Twisted Bonds

Chapter 7

~~Drew’s PoV~~

I’m waiting for Carter at the front door when he arrives at the party.

“Are you happy now?” he teases. He likes to keep things light because if he didn’t, the weight of his responsibility would wear him down, but I know that if I say I have any concerns, he’ll take me seriously.

“Security’s strong,” I tell him honestly before sharing my concern. “Maybe too strong for a private citizen.”

“The guy who owns this house is the foreign minister,” Carter points out. “He regularly hosts visiting officials.”

That’s valid, and I already told myself that too, but it doesn’t fully explain it. “It’s still on the excessive side. It’s almost as if he’s expecting trouble, if not tonight, then sometime soon. People with this much security generally have powerful enemies, and that’s always a concern, whether they’re after you or not. You could end up caught in the crossfire.”

“What do you want to do, then?” Carter asks me bluntly. “You gave the okay for me to come, so it can’t be that bad, is it?”

I did give approval, mostly because I have no concrete evidence of any threat. It’s just this vague feeling of unease that I can’t explain, and I’m not sure it’s worth offending our hosts over. “I don’t have a reason to call the party off, but I want you to keep one of us with you at all times. If we say you need to leave, you leave immediately, no questions asked.”

“Understood.” Carter gives me a firm nod that is his promise, and I take him at his word. We both know when the time is right for a joke and when we need to take each other seriously. It’s one of the reasons we work so well together.

I double check that all the other men understand their assignments before I follow Carter into the main reception room, not close enough to interfere with his duties, but close enough that I can carry out mine. Prince Henrik finds him shortly after we arrive and leads him over to another group of people to introduce him, while I follow at a distance.

That’s when I get my first glimpse of the red hair of the woman standing next to the man Carter is speaking to. The man and woman have their backs to me and I can’t see their faces, but that shade of red reminds me immediately of Bree. I was just thinking about her on the plane, and now she’s on my mind again.

Suddenly, it hits me.

She left the party that night three years ago with a man from this very kingdom. What if she came here with him? What if this is why I haven’t been able to find any trace of her in the empire? How has that thought never occurred to me before?

I move to the side, trying to get around the group so that I can see the woman’s face to find out if I’m right, but the prince gestures in the other direction and everyone turns that way. Damn it. My heart is pounding at the mere idea that I’ve found her at last, but I can’t let myself be distracted. Besides, if she’s here, it must mean she’s found her mate. That idea disappoints me, which is ridiculous. I only ever wanted to find her to apologize to her… didn’t I?

Carter begins to follow the prince into another room, along with the other man they were just speaking to, but the woman stays where she is, and I quickly mind-link one of the other men in my team. You take the prince. I’ll stay out here.

Yes, sir, comes the ready response, and I watch to ensure he follows Carter into the room before turning my full attention to the redhead who has started to leave the room in the opposite direction, her back still to me.

Glancing around me to make sure there’s nothing important that I’m missing, I follow her at a distance, her red hair drawing me towards her like a beacon though I still haven’t seen her face. She stops to speak to the man positioned at the door and he lets her through. When I try to follow, however, he holds me back. “This is the minister’s private garden.”

I don’t want to cause a scene, but I need to know if I’m right or if I’ve let my imagination carry me away, so I stay where I am but call out after her: “Bree? Is that you?”

The woman stops in mid-step and turns back, and as soon as I see her face, I’m filled with both delight and concern. It is her, but something has changed. She doesn’t look well at all.

“Drew?” Confusion echoes in her voice as she takes a step back towards the door, and the fact that she remembers my name after all this time makes me unreasonably happy. “How… I mean, why… what are you doing here?”

“I’m here with the king,” I explain. My body moves forward, pulled towards her by some invisible string, but the man at the door puts out his arm to hold me back.

“Mrs Bancroft?” he says, addressing Bree. “You know this man?”

So, she is mated after all. I’d been so distracted by her appearance that I hadn’t paid attention to her scent, but I can smell it now. She has been claimed by another man, and a bitter taste fills my mouth at the thought, for no good reason.

“I do know him,” Bree tells the guard before giving me an apologetic smile. “I would love to catch up, Drew, I truly would. It’s so nice to see you, but I need a minute to myself. Would you wait for me inside?”

“Of course. I didn’t mean to intrude.” Obviously, I have overstepped. We have only ever exchanged a few words before; I don’t know what I was expecting.

I take a step back into the house as Bree turns around to head further into the garden, but just as quickly, I stop as my nose twitches. My sense of smell has always been one of my best skills, well-developed even for a wolf, but once again, I have let myself be distracted by Bree’s presence here. It’s a rookie mistake, but now that I’m paying attention, I know there’s someone else in the garden, someone I can’t see.

“Who else is out there?” I ask the man at the door as Bree heads behind a hedge that shields her from our view.

“No one,” he assures me, but his eyes dart quickly to the side and back, and I know immediately that he is lying even if I couldn’t smell the other wolf myself.

In a split second, I make my choice, running past him out into the garden as he shouts after me. “Stop! Wait!”

Each step sends a jarring impact through my prosthetic legs as I round the corner. The guard will be calling his backup, so I don’t have much time, but that’s not what’s worrying me at the moment: I’m much more concerned about who’s waiting out there for Bree and why.

I see them as soon as I turn the corner. Bree is standing against the hedge, removing her dress for some reason, while the other figure approaches silently. Bree is down to a thin silk slip and the other person’s face is obscured beneath a hooded cloak, but beneath the light of the moon, I see the glint of the knife in their hand.

I sprint towards the pair but it’s obvious I won’t get there in time, so I call out as I run: “Bree! Look out!”

Startled, she turns just in time to see the figure approach and scrambles back, falling to the ground as she darts out of the way.

My artificial legs are designed for agility but not necessarily for speed, and the person with the knife is quick. Although I try to grab them, I only catch the edge of the cloak. It pulls off the person’s face, and I’m shocked to see the woman from the screen earlier, the one who was arguing with Bree’s mate. She hisses at me as I expose her, but she manages to twist out of my reach. Making another instantaneous decision, I let her go so I can check on Bree instead. The security guards should be coming any second anyway so they will stop the fleeing woman.

“Are you alright?” I reach out my hands to Bree who is still on the ground, barefoot in her slip.

“I’m okay,” she answers shakily, taking hold of my bionic hand to pull herself up. She stumbles, and I put my other hand on her waist to steady her. “But you need to leave, please. I don’t have much time…”

I don’t get a chance to ask her what she needs time for. A second later, the security guards arrive, their weapons drawn as they shout at me.

“Get away from her! Put your hands up!”

Too late, I realize what this looks like with me standing here holding onto the half-dressed mate of another man.

Your Majesty? I mind-link Carter as I let Bree go and raise my hands slowly into the air. I think I need your help.