Page 21 of Plug and Tame

“Because I love you.”

His earnest words had struck her deep, causing her heart to thrum. She hadn’t known how to respond, so she’d turned and walked outside in silence. Now, his words hounded her as she ran through the forest, the dense undergrowth whipping at her face as she played the words over and over in her mind.

Because I love you.

His words drifted back. “I could think of nothing else as I lay awake that night in Wintermaw Keep. I was surrounded by death and destruction, in a room that had once belonged to someone else. I lay there, the son of a celebrated murderer, completely out of my mind, wondering if you made it out alive. Your bravery had already captured my heart.”

Chills had swept through her, but Nathaniel had continued, the rumble of his voice causing her to shake. “Kira, I have loved you ever since I found you in that dumbwaiter, and every moment after that. I have loved you from afar, and I fell even harder when you bit my hand. And when you tried to end my life in my office, I thought it really would end if I could not have you.”

Kira felt a heartsick longing, but she did not trust the feeling. Those words could not—should not—make her happy, not when they came from him.

Especially not in light of what he’d said after his confession of love: that he loved her enough to help her rise to be the leader of the wolves, beginning with the Poplarin Pack. His expression had turned pained as he confirmed that her intact virginity would be enough to secure a new initiation ceremony.

Which meant he would support the pack’s requirement that she submit to their alphas. It was back to square one, but the cost seemed higher this time. She did not want to inflict pain upon Nathaniel, not really, but he insisted they were running out of time, and that the initiation was the fastest way to propel her through the ranks.

She picked up speed, her muscled limbs sweeping across the ground with a new surge of frenzied energy. She needed to think, and not about his declaration of love, but about the plan.

Nathaniel wanted her help, and she’d promised to give him her answer by evening. But it was already late afternoon by the time they’d left the cave. Time was running out. Her entire future hung in the balance.

The world’s future hangs in the balance.

She felt a pang of guilt.

If she ran away, who would help change things? How would the lives of any of the wolves improve?

Nathaniel. He won’t give up on them.

The realisation filled her lungs with fresh air, and she couldn’t help the admiration she felt for him. Hope seeped into her with each fresh breath she took. No matter what she decided, he would keep fighting. But could he succeed without her?

And what if he failed? An uncomfortable thought stabbed at her.

What if he dies?

Kira came to a stop at the cottage, morphing back to human form. She clutched at the fence post, breathing hard as Byron caught up to her.

She didn’t wait for him to finish transforming before speaking. “You said you found me in the servants’ wing. But you failed to mention Nathaniel.”

Byron twisted his hands. “He asked us not to, so you could live as normal a life as possible…and so you wouldn’t seek him out.”

“You should have told me.”

Byron bowed his head, and after a long moment, Kira took the spare key from the window ledge and entered the old cottage.

It was obvious Mary and Byron had not been back. There were small cobwebs on the usually immaculate windows, and the dining table was covered in a thin coat of dust. Her favourite cup, from which she’d been drinking tea the night Nathaniel abducted her, was sitting by the sink on the drying rack. The realisation that he’d taken the time to wash it that night was both sweet and disturbing, and she couldn’t help but smile as she stepped deeper into the cottage.

She’d only taken a few steps when she stopped dead in her tracks. The familiar sights and smells made her chest grow tight as the memories of her childhood returned. The kitchen where Mary had taught her to cook. The forest mural they’d painted on the once-white wall.

Bittersweet melancholy assaulted her senses.

This was meant to be a simple errand to retrieve her locket, the one she’d hidden in her desk, as well as her chance to berate Byron for letting her down. But standing in her childhood home reminded her of all the good times.

Like the way Mary’s jokes would always make them laugh, filling the cottage with joy. The time Kira had discovered Byron’s secret stash of honey—mostly because the ants had found it first—and the berating Mary had given him for his sweet tooth. Her gaze lingered on the empty space the couple’s bed had occupied. They’d let her sleep there until she was old enough to be in a room by herself.

Until I was old enough to realise that they were not my biological parents.

Tears pricked her eyes as she tried to reconcile the foster parents who had raised her with what she knew about them now.

“Are you all right, Kira?” Byron asked softly.