Lydia Dare - Wolf Next Door

The brothers exchanged a meaningful look, and then the duke started toward the door. "I won't be long."

"Take Oliver with you," Ben advised.

Blackmoor agreed with a tight nod.

Prisca leapt to her feet. "Ben, do you know what this is about?"

His eyes scanned the room as though he was avoiding her. "Will wouldn't say that unless he was worried about something."

"What is there to worry about?" she pressed. "I do wish you'd explain it to me. We were simply on our way to the dower house and everything was fine, and then he wouldn't budge and ordered me back here."

She'd never seen Ben look so uncomfortable. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I'm sure it's nothing, Prissy. When he returns, you can find out all about it."

***

Will woke to the heavy clank of a coin as it spun across a tabletop. He blinked his eyes open, wincing when the motion caused a pounding in his head. Slowly, he let his eyes move around the dark confines of the tiny cottage where he lay on a soft bed.

Will immediately recognized the crofter's cottage where he'd brought Prisca. Brimsworth sat at the small dining table, his head resting in the palm of his hand, his crooked elbow holding it up. Will finally realized the source of the noise. The blond wolf absently spun a coin across the tabletop and then repeated the action when the coin finally wobbled to a stop on the surface. He looked like he hadn't a care in the world. In fact, he looked bored witless.

But then he slowly lifted his head and looked over at Will. "I know you're awake. I heard your heartbeat speed up."

Damn Lycan hearing. Will had nearly forgotten that Brimsworth had the same strengths he did. Maybe more. Who knew? No one had ever put the man to the test.

"My heart tends to do that when I've been bashed over the head," Will intoned slowly, reaching for the back of his head, suddenly more aware than ever of the pain that lay on the surface. But his reach fell short. He tugged his arm and heard the metal clank of the shackles that bound him to the iron bed.

"You're already healing. The headache will ease soon." One corner of Brimsworth's mouth twitched up as he saw Will tug on the shackles. "No need to fight them. They'll hold," he said slowly.

Will wanted to ask him if he cared to wager on that. He'd never met a trap a Lycan couldn't free himself from. Thinking of the trap made him look down at his leg. Brimsworth chuckled, a laugh without mirth. "All healed." He looked a bit sad about that.

"Pardon me for ruining your enjoyment," Will grumbled, tugging the chains again. Indeed, they were solidly attached to the bed frame.

"Don't waste your strength. They're the shackles I use when the moon is full."

"Chaining yourself like the animal you are?" Will asked.

"Careful with the name-calling," Brimsworth chided. "You and I are cut of the same cloth."

"No. There are no similarities," Will ground out. He sunk back against the bed. Best to save his strength for a time he could use it. "I've never had to tie myself up to keep from hurting people." Then realization struck him. "Is that why you do it?"

Brimsworth nodded tightly.

"Why?" It seemed a bit odd to discuss such events, seeing as how he was trussed up better than a Christmas turkey. But the earl's heartbeat slowed when he conversed, and Will figured it might give him an insight into his captor's mind and something he could use to his advantage.

"You know why," Brimsworth snorted.

"No," Will replied, truly dumbfounded. "I've no idea."

"The wildness that comes with the moon. I start to feel it several days before the moonful. And I have to take precautions."

"Precautions against what?"

"The beast within me." Brimsworth shrugged.

"Yes, I've heard that you wrecked some furnishings and tried to take a bite out of a few whores back home in Kent," Will taunted him, though it probably wasn't the smartest idea considering his circumstances.

The earl's eyebrows drew together. "That was a bit of folly on my part. Though there's nothing as tempting as a woman's neck when the moon is full," Brimsworth admitted. "I'd hoped to control it better."

"Yet you couldn't," Will finished for him.

The man nodded again.

"How old were you when they first shackled you?" Will asked. He knew he'd hit his mark when Brimsworth flinched.

"That's none of your concern," he growled.

"You were young, weren't you?" Will continued. "Barely a man, I'd wager."

Brimsworth stood and crossed the room to get a whisky decanter. He poured a glass and tossed it back quickly. Will sat up as much as the chains would allow.

"Why didn't your father take you with him when he went to the forest?" Will asked.

The earl's head shot up. "My

father

? He's not one of us."

"Oh," Will breathed slowly as realization dawned on him. That explained why there was no record of Eynsford at The Lycanian Society. "Then perhaps he's not your

real

father," he mumbled to himself.

"Of course, he is!" Brimsworth barked, his face flushed with rage.

Will barely shook his head. "If he doesn't grow fur and a long tail when the moon is full, odds are he's not your father. Being a Lycan doesn't skip a generation."

"Truly?"

Will nodded.

"Never skips a generation?"

"Never. It's too strong within us." Although Major Forster believed the earl was some sort of aberration, Will thought it best to leave that bit out. It certainly wouldn't aid him in his current state.

Then Brimsworth did something Will would never, ever have expected. He threw his head back and laughed. "The sorry old man is not my father." A smile lit his face. "You've no idea how happy you just made me."

Will shook the chains on his wrists. "Happy enough?" he asked.

"In a moment," Brimsworth said, waving his head negligently. He started to pace. "You and your brothers, you're all Lycans?"

Will nodded.

"And you're able to live among

people

? Without hurting anyone?"

"When the moon is full, we go to the woods," Will admitted. "We're drawn to the solitude. The peace. If we've claimed a mate, she may go with us."

"Prisca," Brimsworth started.

"Is mine!" Will growled, straining at his chains.

The earl waved him off again. "Only because you took an unfair advantage. She should have had a choice between the two of us. You made sure she never got that chance."

"She is my wife." Will sighed. "No matter how you feel about the circumstances, nothing will change that fact."

Brimsworth frowned, and his golden eyes darkened. "Will you take her into the forest with you during the next moonful?"

He hadn't planned on it. But ever since Caitrin Macleod saw a Lycan claiming Prissy, he couldn't take the chance the earl would beat him to it. "If she's ready."

"I can't imagine she would be happy to know she married a monster, to see him transform before her eyes."

"We're not monsters," Will growled. Still, Prisca might run screaming into the woods.

Brimsworth raked a hand through his hair. "You say that like you mean it," he muttered so softly Will barely heard it.

The earl didn't seem to know much about the rules that governed Lycans. No wonder the man was feral. His family had chained him up, and he thought of himself as a monster. Will almost felt sorry for him until the weight of his shackles reminded him he was still the earl's captive. But perhaps he could reason with the man.

"His Grace would be a good mentor," he suggested. "If you have need of one, that is. Or someone else at Canis House, if you'd prefer." He would have thrown himself into the path of the wild Lycan, but Simon had a much more even temper. And, being the alpha of the pack, he never had to demand respect. It just came to him.