Page 60 of Fated to Her

“I know,” Cyrus tells him, reaching for me.

Eli sighs but lets go. Cyrus pulls me to him, allowing me to stand. I glance around the room. It has an old dresser, the mirror is broken, and the entire room is covered in dust, like it has been closed for a long time.

“This was Emery’s room?” I ask, glancing around. There is a child’s rocking horse in the corner, but besides the bed and dresser, that’s it.

“And mine. We shared. It used to have another bed over there for Clarissa,” he says.

I sit on the bed beside him, yet he still doesn’t shift back—I’m not sure if he will. Cyrus rummages through the duffle bag, pulling out a blanket and draping it over me.

“I’ll sort the bed tomorrow. We will just have to endure it tonight,” Cyrus says.

“Is it like you remember?” I ask Eli while he zones out, staring at the wall.

“No, it is pretty modern-looking compared to what it was when I was a child,” he says. To me, this is extremely dated, yet he thinks it’s modern compared to what it used to be.

“You should sleep,” he says, walking out of the room and returning with a wooden chair. He shuts the door before jamming the chair under the handle.

“Eli?” I ask him, confused.

“Addie, just let it go. It makes me nervous having you here among them,” he says, and I sigh before lying down, only to be jerked upright by Cyrus gripping my arm.

He chucks the old pillow off the bed and lies down, patting his arm. I lie back using his arm as a pillow. Eli, however, shifts back into his wolf form before climbing on the bed and lying across Cyrus, resting his head on my arm. I expect the bed to break under all our weight, but it seems to hold.

Despite how squished we are on the tiny bed, I’m surprisingly warm with only the thin blanket Cyrus has wrapped me in, and it doesn’t take long before I fall asleep. I feel Eli get up a few times, moving and growling, waking me up a couple of times. But when I finally wake up in the morning, he’s passed out. I wriggle out from under him, placing his furry head on Cyrus’s arm.

Moving the chair out from under the door, I open it to leave, then pull it shut behind me. I make my way to the living room. Emery is asleep with her mouth wide open, snoring in a not-so-lady-like manner compared to the well-dressed put-together woman I’m so used to. She is even drooling a bit. I shake my head, opening doors, trying to find the toilet. I only manage to find a bedroom, which I’m certain is Maverick’s, which is more furnished and much cleaner. There’s also a closet but no bathroom. I’m about to ask Emery where the toilet is when Maverick walks in through the front door.

“You’re up early,” he says, making me glance to the window to see the sky has lightened, but the sun is still around an hour away before it will be visible.

“Yeah, I was looking for a toilet,” I tell him.

“There weren’t toilets here originally attached to the house, only an outhouse. But we managed to set up plumbing and have a working bathroom out the back. Even has hot water,” he says excitedly, making me wonder if hot water is a new thing to him.

“Come, I’ll show you,” he says, holding his hand out before pulling it away. “Oops, nearly touched you. Probably best I don’t with Eli.”

I follow him outside, and he walks me around the side of the building to a more modern-looking part, seeing as it isn’t made of stone and clay but brick.

He opens the door, and I find an actual functioning bathroom that even has a shower and a proper toilet. I step into the tiled room.

“Slowly moving into the modern era,” he chuckles.

“Thank you.”

He nods before wandering off.

I shut the door before quickly peeing and washing my hands. Stepping outside, I wander around, looking at the gathering area. The gallows sit in the middle, and it makes me shiver as I stand in front of it, a guillotine off to the side of it on a platform.

“It doesn’t get used anymore. Honestly, I should probably pull it down. You probably think we are savages, but we aren’t. We can be civilized,” Maverick says, coming up behind me.

I nod before hearing Eli’s angry voice.

“Addie!” he growls before marching over to me and grabbing my arm.

I notice a few people doing God knows what at this early hour. They stop and stare before ducking their heads and running off at his anger.

“Hey,” I tell him softly, wondering why he’s so angry.

“Why are you out here?” he says, dragging me by my arm back toward the stone cottage. He is moving so fast I have to jog to keep up with him.