11. Leigh

ELEVEN

Leigh

T he giant sleigh bed in my borrowed room was fancier than anything I’d ever slept in, and I kind of loved it.

Okay, so I completely loved it. The dark wood was smooth under my fingertips, gracefully curving in hand-carved lines, and the mattress was like a cloud. I’d fallen asleep within minutes of settling in earlier, skipping out on the tour. Brielle and Olivia had been excited about the clinic, but I was sure I could find the gym just fine on my own.

Something had woken me, though. Probably just unfamiliar-house sounds—a castle as old as this had to have some quirks, right?

It was pitch-dark outside, the outdoor lights of the castle snuffed out after ten p.m. so you could see the stars without interference. I got up to pee, then loitered in front of the window, enjoying the view of velvet darkness spattered with twinkling crystal stars.

You couldn’t see them this well back in Texas, and we’d stayed so busy in Alaska that I’d never taken the time.

But now I found myself thinking too much as I stared out at the natural beauty of the night .

A creak in the hallway interrupted the moment, but I ignored it until I heard a second, then a third. Was someone out there?

My stomach rumbled angrily, the sound loud in the quiet room. Maybe they were going to find the kitchen, and I could tag along?

But when I peeked out into the hall, Olivia was wearing a floor-length nightgown, complete with neck and sleeve ruffles—that must have been a loaner, and I tried not to chuckle at the ridiculous sight—but her distant look and glazed eyes struck me as odd. Was she sleepwalking?

“Olivia?” I whispered, not wanting to spook her. She turned my way and waved, but kept walking slowly toward the end of the hallway where the rooms dead-ended at the giant suite that used to belong to Kane’s parents.

“Are you okay?” I asked, stepping fully into the hall. I didn’t know her well yet, but she seemed nice enough. This was odd.

“I think so, I just couldn’t sleep. I’m getting a weird feeling.” She tucked a loose chunk of red hair behind her ear, pressing her lips together as she continued down the hall, steps slow and uncertain.

“Uh, what kind of weird feeling? Do I need to call one of the guys, or… ?” I wasn’t sure what to say, but I was drawn to follow her, my wolf’s curiosity piqued and my rumbling stomach temporarily forgotten.

“I don’t think so? It’s probably nothing.” She stopped walking when her palm rested on one of the big, carved double doors of the suite. She shook her head lightly and backtracked, stopping at the last door in the hallway before the suite.

I watched with silent interest, scratching at the stupid bandage still on my palm. It was a sensory nightmare . I wanted it off, but when I’d looked under the edge earlier, my damn palm was still glowing.

She twisted the glass knob on the door, poking her head in to make sure the room was empty before slipping inside. I followed her, too curious to do anything else at this point. I didn’t feel like she was up to anything sketchy, but there was something in the air, something I couldn’t put my finger on.

Moonlight from the window cast soft beams on the floor, the view from this room of the mountain range behind the castle barely visible as a dark line against the night sky.

Olivia crossed the room at that same slow, steady speed until she froze, spinning suddenly toward a chair against the wall. A soft gasp left her lips as she crouched down, scanning the floor in the darkness. A quick inspection of the wall next to me showed a light switch, so I said, “Watch your eyes,” as I flipped it on.

She blinked a few times at the sudden light, but then reached out and picked something up off the floor.

It was an empty vial, small enough to be enclosed in her fist, the stopper missing. But inside was a single green drop of liquid. It sparkled with magic, and even from a few feet away, I could sense it, now that I was focusing on it.

How the hell had she known it was here from down the hall?

Her eyes glazed over as she stared down at the vial, and I stepped forward, concerned. When I reached her side, she spoke, the words low and flat as if she was in some sort of trance or sleepwalking.

“ Passiflora parritae , mixed with…” Her brow furrowed, and she shook her head. Then she blinked, looking confused as she glanced around the room, then startled as she noticed me standing at her side. “Leigh? What— where are we?”

Had she been sleepwalking this whole time? What the fuck is going on?

She almost dropped the vial in her confusion, but I reached out and scooped it from her hand, patting her on the shoulder. “I’m not sure what just happened, but you sensed this under the chair. In the dark, from your room at the other end of the hall.”

“What? No, I was asleep. They gave me this nightgown to borrow until we can go into town to shop, and then… Well, I don’t remember anything after I turned off my lamp.” She worried her wide bottom lip between her teeth and wrapped her arms around herself.

“It’s okay. Let’s go wake Reed up and see what he thinks about this.” I glanced more closely at the room we were in, and my breath froze in my lungs when I looked up, noticing the air vent directly above the chair. “Maybe we should wake Kane up too.”

I paused, holding the vial carefully as I looked back at her. “Does passiflora parritae mean anything to you?”

“No? Passiflora is a genus, commonly known as passion flowers. But, I don’t know of a parritae variety? Except…” She rocked on her feet, swaying drunkenly as her eyes glazed over again.

“The parritae species of passionflower is extremely rare, all modern specimens stemming from a single plant, and no known specimens remain in the wild. It is mostly used as an ornamental, rare collectible for expert gardeners, but has little-known properties as a highly toxic depressant, lethal in large quantities.”

I blinked at her, my mouth hanging open as she shook her head again as if coming up out of the water and shaking it out of her hair.

“O-kay. I think we need some help here. You stick with me.” I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, careful not to spill the single green drop or get it on my skin. I had a feeling we’d just found the poison that killed Kane’s parents, and I didn’t want to take any risks with Petal. Or Olivia, for that matter. Something more than just the mark on her palm was up with her, and I felt like we needed to get to the bottom of it .

I hesitated in the hallway, uncertain who to wake first. Finally, a demented—okay, let’s be honest, it was a gleefully petulant—sort of logic hit me, and I just went down the hall, rapping my knuckles loudly on each of the doors. I hesitated at Gael’s. I couldn’t help it. But it didn’t matter, because the racket of everyone else had woken him, I guessed, because the wooden door swung open under my hovering knuckles.

He stood in the doorway, alert yet rumpled from sleep, and a little piece of my heart crumbled to dust when his eyes turned cold as they landed on me.

I suddenly wished I’d put on something more than my black nightie.

Shit . Shake it off, Leigh.

It was comfy and cool, damn it. And if he didn’t like it, he could look somewhere the fuck else.

“What’s wrong?” His voice was a harsh bark, his eyes turning from cold to glowing as he sniffed the air, scenting for danger.

His eyes fell to the vial I was still carefully clutching, nostrils flaring.

“What is that?”

“Well, funny story.”

“Leigh, are you all right? Is it the baby?”

Brielle stumbled to my side, half-asleep but wholly panicked at the sight of me prancing through the halls waking them all in the wee hours. Suddenly, I questioned my half-cocked plan to wake them all.

I turned and put a hand on her shoulder, shaking my head so she’d know I wasn’t dying or anything. “Okay, so, this is going to sound weird. But I heard a noise in the hall and decided to check it out.”

“Alone?” Gael’s lip curled in a snarl, and he stepped forward angrily, as if he could physically herd me back into my room .

I shot him a frown and continued. “But when I checked in the hall, it was just Olivia, and?—”

“My friends call me Oli,” she murmured quietly, looking around the circle, then quickly dropping her gaze, a furious blush creeping up from the neck of the awful nightgown.

“See? We’re all friends. Anyway, when I poked my head out, Oli was walking down the hall. She said she sensed something, so I joined her on her little excursion.”

“Leigh, love, it’s really late—early, I don’t flippin’ know.” Brielle dragged a hand over her face and gestured for me to hurry the fuck up.

I quickly filled them in, pointing out the door next to the suite’s entrance. But the more I spoke, the more Oli grew pale across from me in the circle of pack mates.

“Can I see that?” she asked, pointing at the vial.

I passed it over with a small shiver, happy not to be holding something likely poisonous. Murderous .

She gazed into the tiny bottle, a furrow in her brow. “I don’t remember any of it, Leigh. I— This has happened before.” Oli swallowed hard, looking ashamed as she refused to meet anyone’s eyes. “It’s part of the reason I left my home pack for Texas. I was sleepwalking during the day, and I kept ending up in strange places.”

“What kind of places?” Reed asked, voice more curious than judgmental.

“Usually outdoors? I would be working in the clinic and then come to out in the woods, in a field. Once, I was in a vacant lot downtown, clutching a handful of weeds.” She hung her head, covering her face with her hands. “I’m so sorry. I should have told you guys. I know that. It’s just?—”

“Embarrassing, I get it.” I kept my voice upbeat. “You don’t know us that well yet, but believe me, we’ve all got weird shit.”

Her head snapped up at that, her nose wrinkled in confusion. “You all sleepwalk? ”

“Well, no, but…” I looked around and then realized far too late that everybody else’s secrets weren’t mine to share. “Nobody’s perfect. Especially not me. So, don’t sweat it.”

Shay wrapped an arm around my shoulders, silently supporting as she shot a venomous glare at Gael.

Dirge chuckled and chimed in, “I was feral until a few weeks ago when I found my fated mate.”

He wasn’t ashamed of his baggage. That made one of us.

But Gael was impervious, staring with his arms crossed like a vengeful statue that could have been plucked from the top of this castle.

Okay, so we didn’t all have shit. He was pretty perfect, except for the part where he hated my guts.

“It’s too early, and Brielle, I’m guessing you don’t have a way to analyze this yourself here, right?” Reed gestured for Olivia to pass him the vial, which she did without a peep.

“No, I don’t. I’d love to, but no.”

“Okay, well, if everyone agrees, I’ll get with Cristian and have him send this to the same discreet lab that analyzed your mother’s blood work, Kane?”

Kane nodded gravely, eyes glued to the single, magically enhanced drop left clinging to the inside of the glass.

“Perfect. You can all get some rest, and Olivia—Oli—would you like someone posted at your door to keep you from sleepwalking out again? This is a new place, and we’d hate for you to be hurt.”

“It’s probably for the best,” she said, shoulders straight, but a tear trailing down her cheek.

“I’ll take care of it,” he murmured, patting her on the shoulder before heading off down the hall with the vial to find Cristian.

“Come on, mate. Back to bed with you, and everyone,” Kane said with a hint of alpha dominance, casting a glance at the rest of us. “Tomorrow’s a busy day, so rest while you can. ”

A busy day? We’d just gotten here. He was probably going to be dragged into dozens of political meetings, since everybody and their brother wanted a piece of him now that he was high alpha, but me…

I shook off the melancholy at the idea that nobody needed—let alone wanted —me. That wasn’t helpful. And as my pack mates began to disperse, I realized that this was the opportunity I’d been waiting for, my chance to talk to Gael alone, without someone or something interrupting us.

He was already halfway back to his room when I called out, “Gael, wait!” I winced as my voice cracked awkwardly on his name.

He froze, hand on the doorknob and shoulders hunched under his extreme desire to be any fucking where but with me. But I couldn’t let that stop me; I needed to apologize and explain. So, I waved off the hovering Shay and Dirge, both of them watching with concern from their own door. Shay’s lips were pressed into a tight line when Dirge finally coerced her through the door to give us a moment. He kissed her on the head and then took up a position in front of Oli’s door, pointedly facing away from us in the best semblance of privacy we were going to get.

When silence fell over the hall once more, I drew a fortifying breath.

“I need to apologize and explain,” I started, then abruptly stopped as he whirled on me.

“You don’t owe me any explanations. You’ve made it very clear that we’re not together, and we didn’t talk about exclusivity.”

“Well, yes, that’s true, but… I’m not that person who just…” I stopped, frustrated tears trying to escape. Damn, pregnancy hormones sucked. “That’s not who I am.”

Gael shrugged one shoulder, but I felt it to the core of my being like a slap. He was indifferent. One careless, cruel statement from me and I’d shattered any chances I had with him. And he’d been trying, before. Before I shoved him out of my life and slammed the door in his face.

A tear escaped, but I angrily swiped at it. I didn’t want him to feel sorry for me, not now. I was trying to explain, not get some twisted pity for the poor sobbing pregnant chick.

“I—”

“I want a paternity test.” He cut me off, apparently out of patience with my stammering and emotions.

The blood in my veins turned cold, and I swayed backward, shocked even though I shouldn’t have been. I’d told him I was with another man. Of course he wanted a paternity test, but?—

“Brielle says it’s safe, a simple blood draw. I’m going to follow up tomorrow and see about getting mine drawn. All I need is for you to provide a sample.”

“Okay,” I whispered, no fight left in me.

This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. I squared my shoulders, forcing myself to try again, even though it felt like he’d hollowed me out without even trying. “But Gael, I didn’t, I haven’t … I was just angry at you, and?—”

“And after the results come back, we’ll know. And if it’s not mine, you’ll never have to see me again.” His voice held a cold finality, and with one nod, he slipped inside his room and shut the door.

It.

My eyes fell closed at the pain. I should have pounded on the door, blurted it out. Forced him to hear me. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t bear the way he looked at me for one more second.

I barely made it into my own room before the waterfall of tears began, leaning against the back of the door as I slowly sank down to the plush carpet. And once they started, they didn’t stop.