Page 112 of Black Willow Witch
As had become usual, the front door opened in welcome as Ripper vaulted up the porch steps. He stalked inside, rage firing through his blood. He’d been pissed at CeCe before. But having learned what Emberlyn had gone through in his absence, he was even more furious.
If he hadn’t been called away, he would have gone to Bellcrest with Emberlyn. He could have had her back; could have kept those fucking assholes from getting anywhere near her.
‘Emberlyn?’ he called out, prowling through the manor. ‘Emberlyn?’
Footfalls came thundering down the steps. He halted, his gaze on theempty staircase. A cold breeze fluttered past his left side, ruffling the sleeve of his tee. Fuck, this house gave him the creeps at times.
A creak came from the direction of the kitchen. He tracked the sound, his pace slowing as Emberlyn stepped out of the door that led to the basement. She closed it behind her and turned to him, her face composed and showing no trace of anger.
His woman was good at hiding her emotions.
Visually taking stock of her, Ripper walked straight to her. ‘You all right? I heard what happened at Bellcrest.’
‘I’m fine,’ she said, her voice as empty of emotion as her expression. ‘Just a little agitated.’
Yeah? She didn’tlookagitated. ‘You should have called me,’ he said, inching closer.
‘I did. You weren’t home. I figured Kerr would hear of it from one of the Watchers and tell you about it once you were done doing Alpha stuff,’ she added with a slight shrug, as ifthe incident hadn’t been noteworthy enough to warrant his immediate attention.
‘No “Alpha stuff” is more important to me than anything concerning you,’ he firmly stated, not missing the flare of surprise in her eyes. ‘I want the names of who circled and attacked you.’ The Watcher from the coven who’d relayed what happened had refused to name anyone, not trusting that Ripper wouldn’t hunt them all down.
‘I already dealt with them.’
‘So I heard.’ He was proud of how well she’d handled the incident. ‘But now it’s my turn.’
‘It would be playing into the hands of whoever bespelled the Rabid. We’ve established that our little shit stirrer wants to isolate the coven and make Reena look bad. If you go to Bellcrest on the bounce, she’ll have no choice but to defend her people even if she agrees that you have a right to your anger. That’ll make things worse, which the shit stirrer willlove.’
Annoyed he couldn’t honestly refute that, Ripper felt his jaw tighten.
‘I think they were hoping she’d blame me; that she and I would go head-to-head, and then I’d have done their dirty work for them. Except it didn’t pan out that way, so they took it a step further and riled up the crowd – it was clear that somebody had. They seemed sure they could gather enough people to “storm the manor”.’
He tensed. ‘That was what they were planning?’
‘According to Mari, yes.’
Motherfuckers.‘Was Reena there?’
‘She showed up after the crowd launched their sad little attack. Apparently, she’d already told them that she didn’t believe I was responsible for the Rabid’s appearance at Bellcrest. They’d gone against her orders to leave me be. She apologized to me on their behalf and made it clear that they’d be punished.’
As Reena didn’t have a great history of dishing out punishments that properly fit the crime, Ripper wasn’t mollified by that. ‘Why did you even go to Bellcrest?’
‘Mari called, telling me she had some info I’d want to hear. I was a little suspicious, but I couldn’t think what ulterior motive she could have for asking me to come see her. And I didn’t want her showing up here at my home.’
He felt his teeth grind. ‘She set you up?’
Emberlyn pulled a face. ‘Maybe. She claimed it was to prevent the whole storming the manor thing from occurring. I don’t know if that’s true. But she did seem genuinely upset about how everything went down. Or it could be that I want to believe that because it bums me out to think my own blood would lure me somewhere to be attacked.’
His chest clenched at that. The urge to comfort an itch beneath his skin, he nuzzled her face and curled both his arms around her shoulders. ‘I’ll have a little talk with Mari; find out for sure.’
Emberlyn’s hands settled on his hips. ‘She wouldn’t confess to any such thing, so there’s no point in questioning her over it.’
‘Do you think the people who came at you could be the rebellious faction?’
Thoughtful, she absently touched her tongue to the inside of her lower lip. Just like that, his attention zipped right down to that mouth he was a little obsessed with.
‘I would’ve thought they’d avoid drawing so much attention to themselves, but I could be wrong,’ she said.
He forced his eyes to return to hers as he considered her point. ‘Their actions will make Reena look at them closely. It doesn’t make sense that the faction would want that. Or that they’d officially make themselves enemies of you.’
