Only after silence met my three knocks did I get half the sense to recall everyone was down in the dining room for breakfast. I stared back at the direction I had come through, and the thought of going to Elena's room and returning to Callan’s seemed exhausting.
“I could wait for him inside,” I whispered to myself, pushing open the door slightly.
'You do realize you're invading, right?' my wolf’s cautionary voice rang through me. I had come to begrudgingly admit that my wolf was usually the practical one between us both, but in this case, I was choosing to be blinded to the truthfulness.
“No, I'm not. I won't even touch anything,” I said stubbornly as I stepped into the room and shut the door behind me. The smell of sandalwood filled the room from the burning incense placed by the window; the curtains had been parted sending streams of sunlight inside.
It looked just like the other guest rooms, but I could still feel a significant difference in how the room evinced everything Callan, or it could be the smell of him that I had gotten used to. His bed had been neatly arranged, and it was apparent from the impeccable tidiness of the room that the servant tasked with the cleaning hadn't been busy slacking and getting lost in thoughts like Leah and me.
My eyes caught the books that had been stacked on the table, and I walked toward them, picking up the one at the top and letting my fingers run through its hardcover. It felt heavy in my hands.
I squinted my eyes, and I felt my brow furrow as I read the title; it was something on plants and medicine and some unpronounceable science text.
The upper-class members of a pack were the only educated ones, possessing the privileges of learning the basics of history, arithmetic, science, and English. Their knowledge was just another means of segregating the lower class and servants from them while keeping us ignorant and feeling as inferior as they preferred. Having been born elite, I could make sense of a few strings of words.
A beautiful black and golden colored pen was lying on the table beside a small pocket watch. Against the better judgment of keeping my hands to myself, I picked up the pen, reveling in its elegance just as I heard the approaching of heavy footsteps.
I knew immediately it wasn't Callan.
My eyes ran across the room wildly for a spot to hide. I knew without a doubt that if anyone else saw me here, I would be accused of thievery.
'This is why you should have listened to me,' my wolf said, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes at her.
'This wouldn't be happening if you'd been insistent enough,' I retorted just as my frantic eyes settled on the space underneath the bed, and right as I ducked underneath it, the raucous sound of my fast-beating heart filling my ears, the door creaked open.
From my awkward and highly uncomfortable position where I could feel hard wood from the bed pressing down on my lower half, the only view I had of the intruder— rich term coming from me, considering I wasn't any different— was their shoes which helped me determine his gender.
The man’s shoes moved from my line of vision, but I could hear the loud clomping sound his steps elicited as he made his way around the rest of the room.
“Where the hell is it?” he muttered in a frustrated tone, the sound of ruffling papers reaching me.
My stance under the bed became even more stiffly held; whoever he was, if he caught me, would make sure I get punished and not for being in the room but for witnessing his attempt to take something that belonged to Callan. My thoughts wandered, trying to see if I could figure out what it was the person needed, but I came up empty. I didn't know him well enough to guess. I could feel the heightened agitation from the intruder in how his movements became restless and more things were moved.
“Fuck!” he swore at the same time as I felt Callan’s proximity, the sound of his approaching strides from just outside the door was audible enough to get the intruder hurriedly moving to presumably restore everything he’d been moving back in place.
I waited. My anticipation of the intruder being caught was so high that when the door opened and Callan’s presence filled the room, my breath hitched in my throat.
There was silence at first, one that disturbed me, and then…
“Radley?” Callan called. “What are you doing here?”
Cold disappointment poured over me at the familiarity and casualness in Callan’s tone. I had been expecting the intruder to make a run for it as soon as Callan arrived.
“I was waiting for you,” Radley replied, and when I heard the soft sound of the couch sinking, I imagined he had settled himself on it.
Slight anger suffused through me at the audacity and blatant lie. I almost ran out of hiding to call him out on it. Thankfully, I caught myself just in time.
“You missed breakfast to wait for me in my room?” Callan asked with a light chuckle. “That is interesting.”
I strained to hear the skepticism in his tone, but there was none; whoever Radley was, he was completely free from Callan’s suspicion.
“Well, yes, I've been bothered by something so much it’s all I'd thought about last night, and I decided it best to speak to you about it as soon as possible,” Radley said, and I felt a small pang of guilt that I was eavesdropping on what seemed like it was going to be a private discussion.
I was getting prepared to come out of hiding—reveal myself, apologize, and run away, and although that sounded really stupid, it was a better move than listening to what I had no business with—that was until I heard Radley’s next words.
“It has to do with the servant girl. I learned her name is Sophia,”
I stopped. Me? He was going to talk about me?
Callan’s words came out with a distinct tightness to his tone. “What about her?”
“You aren't thinking about it, are you?” Radley asked, sounding utterly disgusted by the mere idea.
“Listen, Callan, you don't know these lower-class members. They are all the same everywhere. Opportunistic and dirt-poor, they will do anything to escape their unfortunate fate.”
The rage that simmered in me was incomparable to any I’d ever felt before, so intense it gave me an ache and brought tears to my eyes. I wanted so much to march out and make Radley swallow his words, but I realized there was barely anything I could do to him physically, so instead, I focused on steadying my breath while realizing that Callan had remained quiet at Radley’s demeaning words.
I let out a small scoff. I should have known.
Radley went on. “For all we know, the mate thing might just be a sham. You are the Alpha of the Black Tide Pack, Callan. The goddess knows better than to grant you someone like that as a mate. You shouldn’t let it unnerve you. I suggest you break the bond, and we leave tonight with you forgetting the servant girl’s existence.”
Callan’s tone was rich in his usual calm and composure. “That won't happen.”
“What?” Radley asked, the shock in his voice obvious.
“We won’t be leaving here until Sophia agrees to come with us,” Callan said.
Radley seemed hysterical from disbelief. “You asked her to come with us?”
“I won’t let her stay here any longer with Alexander, not with the way he treats her.”
And he took in a breath before saying with all the seriousness I’d ever heard in a person’s voice.
“I’ll steal her away from here if need be, and that’s all you need to know about this. Go on to your room and prepare. We are going riding in the next half an hour.”