Chapter 218
Why was it easier for Vivian to play that role than her?
As the thought crossed my mind, my eyes flicked to the drawer in my desk that I knew contained the contract. Without thinking, I reached over and pulled it out, then flipped to the page bearing the clause that initially drew Ellie’s ire.
I studied the clause for a long time. Tried to look at it from Ellie’s perspective.
She was right. It did make it seem like I was trying to trap her-like I was genuinely tying our marriage to
her health.
Maybe, in the moment, I had been. Out of fear, I supposed; because deep down, I feared that she would leave me, and I needed to protect myself.
But in the end, maybe I had just been the one to push her away.
I took a deep breath, grabbing the edges of the contract. The paper crinkled under my grip. One motion, and I could tear it apart, and it would be over. If she really didn’t want to be here with me, then I could let her make that decision herself, even if it terrified me.
Just as I was about to go through with it, I felt it.
A pang in my chest-as if the mate bond had suddenly flared to life, tugged from the other end by the only person who held that invisible thread.
Ellie.
I dropped the contract and sat up straight, turning toward the window, where I’d felt the pull coming from. In the mindlink, I heard her voice-weak but there, whispering a single word.
“Help.”
Then, it was gone. And when I reached out, I felt no response.
I was on my feet before I even knew what I was doing. I flew out of the room, taking the stairs down two at a time. My Beta was in the drawing room when I found him.
“Where is Ellie?” I asked, breathless.
He turned to me and shrugged. “I dunno. Figured she’d be at the academy.”
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I walked over to the window and looked out at the driveway. Nope. Ellie’s car was here, which meant she hadn’t left the grounds, likely due to the rain.
I searched everywhere for her. Her bedroom was empty. She wasn’t in the kitchen or the solarium. She wasn’t anywhere in the house, nor the pack house. Eventually, I decided to check the last place I could think of: the barracks. Maybe she’d gotten hurt training or something.
But she wasn’t there, either. There were just two warriors sitting at the round table, playing cards.
“Have you seen Ellie?” I asked.
They looked up at me. One nodded. “She went out to hunt down the boar.”
1/2
+30 Bonus
J froze. “The boar?” I repeated. “As in, the beast that’s been terrorizing our forest for days?”
The warriors both bobbed their heads in unison.
“Fuck.” I was already turning toward the exit, planning to thoroughly scold the warriors later. For now, though, I needed to find Ellie; she had no idea how to hunt, and that boar was aggressive and had been eluding our hunters for days now. If she was out there right now, in the rain, going so far as to use the mate bond to call for help, then this was bad. Really bad.
I sprinted across the lawn, not caring if my clothes got soaked through from the rain, and made my way to the tree line. There, I quickly picked up her scent threading through the forest. But it was mixed with something else: blood.
“Ellie?” I called out, stepping into the forest. I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted: “ELLIE!”
No answer. I gave a tug on the mate bond, but it was shut off from her end again, preventing me from using the mindlink.
My heart leapt into my throat. I prepared to shift so I could search for her.
But then I heard the sound of twigs snapping in the distance. The sound of something dragging. I turned left, and that was when I spotted Ellie walking toward me, calm as ever. She was covered in blood, but appeared to be completely unharmed.
And she was dragging the boar’s carcass behind her.
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