The Wolf's Pursuit (23 page)

"Ready?" Rosalind burst into the room,
Isabelle following close behind.

They'd insisted on more than just a private
ceremony, but still only invited around fifty close friends.

"As I'll ever be." Gwen turned to them and
smiled, hoping that she looked convincing and not like she was
about to burst into tears at any second.

"You look beautiful." Isabelle grasped her
hands and sighed. "I am so glad you decided to wear a bit of red.
It looks like you."

Gwen laughed. "It will shock him, that much
is certain." She glanced at her reflection again. The dress was
ivory, with silver embellishments around the capped sleeves
trailing all the way down her back. The silver-encrusted design
also twirled about her sleeves and ended right below her breasts,
creating a beautiful design of flowers. It was beautiful, gorgeous
actually, but it had needed something. So she'd put a red ribbon in
her hair.

The ribbon would match her red cape as well
as her red roses. Hunter would probably have a heart attack when he
saw her, thinking she was getting married in red, but she felt more
like herself, more comfortable this way.

In a way, it was a sign for him. She needed
him to see that he was not only marrying the woman the ton saw as
Lady Gwendolyn, but also the spy Red. She was both people, just as
he was both Hunter and Wolf.

"Beautiful." Rosalind sighed behind her.
"Now, you've kept him waiting long enough. In an hour, you will be
a married woman!"

Gwen swallowed the emotion in her throat and
followed her sisters out the door and down the stairs.

The wedding was being held at a small chapel
on the back of Dominique and Isabelle's estate in town. With a deep
breath, she walked toward her future.

****

"What the devil is taking her so long?"
Hunter paced in front of Montmouth and Dominique.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say the
great Wolf was a bit nervous." Dominique chuckled and elbowed
Montmouth, who still looked like he was just waiting for the
opportune moment to shoot Hunter in the face.

"Oh, do stop glaring," Hunter mumbled to
Montmouth.

"I am not glaring, I am merely…" He cursed
and joined Hunter in his pacing. "She is my responsibility. I just
need to know I am doing the right thing."

"Too late to go back now." Dominique looked
at Montmouth and then Hunter. "By the by, when did I turn into the
optimistic one of the group?"

This received a much needed chuckle from both
Montmouth and Hunter.

Rosalind poked her head into the room
adjacent to the main chapel and announced, "It is time!"

Hunter suddenly felt ill.

"Not the best time to lose your nerve."
Dominique grinned. "Now, go, it seems you have a bride waiting to
marry you."

Montmouth and Dominique led the way out of
the room. Hunter followed and then took his place at the head of
the aisle, next to the vicar.

He should be excited, but memories of his
first wedding overwhelmed his brain, making it impossible to focus
on anything.

Lucy had worn blue.

Her eyes had shone with tears. Her
grandfather had refused to walk her down the aisle on the principal
that she was marrying a rogue.

Eastbrook had done the honors.

It had been the happiest day of his life.

How could he have known that their first
anniversary would result in her death? That the light that danced
in her eyes would be dead in another three hundred and sixty-five
days?

His hands shook, and he folded them behind
him. The last thing Hunter wanted was for Gwen to think he was
regretting the decision to marry her. If anything, it wasn't
regret; no, it was more like fear. No, absolute terror. God had
given him another woman, another responsibility, and he would
rather die than for her to suffer the same fate as Lucy.

The doors opened.

Gwen emerged.

In a red cape.

He burst out laughing, causing quite a few
loud whispers to rise within the small chapel.

With a wink, she took off the cape, revealing
a beautiful ivory dress fit for a princess. He did not deserve the
way she looked, nor the twinkle in her eyes when she pointed to the
ribbon in her hair and grabbed the red roses from the basket
Montmouth held out to her.

The music began, she took a step on
Montmouth's arm, and then the doors opened again.

His eyes had to be deceiving him, for the man
who came into the chapel was Lainhart.

And his butler was with him, looking as
shaggy as ever. Did the man ever shave? Or bathe for that matter?
The butler pushed Lainhart's wheeled chair in front of Montmouth
and then spoke in hushed tones.

Montmouth jerked his head back and then asked
Gwen a question. She nodded her head yes and kissed Montmouth on
the cheek, and then she took Lainhart's knobby hand within hers and
turned toward Hunter.

The music started again.

But this time, it was Lainhart who proudly
held his head as high as he could as he gripped Gwen's hand. The
butler pushed the wheeled chair forward. People continued to
whisper. Hunter looked to Gwen for confirmation that everything was
all right, that she was indeed happy to have Lainhart escort her, a
man she knew Hunter did not do well with.

Her smile was bright, her eyes glistened with
tears, and then she nodded her head to Lainhart who, with his free
hand, pointed at the blackboard in his lap and showed it to the
audience as they continued down the aisle.

"My new granddaughter" is what it said.

And Hunter found that the emotions he'd been
trying so desperately to keep inside, the ones that had been
threatening to overtake him for years, burst free.

And he was again a man broken.

Only this time, his undoing was not
death.

But life.

Wolf—

You may be waiting a very, very long time.
Perhaps it would be wise to lower your expectations. I know I
did.

—
Red

Gwen gripped Hunter's hand. It was sweaty and
shaking, and then she saw it. If she had been looking the other way
she would have never known, but a stray tear made its way down his
chiseled face and dropped onto the floor.

And then he turned his golden eyes to her.
Their gazes locked and all she cared about was kissing away his
pain, of being his partner in more than one way, of being his
savior. His everything.

The vicar announced them husband and wife.
People clapped, but she could barely hear anything going on around
her. All she was focused on was Hunter's eyes. He leaned in and
touched his lips lightly to hers and then placed both hands on
either side of her face, pulling her in for a longer kiss. It was a
branding, a burning kiss, and one that showed possession.

When he pulled back, she leaned forward. He
shook his head in amusement and offered his arm.

They walked to the carriage amidst cheers
from the crowds. Hunter helped her in. When the carriage pulled
away, she sighed.

"So, where are we going?" She hadn't given it
much thought earlier, but the last thing she wanted to do was spend
her wedding night at Dominique and Isabelle's house! Imagine!
Everyone would know, and it would be… uncomfortable. They'd already
decided to forgo the wedding breakfast.

"Well…" Hunter grinned wolfishly. "Over the
river and through the woods, of course."

"There is no forest, Hunter."

"Says whom?"

"I say. This is London, after all."

"Ah." Hunter tapped the side of her head with
his finger. "But where is your imagination, sweetheart?"

She lifted an eyebrow at him as the carriage
pulled to a stop. They were at the same house Hunter had brought
her to, not but a week ago, when he had tortured her. Lovely. "Last
time we were here, you assaulted me," she pointed out.

"True." He grinned.

"Do you plan to whip me this time?"

His half-lidded eyes smoldered. "Do you want
me to?"

"Only if I can hit back," she countered.

"But of course." He chuckled. "After
you."

Gwen approached the house with dread. Was
this his idea of romance? Take her to an abandoned house he hadn't
lived in for over nine years? He did not even have a full
staff!

Hunter wrapped his arm around her as he
pushed the door open and led her in.

How the man had managed to bring a forest
into his own home was quite beyond her. Everywhere she looked were
different types of trees in pots, and hanging from each one of the
trees were candles in glass jars.

"A forest." She breathed. "You actually have
a forest."

"Don't forget the river." He pointed to a
small water fountain that indeed resembled a river as it trickled
beside one of the trees.

"Why?" She quickly turned to Hunter, hands on
hips. "Why did you do this?"

He swallowed and looked down. "When I asked
Gwen and Rosalind what to buy for your wedding gift, they said you
already had all a girl could ask for."

Gwen nodded slowly. "I still do not
understand."

Hunter cleared his throat and continued to
stare at the floor. "I got to thinking, what do you buy for a woman
who has everything? And then I overheard Dominique and Isabelle
talking yesterday afternoon about your love for fairy tales."

Gwen froze. What the devil had they been
talking about her for?

"A specific fairy tale was brought up…"
Hunter chuckled and raised his eyes to meet hers. "Though the end
of that tale is quite alarming. I must say I finally understand how
you chose your nickname."

"Red," Gwen mumbled, and tried to hide her
smile. "I thought it fit."

"It sure attracted the Wolf." Hunter reached
for her hand.

"I assure you that was not my intention."

Hunter laughed. "Clearly. Yet at any rate,
you caught one, and considering the Wolf is always painted as the
villain, I took it upon myself to clear up the story a bit, do a
little rewriting, if you will."

"So the Wolf does not attack the grandmother
and Red in the end?"

Hunter drew her into his arms and whispered
in her ear, "I cannot promise not to attack you. What I can promise
you is romance. Now, follow me through the forest."

Gwen's heart beat out of her chest. "How do I
know that the Wolf is not leading me down a path of
destruction?"

"Oh, you can be sure he is, but it will be
such a lovely destruction, I doubt you will care."

"Oh?" Gwen bit her lip.

"Yes. I aim to make you forget reality for a
while, Red."

"And how do you plan to do that?" She placed
her hand in his as he began leading her through the small forest in
his entryway and farther into the house.

"By becoming your dreams."

****

Hunter cringed when the words left his mouth.
Becoming her dreams? Had he lost his mind? Since when had he
started spouting such romantic nonsense? Perhaps it was just his
heightened emotions.

He felt completely drained. And irrevocably
in love. Which was odd. He hadn't planned for that to happen on his
wedding day, of all days. Nor had he thought it would be so swift
in taking him out. Wasn't love supposed to develop? Or was it truly
different each time?

The way he loved Lucy did not feel this way.
His heart had belonged to her, his soul had been hers, but now, as
he looked into Gwen's icy blue eyes, he felt lost, as if someone
had pushed him from a cliff, and he was still deciding on where his
body was to land.

Everything about how he felt about her was
raw, needy, and totally ridiculous! But there it was. His heart
beat erratically when she smiled at him, and when his grandfather
had claimed her, he had been so proud that she was marrying him
that he wasn't sure if he wanted to smile or break down.

"Where are you taking me?" Gwen giggled
behind him as he led her through the trees. It had taken over
thirty able-bodied men at least six hours to create the forest in
his house. Luckily for him, his house was nearly empty and quite
dirty already, all things considered.

"You'll see." He continued to lead her to the
back of the house, where the ballroom was located. "Just in
here."

She walked in behind him and gasped.

He had to admit to being quite proud at his
idea. Hunter had never tried to be romantic before and he was so
nervous that she would not like what he'd done that he found
himself trembling as Gwen took in the sight.

Candles lit the entire room, basking it in a
heavenly glow. In the middle of the ballroom sat a small table with
a meal. But his genius did not stop there. He had strategically
placed trees around the room in a maze. They had to find their way
through the maze in order to get to their meal. Another maze led
them to the grand fireplace, where he had fur blankets and dessert
waiting.

"Well," Hunter stuttered. "What do you
think?"

"I think…" Gwen grinned and let out a small
laugh. "I think I underestimated you."

"Music to my ears."

"Of course it is." She rolled her eyes. "How
do we make it to the food?"

"The trail, you must stay on the trail."
Hunter pointed to the beginning of the maze. "And you must listen
to my voice as I guide you."

"Listen? Whatever do you mean?"

Hunter pulled out a blindfold and tied it
around her head. "The last time you were here, I blindfolded you. I
was a cad, an absolute terror, truly you should have shot me the
second you found out, so I aim to earn back a little of that
trust."

"By blindfolding me again?"

"Yes." Hunter chuckled. "Trust me to get you
to where you need to go — trust me to guide you."

"You are asking me to trust a wolf?"

"I told you I was rewriting the story,
remember?"