Page 42 of The Enforcer’s Rejected Mate (Red River Rejected Mates #1)

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

CORDELIA

“ I s he always like that?” I ask Clyde when Thorne storms out of the cottage.

He doesn’t bother closing the door behind him so I end up getting a full view of him shifting.

It’s seamless. One second he’s a man and the next he’s a big black wolf loping off into the night.

Him leaving the door open tracks though because he did throw the door open so hard I heard it hit the wall.

I bite my lip when I spot the dent it made in the wall.

I’ve just closed the door behind Thorne when I hear a howl go up outside.

It’s loud, almost…sad. That has to be Thorne. Mournful from the sound of it.

Thorne howls again and I put a hand to my chest with a gasp. It’s not just mournful, there’s longing. I know what longing tastes like, what it feels like when something is so close that you can nearly touch it. It’s a bitter taste to swallow. Thorne feels the same if his howl is anything to go by.

Why is he howling like that?

The only time the wolves in Frostclaw howled was during the full moon run. But they were keyed up then, the veil between man and wolf so thin that there was no holding the wolf back.

Is Thorne worked up right now?

If he is, the Frostclaw wolves don’t sound like Thorne does now.

They were excited, quick in the way they howled as they tore through the forest. Another howl goes up and it’s hard to hear.

It slices through the night so sharply that I swear the window panes rattle.

No, he doesn’t sound anything like the Frostclaw wolves.

“Is that Thorne?”

“He is always like that and yes, that’s him,” Clyde says and lights an oil lamp for me.

He sets it on the counter and I see there’s a kitchenette in the cottage.

There’s enough counter space beside the deep sink that leaving dishes out to dry while I’m cooking won’t be an issue.

There’s cabinets and what looks like a china cabinet beside the fireplace.

A gas stove takes up the corner beside the counter and there’s enough room for a small dining nook besides the rest of the room being a living room of sorts.

There’s a nice couch piled with pillows that make me happy, a wooden chest that doubles as a coffee table too.

I see a work table at the far end of the room next to a hallway leading off from there.

I bet the bedroom and bathroom are through there.

All in all, it’s small but functional and a little more modern than I thought it might be.

“Don’t let him bother you.”

I’ve never had this much space to myself.

I’m in heaven.

I can put up with broody, sassy Thorne with his howls that make me feel like I’m dying inside if it means this cottage is mine.

“He doesn’t bother me,” I lie. I squat down to move the firewood Thorne practically threw on the floor into a basket that sits beside the fireplace. “I’ve known wolves like him before.”

“I’m not too sure about that,” Clyde says. That surprises me.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s not the way he comes across,” Clyde says and gives me a tight smile when I turn to face him.

“He’s hard because life has made him that way.

Because he needs to be. He cares about this pack.

Would lay his life down for any one of us if it came down to it.

Sometimes he doesn’t know how to show he cares but I promise you he does. ”

The wolves in Frostclaw would have said life made them hard, that they needed to be as cruel as they were to keep the pack strong.

But that doesn’t seem quite what Clyde is telling me.

And besides, none of them would have let me talk back to them like Thorne has, none of them would have stood with me at the base of Thorne’s Embrace and told me about our history.

They wouldn’t have nearly touched my hand and told me I’m home.

They wouldn’t have said they were sorry like Thorne so readily did.

Even if we haven’t talked about what happened between us in the meadow…

that doesn’t mean that he’s like Keiran, or like the Frostclaw wolves, I tell myself.

I hesitate and look Clyde over. He’s opening cabinets to look inside.

It’s as good a time as any to push for more information on Thorne, on the pack, but I don’t.

Thorne already thinks I’m a spy, what if the Gamma starts thinking I’m one too.

I can’t risk it.

I change the subject with as much finesse as Keiran had the first time he tried to get my bra off. “This is a great cottage. Is the bedroom through there?” I almost wince at how obvious it is that I’m trying not to talk about Thorne any longer.

Clyde is gracious about it and doesn’t let on that he knows.

“It is. There’s a small bathroom too. It’s a little cramped but the healers have always stayed here.

It’s Red River tradition, I suppose. If you don’t like it, I’m sure Ronan would arrange for other housing.

” He gives me an apologetic smile but does motion for me to follow him down the hallway.

“There is a reason though that they stay here.”

“What’s that?”

The Gamma grins at me. “Oh, you’ll see.”

The hallway isn’t long with just two doors leading off of it.

The bedroom door is open and I can see the outline of a bed but little else on our way past. The closed door beside that must be the bathroom but that’s not what Clyde is taking me to see.

It’s through the back door of the cottage.

He opens it and the sound of rain pitter-pattering on a porch roof makes me smile.

A night shower must have rolled in while we were talking.

There’s a porch out here with enough room for me to sit and enjoy my coffee in the mornings or read in the evenings, but it’s not what Clyde means for me to see either.

It’s the gardens.

In front of us is a sprawling green space that makes me think of Maud’s home.

There’s gardens out here, some are in raised beds but I see a patch of land that’s been tilled and planted with what looks like corn and squash.

The dark shadows of the mountains rising up at the edge of the backyard create a cozy space at the back of the cottage.

“You have enough herbs growing here to get you started, I hope. I know there’s just the small work table inside but there’s rooms for you in the Keep where you can work with more space and equipment.

Anything you need that we don’t have let me know and I’ll make sure we get it.

Not to mention you won’t find a safer place on Bloodstone Territory.

If anything goes wrong, this is exactly where you’ll want to be.

Safety.

That word is as foreign to me as home is.

“Why is it safe?” I ask. My head is spinning again.

More rooms and equipment? Just say the word and I’ll have what I want?

This isn’t just heaven, this is whatever is past that, the super upgraded heaven.

The place that only truly blessed souls go to and somehow I’ve been counted among them.

Oh gods, what if this is a dream? What if I wake up and I’m still on the bus?

Or worse. What if I wake in Maud’s hut and none of this has happened?

That’s irrational. You’re here.

But still… my brain whispers to me in its normal nervous way and my daydreams feel more real than life. But still, it could happen. I’ve wished for my life to change for as long as I’ve been a part of Frostclaw, and before that I can’t remember my life.

It’s all I’ve known.

Why wouldn’t this all be a dream, something my brain invented to help me cope with Keiran rejecting me?

Stranger things have happened, I know that.

What if it’s the bondrot? My hand flies up to my chest and I push on the place where our bond was but there’s nothing there.

I never heard of bondrot doing this to a shifter but there’s a first time for everything.

Come to think of it, I haven’t felt anything where our bond was or where the bondrot should have settled into me all day.

And when I think about it a little harder, I realize I haven’t felt a thing from it since I’ve set foot in Bloodstone Territory.

But still, the absence of my bondrot doesn’t mean that everything is okay, or that any of this is real.

I have to lean against the porch post to steady myself.

If it was possible it would happen to me.

I’ve never had luck. Of course I would imagine I was in a place like this and none of it would be real.

It’s hard to breathe and the ground start to tilt under me.

I’m dimly aware of Thorne’s howl. It feels like it’s getting louder but that doesn’t make sense.

I take in another short breath and then another but it's not enough.

Panic bubbles up in me, and for a wild second I think it might pull me under but as quickly as it comes, the spell is broken when Clyde steps up beside me and points to the dark mountain wall ahead of us.

“No one will ever come from there. See that?” He asks, moving his finger along the length of the mountain wall in front of us.

“It’s impossible to scale. That means to get here the intruders have to go through the forest, the mountains, through the Keep, through every single shifter and human that calls Red River home before they’ll finally be able to get to you.

That’s why we’ve put the Healer’s Cottage here.

To make sure you’re safe. Without a healer we have no hope of putting the pack back together, now do we? ”

Through every single shifter.

They’d have to get through Thorne.

The thought comes out of the same screwy place that has me paranoid I’m dreaming all of this up so I take it with a grain of salt but still, it might have nearly sent me into a tailspin of anxiety but it’s right.

Anyone invading the territory would have to get through the Enforcer before I was able to be a target.

The thought gives me peace and I’m able to breathe again. Somehow, knowing Thorne is out there between me and the unknown makes this real again. It grounds me right into the present and I can finally breathe again.

“Thank you, Gamma.” Clyde leaves a few minutes later after he gives me directions on getting to breakfast and making sure that I know exactly where everything is in the cottage.

I don’t care if it’s a dream or not when I go to bed that night it’s with a smile on my face. For the second night in a row, I have the best sleep of my life.