SYN
When I woke up, my bed was warm. Caspian lay on his side, hugging one of the pillows to his chest, the bed sheet tangled around his legs. Hendrix wasn’t with us tonight as he had warlord business he had to finish.
I found myself staring at Caspian. The man was a beautiful and dangerous temptation I couldn’t resist. Even when he breathed heavily and snored, I found him gorgeous. It could have something to do with him insisting on sharing my bed when Hendrix wasn’t in it so I’d never be alone again.
In fact, all three brothers were more possessive than normal since I returned. It might have annoyed me in the past, but after what Brayden had done to me, and then when I ended up in Fervian City, I welcomed their protection. Around them, I felt safe and loved. And I could tell they missed me terribly. Just as I’d missed them.
With all of that on my mind, and the past refusing to leave me alone, I quietly climbed out of bed and padded across the floorboards on bare feet, needing fresh air.
I glanced behind me at Caspian who took up two-thirds of the bed, his hair messy around his face, and each time I gazed at him, I remembered the trembling expression on his face when Hendrix brought me back to his brothers. How I couldn’t tell if I would go crazy or burst out crying at seeing them. Plus, Caspian had always been the kindest of the three brothers to me, the most affectionate too, but no less possessive.
I drew open the balcony doors gently, to not make any sounds, and stepped outside, closing it behind me.
Cool night air swished through my hair, and I moved to the edge of the railing, holding onto it, staring out beyond the front gates to the sea. The full moon reflected off its dark surface, the waves calm and silent. I tried not to think about the last time I spotted River out there and where it got us.
Now, guards stood at their posts.
Silence. It was eerie, and yet I struggled to forget the past or move past the heaviness in my thoughts. I craved peace, and the need for it welled inside me, growing bigger with each passing day.
I listened to the silence for a while, trying to calm my mind, and part of me could still feel the warmth of Caspian’s lips on mine before I fell asleep in his arms. Just by the deep echo inside me when I was apart from the brothers, I could tell that I’d let myself feel deeply for them. More than I expected.
Someone’s voice drew my attention to the grounds down below. I looked over the railing to a large man, hair so dark it blended into the night, flowing wildly in the breeze. And I knew instantly it was Hendrix.
The sight of him filled me with heat and excitement.
I studied him as he mumbled something to himself, the sound drifting on the breeze as he kept studying the yard around him, then wandering slowly, not seeming to go anywhere specific. But the longer I watched him, the more it became clear he was pacing up and down the front yard.
Guards watched him too, but none approached him.
Was he drunk? He wasn’t stumbling, and each step seemed controlled.
How odd to watch him marching as he grumbled to himself. Something about seeing him in this worried state made him appear fragile. That wasn’t the Hendrix I knew. So what would cause a man as powerful as him to behave this way?
Unable to help myself, I retreated into the bedroom and hurried to the door across the room. Caspian didn’t stir, so I let him sleep while I rushed downstairs. Worry played through my thoughts that something bad was happening and Hendrix hadn’t told me.
Of course, my mind ran amok with scenarios of another pack coming to attack us, or the government tracking him down and deciding they were coming for me.
My pulse thundered at the thoughts of being torn from them again. With it came an anger that ignited deep in my gut at the idea of anyone making decisions for me.
I moved with haste down the stairs and across the empty foyer in the dim lights. Silence and shadows followed me, while only Hendrix consumed my thoughts.
In an instant, I hauled open the heavy door and stepped out onto the front marble steps and into the night.
Darkness permeated the yard with no sign of Hendrix. Something in my stomach clenched, and I stepped forward, scanning the place left and right. Empty.
Where did he go? Back inside?
I retreated, shutting the door behind me, and just as I turned, I ran into someone.
A small cry came from the girl I almost bowled over. We both stumbled on my feet, and only when I really paid attention did I realize I stood in front of Eliza. As the chef’s daughter, she’d been one of the few people I befriended here when I first moved into the mansion.
“Syn, I’m so sorry. I never look where I’m going. Are you alright?” The sweet girl, only seventeen, was rambling, which I noticed she did a lot when she was nervous.
“I’m the one who should be sorry for running into you.” I glanced around the foyer. “Did you see Hendrix come this way?”
She shook her head while patting down her golden-wheat-colored hair and pushing it behind her ears. She still wore her cream dress but it was without an apron for a change.
“That’s so strange,” I murmured mostly to myself.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“I just saw him from my balcony pacing in the front yard, and when I came down, he was gone. I just don’t want something to have happened to him.”
Her eyes softened, almost seeming to take pity on me.
“Do you know something?” I asked desperately.
She nodded. “Are you hungry?” she asked suddenly. “I could eat something.”
I guessed I could eat something, though I did prefer to just find out what she knew. She took my hand and dragged me behind her as we rushed through a side door and then several more passages. I smiled when we emerged into a grand kitchen with all the latest appliances. It could have been one of my favorite rooms in the place since this was where her mother cooked all the delicious meals I got to eat.
Eliza pulled up a stool on the middle island in the room and patted it for me to sit. “Mother made bread and butter pudding, a recipe handed down to her from our family. It’s fucking good. I just need to warm it up for us.”
While she busied herself around the kitchen, I hopped up on the seat, admiring for what must have been the millionth time how enormous the kitchen was. At the gas ovens, the stainless steel fridges, the wall of sharp knives hanging off the wall, the boxes of what looked like lettuce that sat in the corner of the room.
“So, are you going to tell me what you know about Hendrix, or is this your excuse to eat more dessert?” I asked teasingly. Every time I bumped into Eliza, we always ended up eating, and I was starting to think that she sometimes used me as her excuse to eat what her mother forbade her. Not that the girl was curvy. Quite the opposite, but I’d say everyone at the mansion remained loyal to the three brothers to a fault and wouldn’t indulge in their supplies.
"Give me a sec,” she said, and it wasn’t long before she sat alongside me on a stool and placed a warmed-up plate of bread pudding in front of us with two forks. “Dig in while it’s warm. It’s delicious.”
The smell alone, sugar and cinnamon, had me salivating, so I took a bite and moaned. If there was such a thing as comfort food to make you forget every worry in the world, it was this. “Oh my goddess, this is amazing,” I said and took another bite.
“Told you. And I needed an excuse to get you away from the main foyer where anyone could hear us talking.”
I peered over at her smirk, now understanding. Being heard gossiping about Hendrix, the lord of his mansion, would not be in her favor. “So tell me, what do you know?”
“Well, for the past few months since you’ve been gone, things have been a bit strange in the mansion with the three master alphas.”
“Strange like how?”