Page 4 of Wedlock

Small rivulets of blood run from her palm and down her wrist, but she doesn’t seem to notice this, or my interruption.

“Love of a vampire for a human is rare,” she goes on, “and eternal. Since he’s admitted it to himself, uttered it out loud, he will always love you. Even though your actions may have just cemented his belief that love betweenhumansandvampiresisimpossible and unnatural,hisheartwillalwaysacheforyou —asJaguar’sachesforhisCoquette.Andknowingmyson,he’llneverallow another human woman to get close to him. There’s nothing I can do to assuage that pain other than to be there for him and repent my own part in his heartbreak.”

Tears begin to slip down my cheeks as she goes on, but her features are marble.

“I slapped you before he could give in to his hurt and betrayal, or act on his rage and lash out. Before he had a chance to do something he’d live to regret. I slapped you not to saveyourlife, Angelina, but to save his.”

I gulp as her words sink in, and silently acknowledge her rationale. Yes, she’d saved my life, and the life of my baby.

“Thankyou.”

“Don’t thank me,” she unclasps her hands, looking down, surprised, at the half-moon cuts her nails had inflicted, “You’ve made it clear you don’t care for your husband and that your whole personality is a lie. If you’re thanking me for saving you, you needn’t. Your life is incidental. You only have one job to do now, and I’m going to make sure you fulfil that duty. To that end you can consider yourself a prisoner. No one will come in here, and no one will leave this room without me knowing about it. I was foolish to trust you and I won’t make that mistake again. I won’t let you do anything at all to jeopardise my grandson.”

She nods to the baby, and I shake my head sadly. She doesn’t need to worry on that score.

“I’d burn down the world for my son, Eleanor.”

“Then you know how I feel,” she whispers.

‘God. I’m so sorry. I wish there was a way, ANY way that I could tell her the truth. That I do love her son, that I never meant for any of this to happen. But how? I can’t tell her I’m a prisoner inside my own mind just as much as inside these castle walls. And where exactly am I anyhow?’

“Where am I?”I voice my question.

“When you collapsed Falcon carried you here, to his suites,” she says as she turns from me.

“His suites?” I echo as I consider the huge room, far superior to anything I’ve seen before in the castle. Everything is modern and light, decorated in teal and dark brown, apart from the Persian carpet, with its intricate pattern woven in deep reds and cream. There’s a big lounge area with a huge open fireplace wide enough to cook a whole cow, I imagine, a dressing area with plush white leather ottomans and ornate furniture, and a big bathroom, open to the rest of the huge suite and tiled in white marble. All the fittings are gold. The whole room is bathed in light from the wall-length tinted windows overlooking the beautifully manicured gardens and the lake beyond, complete with white swans.

“His bedroom adjoins yours,” she points to a big, richly carved black door across the other side of the sumptuously decorated room, “but you needn’t worry about that right now.”

“Not worry?” I whisper.

‘Of course I’m going to worry. I’m going to worry like hell that he’s going to open that door and rip my fucking heart out or twist my head off like a bottle top.’

“He’s gone,” she says brusquely, seeing my incredulous expression.

“Gone where?”

“Away.”

“For howlong?”

“You need to breastfeed for three years, Angelina,” she says matter-of-factly as she heads to the door. “I only hope you’re truthful when you say you love your baby, and that you’re strong enough to at least manage to sustain him.”

I frown at her statement, but put it aside to question her later. Right now there’ssomething more pressing I need to know.

“Eleanor, how long will Falcon be away?”

She doesn’t bother answering, and doesn’t look back.

Long after she’s gone I consider her words and the subtext behind them.

“Three years?” I whisper.

4

I lean back into the jet’s seat, my fingers leaving holes in the leather upholstery where I’ve unwittingly gripped the armrests too tightly.

The pain I feel right now is indescribable.