Page 32 of Claimed By My Fiancé's Brother

She hadn’t left? Cold dread settled within me.

I ran as fast as I could, but I was too late.

The intruder had already caught up to Eleanor. She tried to run away, but he slashed at the back of her hamstrings, ripping her dress in the process.

Eleanor collapsed, and I saw red.

I was on him in seconds, all thought of finding out where he’d come from and who’d sent him gone as I ripped out his heart.

Then I closed the distance between me and my mate and pulled her into my arms.

Eleanor didn’t protest, or even look at me.

She just folded into my arms and buried her head against my chest, helpless as tiny shivers wracked her body and her dress rapidly soaked up her blood.

I took off my bloody shirt and wrapped it around her before lifting her off the ground, taking care not to touch her injuries.

I started toward my house, but I paused when I noticed Dylan standing mere meters away, a fallen intruder at his feet who I hadn’t seen earlier.

So there had been five of them, not four.

Eleanor shifted in my arms, then went completely rigid, and I knew that she’d caught sight of Dylan and realized the same thing I had.

Dylan had contributed to saving Eleanor’s life.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think Dylan was just as shocked as we were about his choice.

As I walked past him, Dylan spoke, his voice a soft whisper devoid of all his earlier anger.

“Is she alright?” he asked.

I didn’t stop walking.

“Find out who did this,” I said.

When I got to our room, the steaming water, gauze, bandages, ointment, and medication were waiting, as I’d instructed Lily, my housekeeper, to prepare them before we arrived.

Eleanor’s eyes widened with surprise when I placed her on my bed and pushed up her dress to look at her wounds. They still weren’t healing, which confirmed my suspicions.

They’d given her wolfsbane.

I felt the sudden urge to resurrect her abductors just so I could tear them apart more viciously.

Eleanor pushed her dress back down, her cheeks aflame and her gaze averted.

“You don’t have to do this,” she whispered.

I hated seeing her this way.

I wanted her to yell at me for touching her inappropriately. I wanted her to push me away and argue with me.

I wanted?—

Taking her chin between my thumb and index finger, I made her meet my gaze.

Those beautiful green eyes were full of so much emotion that they almost made me falter.

“I want to, Eleanor. Please let me.”

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