Stefan’s POV
Gwen stays in the bathroom for quite a while. Long enough to have me almost bursting the door open to ensure she is alright.
When she emerges, her face is freshly washed, but her bloodshot eyes give away the fact that she has been crying.
I start towards her, reaching for her, but she shakes her head and moves aside. “How can I know when it’s him and not you?”
Frustrated that I can’t comfort her, I scrub my hands down my face. “I don’t know if there’s a way to tell that when I’m in wolf form. But as human, my eyes. When they glow, that’s him. He has never taken over my human body, and I don’t think he can. But when my eyes glow when I haven’t shifted, it’s a sign that he’s here, paying attention.”
The look she gives me tells me exactly what she’s thinking. That night we had sex after I had a little too much to drink.
“Gwen, I’m looking for a way to keep him away from you, okay? And I’m taking all precautions to ensure he doesn’t spring up on me even with my wolf. I don’t want him near you, and I’ll make sure he can’t get to you like that ever again.”
“What does he want, anyway?” she asks, hugging her arms to herself. “Why did he make that deal with your mother?”
Her.
I remember his voice clearly in my head. That was his answer when I asked him that question.
I haven’t talked to him again since then, but then again, it’s not like I’m interested in a heart-to-heart with him. Every time he has spoken to me, it was to let me know that he’s interested in her.
She’s mine, he said.
I scoff inwardly. Whatever his deal is, whatever it is he really wants, he can keep dreaming about it.
“Something about revenge,” I tell her what he told my mother. “He was werewolf royalty in his days. Got into an alliance with humans to get rid of vampires. Once that was done, the humans turned on werewolves and hunted them down. That’s what he told my mother.”
“Wait. Did you say vampires?”
I nod.
“Vampires are real?” When I nod again, she asks, “What else is out there?”
“Probably everything you’ve read about.”
“Have you ever seen one?”
I shake my head. “No. They are scarce. And they stay away from our territories.”
“Wow. I… I don’t know what to say, Stefan. Is there anything else I should know?”
“Not at the moment.”
“You can’t keep things like these from me.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
She walks over to the closet and flings it open. “Let’s call it a night,” she says, reaching for a nightshirt.
I step closer to her, wishing I could hold her, let her know how sorry I am about exposing her to this mess. And I wish I could know what she’s thinking. Is she mad at me? Has this changed what she feels about us?
Gwen turns around, a nightdress in hand. “I’ll spend the night in my old room.”
My heart crashes in my chest at her words. She is having second thoughts about all this, isn’t she?
I reach for her, my face contorting. “Gwen—”
“I just need to be alone right now. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
I lean against the closet as she leaves, feeling like someone just sucker-punched me. It’s just one night, I tell myself. She isn’t leaving me, she isn’t rejecting me. She just needs to wrap her head around everything I’ve revealed tonight.
When she comes back, when she’s ready to be near me again, I’ll make sure I don’t give her a reason to turn her back on me again.
Just having her shut me out for one night is hard enough. I don’t want to know how it would feel like if she shut me out of her life for good.
***
I’m awoken by loud knocks on my door in the morning. Groaning, I roll out of bed, rubbing my eyes as I head for the door. It isn’t locked—I totally didn’t leave it unlocked in case Gwen changed her mind during the night—but nobody would dare get inside without my invitation.
I open the door and find Levi on the other side. “Stefan,” he greets, his voice, tight, his eyes hard.
Fuck, it’s morning, what could have gone wrong so early? “What is it?”
“It’s Mari.”
Every last dredge of sleep that was still in my system flees as every nerve in my body turns alert. “What happened to her?” My eyes fly to the door opposite mine. It’s closed. A scary thought crosses my mind. Did she leave overnight? I push past Levi and go for her door when he speaks again.
“Mari,” he repeats, “Not Gwen. The real Mari.”
I whirl on him. “What?”
“She appeared at the gate a few minutes ago. She doesn’t look good.”
Mari? Mari is here? In my house?
“Let me get dressed, be with you in a minute,” I tell him, hurrying back into my room.
“’kay, boss.”
When I come back out, Levi is still waiting outside, and I accompany him downstairs. He leads me to one of the guest rooms downstairs. “She is in here,” he tells me as he opens the door. “Lucy is tending to her.”
I burst into the room and take in the scene in front of me. Mari is lying on the bed in the room, Lucy, the healer, wiping her face with a white cloth. Her bloody face.
Something in me snaps and I rush to her bedside and take a closer look at her injuries. Other than her face, which has streaks of what looks like nail marks, the rest of her body is covered in the clothes she’s wearing. But they are soaked with blood.
“Who did this to her?” I growl.
“We don’t know yet,” Levi replies. “She passed away before she could tell us anything.”
I turn to the healer. “Do everything you can to get her well. If you need anything, ask.”
She nods and rises to her feet. “Yes, Alpha. Right now, I need to bring her to the infirmary. She has lost a lot of blood and I need to examine her wounds.”
“I’ll—” Levi begins, but I’m already scooping her in my arms and heading for the door.
About half an hour later, I’m seeing red as the healer lists down Mari’s injuries. Blows to the face. Bruised ribs. A fractured finger. And signs of old injuries that healed but left behind scars. Somebody has been abusing her for a long time.
And I’ll stop at nothing until I find them and end them.
Mari remains unconscious for hours, but I don’t leave her side. I can’t. I need to make sure she’s okay, and then I need to find out what happened to her. And every second that goes by without me knowing either makes me want to punch my fist through a wall.
“I’ll watch her for a while, you should step out and try to relax. Maybe eat something, you haven’t since you woke up,” Levi offers at some point.
“I can’t relax, Levi. Not until I find who did this to her and tear him from limb to limb.”
“And you will, but you sitting here throwing off all this murderous energy isn’t going to help her get better.”
I’m about to tell him to mind his damn business when the door to the infirmary opens and Gwen steps through. Gwen. Fuck. Since Levi showed up at my door this morning with news about Mari, I forgot all about what happened last night and how much I waited for morning to make sure I was back in her good graces.
I rise from the seat next to Mari’s bed and face her. She catches my gaze, but only for a second before she walks over to the bed. “I hear my sister is here,” she says.
“Yeah,” I reply, watching her face for any signs of where we are this morning. But I doubt that’s even on her mind at the moment.
She comes to a stop beside the bed and looks down at Mari. “Wow, we really do look alike.”
“Yeah,” I say again. That seems to suddenly be the only word in my vocabulary.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“I’ll make sure she is,” I vow.
“Good,” she says. Then finally holds my gaze. “You found her. Finally.”
I’m not sure ‘yeah’ is the right answer to that statement.
When I say nothing, she jerks her thumb towards the door. “I’ll be at the house.”
I nod, and with one last look at her twin, she leaves.
Levi is back on my case the moment Gwen shuts the door behind her. “What the fuck was that?”
“What?” I grouse.
“I can’t sense that newly-bonded energy that has been bouncing off the both of you for the past few weeks.”
“You really need to start minding your own business.”
“No, like seriously, did you two fight or something?”
“Why don’t you go and join Andreas in finding whatever you can about that asshole from last night?”
“He has got it covered.”
I give him a hard stare. “That’s an order, Levi.”
He lifts his hands in surrender and backs towards the door. “Got it, Alpha.”
When he’s gone, I shove a hand into my hair and yank at it. Damn. I don’t exactly pull the I’m-Alpha-and-you-do-what-I-say-or-you’re-dead card with Levi. Or with Andreas and Hanna. We have history, and they have never been my subjects. When we met, they were all lone wolves. They chose to stick with me at a time I had nobody, and without them by my side, I wouldn’t have made it this far.
They are my closest aides, my friends.
So yeah, I can’t help but feel a little awful for being an asshole to Levi. I just needed to get him off my case. Which is funny because I’ll probably end up sharing everything with him.
“Stefan?”
My head whips around at the sound of my name. She’s awake! “Mari! How are you feeling?”
“It’s really you,” she says, her voice gravelly.
I reach for the glass of water the healer left on top of the cabin and nudge it against her lips. “Drink some water,” I tell her.
She lifts her head and takes a sip, then grasps the glass in her hands and gulps it all down.
“Want more?”
She shakes her head. “No, that’s enough. Thanks.”
“How are you feeling? Are you in pain?”
“No,” she tells me.
“Good. My healer gave you something. You should be fine.”
She sits up, her eyes stuck on my face. “I didn’t know… I wasn’t sure I would find you here.”
“I’m here, and you’re going to be okay,” I assure her. “I won’t let anybody hurt you again. Okay?”
She nods, then her face contorts and a tear drops from her eyes. Hiding her face in her hands, she begins sobbing. That urge I’ve been feeling to tear whoever did this to her to pieces from the moment I saw her bloody face multiplies by a hundredfold. So does the protective streak that has been coursing through my body.
That’s why I take a seat on the bed and gather her in my arms, saying soothing words to her. Promising her that nobody will ever hurt her again. Promising her that she’ll be safe with me.
And wishing that I could soak in all the pain I hear in her cries so she doesn’t have to hurt anymore.