Page 46 of The Howling (Monsters of the Yeavering #2)

I dislike the fact Wynter isn’t talking to me. She sits and stares at nothing as the Hedley Kow berates me and the damned Bluecap chimes in with idiotic prophesies about the coming war.

There is no war. I didn’t start one, and there’s no way the Faerie would risk coming to my castle again. I am more powerful than my pack ever was. No one, including my mate, will suffer at their hands. I might work for the Reaper, but he protects me.

Even if his protection only extends to Wynter because he wants her soul when he wants it and not before.

The incessant voices of the two interlopers into my domain get quieter and quieter as I stare at Wynter, willing her to look at me, to see me.

I want her to know all of this is for her. I will fight whatever I have to in order to make her safe. I’ve already lost my family, and I will not lose her too.

When she finally raises her eyes to mine, they are dull and almost lifeless. Her gaze doesn’t rest on me long. Instead it wanders to the fire, which reflects into the orbs, dancing there like all Barghest hold within them.

But the fact they are not on me fills my heart with lead.

Wynter is my mate. She deserved the truth, but I didn’t want to tell her. The sadness in her face tells me everything I need to know.

I messed up. For all I wanted to make my world hers, I failed.

Linton unfurls his great wings and beats until he is several feet off the ground. The Hedley Kow shrieks so loudly I think my eardrums are going to burst, and all of a sudden, my entire spirit pack fills the great hall.

By the time I can cut through the chaos and get Linton to sit down, not cover half my castle in his wing dust, and calm the Hedley Kow before her magic does something it shouldn’t, as well as placate my pack who are less than happy Linton’s presence has repressed them until now, Wynter is gone.

I swear under my breath.

“You should have been honest with her, my son,” Mother says in my ear.

“She didn’t need to know,” I snap.

“She did,” Ellie says to me, her spirit form flickering into that of her were-form, which I didn’t even know was possible. “I defended you, Reavely, but you can’t do such a thing to your mate, regardless of your reasons. Wynter deserves the truth, whatever it may be.”

“But what if…” I don’t want to say the words. I don’t even want to think them. “What if she rejected me?”

A rejected mate is surely one which will die, and I didn’t want to die. I want to stay in the Yeavering with Wynter.

“And what if she rejects you because you didn’t trust her enough to tell her?” Ellie scolds.

My mother puts a hand on her shoulder, her translucent features hard.

“I don’t want my only son rejected, but it was never a risk. You have hearts which are fated to be together,” she says. “The choice, Reavely, is whether you want to be bound to a female who knows you don’t trust her, respect her, or value her or one which does.”

The horror rushes into my heart. What have I done? I went by how I feel, not how my mate should be feeling. My desire to protect her came out in all the wrong ways.

Wynter did not need protecting from what I did but from me.

Above me, one of the great windows caves in with a barrage of magic. I leap for Linton, grabbing him by the throat and squeezing.

“This is not my doing,” he says, his eyes redder than ever. “This is the storm you set in motion.”

“And whose side are you on?” I snarl as I toss him aside.

I have to get to Wynter. The castle will survive whatever is thrown at it, it always does, but I need my mate. I have to tell her how wrong I was.

She has to know everything.

A second window comes in as I race for the stairs, attempting to catch her scent somewhere on the breeze, to be able to track her down, to fall at her feet and beg her forgiveness.

Nothing can keep me from her.

“Take the Barghest!” I hear the snarling voice behind me, one which is familiar. “Use the wolfsbane before he shifts.”

I’m already in my were form, but at these words, I shift to my hound form. Or at least I try because above me is the most enormous, cloud and as my body changes, it descends, filling my lungs and pulling at my consciousness.

I will not let it take me. I will get to Wynter.

“That’s it, Reavely,” the voice croons. “Once you belong to me, you’ll never have to worry about the Reaper again.”

And the face I see sends a spear of ice into my heart.

“Lord Soulis.” The name drips from my lips with the drool I cannot stop.

Lord Soulis, the one Faerie I should have been watching when all I wanted to do was deal with Lord Guyzance. I see it all now, even with the wolfsbane in my system.

I have been played and my desire to break my curse has been my undoing. I failed to look to where the danger really lay.

With Lord Soulis and all who serve him.

“Sleep well, Reavely. We’ll talk when you have your senses and I have your mate.”