t armed so I presume you aren’t a
hunter.”

Unsure of whether or not
this was a good thing or not, Sean began to babble, desperate to
save himself. “Look, I just got lost, I’m not from around here. I’m
just a tourist. I’m sorry if this is private property. I didn’t
mean to intrude. I think my car is back that way.” He pointed in
the opposite direction of the estate. “I’ll just go and be on my
way and we can act like this never happened.” He stood up,
desperate to leave, his eyes never leaving the man’s dark
ones.

The stranger’s nose
wrinkled, sniffing the air. “You’re lying.” He moved, the action a
blur of speed before Sean felt a hand around his throat, choking
the life out of him. “I don’t like it when people lie to me. It’s
as though they think they can get away with insulting my
intelligence. You aren’t a hunter that’s for sure, if you were you
would have put up more of a fight, so what are you?”

“What’s a hunter? I have
no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Dead men have no need to
understand what’s going on around them and that’s what you are.”
The hand at his throat tightened and Sean felt something sharp
digging into his skin, drawing blood. “A dead man.”

His mind frantic, he began
to draw on one of the few powers he hadn’t exhausted, reaching
within the man’s mind to find what he most desired willing to use
that knowledge to save himself. “I know what you want,” he choked,
“and I can help you get it.”

“You have no idea what I
desire, so if I were you I wouldn’t presume that I did.”

“The girl,” he wheezed,
air becoming scarce, “you want the girl, Alexandria, and I can help
you to get her.”

The stranger’s eyes
narrowed as though debating whether or not to follow through on his
threat and kill the man beneath his hand or listen to what he had
to say. Apparently the latter desire won out as his grip loosened.
“How did you know that? I’ve spoken of it to no one.”

“I’m different,” Sean
responded simply, infinitely grateful to the witch he had stolen
that power from for saving his life, despite the fact that he had
taken her life to get her ability.