TOUCH OF THE WOLF By Susan Krinard

“But when he was promised to marry Milena, he fell in love with her. In spite of his grandfather, he dared to think that he could pursue both duty and happiness. She was very alluring, very accomplished in flirtation. In the beginning, she seemed to want Lord Greyburn as much as he wanted her.”

“Rowena called her an angel—”

Telford laughed, startling Cassidy. “Ah, yes. She was an expert in deception, even of her fellow werewolves. Rowena fell for her performance completely. Milena led everyone at Greyburn, and in London, to believe that she was a paragon—even Braden, at first. He was still an innocent then, in his way. Of course she hid her true nature to the outside world, but she was quick enough to use her abilities to get what she wanted.”

Cassidy tried to reconcile Telford’s description with the face in the portrait, and with Rowena’s passionate praise. Where lay the truth?

She was quick enough to use her abilities… Rowena had been desperate for someone with whom to share her feelings and fears, another woman to be her close confidante. “Do you mean that Milena used her powers to make people see her the way she wanted them to?”

“It is against loup-garou law for one werewolf to use his or her will against another. But she would not have hesitated to do so.” His mouth twisted. “It didn’t matter that the earl loved her to distraction. He would have given up anything but the Cause to make her happy. But she cared nothing for the Cause, and quickly grew bored with her husband. He was too bound by duty and lived too quietly. She was devoted to the gaiety and pleasure of London, and she spent as much time away from Greyburn as possible, among human society. He begged her to return, but she refused.”

Braden, begging? It seemed impossible. “He became jealous,” she said. “He made her come back—”

“Only after she had taken one human lover after another. She hid that as well, but she was in every respect no better than a prostitu—Pardon me, my lady.”

A prostitute, he meant. Like Isabelle. “She was with other men, even though she was married,” Cassidy said.

“With every man she could seduce, and that was a simple matter for her. She even approached—” Telford caught his breath and went on. “Yet she mocked the earl because after five years he had not… fathered children for his Cause. He blamed himself for that failure. I think he came to believe that was why she left him. It was easier to take the blame than recognize the truth.”

Cassidy remembered Braden’s self-contempt when he’d revealed his sterility. Milena had been all these terrible things, and he’d still blamed himself?

She touched her stomach gently. “But he was wrong, Telford. My baby—”

“Yes. But he loved her, and so it was necessary for him to pretend. To do otherwise would lay his faults bare to his own eyes. He would be no more than a pathetic cuckold, unfit to lead his fellow werewolves or follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. He would be forced to surrender all promise of love or happiness. So he deliberately blinded himself to her infidelities, and to her wild and reckless behavior in London. Until the time came when even he was compelled to admit the truth.”

“What happened?” Cassidy asked, feeling ill.

“Milena’s final lover was a libertine of scandalous reputation, a former officer in the royal army. Milena had become less and less discreet in her amours, and at last she committed an act which—suffice it to say that Lord Grey-burn could no longer ignore it. Lord Greyburn traveled to London and brought her back by force. No one would argue with his right, but Milena had convinced all London that he was a tyrant who mistreated her and drove her away with his cruelties. Human society pitied her, but he was an object of scorn. To the loups-garous, he’d shown weakness by allowing her to cuckold him so blatantly, defy him so openly in direct contradiction of his own Cause. He had to prove all over again that he was fit to be their leader.”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *