Chapter 55 55
ARIELLE'S POV
I sat on the very edge of a stiff leather sofa, my backpack on my lap. I waited. The grandfather clock in the corner ticked loudly, measuring out the silence. Five minutes. Ten. Thirty minutes later, I hadn’t caught a shadow of him, hadn’t heard a single footstep or the open and close of a door. The house felt like a beautiful, empty tomb.
Frustration pushed me to call Mandy. She answered on the first ring, music blaring in the background.
“Hello? I’m at the packhouse,” I said, keeping my voice low. “But I don’t see your uncle anywhere.”
“Oh! He’s probably in his study or something. He’s like a ghost in that place. Hold on a bit, he’ll show up.”
“But…”
“Since you’re there,” she interrupted, her voice brightening, “you should get what I got for you!”
“What?”
“I got you a little pre-welcome-to-college gift from my pack! But the last two times you came over, I completely spaced and forgot to give it to you. My bad!”
“Oh. You can just give it to me when you get back…”
“No, no, go get it now! It’s in my room. In the cupboard on the right side of my bed. You can’t miss it.”
I inhaled, looking toward the grand staircase. The idea of snooping around her room felt intrusive, but she was insisting. “Alright.”
I ended the call and stood up, my footsteps echoing in the quiet as I headed upstairs reluctantly.
Her room was at the end of the hall, still chaotically full of half-unpacked boxes. I did as she instructed, opening the ornate wooden cupboard. Inside, nestled among some sweaters, was a small, velvet box. I picked it up and opened it.
Inside, on a bed of black satin, lay a beautiful silver bracelet. It was delicate, with tiny, intertwined wolf howls etched into the metal. My breath caught.
It was the exact same design as the one she used to wear all through the last months of high school, the one I’d always admired and complimented.
A real, wide smile spread across my face. It was such a Mandy gift—thoughtful, personal, and a little bit extra.
I put it on my wrist immediately, the cool metal a comforting weight. I smiled, touched, and left her room, closing the door softly behind me.
As I walked down the empty, plush-carpeted hallway toward the stairs, I pulled out my phone to send her a gushing thank-you text. My thumb was hovering over the screen when I heard a noise.
It was faint. A soft thud.
My head snapped up, my eyes scanning. The sound hadn’t come from downstairs. It came from the other end of the hallway.
Curiosity, that deadly cat, got the best of me. I deviated from my path to the stairs and walked slowly toward the sound, my new bracelet glinting in the dim light.
I stopped before a heavy, dark wood door. It was slightly ajar. From inside, I heard another sound—clearer this time. A low, pained groan.
My heart thumped. Someone was in there. Had whoever it was been in here the whole time I was waiting?
Holding my breath, I pushed the door open wider and stepped into a room. It was much bigger than Mandy’s, and dimly lit by the grey afternoon light filtering through closed drapes. My eyes swept around—a massive, neatly made bed, a sleek desk, walls lined with books. This wasn’t a guest room.
My gaze fixated on another door within the room, slightly open. It obviously led to an en-suite bathroom. Another, sharper groan escaped from behind it. That’s where he was.
My eyes darted to the large window across the room. The drapes weren’t fully closed, and I saw it—the frantic flapping of a large, dark bird just outside the pane. My gaze lowered to the floor beneath the window.
A pool of broken glass glittered on the expensive rug. Shards, like fallen stars, were scattered everywhere.
I walked closer, my shoes crunching softly on a stray piece. Looking at the broken windowpane, the pattern of the fracture… it didn’t look like something had been thrown at it from the outside. It looked like something had burst through it, from out to inside.
A cold dread started to curl in my stomach. This was more than I should see. This was private, dangerous. I was about to back out, to pretend I’d never come in, when a hard, cold voice sliced through the silence from right behind me.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
I spun around, my heart leaping into my throat.
He stood in the doorway I’d just entered, blocking my exit. It wasn't the question that held me frozen, It was his face. Pale. Grim. His hazel eyes were like chips of frost, burning with a cold, controlled fury.
Alpha Aeson.