"Where have you been?" Richard asked as he stood from his desk and rushed around the table toward Olivia. She walked into the room to meet him, watching as the other people in the room moved out of the way to make a path for him. He came up in front of her and held her forearms in his hands, looking her up and down, studying her.
"I went on a walk. I couldn't sleep," Olivia said, her voice quivering. "Please, daddy, can we talk privately?"
She hoped he would send everyone away so they could talk without an audience. She breathed a sigh of relief when he nodded and sent everyone out of the room.
"Call off the search, tell them she's been found. No one is to disturb me for the next half hour," Richard said sternly as everyone filed out. His secretary nodded and closed the door behind her with a small smile directed at Olivia. She cringed back, her weak attempt at a smile.
"Sit down, Olivia. Tell me what happened. Why weren't you in your bed this morning
Olivia woke several hours later. She had slept the morning away, the clock showed it was past two in the afternoon. She heard a soft rustling at the door as Mary slid through the opening and walked up to her bed. "Good morning, sleepyhead," Mary said with a bright smile. "You're awfully chipper," Olivia said with a groan. She rolled over, trying to hide her head under the pillow. "Oh, no, you don't get to go back to sleep. You need to wake up, your sister is calling for you," Mary said, smiling down at Olivia as she walked to the bed and sat on the edge. "Belle? Oh my goodness, I forgot to check on her this morning. I promised her I would. She's going to be furious," Olivia said as she jumped out of bed and rushed around the room, throwing clothes on. "She's ok. She's looking a little under the weather, but the doctor thinks it's from the excitement of the day. I took a tray to her room just now and put your lunch on it. I figured you'd be hun
"Alpha," Ben said calmly as he walked into the alpha's office. He greeted their leader with a nod of his head. The alpha was pacing around the room. He had been raging for almost an hour, wanting an update on the ambush that had hurt his men. "What happened? Tell me. Now!" Alpha Samuel said, glancing angrily between Ben and Xander. Ben stood calmly and addressed the alpha as he recounted the events of the last day, leaving out details of the human girl that had helped them. "The blast was successful. Xander's explosives took down a very large section of wall and we were able to complete the connection between the river and our trench. Water is flowing down the trench now. We anticipate it to take a few days for the water to flow fully through our river and fill the lake. We have men watching the progression. They will make adjustments to the depth as necessary," Ben said, standing straight, addressing the alpha. "We caught sight of humans near t
Olivia woke slowly, her head groggy and her back sore. She had slept in a chair by Maribelle's bed. She looked at her sister, sleeping peacefully in her bed, and sighed in relief. She was ok. Olivia looked closely at Maribelle's head and noticed there was a sheen of sweat at her hairline. She leaned forward and put her hand on Maribelle's forehead. Her sister was burning up. She sat up quickly and pain shot through her abdomen and groin. She winced as the memories of last night flooded through her mind. Tears welled in her eyes and despair spread through her chest as images of Simon pressing her down flashed through her memory. She cringed and pushed the images away. She wasn't equipped to deal with the emotions that wanted to spill forth. She pushed it down, she pushed the memories away and the pain away. She pretended she had a particularly tough ride on her horse the day before and allowed her mind to block the rest of the images. If she told herself the lie long enough,
Olivia sat in a chair in her room, staring into the flames. She couldn't move, she couldn't get up and do anything. She knew she needed to check on Maribelle, but seeing her sister one more time, her face flushed with fever, would break her. So she sat in the chair by her fire and waited. She didn't know what she was waiting for. Maybe she was waiting for the next attack that the fates were going to send her way, or maybe she was waiting for someone to come and save her. She couldn't be sure. She just waited. A soft knock sounded at the door. Olivia didn't look away from the flames, but she spoke. "Enter." Her voice rang out through the room, breaking the silence with her soft whispers "Olivia?" Simon's voice rang out through the room. Olivia stiffened as he walked into the room, closing the door behind him. "Your sister was calling for you. Where have you been all day? I expected to see you at dinner," Simon said reprovingly. Ol
Olivia ran back. Mary stayed behind as she pushed onward toward home. She didn't care that she left the maid behind without waiting. She was going to get as far away from Ben and Xander as she could. She couldn't believe she had helped them. She was going to go straight home and talk to her father. She would tell him about the wolves, she would tell him that they planned to steal the weapons and attack the city. There was no way she would sit back and let the wolves kill innocent people. Those were her friends. Her family.She reached the edge of the gardens and rushed into the house, not caring to climb the trellis or be quiet. She raced toward her father's study. He would be awake, she was sure of it. There had been too much conflict with the wolves recently for him to be sleeping peacefully in his bed. He had foregone a honeymoon in order to organize the attacks on the wolves.Olivia's chest hurt, she stopped and grabbed the wall, gasping for breath. She walked slow
Olivia took a deep breath, willing herself to calm down as she glanced around the breakfast table. Simon sat across from her, eating his breakfast silently. He looked at her periodically, giving her a small smirk when he caught her looking nervously at him. "What are your plans for the day, Olivia?" Simon asked. Richard looked at Olivia with interest. She had not yet decided what she wanted to tell her father she was doing, but she knew that she needed to figure out an excuse to get into town. "I'm going downtown to shop, I think," Olivia said, glancing at her father. "If that's alright, daddy?" "Yes, of course, Olivia. You don't need my permission to shop. Who are you taking with you?" He asked, taking a bite of his food as he waited for her response. "I'm going to take a kitchen maid I met last week with me. She was telling me about a fabric shop and I'd really like to look through their fabrics. I need a new dress made," she let her voice t
Olivia was glad that she had worn a dark gray dress that day. It was the right color to make her blend in with her surroundings. She typically wore bright, cheerful colors but she had not felt in the mood to wear anything cheerful that morning. So, gray it was. And it was a good thing, too.She and Mary crept around the train cars, trying to hide in between the trains and peek within the carriages. So far they had found nothing."What if they've moved them?" Olivia whispered."Well, we need to try our best to find them if they are still here, we still have some time left, let's check the rest of this train and then go along the next two. There are still three left to look in," Mary whispered back.Olivia nodded and crept between the carriages to peek out to the other side. Seeing no one, she quickly rushed along the side of the final cars in the row, peeking in to find them empty. She scrunched her face in frustration as she shook her head and looked at M
"My dear, did you find the fabric you were looking for?" Simon asked without preamble as he sat across from Olivia. She glanced up at him nervously and he smirked at her discomfort."Yes, I did. The modiste is going to arrange all of the things I need for our," her voice broke as she choked out the last word, "wedding.""That is good to hear. Your father is quite pleased with the arrangement, we wouldn't want him disappointed. What else did you get up to today, that was a rather long trip just to be spending time at the modiste," Simon said."Mary and I walked in the park, it was refreshing," Olivia said evasively."Walked in the park?" Simon asked."Mm-hmm, the park behind the modiste, we went for a walk to clear our heads," Olivia said, not looking at Simon. She was watching the city pass by as they rode toward her house."The park by the train depot," Simon asked.Olivia glanced at him quickly, alarm on her face. She quickly compos