Maybe it was time to finally stop kidding myself. About how I felt about Perrie and how I felt about Rhodes, all of it was bullshit in the grand scheme of things.
The car had barely pulled into the long circular driveway before I was throwing the door open and hopping out.
“Sir!” I heard Collum call behind me but I ignored him as I stepped inside the large front door where Oona was waiting for me. She was dressed in her nightgown instead of her usual gray dress and apron, probably because it was just after eleven o’clock at night and she was in bed when all of the commotion began.
“Where is she?” I asked, ignoring the older woman’s fluttering as she tried to take my jacket.
“In the east wing, sir, Rhodes took her there as soon as they returned. May I ask what is going on? The two of you have looked like right thunderclouds as soon as you stepped through the door and no one will explain—”
“Later,” I promised, turning my feet in the direction of the tower.
I barely remembered the walk there, or even crossing through the greenhouse to the stairs, but in a blink I was throwing open the door to find her and Rhodes sitting across from each other mid-conversation.
It all hit me as Perrie turned to me, her eyes guilty. I had done this. I had put her in this fucking tower like it was some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. It was like I had practically put out into the universe that I wanted my wife to be kidnapped and it was firing off a warning shot.
My inner alpha, which I’d barely been keeping at bay, finally took over and the normal, rational Edison Keane was gone and in its place was something far more feral.
“Edison—” Perrie began, starting to stand.
I crossed the room in two long strides, pulling her right off of her feet and throwing her over my shoulder.
“Hey!” I vaguely heard her squeal as I turned to get her the fuck out of this tower.
“Edison, hang on,” Rhodes said, grabbing my arm. It was clear he expected me to be levelheaded about all of this. Perrie was fine and it was obvious there had been some kind of misunderstanding and she hadn’t been taken by anyone dangerous.
But it was all too damn close.
“Mine,” I bit out a growl at him, incapable of forming any other sort of words to verbalize how I was feeling and the other alpha flinched away from me before holding his hands up in surrender.
We stared at each other and for a moment the haze of rage and fear cleared enough to see that he was worried—about Perrie or about me I wasn’t sure—but there was so much of it on the normally stoic man’s face that it nearly knocked me right out of it.
“Can you please put me down?” Perrie’s voice was muffled by her face on my back, reminding me exactly of the events of the night and it all came crashing right back down again.
I ignored Perrie’s question and turned to leave, hurrying down the stairs and away from Rhodes. He wasn’t my pack, he’d madethat clear and my instincts wanted nothing to do with him at the moment.
No. All I wanted to do was get Perrie back to my room and look over every inch of her skin for any kind of blemish or injury.
“Sir! You can’t just carry your wife like she’s a sack of potatoes!” Oona gasped as I passed by her again.
“I don’t think he’s exactly listening right now,” Perrie called comfortingly to the housekeeper, her head bouncing against my back as she did so.
“Oh, oh my!” Oona continued to follow us through the house as I made a beeline for my rooms. “Do you want me to get someone to, I don’t know, stop him?”
Another growl rattled out of my chest at that. I’d like to see anyone try. My inner alpha seemed to agree, pleased that I was finally letting it drive as we stepped into the final hallway that would take us up to our destination.
“No! It’s fine, I can handle it,” she said and I didn’t hear anything else from the older woman so I assumed she’d left us alone.
My bedroom was dark and quiet when I shoved the door open and kicked it shut behind us. Only then did I finally put Perrie back down on her feet again.
She was dressed in a too-short skirt that hugged the top of her thighs and had apparently ridden up while I’d been carrying her through the house. Then there was the halter top that clung to the curve of her breasts in a way that made me want to shred the thin material with my teeth.
Both pieces were things that I’d never seen her in before and were outside of the realm of what she usually wore.
“Edison?” Perrie reached for my face, her auburn brows drawing together as she tried to reach me.
But I was too far gone to be the usual gentleman that she always saw.
Grabbing the front of her shirt, I tugged it up over her head, making her squawk in protest as I chucked it somewhere into the dark room.