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Let Willow think I was in here waiting for her all along, if she likes.
I don’t mind if she eventually realizes there’s a private passage between her rooms and mine—the door only opens when triggered by the mechanism in the ring on my right hand—but if she stays confused and off-balance for a while, wondering how I keep surprising her, that’s fine with me.
I want her unbalanced.
No, I want her broken, I admit as I stalk through the bathroom toward the bedroom. Not broken in such a way that she can’t be repaired, but all her defenses down and her secrets laid bare. Because I don’t buy this offer to give me her child to raise for a moment. One look in her heart-on-her-sleeve eyes was enough to give that lie away.
But maybe she hopes to stay here and help with the baby.
If so, I should disabuse her of that notion right away. If I decide to raise my enemy’s son, I’ll do so alone, exerting complete control over the child, ensuring he’s raised to hate the man who sired him as much as I do.
In the bedroom, I find the bed still made and the plush couch in the corner empty. I turn. The small breakfast table is empty as well. I’m about to head into the formal sitting room, to see if Willow’s settled in there, when a soft voice sounds from the large picture window.
“I’ve never seen a view of the city like this,” she says. “It’s so beautiful.”
I turn, spotting her in the folds of the heavy curtains, tucked into the shadows. “More beautiful in The Parallel,” I say. “The fairy lights make Parallel Manhattan’s skyline dance after dark.”
She hums beneath her breath as I cross slowly to the window. “I’ve never seen that, either. Blood River pack outsiders don’t get out much.”
“Outsiders don’t end up the Alpha’s mate,” I say, my guard up again. Not that it was ever really down.
What is it about this woman that has my teeth on fucking edge? I’m not a fan of her pack, but this is over the top, even for me.
“Sure, they do,” she says, stepping out of the curtain folds and into the light. “If the horoscopes say so. Victor’s superstitious.”
“So, I’ve heard. But I’m sure he’d rearrange the stars for his son. If necessary.” I study her freshly scrubbed face, something shifting inside as I take in the chocolate curls, flushed cheeks, full lips, and the plush curves beneath her flannel pajamas.
She doesn’t look at all like a drowned rat now. She’s actually very pretty.
And very familiar.
The key turns in the lock and it all suddenly falls into place.
Chapter 5
Maxim
“Kelley Astor,” I say softly, the way Willow’s eyes go wide confirming my guess. “You’re her little sister.”
She blinks faster. “Y-yes. Did you know Kelley?” Hope sparks in her features. “Do you know her now? Is she safe? Is she—”
“I have no idea. I haven’t seen her in eight years.”
She deflates and the bitter part of me takes pleasure in the pain in her eyes. “Oh. Right, well…me, either. But you knew her before? How?”
“Knew her well,” I say, my jaw clenching as I think back to those long, summer nights, out in Human Side with Kelley and Bane.
We’d dance at some shitty little club until midnight and then shift and run through Central Park with our friends, causing trouble, even though my father would have whipped my brother and me within an inch of our lives if he’d caught us. But my older brother, Bane, was desperately in love with a pretty wolf from a rival pack, rebellious, and past ready to return to the freedom of The Parallel.
Kelley was the same.
The two of them fancied themselves the next Romeo and Juliet, but without the tragic ending. They decided the rules didn’t apply to them and behaved accordingly.
And for a long time, I was as charmed by them as everyone else.
They were funny and beautiful and brave and reckless and…
Dead.
