The Werewolf's Pregnant Bride (17 page)

Chapter 24

Sophronia did not remember feeling so ill on any past sea journeys. She felt nothing but relief when the boat docked and loathing that she would be back on a boat as soon as another was ready to leave.

She stepped out into the sunlight and squinted at the brightness. She had been in her cabin almost the entire journey and the sunlight was much brighter than the interior of the room she had been living in. She followed the other passengers to the gangplank. She was next to step on it when she noticed that one of the passengers who had just disembarked looked strangely familiar. She could not be sure from the distance but the passenger bore a strong resemblance to Vivian. She was dressed in bright yellow and not the colors of mourning which made Sophronia momentarily doubt her eyes and senses.

Still, if it really was Vivian, perhaps locating her would be a first step in penitence for her behavior towards Nathaniel. She decided she need to be sure of the woman's identity.

She did not wait for her luggage but instead followed the woman in yellow through the crowd. She made sure to stay back a distance. It stood to reason that Vivian was a werewolf just as her sister Claire was.

Sophronia followed Vivian through the vendor stalls on the border of the harbor where fishmongers sold their wares and street vendors were selling everything from sweets to linen.

She followed Vivian past a city block filled with warehouses and another lined with dilapidated office buildings.

Ramshackle homes soon gave way to small but neat houses with flower beds at the front and chicken coops at the back.

Her feet were aching as Vivian made yet another turn that brought them into a neighborhood where houses were larger and gardeners cared for lawns. Sophronia hung back further. Previously there had been bustling and she would have been hard to notice in a crowd especially as Vivian had no idea she was there. Now, however, the street was almost vacant.

She ducked down beside a hedge when Vivian turned abruptly in her direction. Vivian stood stock still for a moment and Sophronia wondered if she had been discovered. Then, Vivian marched forward through the gate of the fifth house up the street. It was not a mansion as the Wolstenholme estate held but it was clear the owner of the house had some wealth and standing.

She waited several moments but when Vivian did not again emerge she crept forward towards the house to ascertain who might live there. 

There was nothing obvious to indicate who the occupants were. She debated whether she should knock on the door and ask for Vivian. She could return to the harbor and inquire of the locals who lived in that area though she was unsure how to do it casually. She also could simply take the information back to Nathaniel and let him decide how the situation should be handled. Of course that would be a much smaller penitence than to arrive armed with information about Vivian's whereabouts and purposes. Also, whether she was in any sort of danger. If there was danger it would be so long before the Wolstenholme's were notified that there would be little they could do to rescue her.

She decided that she must act on her own as she was there and the Wolstenholme's were across the ocean. If Vivian was in danger she could at least alert the authorities. Someone would be willing to help her. She slunk up the street towards the house trying to stay hidden from the house itself but also trying not to be conspicuous on the quiet street.

She reached out for the gate but a moment before her fingers connected to it a rough hand came over her mouth and a strong arm came around her waist. She was lifted off the ground.

She started to kick against her assailant but he barely seemed to notice. She tried to bite the hand over her mouth but the angle of his hand prevented it. Her captor was no first time kidnapper. He carried her several block away and slipped with her into a dark cellar.

"If you do what I say I will not harm you. Yet," a gruff voice said.

Sophronia nodded hesitantly.

"I am going to remove my hand from your mouth. Do not scream. If you scream I will assume you are an enemy and will treat you as such. I can smell were-kind on you but I sense you are not a were-creature yourself. Nod if I am right."

Sophronia nodded.

"If you are truly a friend of were-kind you will not be harmed if you do as I say."

Sophronia nodded again.

The man took his hand from her mouth. She tried to get her eyes to adjust so she could look on her assailant. She heard the sound of a match striking a moment before he put it to the wick of a candle in a wall sconce. It cast an eerie shadowed glow on the room. Sophronia held in her scream. When he released her waist she spun around.

The man behind her was exceptionally tall. She guessed he was a head taller than Nathaniel. His hair was long, dark, and straight. His cheekbones were high but his skin was the color of coal. His nose was thick. She did not think him either Indian or African though he might be a mix of those or perhaps something else entirely.

"Are you here to meet with Vivian?" Sophronia asked.

"Vivian?"

"The woman who entered the house. She is my husband's sister-in-law."

"Then perhaps you are an enemy to our kind after all," he said.

"I am not. She did not know I followed her. I ran away from my husband and happened to see her leave the same boat I had been on. My husband had been looking for her. It was feared that she was abducted. Her father and mother were recently murdered and when she went missing her sister feared the worst. I thought only to locate her so that I could tell my husband of her whereabouts," Sophronia said quickly.

"Would that not reveal your own whereabouts?"

"It would," Sophronia said looking at the ground. "I realized that I had erred to run. I was only shocked to find what my husband and daughter were."

"He did not tell you before you married? That was wrong of him. You should have been told well before your wedding day and certainly before he put a were-child in your belly," he said. His face hardened and his hands clenched. She feared that if Nathaniel had been there the burly man would have punched him. A punch from such a man would do damage indeed.

"It was not his fault. The situation was complicated. You see, the child I was carrying was actually his brother's. When my father brought me to him to restore his honor his brother was already married. Their father insisted I marry Nathaniel instead," Sophronia rushed to explain.

"You have a complicated story. I will hear it as we travel."

"Travel?"

"You are not safe here. I need to get you back to my clan. Our alpha can confirm what I suspect and make sure you are safe and protected until your people arrive."

"They have no idea where I am. I do not even know if they will come for me," Sophronia admitted. She hated to think that Nathaniel might have found her missing and decided not to give chase but it was possible. If she had not changed her mind on the boat it would even be what she hoped would happen. Surely, it would be easy enough to find him another wife. He might even be able to find a woman who was like him. Surely the second son of an alpha had some standing even if it was not the same as the heir.

"They will come for you," he assured her. "I will get you to safety and then I will send out scouts to connect with your husband once he arrives. We will bring him to you and perhaps we shall even rescue his sister-in-law."

"Rescue her? It looked as if she was here of her own free will. Do you think she really was kidnapped or perhaps blackmailed?" Sophronia asked. The idea that Vivian might be in peril tormented her. She wanted her companion to storm the house and rescue Vivian. Could he not bring them both to safety?

"My people have eyes on the house. I will try to find what I can and if she is in danger we will do our best to rescue her though the fact that she entered that house of her own free will is troubling. When I first smelled her I assumed her a spy. If she is not, then her presence here is most troubling. I will leave it to my alpha to decide how much information to share with you. It is not my place. My task is to bring you to safety. My horse is just a few blocks away. Will you walk with me willingly?"

"Horse? My husband had dogs pull his carriage because he said horses did not like the smell of his family. If you are what you say then how do you have a horse?" Sophronia asked growing suddenly suspicious.

"It is good for you to have such a questioning mind. I suppose if I was in your place I would be equally wary. Our horses are specially bred. We keep them with us from the moment they are born. Their natural fear of predators is much less than normal horses but they also go through intensive training. I can transform into my were-self beside my horse and he will be steady. I will say that using dogs is brilliant for werewolves. I can see why they thought of that."

"You are not a werewolf?" Sophronia asked backing away from him. There was not much space until her back hit the wall of the cellar. He could still reach her if he tried and she knew there was no chance of escaping him but the distance between them was comforting.

"No. But we are much alike. If I show you my nature will you trust me and allow me to take you somewhere safe until I can reach your people?"

Sophronia remembered the sheer terror of seeing Nathaniel's true self. She did not want to see what this man was, if she was honest, but it would be the only way he could prove his truthfulness. She nodded steeling herself against the wall.

The man before her sighed. She could tell he wanted to show her his nature as little as she wanted to see it. Still, it was the only way she would feel confident following him.

"As you are aware I will need to strip off my clothing for this. I ask that you close your eyes," he said.

Sophronia already did not like being in such a small space with a stranger and to have it be a naked stranger with her would be even worse. Still, if he had meant harm either on her person or virtue his size would have made it impossible to prevent.

She squeezed her eyes shut as his clothing rustled.

"My name is Adam, by the way," he said.

"I am Sophronia Wolstenholme."

"I have heard the name Wolstenholme before though I could not tell you from where. I expect my alpha will know."

"Is he a good man?" Sophronia asked. Naturally, Adam would think he was good if he had to follow him but hearing him say the words might just ease the fear in her stomach.

"She is a good woman," Adam said with a chuckle.

"A woman?"

"Yes, but we have no time at the moment for explanations on clan structure. I am going to turn in a moment. I will touch your hand in my new form and you may open your eyes and look upon me. Then, for both of our modesty, close them again. We must hurry. If your sister-in-law knew you were following her she might have given you away already."

Sophronia was not sure why Adam was so convinced she was in danger but she decided to humor him for the moment. If he thought that the place Vivian had gone was not safe then she did want to exercise caution. A world where werewolves were real was terrifying and she knew that she had no idea how to navigate such a world. How would she even know if she was in danger if she had not realized she was making love to a werewolf?

She felt a rough softness against her hand and she opened her eyes. Adam had been dark before but now he was little more than a shadow. He stood up on his hind legs and his head grazed the cellar ceiling.

The sight of a massive bear before her made her knees tremble. She felt faint but since she had somewhat prepared her mind this time she was able to maintain consciousness by squeezing her eyes shut and leaning more heavily against the wall. A moment later she heard clothes rustling again.

"You handled that better than I supposed.  You can open your eyes now," Adam said.

She did as she was told. Adam was again before her. There was no indication that he and the bear who had been there a moment before were the same being but she knew that they were.

"It is a bit less jarring the second time," Sophronia said though her breath was ragged as she tried to use her mind to overcome the fear that flowed through her body.

"Now, will you come with me willingly?" Adam asked.

Sophronia nodded. There did not seem to be any other choice she could make.

The Captain handed Nathaniel a cup of tea and he took it. He and Mercy were seated together in the Captain's cabin. The first mate was presumably overseeing the maneuvering of the ship.

Captain Snow looked much as him name suggested. He had a white mustache and a beard that hung down to his protruding belly. The hair on his head was little more than white tufts.

His hands were calloused from years of hard labor. There were large gaps where missing teeth now allowed the stem of his pipe to sit unobstructed.

"One of my men heard you inquiring about furs being transported by our boats. You know that we are not the only crew who skirts the law do you not?"

"No disrespect was intended," Mercy said quickly. Nathaniel had not intended to open up their business to the crew but when there were questions about why Nathaniel needed his sister to guard him during the moon their story had come out. He had decided that if their secret had to be revealed they might as well use it to their advantage and see if there was any knowledge to be gained from the sailors. If anyone knew about illegal dealings it would be them. There was rarely anything that happened at the ports that seamen were not aware of whether it involved their own ship or not. Strong ale and loose women tended to make tongues wag. He had thought about stopping at a local whorehouse to ply the women there for information but he did not want to expose his sister to such women. It was bad enough that she had to be on a ship where the only other female was the Captain's "sister". Nathaniel had little doubt that sister or not she was a woman there to keep up the morale of the sailors.