Page 16 of Wolf's Redemption

Ulrik stopped walking, his hand on her elbow jerking her to a stop with him. “Dun jen?” The word was unfamiliar to him.Something from her world, perhaps? “You meandonjon,as in the keep?”

She screwed up her face at him. “No, the dungeon. The oubliette. The tiny little room beneath the keep. Where you were a prisoner.”

“Ah.” Understanding dawned. “You call that an oubliette?”

“Yeah. Oubliette. Like from the movieLabyrinth. It means a place of forgetting.”

Movie?Labyrinth? He knew naught of these things, but a place of forgetting was an apt description of it. Only, Lothair would not forget about him, nor stop hunting him. He would not let Ulrik get away easily. Ulrik grunted and continued walking, her soft footfalls in those ridiculous boots forced to keep pace with him.

“Whywereyou in the oubliette?”

Because Archeveque Renaud had set a trap to bind a werewolf. Because one of his pack had betrayed them. And because Lothair, Comte de Anjou, wanted a werewolf army and, perhaps, wanted to be one himself. None of which he could tell her.

“Did you kill someone? Commit treason? Are you a thief?”

He huffed. She was not going to let this lie. He had to give her something. “Because I had something the comte wanted.”

“And you wouldn’t give it to him? To get yourself out of there?”

“No.”

“Must’ve been something really important. Or valuable. Or precious.”

Yes, to all three.

“What was it?”

Defiantandtenacious. “Nothing you need concern yourself about.”

“Hey!” She poked him in the arm. “I’m trusting you here. Following you to God knows where. I think I have a right to know exactly what type of person I’ve hitched my wagon to.”

Hitched her wagon to?

Ulrik kept walking, but she pulled against his hold, digging her heels in. He turned. She stood her ground, her free hand on her hip, feet planted apart and her chin thrust out.

Stubborn woman. Glorious woman. He could not wait to get her beneath him. She promised to be all fire, and he wanted to feel the heat of her flames, but right now he needed to get her moving. He could throw her over his shoulder again.

As if sensing his intent, she scowled at him. He bit back a grin.

“My…lord has fled with his…wife.” He chose his words with care. “Lothair demanded something he had no right to ask for, and now Lothair wants him found. He wanted me to betray my lord.” All truths.

“Huh.”

He raised his eyebrows at her. “Can we continue on now?”

She gave a small nod and fell into step beside him. “Were they newly married? Your lord and his wife?”

Newly mated?“Yes.”

He had scented the truth of it the moment he had approached them in the clearing that fateful night. The night he had succumbed to wolfsbane and Renaud had bound him in silver. But Gaharet had not told Erin everything. She had known Gaharet was a werewolf, but little else. And she had not accepted Gaharet as her mate. Not fully. She had wanted to return to her world. A world Ulrik had not known she’d come from until that moment. Would she still want to return home? Even now that Gaharet had initiated her turning? Had bitten her to save her life?

“He was protecting her, then? Like William Wallace inBraveheart?”

Brave heart?“I know naught of this William Wallace, but of course he would protect her. She is his…wife.”

Gaharet would do anything for Erin. Had Ulrik not intervened, Gaharet would have risked his life and the pack’s future for her.

“I don’t blame them for fleeing,” she said. “That first night rule thing is…ugh! I mean, what woman would want to have sex with some random lord on her wedding night? What man would stand for it? Would just let his wife be taken away?”

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