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Chapter Seventeen: Adara
As Edin led us through the salon and into his luxurious dining room, I noticed, with great disappointment, that Gwaniella was clutching Dane’s arm. I had hoped to be seated beside him at lunch and perhaps overcome his reluctance to engage in conversation. Perhaps his behavior wasn’t arrogance, but shyness? I wanted to find out. But Gwaniella spoiled that plan. She managed to be seated beside him. He didn’t seem to resist her affections, and I assumed there was something between them.
That was fine with me. Dane Wiltshire had shown himself to be rude, arrogant, and condescending. So what did I want with him? Yes, he was handsome, but, how does the saying go? “Handsome is as handsome does.” I think the word in the saying is “pretty” and that it’s applied to women, but no matter. I applied it here. Let Dane have Gwaniella or vice versa. The two of them were nothing to me.
Meanwhile, Edin sat at the head of the table with his
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The Wolves of Vukasin Island Chapter Eighteen: Dane
I watched as Adara so sweetly sought to soothe her sister.“Fawna, you’ll be fine.” She crooned repeatedly, in a voice as smooth as honey.I longed to hear that voice whisper in my ear as I kissed and licked and sucked at her nipples and my hand moved between her legs.But sex was not my concern at the time. My concern was that the poor girl on the sofa had poisoned herself on a plant from my garden. My plant.As Edin sat beside her pressing a cool cloth to Fawna’s forehead, inwardly I cursed myself for keeping my eyes focused only on Adara and not being more vigilant over her sister when we were in my garden.Women are always attracted to beautiful flowers, and perhaps nothing growing on Vukasin Island was more beautiful than aconite: wolf’s bane, the Queen of Poison. Perhaps because of the nature of Vukasin—perhaps for another reason, I don’t know—the aconite that grows here was not only the most de
The Wolves of Vukasin Island Chapter Nineteen: Adara
We were just about to have the servants carry my sister into the bathroom, to submerge her in the tub of frozen water. I hoped this would at least bring down her fever, for even though unconscious, she was still perspiring profusely, and her forehead was almost scalding hot.Suddenly there was a knock at the door. And not just a knock, but a hard and loud and insistent pounding that sounded threatening and seemed almost to portend danger.But instead of danger, it brought the promise of potential cure for my dying sister.The servant opened the front door, which was visible from the salon where my sister lay unconscious on the sofa. On the front step stood a short, fat, balding little man with a black bag in one hand and a bottle of wine in another. Behind him stood the servant Edin had sent to fetch the doctor.The little man rushed in, not waiting to be invited or announced by the servant. “It’s aconite poisoning, yes?”“Y
The Wolves of Vukasin Island Chapter Twenty: Dane
The doctor had finally arrived.It was he who was banging so insistently upon the door.Having been on Vukasin Island for quite some time, I recognized him, of course. He’d once treated my sister for the flu when she’d been visiting from the mainland.But I was so agitated, and so caught up in my efforts to control my distress and so avoid Lupinization, that I couldn’t remember his name. Thus, rather rudely, I didn’t introduce Doctor Hendricks to Edin and Adara when he entered.As he entered, I noticed he was carrying his doctor’s bag in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. I knew—every permanent resident of Vukasin did—that he was an alcoholic. But he’s a most effective doctor who, in spite of his drinking, takes his work seriously. And he never drinks on the job. Therefore, his act of carrying about the wine so openly rather surprised me.His manner was gruff, as always, which was no surprise
The Wolves of Vukasin Island Chapter Twenty-One: Adara
The next hours were torture.After pronouncing that he’d done all he could, Doctor Hendricks asked Edin to show him to a bedroom where he could lie down and rest. Edin obliged and led the doctor up the long winding staircase in the foyer, with a servant trailing behind.That left Dane and me together, alone with my sister.A servant came in, bearing a tray with the chamomile tea the doctor had ordered.I thought, Has so little time passed? It has seemed like an eternity.I could tell by Dane’s rather startled expression, upon seeing the servant with the tea, that he was thinking the same thing.He invited me to come into the dining room, to sit at the table and partake of the tea, as well as the sandwiches the servant had brought us.Instead, now that the doctor was gone, I resumed my place on the carpet beside the sofa, by my sister’s side, holding her limp and deathly pale hand.“You should ea
The Wolves of Vukasin Island Chapter Twenty-Two: Dane
I brought over the tea tray, set it on the chair the doctor had occupied, and took a seat on the floor beside Adara. It was rather strange, sitting on the floor, and I don’t think I’d ever done it—except perhaps when in Lupine state, for there was no furniture in my cell. Lupine state. Would it be fair to ask any human young woman to endure that? To put up with someone who was one-quarter beast. To undergo one week per month of separation from me, her spouse? No doubt she’d spend her time on the mainland fraught with anxiety, worrying every minute that I might escape my cage, be caught, and be mistreated—perhaps even killed—by patrolling Enforcement Officers. In my younger days, before becoming a Lupine, I’d had many dalliances, of course. At university, Edin and I had even gotten drunk together and visited brothels. But since I was turned to a werewolf—with the exception of a brief, unfortunate, and forgettable brief fling wi
The Wolves of Vukasin Island Chapter Twenty-Three: Adar
“She’s recovering. She’s going to live,” I said.Fawna, lying on the sofa in her unconscious state, had drawn in a very deep breath. Then she began breathing heavily, heaving almost. Then her eyelids fluttered, and her hands moved.Her cheeks went rapidly from chalky to the lightest pink.I knew, almost intuitively, that she was recovering.My prayers are being answered.As this thought went through my mind and I said an inner “Thank you” to the Deity, her eyes opened.She turned her head to look at me.“Adara?” she said weakly.“Yes, yes!” I exclaimed. I turned to Dane, “Fetch the doctor immediately.” I barked out the order to him, but this was no time for etiquette or decorum.The servant who had brought in our tea tray had been lingering in the corner ever since, and Dane stood up and dispatched him to go upstairs to get the doctor.
The Wolves of Vukasin Island Chapter Twenty-Four: Dane
Miraculously, Fawna emerged from her unconscious state.Adara was incredibly relieved to hear Adara speak to her and say her name.We immediately called the doctor from his nap. He rushed into the room, still doing up the buttons of his shirt, and sat down by the girl’s side. Her gave her a little brandy and a full glass of water, and after examining her, he turned to us and pronounced the words that brought relief to us all:“She’s out of the woods.”However, he insisted that she not be moved far from her present place on the sofa. Edin said the downstairs maid’s room could accommodate her for a few days, and he dispatched a servant to evict the maid and prepare the room for Fawna. I’m sure Edin was thrilled that Fawna would be spending a few days—and nights—under his roof.I would have felt the same had I had that opportunity with Adara.I was impressed with the kindness Adara had shown her s
The Wolves of Vukasin Island Chapter Twenty-Five: Adara
My sister would survive.I don’t think I’d ever been happier.Ecstatic was the word, really.When the doctor said the blessed words, “She’s out of the woods,” it was as if the heavens had opened, and a golden beam of light had shined down upon me.After the doctor finished examining her, it was decided that she would remain with Edin there at Seaview. As our host, he very graciously dispatched the servants to prepare a downstairs bedroom to accommodate her, and when other servants came to carry her into it, Edin and I accompanied them as they bore the couch and my reclining sister into a maid’s room.I watched Edin. He’d only met Fawna a few hours earlier, but it was obvious—from his attentiveness, his body movements, the look on his face, etc.—that he had fallen in love with her.Love at first sight does exist, after all.For her part, Fawna appeared rather indiffer
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