Chapter 32: How Bad Is It?
Mrs. Hallowell moved to her shoulders next. Asked her to lower her collar. Examined the bite marks there.
"These two will scar," she said, touching two of the deeper ones. "These others won’t. The salve will help with the inflammation."
"Thank you," Lilith said quietly.
The housekeeper paused in her work.
Just briefly. Just long enough for Lilith to notice.
"I knew your mother," she said.
Lilith’s breath caught.
"Not well," Mrs. Hallowell continued, her hands resuming their careful work. "I saw her twice. Both times at inter-pack meetings, the kind the old Alpha hosted here every few years. Diplomacy. Territory discussions. Your father attended as Beta representative for Shadowmere."
"She came with him," Lilith said softly.
"She came with him." The housekeeper applied salve to a bite mark on Lilith’s shoulder. "Cassandra was....I noticed her because she was the kind of woman you remember. Quiet and steady."
Lilith’s throat tightened.
That was exactly her mother.
Exactly.
"Your father looked at her the way men rarely look at their wives after twenty years," Mrs. Hallowell continued. "Like she was still surprising him. Like he was still grateful." She paused. "That’s a rare thing."
Lilith pressed her lips together.
"I heard about what happened to her," the housekeeper said. "I’m sorry. For what happened to your family. For all of it."
Lilith had to look away at the window, while she got her expression back under control.
"Nobody’s said that to me in a long time," she said finally. "Said they were sorry."
"No," Mrs. Hallowell said. "I don’t imagine they have."
She continued working in silence for a while. Moving through the worst of the visible damage, wrists then shoulders up to the he marks on her collarbone.
When she’d finished, she began packing the small jars back into the wooden box.
"Mrs. Hallowell," Lilith said.
The older woman looked at her.
"You said you’ve served this house for forty years."
"Forty-two."
"Have you ever...." Lilith chose her words carefully. "Have you ever seen them like this? The brothers."
Mrs. Hallowell studied her for a long moment.
Set the box down.
"I’ve watched those three boys grow into the men they are," she said finally. "I’ve seen them in grief and in fury and in the coldness that comes from having too much power too young." She paused. "I’ve seen women come through this estate before. Women they wanted. Women who wanted them."
"And?"
"And I’ve never seen them like this." Her voice was measured. Careful. "Not with anyone."
The words settled over Lilith like something heavy and complicated.
"What does that mean?" she asked.
"I don’t know yet." Mrs. Hallowell picked up the box. "But I’ve lived long enough to know that when powerful men start behaving in ways they can’t explain, the woman at the center of it should pay very careful attention."
She moved toward the door.
"To what?" Lilith asked.
The housekeeper paused with her hand on the door frame.
"To the difference," she said quietly, "between what they tell you this is and what it’s actually becoming." She looked back at Lilith one final time. "Be careful, Child, Not of the men who want to use you. You’ve already survived that."
"Then of what?"
"Of the men who might be starting to need you, Because that’s a different kind of dangerous entirely."
She left before Lilith could respond.
The door closed softly behind her.
***
The room felt different after she’d gone.
Smaller somehow. Like the walls had shifted two inches closer while Lilith wasn’t paying attention.
She sat with Mrs. Hallowell’s words for a long time.
Of what they’re becoming.
She was still thinking about it when the door opened again.
Sebastian appeared at the door, His dark eyes moved over her. The salve on her shoulders. The careful way she was holding herself.
He didn’t say anything at first.
Just looked at her.
"How bad is it?" he asked finally.
"Mrs. Hallowell says two will scar."
Something crossed his face but it was gone within seconds.
He crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed beside her. Reached out and touched the marks on her shoulder, then he leaned in and kissed her.
It was slow and unhurried and nothing like the brutal heat of the past week.
She didn’t pull away.
Didn’t know why she didn’t pull away.
When he finally lifted his head, his eyes were dark and unreadable.
"Come here," he said quietly.
He reached for the hem of her shirt.
She tensed immediately.
"Alpha Sebastian...."
"I’m not going to hurt you." He said.
Then he lifted the fabric anyway, just enough to look.
The bruising across her hips was still vivid. Her thighs still marked. And between her legs, still visibly swollen from days of use that her body hadn’t had time to recover from.
Sebastian stared at it for a long moment.
Then he pulled her shirt back down.
Then he stood up.
She blinked. "What...."
He picked her up.
She grabbed his shoulders on instinct. "Alpha Sebastian, please put me down...."
"Stop moving." Sebastian scolded her. "Because If you keep moving around in my arms we going to have a problem. And you’re not in any condition for that problem right now."
She went still immediately.
He carried her out of the room without another word. Down the corridor. Into the north wing. Into his room.
It was dark inside. The fire already burning low. Like he’d planned this.
He set her on the bed carefully. Stepped back. Pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it on the chair.
Then he got in beside her.
Pulled her against his chest.
His nose went into her hair.
She lay there completely stiff, waiting for what came next.
But nothing happened, even after he pulled her closer to his chest.
"Sleep," he said. His voice was rough. Almost uncomfortable. Like the word had cost him something.
"Alpha Sebastian...."
"Sleep Lilith." His voice came from above her head.
But she didn’t sleep for a long time., Just lay there in Sebastian’s arms, in Sebastian’s room, listening to his breathing slow while her mind ran in circles she couldn’t stop.
Mrs. Hallowell’s voice kept coming back.
Of what they’re becoming.
She looked at the darkness beyond the window.
Twenty-three days left.
She needed to remember that.
Twenty-three days and then she would go home to her mother.
This wasn’t real.
None of this was real.
She closed her eyes and told herself that until she almost believed it.
