Page 25 of An Unending Claim

I carried the plate holding her sandwich and a bowl of fruit in one hand, and a glass of juice in the other. She took them and when she murmured, “Thank you,” I lifted her chin with one finger and bent to brush my lips across hers.

“You’re welcome.” Feeling a need to be closer to her, I dragged an ottoman over and sat right in front of her, resting my elbows on my knees. I waited until she nodded, then started again.

“Louis spotted Benoît and I together a few times, seemingly innocent moments, unless you were privy to them multiple times. Benoît’s heritage as an aristocrat had put him in immediate danger when the tides changed, but as time passed, it seemed no one was safe from accusation and beheading. As I mentioned before, Louis was quite a curious fellow. The guests coming and going from Benoît’s home didn’t always disguise themselves as they should have. Putting together their purpose there, especially when they often arrived and departed at night, wouldn’t have been a terribly difficult puzzle. He’d already become suspicious of Benoît, but had no reason to act upon it as of yet. When he saw Benoît and I attempting to speak discreetly, especially having seen me visit a few times, I imagine his curiosity about me was further piqued. I put some of my people on him so that we would be immediately alerted if he acted on his conclusions and hopefully avoid the need for damage control.

“It came about in an unexpected manner, though. Louis was a baker and catered events. As it happened, he’d been hired to supply treats to a small gathering that Adrienne and I were attending at the behest of her brother. The other attendees were radicals like Bernard and, like him, they were loud, recognizable figures. Everyone knew where their loyalties lay.”

Peyton had finished her food, so I took the plate and glass to the kitchen while continuing my take. “My men hadn’t been aware that I would be present, so they saw no reason to report his whereabouts. Except for a stroke of bad luck, we might have never even known about the other being there. The platters were usually replenished by servers, but for some reason Louis brought out a tray just as I escorted Adrienne to the dessert table. He’d watched me approach with open curiosity, glancing at Adrienne’s hand on my arm, then back to my face to scrutinize my features. It seemed Adrienne had met Louis at previous events and she’d been the one to suggest his services to her brother. She introduced us with excitement, referring to me as her fiancé, and waving around the gaudy rock she’d picked out. When she informed me that she wanted to hire Louis for our reception, he smiled and his eyes lit with greed.”

I grunted and ran my hands through my hair in annoyance. I’d met a lot of men like Louis in my lifetime, and they were all the same. “He could ruin everything if he didn’t keep his mouth shut about my relationship with Benoît. If I’d thought paying him off would keep him quiet, I would have done it without question. But I knew the little shit would be a thorn in my side unless we handled it permanently.”

“I’d have killed the rat, too,” Peyton muttered.

I glanced up to see her playing with the ends of her hair, rather than fiddling with her ring. She’d gone from anxious to curious, and it quickly dawned on me that she thought this whole story had culminated in the death of Louis.

I could have ended it right there, left the past in the past, let her believe that my soul wasn’t stained black from blood. No matter how righteous the intentions, I’d still taken more lives than one could ever count. It had never bothered me, but lately, I’d been slowly amazed when I realized that Peyton’s fire was shedding light into my darkness. I liked the way it made me feel, and I didn’t want her to stop. Not because it would wash me clean, or chase the shadows away permanently, but because it brought out a side of me that I hadn’t been aware existed.

Secrets would only cast more shadows, so I pushed forward. “This isn’t really about Louis,” I explained.

“You didn’t kill him?”

“No, I did, but… let me finish, okay?”

Her expression softened like it always did whenever I asked nicely for something. “Okay.”

I nodded and brushed her hair behind her ear before leaning on my elbows again. “Once I’d settled Adrienne by the fire with her dessert, I made an excuse under the pretense of relieving myself. Louis had guessed my intentions and waited for me in the hallway. Before he could say anything that would have pushed me to snap his neck right then and there, I told him he wouldn’t receive a single denier from me and warned him that his life depended on his staying in my good graces. My wolf had picked up on my aggression and he rested close to the surface. When I gave Louis the warning, my wolf inadvertently flashed in my eyes. Much less noticeable with our matching silver, but I could tell he’d seen it. He begged my pardon and hurried off with his proverbial tail between his legs. I suspected he wouldn’t cause further problems, but we never dropped our guard.”

“Perhaps a month later, Benoît sent word one afternoon that he urgently needed my help. I’d been at my hotel with Adrienne, so I gave her some excuse or another and took her home, then went straight to Benoît. When I arrived, he explained that one of the families—wolf shifters—stopping at his place on their way to the border hadn’t been completely honest with him, putting us all at risk. Their son’s true mate, three months pregnant with their first child, had been a victim of the Guillotine a week before. His sanity had slowly been declining and he’d finally snapped when they reached Benoît’s home. He’d gone rogue and they weren’t able to contain him before he ran off in the woods. My guess was that he simply couldn’t handle the thought of leaving his mate and pup, even if they were dead. He probably would have gone rogue even if they’d stayed, but the trip accelerated it. Benoît and I ordered the family to stay put. They were in enough pain without having the added trauma of putting down their son. We went looking for the rogue wolf, and not ten minutes into our search we heard a feral growl and a high-pitched scream. Benoît’s wolf and mine took off toward the commotion and found the rogue wolf crowding Violette against a tree, a steady growl rumbling from his throat and his teeth bared to strike. My wolf leapt, throwing himself in front of her while Benoît’s wolf jumped onto his back.

“He took quite a chunk out of our side, and we hadn’t been quite quick enough because Violette had a deep gash down her arm from one of his claws. Benoît had landed on his back and grabbed hold of his neck. When the wolf tried to buck Benoît, I pounced and took him down, tearing into his throat, killing him as fast and painlessly as I could, given the circumstances. Violette was understandably traumatized and even though she knew my wolf, she shrank back when we approached. My wolf urged Benoît’s to go back to the house. He hesitated, but we both knew he couldn’t be spotted or the families counting on him would be lost to the guillotine.

“I could think of no other recourse to help Violette, so I shifted. She stunned me when she asked to apologize to my wolf. She felt bad for being afraid of her friend. It took me a good half a minute to get over my shock, but then I assured her he understood, and asked if I could treat her wound. When I got a good look at it I knew there was nothing to be done until I had the right supplies. The laceration had been bleeding profusely, and her skin was growing paler. I scooped her into my arms and ran through the woods, intent on taking her home. I had no idea how to handle the fallout, but taking her to Benoît’s was out of the question.

“We were nearly out of the woods when we ran into Louis carrying a musket and looking as though he’d gone twenty rounds with a thorny bush. His face was nearly purple with rage and he cursed at me as he demanded I hand over his daughter. Violette immediately jumped in to defend me and try to calm her father, but I was more concerned with her injury, so I ignored him and took her to their home where I insisted on treating her. I had more medical experience than they did, and it wasn’t uncommon for people to die from minor scratches that became infected, much less a deep gash like Violette’s. I asked for a pair of breeches and her mother found one for me before practically hiding in a corner like a timid mouse, while Louis paced and cursed. I cleaned the wound and made a poultice that I applied before wrapping it all in clean linen. Violette had fallen asleep while I tended to her and by that time, I was fucking exhausted. So I threatened Louis to within an inch of his life and told him I’d be back the following day to discuss everything. I checked on Benoît, then headed back to my hotel to get some sleep. ”

Peyton’s emerald eyes were round and her mouth had formed a little O. “You were so lucky he didn’t see you shift,” she breathed. “I mean, I know the situation was plenty fucked up, but it could have been so much worse.” She ran a hand through her hair, but it froze when she saw my face. “Oh, shit. It got worse, didn’t it?”

I nodded slowly and waited.

She hesitated, twisting her ring around, then murmured, “Go on.”

“The sun had barely gone down when I fell into bed, still in the borrowed breeches, which were too short, but loose on me, seeing as how Louis and I were complete opposites in physique. Early the next morning, I woke up to an urgent knocking on my door and hurried to open it without a care for my appearance. The last person I expected to find in the hallway was Violette. She was pale and wringing her hands in front of her, glancing behind her. I couldn’t just stand there while she was so distraught, and talking in the hallway where any other guest could see us would have been stupid. I invited her in and she sat in a chair by the fireplace, which had burned down overnight. Obviously, it didn’t bother me, but Violet began to shiver so, while I stoked it, she explained why she’d come.

“Her father had a talk with her after I left and she’d come to warn me. Louis hadn’t been just arriving at the woods as we’d assumed. He’d been hiding in a bush, watching the whole scene go down. I wanted to kill him. What kind of a father would stand back and let his daughter be mauled by wolves? There were three of us, but if it had been our little girl, Peyton, even as a human I would have taken them all on just to give her a tiny chance at survival.”

I didn’t realize my hands were balled into tight fists until Peyton’s warm palm covered one of them. Somehow, I could tell through her emotions that her mind had gone to the same place as mine. I kept picturing Peyton in the woods with a rogue wolf and what could have happened to her. If I imagined our cub in that situation, I would lose my fucking mind.

“How did she know you were a shifter?” Peyton asked, leading me away from those disturbing thoughts.

I’d forgotten that part. “Her brother. He’d met his true mate, a falcon, if I’m remembering it right. Knowing how his father and mother would treat his mate, and how they would react if they reached the final stage and he became a falcon as well, he’d already cut ties with everyone in that life except Violette.”

“Had Louis found out about his son at some point?”

“Violette hadn’t believed so, but after the conversation she heard, she wasn’t so sure. He seemed to know an awful lot about shifters. Later, I discovered that he’d known about his son’s mate all along. Louis probably would have disowned him if he hadn’t left first. I supposed he saved Louis the trouble because he just went about his life as though he’d only ever had one child.”

Peyton shook her head and hissed, “What an asshole. What did he plan to do with this new information?”

“Nothing, right then. He intended to hold onto the information for the moment when it would most benefit him. He told her that when the time came, he expected her to back up his story. She said he didn’t outright threaten anything, but he heavily hinted at causing problems for her brother if she failed to do as she was told.

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