Page 97 of Wolf's Bane
Miles’ lips pulled back in a snarl. “Don’t speak to him! Don’t look at mine!”
“Territorial. Possessive. The bond is already there, whether you like it or not,” Alek said. He tossed the fallen dagger to Luis’ feet. “Just in case he gets out of line.”
“We’re not going anywhere.” He tucked the dagger into his boot. “How is Papa?”
“Breathing.”
Dr. Webb and Sheldon worked on Godwin’s unconscious form. The wound looked nasty and likely to fester. Unconscious was the best thing he could be.
Solenne arrived, blood splatter on her face and her hem soaked in her father’s blood. Or Chambers’. Or Charlotte’s. Probably a combination of all three. How preposterous to think she looked radiant, covered in gore and completely unflappable.
His mate.
The beast was so damn pleased with himself. Alek agreed.
He fished out a handkerchief from a pocket, pleased to discover it mostly clean. “How did he poison us?”
“Chambers dosed the wine,” she said, accepting the cloth and proceeding to clean her face. “Wormwood is harmless to everyone except you and Miles. Lowers your inhibitions, I gather, and makes the wolf more dominant.”
“Yes, that sounds right.”
“It’ll wear off. And you?”
“I want nothing more than to be alone with you, wife, but—” He looked about the room, at the overturned furniture, the destruction and the injured people. “What I want is irrelevant. Put me to work.”
Solenne
She should not have been surprised by Charlotte’s efficiency. After all, she had been helpless in the face of Charlotte’s organizing this disaster of a double wedding. As the lady of the house, Charlotte took control and coordinated the care of the injured and the cleanup.
She had a horrible feeling that people would refer to the day’s events as the Double Werewolf Wedding. Technically, it was a triple event, but it hardly seemed the time to split hairs.
“How do we help him?” Charlotte asked, regarding Miles.
“Wolfsbane. It will calm him down.” The herb acted as a sedative for a werewolf. So many people erroneously thought it was a repellent.
Charlotte looked as if she was going to question Solenne, but then shook her head. “I don’t suppose you brought your box of tricks to the wedding. No. I believe Lionel has some medicinal powders in his bedroom. Let me check. Perhaps he can do something useful.”
Chambers did, indeed, have a small medicine chest in his room, stocked with various herbs and pills. She found a packet of dried wolfsbane, labeled in her own handwriting.
Well, that solved the mystery of her diminishing supply cupboard.
“Give this to Miles. The entire thing,” she said, handing the packet to Alek.
She watched her new husband and oldest friend dump the packet into a glass of water before pouring it down Miles’ throat. Alek seemed distant. She didn’t know how to explain other than he felt with her during the ceremony, as if they were one spirit. The connection between them was vibrant and alive. Now, it seemed muted, like he was pulling away. It worried her.
Did he think she held recent events against him? How could she? He saved Miles from making a terrible mistake. Alek was a champion in her eyes and the eyes of everyone in attendance.
Perhaps the number of witnesses was the issue. What was the saying? One person can keep a secret. Two can keep a secret if one is dead.
All those people saw his partial shift. He had to worry about repercussions.
Solenne cleaned the minor injury on Charlotte’s head. It bled freely, giving her a ghastly appearance as a bloody bride in her wedding gown, but it was small and easily covered with a bandage.
When that was done, she switched her attention to Godwin. Dr. Webb carefully stitched together his lacerated abdomen. She assisted by fetching supplies, fresh cloth, and clean water. When Godwin moaned, she held his hand.
Chambers’ body remained on the floor, covered with a wine-stained tablecloth. No one seemed to pay him any mind. Ignored and forgotten, it seemed a fitting fate. Soon his body would have to be burned, but that could wait a day. The living were more important, and no one seemed particularly aggrieved, other than Mrs. Parkell. She appeared with a basin of water and a cloth.
“It’s my duty as his sister to clean his body. Even if he was a monster,” she insisted. She dipped the cloth in the clean water and hesitated before she brought it to his impassive face.
