The Journal Keeper (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (32 page)

“As for you,
capora
. If you think I’ll let in those maids with you looking as you do, you’ve another thing coming. I have four men stationed outside that door, and I don’t want them seeing anything that belongs solely to Dorin and me, so get dressed,” Nikolas ordered.

“My skirts hide everything,” Rianne pointed out, shaking out the material.

“Not quite,
danalya
.” Dorin grinned, indicating a split in the skirts that hadn’t been there before.

“You ripped my dress?” Rianne gaped, holding the torn fabric up.

“I’m afraid so, but I’m sure Andraste will be able to fix it for you,” Dorin assured her.

“Those stupid claws of yours,” Rianne grumbled, striding over to her armoire.

Her dress laced up the front, so she didn’t ask either of her mates to help her undress, simply untied the bow at her breasts and allowed the gown to slide down her body. Without really thinking, Rianne reached out and grabbed the simplest dress she owned. Forest green in color, the gown buttoned up the front, making it the easiest to get in and out of without help. Fluffing out her hair, she turned to find both Dorin and Nikolas staring at her with a strange hunger in their eyes.

“Have you ever seen anything more captivating?” Dorin asked Nikolas, not once taking his eyes off her.

“Never,” Nikolas rasped, continuing to stare.

Rianne felt her entire face blush, her body heating under their praise. She felt as though she would never really get used to being considered beautiful in their eyes. It was such a strange thing to think about herself. She had always been average compared to other girls, but with Dorin and Nikolas, she felt like the most beautiful woman in the world. She looked up, and Nikolas was less than a foot away from her, his eyes darkening with intensity as he reached for her.

Just before his hand touched her, a loud boom echoed from outside and the entire castle shook. Shouts went up all around, and people began screaming from beneath her window. Rianne was in Nikolas’s arms in an instant, his body shielding hers as he took her to the ground. Dorin’s shout was unintelligible over the blood pounding in her ears, but Nikolas seemed to understand him and shouted back. He turned her over and began talking to her, but she couldn’t hear him, couldn’t rise above her panic.

“Rianne. Come back to us,
capora
,” Nikolas insisted, shaking her slightly.

“What was that?” Rianne asked, shaking horribly.

“It sounded like a bomb. I need to go see what’s happening, and Dorin needs to go meet with his father. You stay in this room, do you understand? You lock the doors behind us, and you don’t open them for anyone until Dorin or I come for you. I mean it, Rianne. Stay here,” Nikolas ordered, his voice harder than she’d ever heard it.

“P–promise,” Rianne stuttered, wishing they wouldn’t leave her alone.

“We’ll be back soon,
danalya
,” Dorin promised, bending down to kiss her briefly before following Nikolas out the door.

As soon as it closed behind them, she turned the lock, hit her knees, and prayed.

* * * *

The entire castle was in utter turmoil as Dorin raced down the hallway to find his parents. He met up with his father at the bottom of the stairway, the king’s demeanor hard and angry as he stood beside his son.

“What do we know so far?” Silal asked.

“It looks as if the bomb went off along the western wall. Nikolas is taking his troops to investigate now,” Dorin informed his father.

“Damnation, this is the worst possible time for those blasted revolutionaries to attack,” Silal groused, leading Dorin outside.

“It may not be them,” Dorin pointed out.

“Who else could it be? They’ve been crossing the border between Kuruvi and Lumare for the past three months. They’ve already tried to invade Livley and Corane. No doubt they hope to have better luck with the northern territories,” Silal said as they crossed the lawn, ten guards falling in around them.

“I still don’t see why the magi protect them.” Dorin growled in frustration.

“Because they hope if it ever comes to blows between Laurasia and Gondwanaland that the revolutionaries will side with them, and we shifters will be caught between the borders,” Silal snapped.

“You don’t think they’re trying it now, do you?” Dorin asked, his eyes widening at the thought.

“I pray to the gods they aren’t,” Silal muttered as they came upon the crumbled western wall.

There was no fighting going on, only the guards standing around, talking amongst themselves. A few of the smithy workers were already working with the masons to distinguish the ruined bricks from the reusable ones. Nikolas stood apart from the crowd, sword still in hand as he surveyed the area around them. Dorin broke away from his father to go see what had the polar so tense.

“Are you all right? What’s happening?” Dorin asked as he came to stand beside his friend.

“This doesn’t feel right,” Nikolas murmured, completely focused.

“At least we aren’t under attack. Surely if we were, the revolutionaries would have stormed through right after the explosion,” Dorin pointed out.

“Exactly. What was the point of blowing up the wall if there’s no attack?” Nikolas asked, his voice gravelly in his irritation.

Dorin could see his point. Why blow up the wall? Was someone trying to make a point? Some of the villagers had expressed their concerns over what would happen if the revolutionaries did come to Wolvden. Maybe they had set off the bomb to show how unprepared they were to deal with an attack.

“My lord! Prince Dorin!”

Dorin turned to see Carme running toward them, panic clearly written across her face. Obviously something was wrong. Maybe the explosion had been a decoy, and the attack was occurring at another point of the castle. Or maybe Carme just wanted to see the damage and the panic was left over from when the bomb first went off.

“What is it, Carme?” Dorin asked, placing a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulder when she came to a stop in front of him.

“Is Rianne with you? I went to stay with her in your rooms, but when the guards knocked, she didn’t answer,” Carme told him, wringing her hands together.

“She finally listens,” Nikolas sighed with a wry smile.

“We told her not to open the door for anyone but us, Carme. She’s just following our instructions,” Dorin assured her.

“But she didn’t even call out. I’m worried, Your Highness. Please,” Carme pleaded tearfully.

“All right. I’m sure they don’t need us here anyway. Come, Nikolas. Let’s see about getting to our mate.” Dorin grinned, already thinking of the way the night would go.

Nikolas slowly walked away from the hole in the wall, leaving the destruction to Silal and the team of masons and blacksmiths. The wall would be repaired in no time and the castle would go back to normal, if not a little bit more careful.

Carme followed Dorin and Nikolas as they made their way back inside the castle, both of them now eager to be with Rianne. The guards stationed outside their rooms nodded and stepped aside as Dorin unlocked and opened the door. One look in the bedroom and he knew it was empty. Thinking maybe she had gone to one of the other rooms to hide in case the castle was under siege, Dorin moved toward the door on the left.

“Rianne?” Dorin called, walking to the door to their study.

Again, the room was empty.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Nikolas coming out from the sitting room. Dorin knew from the look on Nikolas’s face that she hadn’t been in the sitting room. Dread and terror settled like a weight in his stomach, and Dorin rushed out of the room. Carme’s soft cries chased after him, but Dorin didn’t have time to stop. Nikolas was right behind him as they sprinted down the stairs.

“Did Rianne come this way?” Dorin asked the two men stationed at the bottom.

Nikolas came to a stop beside him just as the two men shook their heads.

“We haven’t seen her since she went up to see you, Highness,” one man answered.

Without waiting for any explanation or question, Dorin headed toward the rear of the castle, praying to the gods that she had simply gone to investigate the explosion and would be standing by his father when they arrived. He passed numerous guards and servants as he and Nikolas tore through the rear entrance to the castle. Nikolas stopped to ask one of his guards if they’d seen Rianne, but Dorin continued on until he came to the damaged wall.

“Rianne?” Dorin shouted as soon as he was near.

A few of the people turned to look at him, but no one answered his call. Tearing through the crowd, Dorin called her name again and again.

“Dorin!”

Spinning around, he came face to face with his mother, her familiar face drawn tight in concern.

“Is she here? Have you seen Rianne?” Dorin asked, desperately hoping his mate was somewhere nearby.

“No. I haven’t seen her since she came to the hothouse this morning with Carme,” Visess told him with a slow shake of her head.

“Oh, gods, this can’t be happening,” Dorin groaned, taking off again and ignoring his mother calling his name.

He found Nikolas standing in the middle of the castle yard, staring blankly ahead. Dorin ran up to him, hoping someone had seen or heard something.

“Tell me you found something,” Dorin pleaded.

Nikolas shook his head slowly, turning deadened eyes on the frantic wolf.

“She’s gone,” Nikolas whispered brokenly.

The shock of his statement froze Dorin for only a moment before he turned and began yelling to the closest group of guards.

“Search the castle! Lady Rianne is missing! I want every single person accounted for and in the throne room now!” Dorin commanded, his voice echoing around the yard.

Nikolas still hadn’t moved, continuing to stare blankly around him as the guards and castle servants ran past them.

“Nikolas?” Dorin questioned, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“She’s gone,” Nikolas said, as though he couldn’t believe it.

“We’ll get her back,” Dorin assured him.

Nikolas shook his head slowly, as if discounting what Dorin said.

“She’s gone,” Nikolas repeated, still in that same dead tone.

“She’ll be okay, Nik. We have to have faith in her,” Dorin insisted.

Nikolas inhaled deeply, his entire body tensing, before he burst into his bear form on the exhale. Lifting his giant head, he roared in agony before lumbering toward the hole in the castle wall.

“Nikolas!” Dorin called, but it was no good.

Nikolas ran straight toward the hole and disappeared into the forest.

“Highness, we’ve gathered everyone,” a guard told him.

Turning away from where his friend had vanished, Dorin looked to the young guard standing beside him. He thought the boy’s name was Gaibe, one of Nikolas’s newest warriors. The boy looked as worried as Dorin felt, and he clapped a hand to the young wolf’s shoulder.

“Let’s go,” Dorin sighed, leading the way into the castle.

* * * *

Rianne came awake with a groan, the pounding in her head reminding her of that one night in college when her roommate had convinced her to celebrate the end of exam week with about three bottles of wine. She’d woken up the next morning with a killer headache and had been sick for the following three days. Sitting up slowly, she felt the lump at the back of her head and winced as pain shot through her entire body.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

Blinking open her eyes, Rianne tried to focus, but found it hard to see in the dim light of the room she was in. Eventually, her eyes stopped watering and adjusted to the darkness. A man stood in the corner of the room. He pulled back a shutter over the window next to him and a shaft of light lit his face.

“Fawsny? Where are we?” Rianne mumbled, feeling a little dizzy and unable to keep herself from swaying.

The footman walked across the floor, his face once again in darkness, but Rianne knew it was him. The shock of disheveled orange hair couldn’t belong to anyone but the puffin shifter.

“That’s not important,” Fawsny said, turning to pace in front of her.

“Wha…Fawsny, what’s wrong? What happened?” Rianne asked, holding her head against the waves of dizziness.

He didn’t answer her, and Rianne struggled to remember what had happened. She could remember making love with Dorin on the floor, Nikolas coming in and teasing her about the maids. She’d had to change gowns because Dorin’s claws had ripped through the one she’d been wearing, and Nikolas had…

“Oh, my God! The bomb! Is everyone okay? Oh, God, please tell me Dorin and Nikolas are okay,” Rianne cried, feeling the tears spill down her cheeks.

“Don’t worry. They’ll be here soon,” Fawsny told her.

“So they’re okay?” Rianne asked, sniffling.

Fawsny didn’t answer, just continued to walk from wall to wall. The dizziness returned tenfold after her outburst, and she groaned as the room tilted. Unable to control it any longer, Rianne fell back onto the bed she was sitting on. The dizzy sensation began to fade as she focused on the ceiling until she was finally able to take in her surroundings. It was difficult to tell in the faded light, but it looked like she was in the same hut she, Dorin, and Nikolas had stayed at two weeks before.

“How did we get here?” Rianne asked, beginning to think a little more clearly and managing to sit up once again.

“It’s not important,” Fawsny repeated, peeking out a window.

His agitation was apparent in the way he continually walked back and forth from window to window. Rianne wasn’t sure what was going on with him, but she was beginning to worry. She wasn’t sure where Dorin and Nikolas were, but she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that grew in intensity as she continued to watch Fawsny.

“Fawsny, what’s going on?” Rianne asked slowly, a horrible suspicion creeping over her.

“Nothing, nothing,” Fawsny muttered, wringing his hands.

Rianne closed her eyes against the tears forming as she realized just what she’d gotten herself into. There was no doubt in her mind that Fawsny was behind the destruction to the castle and possibly the shootings. As much as she didn’t want to believe it, she could think of no other reason for the puffin shifter to have kidnapped her.