TWENTY-FOUR
“ He’ll come here, that man. He’ll find me here and hurt those nice women. I have to go, leave. I…my home. I’ll go to my home.” Airic stopped and let the older woman catch up to her, but she still moved backwards and away from her.
“ And what do you think will happen if you go home? Do you think that he will happily take you into his arms and love you? And what do you think Bradley will do when he finds you missing from here? Do you think he’ll just let you go, not come after you and bring you back here?”
She glared at the woman. What was it any of her business anyway? “I’m my own person. And do you think I care what he’d do to me over what I have seen? What he could do to those women in there, or those children they carry? Bradley? He said that I’m his responsibility because I’m in his territory, nothing more. Well that’s easily remedied, isn’t it? I can throw anywhere.” Airic looked longingly at the trees. Whenever she got upset, for some reason, walking in the trees soothed her. She turned back to the older woman.
“ I can’t let you run, Airic. Bradley’s my grandson and my alpha. Letting you run away would tear him apart. You must know that. He has looked a long time for you, and now that he’s found you, he won’t let you go that easily. None of his people will. Not now.” She had wrapped her arm around Airic’s waist and was guiding her to a group of chairs that were set up around a large in-ground pool.
“ Look, I’m not sure what you think is going on between us, but it isn’t permanent. I mean he…that is, we haven’t…I’m just someone he wants to have…sex, that’s all it is, just sex. I’m sure that he’d have no problem getting anyone, and I mean anyone, to sleep with him. The couple of times we’ve almost…you know, he seems to know his way around a body pretty well, so there’d be no complaints about that. But I have to go home. I’m…you know not experienced enough to keep someone like him happy.” Airic looked at the woman and saw that she was shaking with laughter. Frowning, she started at her. “What the hell…heck is so funny?”
Laughter burst from her then. She had to lean forward and hold her belly she was laughing so hard. Airic watched her and never said a word. These people are nuts, certifiable.
“ Oh God, child, you are too much. You will talk about having sex with my grandson with me, but you won’t cuss. That’s just too funny. Oh my, I don’t believe I’ve laughed that hard in a coon’s age.” Airic watched Mrs. Wolff wipe tears from her cheeks and sighed.
“ I didn’t say we had sex, I said he was good with a body. And my mother would have tanned my butt but good if I’d cursed in front of an elder.” She sat there for several minutes and looked over the pool. The water looked so smooth, she thought, smooth like Bradley’s body sliding against hers. She sat up suddenly. Thoughts like that were not going to help her get home.
“ You don’t know what you are, do you, love?” Seeming to have gotten control of herself again, Mrs. Wolff leaned back and looked at her.
“ I’m an animal. That wolf, the one that attacked that woman tonight, he’s a werewolf too. He hurt her because he couldn’t find me. He’ll keep hurting until he gets what he feels is his. Me.” She didn’t want to see the certain blame in her eyes, so Airic kept looking at the water.
“ Probably. Do you know who he is? If so, then you could help them find him and punish him by telling Bradley. The men who left here tonight, they’ll search until they find her, if that’s what worries you. But you don’t think they’ll find her alive, do you?” Mrs. Wolff asked her.
“ No. They won’t. When those men had me in that cave, they brought in another woman. She was very young and she screamed continuously. They told me that the master had told them they were not to touch me, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t touch
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