Page 10 of To Keep A Wolf
He doesn’t wait for my answer before pushing the door open and stepping back, grunting for me to enter. The moment I step through, he pulls the door closed behind me with more force than necessary.
Jadick looks up from behind a large desk, brows raised at the noise.
“Someone’s not happy about babysitting duty,” I say.
“You’re not a child, Mac.”
For some reason, that makes me snort.
He pushes his chair back and stands, rounding the desk to where French doors open to the extensive back gardens. “Walk with me?”
He offers his hand, which I ignore, but in the end, I step up beside him. After nearly a week of being confined to my room, he’s offering a walk in the sunshine and a chance to find out more about what the hell those vague promises meant last night.
This is my chance for both. I won’t ruin it.
He pushes the doors wide, and even though we’re shoulder to shoulder, there’s no mistaking who’s leading as we stroll outside.
Despite all of the reasons to be a stressed-out mess, I find my wolf relaxing as I inhale the scent of the outdoors. Freshly cut grass, the dirt being turned over as flower beds are weeded. It’s exactly what I needed to ground myself amid all the chaos. And just for a second, as I close my eyes and draw a deep breath, I pretend it’s all going to be okay.
Way too soon, that illusion is shattered.
Jadick tugs my arm and draws me farther into the gardens. Once, this space belonged to me and Kari. After Marilyn left, Crigger, Theo, and Jadick never stepped foot out here, which meant Kari and I were safe to play and laugh and run and pretend she didn’t come from a family who killed or abused everything in its path. Once, it was a place of comfort and happiness for me.
Not anymore.
Everywhere I look now, I see proof everything is absolutely not okay.
Employees and organizers bustle around us, the hum of activity heightened as people begin to spot us strolling past their handiwork. On my right, summer heat bakes the beautiful hedge rows, not to mention the gardeners assigned to revive them where Kari let them languish. Everyone and everything is sweating out here.
“The guests will come through there,” Jadick says, his words jolting me back to the present moment with a painful tug.
I follow his gaze and find a series of statues lining the pathway from the front walk to the back of the garden. White tulle lines the edge of the path, herding visitors in the right direction. Fitting that everything is secured and tied off.
Imprisoned; like me.
“Guests?” I ask and realize belatedly he means wedding guests.
I look away, my gaze roaming over the gardens again. Noting all of the statues interspersed among the hedgerows that wind like tiny mazes. The design is a sort of Greco-antebellum just like the alpha house itself. Jadick has already ordered former artwork and décor to be brought up from the basement—whatever Kari didn’t destroy, anyway.
Crigger always had a thing for Greek art. Nude sculptures with huge dicks, that sort of thing. Kari used to joke it was his version of a lifted truck. “Compensating” she’d call it. I almost smile now as I watch a marble statue of some unnamed Greek hero being wheeled back to its original place near the center fountain.
The workers pause to look over at Jadick uncertainly.
The alpha grunts his approval, and I shake my head. He is his father, through and through. I pray I don’t have to find out for myself whether he’s compensating too.
Farther back, where the gardens border the forest beyond, two pillars have been erected about six feet apart, white gauze dangling limply from each one in the non-existent breeze.
“What’s that?” I ask, pointing at the place where the columns stand.
“That’s the altar,” he says, and my heart skips a beat.
“Altar?”
“For the wedding,” he prompts. “I thought you’d appreciate an outdoor ceremony. And this way, the entire pack can be present to witness.”
“Great,” I say with zero sincerity.
Jadick leads me down the path toward the archways where I can see for myself all of the space that’s been made for seating. He’s right. At this rate, the entire pack will be able to attend this horror show. For some reason, I think of Levi.
