Page 12 of Sasquatch's Claiming

The northern realm was welcome to those who wanted to live in harmony, everyone except netherworld beings.

Evil spirits had no place here and they couldn’t cross.

Adam was mulling it over and then his shoulders slumped, almost as if in defeat, and Ben’s heart began to race.

“Cillian is right,” Adam grudgingly admitted.

Cillian grinned and bowed with a flourish. “I’m so glad you see the error of your ways, dear brother. Playing politics is a tricky game, which can turn deadly if not managed properly. Every empire falls. Eventually.”

It was at that moment that Cillian vanished again. Ben hated his cryptic remarks and loathed how he seemed to want to control them all, but there was a part of him right now that was glad Cillian interfered. Something he never expected to think, yet here he was at this weird place, having sympathy for the devil.

Adam let out another deep sigh and then nodded, not saying anything else. Ben knew his brother was telling him to go claim Bernadette and make her his bride of the northern woods.

Ben wasn’t sure how he was going to convince her to come with him to his place, but he was going to stay with her and not leave her side. He couldn’t leave her unprotected in Thunder Bay. These woods were safer for her, but if she wanted to stay, then he’d live in the shadows of the city to keep her safe and make her his.

All day,she thought about Ben and the fact that monsters were real. It was really hard to focus on her work as a file clerk in the hospital. And that need, that hunger which gnawed at her, had been only slightly repressed.

As the day went on, the hours away from Ben, it only grew.

She needed him again. It was even more intense.

The weirdest thing was, as she moved around the hospital, she could see ripples of energy and sometimes, she swore she could see shadows moving. As if there was magic in the sterility of the hospital corridors.

As if there were beings around them, all the time, right under her nose. Only now she could see them clearly.

“Bernadette, can you take this to the basement?” Janice asked, holding a box of files.

Bernadette shook all those thoughts away and took the box from Janice. “Sure.”

She hated going into the basement of the hospital and into the old section. People said it was haunted and she used to brush it all off, but now, after meeting Ben and some of her memories coming back to her, she knew very well it most likely was haunted. Ben had warned her that she was in danger, that things were lurking out there and coming to seek her out.

Why? She didn’t know, but she felt like she’d rather handle a ghost over her uncle.

“You’re mine,”her uncle’s voice echoed through her head, sending a chill down her spine.

Think about Ben.

And that’s what she did. It calmed her and sent the feelings of dread far away.

As she made her way to the older part of the hospital, she passed some closed patient rooms. Rooms that were mostly used for storage and were outdated, but there was a door open and she heard a voice.

“Hello?”

It was a female voice, and it sounded frightened.

Bernadette set down the box and made her way over to the partially open door. “Hello?”

“I don’t know where I am,” the woman responded. “I’m tied down.”

Tied down?

Instantly, a weird sensation crawled over her, like bugs on her skin. A creepy feeling, like she didn’t belong here. The lights flickered, there was an electric buzz, and she froze. It felt like someone was standing right behind her.

Chills and dread raced through her veins, turning her blood to ice.

“You need to step away,” the deep voice said calmly.

Bernadette turned and came face to face with a tall man. He had greyish skin and long black hair. His eyes were almost white and glowing. His ears were pointed, with just the tips peeking through his hair which hung down to his shoulders. He was decked out in black leathers, almost like a medieval warrior. Part of him didn’t seem solid, like he was part flesh and part smoke.

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