Page 97 of Nine Months to Love
My breath catches.
She-wolf.
Too.
As in there’s more than one she-wolf. As in I’m not the only one.As in another female is the one who did that to the man’s face.
I look at the scratch. Fresh enough to still be healing. Old enough to have scabbed over. It looks like the razor-thin line of someone’s nails raking down his cheek.
“Who’s in the basement?” I ask.
Both guards go still.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the first one says.
“Yes, you do.” I point at his face. “That scratch. Someone attacked you. A woman. You just said ‘she-wolf.’”
“Dr. Aster?—”
“Who is it? Who’s down there?”
They exchange a look. The second guard clears his throat. “We’re not authorized to discuss, ma’am.”
“Just tell me if it’s Natalia,” I say quietly. “Is Stefan’s mother in the basement?”
The first guard’s jaw tightens. “I can’t?—”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Both.”
I stare at him, searching his face for any crack in the armor. But he’s practiced at this. They both are. Loyal to Stefan above everything else, even basic human decency.
I don’t know why I’m surprised.
I step back, wrapping my arms around myself. The night air bites through my thin sweater.
“He told me she wasn’t here,” I say, more to myself than to them. “He looked me in the eye and said he didn’t have her.”
Neither guard responds. But they don’t have to. Their silence speaks volumes.
My mind is racing too fast to keep up with.
Stefan lied to me. Again.
Or maybe he’s been lying this entire time. Maybe I’m just that easy to fool. God knows I’ve proven myself spectacularly gullible where he’s concerned. I believed him when he said his feelings changed. I believed him when he said he wanted us to be real.
I believed him when he told me he loved me.
Naive.
Stupid.
Weak.
Maybe that’s the real truth. Everything else—the tenderness, the vulnerability, the promises—was the lie.
I look back over my shoulder at the manor behind me. Light spills from a few windows. Stefan’s office is dark.
