\[William’s POV\]
I lean against the wall, watching while Uncle Hamilton fusses over Aunt Naomi. Since we arrived, she has remained unconscious, but her vitals were good and strong, so she could wake up at any time.
Tearing my gaze away from them, I take in Elise’s unmoving form and feel something in me stir. As much as I want to ask what happened to her, I know that I can’t, not when Uncle Hamilton was here. If I were to show the slightest bit of interest in her, he would become suspicious, and that wouldn’t bode well.
Sighing, I kick off of my spot and prepare to move, but stop as Rosco walks in with a murderous look on his face.
“Well?” Uncle Hamilton asks, turning from Aunt Naomi. “Did you manage to find the ones responsible for this?”
“I…” Rosco begins, his expression turning pained. “They got away.”
“Got away!” Uncle Hamilton booms, his voice echoing off the walls around us. “How could you let something like that happen?”
“They were prepared for us.” Rosco responds. “If all you’re going to do is show your ass over this, you can just leave. I’ve already got families to contact over deaths, and I’m not in the mood to deal with you.”
“Deaths?” Uncle Hamilton repeats, his anger palpable in his voice. “What the hell happened? Were you too careless?”
“I told you they were prepared.”
“Could you two argue somewhere else?”
Eyes widening, I turn my gaze to Elise as she works to sit up in her bed, but when she’s almost there, she collapses again.
“Dammit,” she grumbles, clearly frustrated by how weak she is. For a moment, she tries again, but when it is clear that she won’t be able to achieve her goal, she lets out a growl and turns her gaze to Rosco and Uncle Hamilton. “I don’t know what the hell it is you’re arguing about, but take it somewhere people aren’t trying to sleep.”
“You!” Uncle Hamilton growls, his eyes flashing with rage. “You’re behind all of this, aren’t you?”
“Me?” She repeats. “Where the hell did you get such a ridiculous idea from?”
“You’re a criminal!” He responds. “Who the hell else could be responsible for what happened here? My son was too fucking stupid to think that a tiger would change its stripes, but once a criminal, always a criminal.”
“If I’m such a criminal, why don’t I just murder you?” Elise challenges, not backing down despite my uncle’s attempts at trying to intimidate her. “I have to live up to expectations, right?”
As she speaks, she works to lift herself again while extending her claws. When she manages to be able to swing her legs over the side of the bed, I rush forward, knowing that I need to take charge.
“Could all of you hot heads cool it?” I huff, pushing Elise back down on her bed. “Tension is high, and no one is going to get anywhere right now.”
Growing quiet, I wait as Uncle Hamilton and Rosco’s gazes come to rest on me, but they aren’t my biggest issue. Instead, Elise, whom I try to hold in place, works to get me off of her despite her weakened condition.
“They started it.” She finally huffs, giving up. “Maybe if they weren’t so fucking ignorant then...”
“Who are you calling ignorant?” Uncle Hamilton and Rosco say together.
Rolling my eyes, I remain in place in case tempers get heated again. I felt almost like I was dealing with a bunch of children instead of adults.
“I don’t have time for this.” Rosco growls before turning and heading out of the room.
“Don’t you just leave!” Uncle Hamilton hisses, beginning to follow.
Frustration growing, I watch the two men as they make their way out of the room. Once they are out of sight, I turn my gaze toward Elise, who seems satisfied.
“Not going to go with them?” She asks when I remain in place. “Shouldn’t their babysitter keep an eye on them so that a fight doesn’t break out?”
“Babysitter?” I repeat, raising a brow. “I don’t remember volunteering to watch children.”
For a moment, Elise doesn’t speak as she takes me in, and when a smile begins to spread across her face, I feel my heart do a flip.
“So you aren’t always uptight.” She says, locking her gaze with mine. “That’s good to know. It would be such a waste for a prude to be so handsome.”
A prude? Was that the way she saw me after only a few meetings?
“Are you really insulting me, right to my face?” I ask.
“Are you a prude?” She counters. “If so, then yes, I am. If not, I’m just speaking out of my ass.”
Biting back the laugh that wants to escape at her words, I try to remember that my uncle could appear at any time. It was because of slip ups in the past that Marigold was taken from me. I couldn’t make the same mistake twice. It wasn’t fair to Elise, and it wasn’t fair to Marigold.
“What landed you hear?” I ask, changing the topic. “Were you attacked like my aunt?”
“Attacked,” Elise repeats, eyeing me curiously. From the look she is giving me, it is clear she is shocked by the sudden change in topic, but she isn’t speaking it openly. “I wasn’t.” She finally sighs. “Those bastards were, but they played a dirty trick on me.”
“Dirty trick?” What in the world did they do to reduce her to this?
“Dosed needles,” she says, as if reading thoughts. “They’re using drugs against us, but I won’t be fooled again.”
Drugs. So the ones responsible for this had access to a drug that could incapacitate a wolf. That didn’t bode well. When we were to meet them again, we would need to be careful.
‘We?’ Rue repeats, taking me by surprise.
Right. This wasn’t exactly my problem nor the problem of Crystal Fang, and because of that, I doubted Uncle Hamilton would allow me to be involved, especially with my alpha training. But I couldn’t just sit around when my cousin was dealing with something so serious.
“Then go against your uncle.”
Eyes widening, I turn and take in Elise, who is watching me with a look of amusement.
“What did you just say?”
I must have heard her wrong. There was no way that she heard my thoughts.
“You heard me.” She giggles, giving a wink. “If you’re so torn, then isn’t the result simple? Do what you want instead of what everyone else does.”
“If only it was that simple.” I sigh. “You don’t understand the pressures that come with being an heir.”
“You’re right. I don’t.” She confirms, her smile faltering. “Maybe if my bastard father didn’t give me away at birth, I would.”
At her words, I feel my heart queeze while realizing much too late that I didn’t say the right thing. I was aware that Denali was an alpha heir even if she wasn’t treated as such, and as her twin, Elise was too.
“I didn’t,” I begin, but stop as she shakes her head.
“Not being kept gave me the freedom to choose whatever path I wanted.” She says, putting her smile back in place. “I can sleep when I want. Travel when I want. And I don’t have to listen to anything anyone says. I’m living the dream.”
“If that’s the case, why are there tears forming in your eyes?” I ask, not missing the way her eyes begin to sparkle.
“Whoops,” she sighs. “You caught me.”
Nodding, I watch as she works to keep the tears in, and when it becomes too much and they begin to fall, all I can do is reach out and pull her to me.