Page 91 of The Wolf

Where else could she be?

Brine panicked as he bolted back to the manor. He had to cling to the hope that she was, somehow, still around.

Her workroom. She could be there.

He burst into the chamber.

She wasn’t.

Where the devil was she?

With her friends perhaps?

The housekeeper. Dris would know.

Brine ran back to the manor and into the kitchen. He moved to Dris and took her hands in his own. “Please tell me you know where Scarlet is.”

She stared up at him with furrowed brows. “I presumed in the cottage.”

He shook his head frantically. “No. Not for days.”

The old housekeeper narrowed her eyes at him. “You’ve not seen her in days? What kind of mate are you?”

“The worst kind,” he muttered, backing away. “Spread the word among the servants. I want her found.Now.”

He stalked through the manor yelling for his mate, causing servants to skitter into the corners like frightened mice.

“What’s with all the racket?” Pyre demanded as Brine reached the entrance hall. Tempest, Damien and Robyn all wandered down.

Brine tugged at the roots of his hair, full-blown panicking. “I can’t find her.”

Damien stepped forward. “We’ll send out a search party. I’m sure she is close. We’ll find her.”

Pyre cursed. “When was the last time anyone has seen her?”

“The night we took the manor,” Brine croaked, shame drowning him. “No one has seen her.”

“That’s not entirely true.”

He focused on Robyn as she slowly pulled down her hood and fixed Brine with a level stare.

“She left the night of the raid,” she said coolly, her green eyes like hard emeralds. “A red wolf—I think his name was Tarros—was trying to kill her on her way out of the estate.”

His skin rippled and he felt himself on the verge of a change. “How do you know this?”

Robyn crossed her arms. “I was there. He got her pinned, but I arrived just in time. I killed him first. Scarlet left relatively unscathed.”

“So, why … why didn’t you try to bring her back to the manor?” Brine demanded through clenched teeth. “Where is my mate?”

“It wasn’t my place to tell Scarlet what to do. The poor woman has had every choice in her life made for her. Who was I to tell her not to leave, or to tell you when she left so you could stop her?”

He took a threatening step toward the small woman. “You let her run off in the dark of night with my child?”

“Watch yourself, old friend,” Damien rumbled, taking a closer step to his wife.

Robyn strode up to him and poked him in the chest with an angry finger. “You are a fool. You must know that if you let her explain herself three days ago, she would never have left. Don’t you dare blame me. This is on you, Brine.”

“I get it!” Brine yelled, his voice echoing around them. He held his head in his hands. “I know this is my fault. I need to make it right.”

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