Chapter 33 Chapter 33
KILLIAN
As the realization dawned on me, I dashed out of the room, but ended up forcing myself to stop at the end of the hallway outside the suite. I couldn’t just run off in any direction. I didn’t even know who took her.
Could it be the people that robbed the vault? No, no, that didn’t—
I let out a harsh breath and dragged my hands down my face, trying to figure out what to do while the fact that I was currently wasting time bounced around in my mind.
“Killian!” came Fabien’s voice from behind me, and I jerked my head in his direction. He was standing in front of the suite’s door, confusion written all over his face. “The lady and her brother are with Valentine’s men.”
“Who?”
“Your lady.”
What the—
I scowled, not even waiting to fully process what he’d said before I rushed out of the building. Belatedly, I realized I hadn’t asked where they were taking her, but it turned out I didn’t need to because I found her right outside my mother’s palace.
She and several other pack representatives were being forced to their knees in front of my father and the entourage he’d left the vault with, and the moment I zeroed in on her, raged gripped me. Apart from the terror on her face, blood was also on it—the smear ran from the side of her forehead to her jaw. The wound that had caused it was no longer actively bleeding due to the restoration pill I gave her earlier—it would keep healing injuries she sustained for eight hours from when she took it—but the fact that someone had caused her harm…
My gaze drifted to the guard standing behind her, and my hands tightened into fists before I began to march over, but then the reminder of my father’s presence stopped me dead in my tracks. I shouldn’t act too rashly and give away how important she was to me.
“Isn’t this quite the surprise?” my father said, sounding quite amused. His back was to me, so I didn’t know who he was talking to, but it seemed like it was the person next to Lenore. “Did your father send you?”
I shifted my gaze back to Lenore who looked like she was about to cry now. Fuck this. I resumed walking over just before the member of the Agellius standing next to my father moved and I saw the person my father was talking to.
It was Lenore’s brother—Cameron McGuire.
Oh… My steps faltered for a moment, but I still kept moving.
It made sense now. He’d taken the guards out, but he didn’t have ill intent towards Lenore, so the barrier didn’t stop him. And she’d gone with him because, well… he was her brother. The fact that they’d been brought here with other pack representatives by Valentine’s men meant they’d been caught trying to leave the city.
Unease twisted my gut. She’d tried to leave me.
“Irrespective, your presence is greatly appreciated,” my father continued before sweeping his gaze over the other representatives in front of him. “As for the rest of you, how rude. I welcome you into my home and give your packs a chance to rise from nothing, and yet you try to leave without my permission. Now I don’t know how things are done in your little communities, but over here thanklessness warrants some kind of punishment.”
Lenore finally spotted me, and her terrified expression was instantly replaced with relief. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like her reaction, but I wasn’t thrilled that she’d tried to leave.
I walked past my father, and pulled her to her feet while the guard behind her glanced around, as if he wasn’t sure if he should do something. She opened her mouth to say something, but I began to pull her along with me before she could, not wanting her to say something that’d make my father’s brows raise.
I’d barely taken a step when her brother shot to his feet and gripped my hand—the one that was holding Lenore. “Unhand me,” I bit out as he glared at me.
“Unhand her.”
He’d tried to take her away from me, and she’d gotten hurt on his watch. I was absolutely not interested in a back-and-forth with him.
He didn’t see my fist coming. Even if he did, there was nothing he could do to stop it.
There was a sharp crunch as my fist connected with his jaw, snapping his head back, and Lenore gasped while he went down. He didn’t get back up.
“Cameron,” Lenore called, but got no response because he was out cold. She started towards him, but my hold on her prevented her from fully reaching him, and when she realized this, she tried to wrench free from me.
I didn’t let her go. I also didn’t want us to spend a moment longer under my father’s gaze, so I picked her up, throwing her over my shoulder.
“And what do you think you’re doing?” my father finally said, and I met his gaze.
“You gave her to me. I will punish her as I see fit.”
“I didn’t say you could take her away, Killian.”
“You want to see me punish her?” I asked, and he blinked, still staring at me blankly. “…I’m not interested in that kind of kink, father.”
At that, his brows snapped together, and before he could work through his bewilderment, I dashed back to my bedroom with Lenore. Heaving a sigh, I walked down the hallway to the bedroom. The moment I stepped over the threshold, Lenore began to pound on my back, moving wildly.
“Put me down. Put me down!”
I set my mouth in a hard line. Her anger wasn’t misplaced—I’d attacked her brother right in front of her after all—but I was also a bit angry at her for wanting to leave me. Yes, she’d wanted to leave Eyrosa and not me, but to her, the two were no different. At least, not now; she still felt a relationship between us would be wrong, and I hadn’t told her why it wasn’t. That she was my mate.
That would most likely scare her more than being in a relationship with me would.
I set her back on her feet and she instantly tried to go past me, but I blocked the doorway. “What do you think I’ll be right back means, Lenore?”
She tried to go the other way, but I blocked her path again.
“Stop.”
She lifted her gaze to mine, simmering with anger, and I tipped my head to the side, taking note that this was the first time she’d directed this emotion at me. “I’m not going to leave my brother there.”
“My father isn’t just going to let you take him.”
She tried to go past me again, and when I stopped her this time, she slapped me.
Oh?
I hadn’t been expecting that. I’d registered her lifting her hand, and the hand flying towards my face, but I still hadn’t been expecting it.
Lenore took a step back, cupping her mouth, like she hadn’t expected herself to do that either. “I—” She cut herself off and blinked at me. Then she hardened her gaze once more and turned away from me.
She didn’t need to say it. She wanted me to leave.
So I turned to do so. Just before I closed the door though, I said, “You were going to leave me.” It came out as a question rather than a statement, and I supposed it was because it was eating at me.
What would she have done if she’d been able to leave? Would she have come back to me sooner or later… or would she have severed ties?
Moments passed without her responding and when it became clear she wouldn’t, I closed the door.