Page 57

Meanwhile, Abbie can barely walk and is in fits of giggles, her face bright red from all the wine. She has also lost a slipper. Tandi is dancing on top of a table with Liam, while Dustin is on the verge of having a heart attack every time she gets too close to the edge. Liam is singing about some made-up song and keeps calling Dustin his sweetpea, which ends with him being snapped at by Dustin.

I laugh, watching them make fools of themselves while sitting with Trey and Clarice. “Always fun watching. Reminds me of when I was young,” Clarice says, sipping her glass of wine.

“How old are you?” I ask. As far as Clarice is concerned, I don’t know much about her. Only now has it occurred to me.

“Too old,” she laughs.

“Have you always lived at the castle?” I ask her while watching Abbie hunt beneath one of the bunk beds for her slipper. She comes out and jumps up victoriously, clutching it.

“Pretty much. When I had my mate, we lived in town, and I used to walk here, but after he died, I preferred being at the castle. I was lonely in the house by myself. This place kept me sane,” she tells me.

Just the thought of something happening to Kyson twists my heart. I can’t even imagine losing him.

“What happened to him?”

“He was a werewolf. I had been holding off on changing him, knowing how horrific it is to do so?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, remembering that Gannon had tried to change Abbie. Clarice shakes her head.

“That is something best explained by your mate.”

“So what happened to him, then?”

“This was just before your parents’ deaths. The hunter attacks were quite frequent, but they usually hit the packs. It was as if they used the packs for training when they hit them. Anyway, when we learned of the attacks, he wanted to help protect them, that they were his people, and he had family there. I refused at first, but he snuck off. Kyson found him dead and brought him home for me. He is buried in the cemetery by the river.”

“And you never thought to find a new mate?” I ask her.

“No, I loved my mate. After that, I focused on helping here. Put all my time into this place.”

“When I first came here, I was hired as a nanny. I raised Kyson, Liam, and Gannon all here. Damian, too; I love all the staff as if they were my own. Then, once the King was older, he kept me on, and I stayed. Then I found my mate, then lost him a short time later, and all I had was this place, so I moved back into the castle,” she tells me.

“So you never had a chance to have kids?”

She shakes her head.

“No, but I am hoping one day I will get to help you raise yours. When you’re ready, of course, to try again,” she tells me.

I smile sadly and nod. A short time later, Clarice rises to her feet and says she had to check the boys. Yet moments after she leaves, the fun abruptly stops when Damian bursts through the doors furiously.

Chapter

Thirty-Two

“Itake it back. Trey is not the fun police. My mate is!” Tandi says, flailing her hand at him. I have to agree with her because the look on his face is furious. Dustin moves quickly to my side as Damian storms in.

“You!” Damian snarls, and I glance between the table Liam and Tandi are dancing on and Damian. However, he is not looking at Tandi but at Liam. Liam looks over his shoulder at Damian.

“Me?” he says, pointing at himself when his eyes widen as Damian snarls and shifts. Tandi screams, flying off the table as it is upturned when Damian crashes on top of Liam. The air expelling from Liam’s lungs is audible as he hits the ground with the angry Lycan’s weight crushing the air from him. Tandi tries to separate the pair of them as they pummel each other, and Liam is far too drunk even to shift.

“Damian! What has gotten into you? Get off him!” Tandi screeches, ripping on his fur. Abbie giggles as she drunkenly stumbles over to me with her bunny slipper in her hand, clutching it as if it is some prized possession.

“Get ‘em, Tandi!” She squeals loudly beside me as Tandi jumps on Damian, clinging to him like a spider monkey as she bonks him on the head.

“I don’t think Damian is playing, Abbie,” I tell her. Abbie’s face suddenly turns serious as she looks at the pair, just as Damian punches LIam so hard that his nose breaks.

“Woah! Not the fucking face! Body shots only prick!” Liam spits at him. Just as Tandi slides off Damian’s back and hauls Damian off him, Trey strolls over to me, sitting next to me.

“You’re not going to stop them?” I ask Trey, and he shrugs.