The Wrath of Wolves Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  THE WRATH OF WOLVES

  CHAPTER 1 - PRESTON

  CHAPTER 2 - BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 3 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 4 - BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 5 - PRESTON

  CHAPTER 6 - BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 7 - PRESTON

  CHAPTER 8 - BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 9 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 10 – BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 11 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 12 – BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 13 - PRESTON

  CHAPTER 14 – BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 15 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 16 – BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 17 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 18 – BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 19 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 20 – BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 21 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 22 – BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 23 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 24 – BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 25 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 26 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 27 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 28 – BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 29 – PRESTON

  CHAPTER 30 – BENJAMIN

  CHAPTER 31 – PRESTON

  EPILOGUE – JAMES

  FROM THE AUTHORS

  ALSO IN THE DARK IS THE NIGHT SERIES

  A LIGHT AMONGST SHADOWS

  A HYMN IN THE SILENCE

  A CALM BEFORE THE STORM

  A SHIMMER IN THE NIGHT

  ALSO BY KELLEY YORK AND ROWAN ALTWOOD

  OTHER BREAKABLE THINGS

  ALSO BY KELLEY YORK

  HUSHED

  HOLLOWED

  SUICIDE WATCH

  MADE OF STARS

  DIRTY LONDON

  MODERN MONSTERS

  AND BY KELLEY YORK WRITING AS AINSLEY GRAY

  UNCHAINED

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 by Kelley York and Rowan Altwood. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the authors.

  www.kelley-york.com

  Editing by Natalie Andrews

  Cover design by Sleepy Fox Studio

  Interior Design by Sleepy Fox Studio

  First Edition January 2020

  THE WRATH OF WOLVES

  THE WRATH OF WOLVES

  Kelley York & Rowan Altwood

  “And as the world comes to an end

  I’ll be here to hold your hand

  ‘Cause you’re my king and I’m your lion-heart”

  –Of monsters and men

  CHAPTER 1 - PRESTON

  “What if a dinosaur eats you?” Alice asks.

  Well, isn’t that an odd question. “Why in the world would a dinosaur eat me?”

  She scrunches her nose and tugs at the sleeves of her nightgown, attempting to figure out how to articulate what she’s thinking with the limited vocabulary of a nine-year-old. “‘Cause it’s America and Clara says America is dangerous and full of wild animals.”

  “Clara’s a brat and likes to stir up trouble,” I drawl, casting a passing look to Clara in the bed across the room. In response, Clara gives an indignant sniff, not looking up from her needlework. I continue, “America isn’t any more dangerous than any other place I could be going. Besides, there aren’t dinosaurs anymore. Remember the statues in Crystal Park? That’s as close to dinosaurs as we’ve got.”

  “Did you know they eat cats and dogs in America?” Margaret pipes up from beside Alice. Damn it, I thought she’d already gone to sleep.

  “They do not. Alice, don’t listen to her; she’s telling fibs again.”

  “It’s true,” Margaret insists. “You shouldn’t go or they’ll make you eat them too!”

  I sigh. This is an argument I could be having all night. Sometimes there’s simply no winning against so many headstrong younger sisters. “You three should be asleep, like the others.”

  Margaret pulls a face. “They only went to bed early so they could wake up before you. They’re going to try to trap you in your room, you know.”

  “Margaret! You’re not supposed to tell him!” Alice complains.

  “Why not? It’s not like it’s going to work. He’ll just break down the door like the boorish oaf he is.”

  “I’m going to show you boorish.”

  “Quiet, all of you,” comes a voice from the doorway.

  My shoulders relax a little as Emma, the eldest of my little sisters, steps into the room. She, too, has given me a bit of a headache over this whole trip, but she has maintained decorum better than the others. “Preston, you’re the one who ought to be in bed with such a busy day tomorrow.”

  I smile and get to my feet. “You’re right. I suppose I just wanted a little more time with these brats.”

  “You’ll have plenty of time when you come back,” she says, levelling a look at me. “Because you are coming back, of course.”

  “Of course. I promised, didn’t I?” I duck my head into a nod. Not that I promised when I’d be back or that I’d stay when I did, but…

  Emma opens her mouth to say something further but is interrupted by a knock upon the front door. All of us pause, looking first to the direction of the sound and then to each other, perplexed that we’d have a visitor this time of night. Mum and Dad have long since gone to sleep, rising as early as they do. Despite the chaos of trying to wrangle my sisters into their appropriate beds, normally the rest of us would have already settled for the night as well.

  “I’ve got it.” I duck down and plant a kiss atop Alice’s head and then Margaret’s, before strolling past Emma. “Get them to sleep, would you? They’ll be complete bears in the morning at this rate.”

  There are a few people I could have expected at this hour. A neighbour with some sort of urgent matter being the most likely scenario. Our little farm out in the countryside is hardly the sort to attract a random passer-by.

  Who I do not expect to see when I open the door is Benjamin.

  He’s got a trunk on the ground beside him. His cheeks are flushed, his clothes rumpled, and his hair is soaked from the rain. It occurs to me that the gate at the road is locked for the night, meaning whoever dropped him off couldn’t pull up close to the house. Benji not only had to haul that trunk over the gate but also dragged it down the driveway on his own.

  And as the slew of emotions crashes over me at seeing his face, the only stupid thing that comes out of my mouth is, “What in the hell did you do to your hair?”

  Benji’s hair has been on the long side ever since I’ve known him. It got him a fair bit of unwanted attention at Whisperwood that he’d let it get to his shoulders, long enough to tie back. But it had been soft and beautiful and, most importantly, he liked it, so seeing him now with it cropped significantly shorter, only the slightest bit of curl at the nape of his neck and ears, is startling.

  Benjamin’s cheeks pinken as he lifts a hand to his face, reaching for a phantom strand of hair that’s no longer there. “Is it horrible…?”

  It’s not. But it’s also not Benji and I can’t help but reflect on just how much I loved his hair, how much I loved reaching out to brush it back from his beautiful face. “It’s…different?”

  His hand drops back to his side, a small, embarrassed smile pulling at his mouth. “Father insisted it looked ungentlemanly and had me cut it.”

  “Everything that comes out of your father’s mouth is shit,” I blurt, wincing
inwardly. Maybe it’s being on my own grounds that makes me more brazen about speaking my mind on Franklin Hale, or perhaps I’m just so caught off-guard that Benji is here.

  My remark makes Benji’s smile widen a notch. “So I’ve noticed. May I come in? It’s a bit cold.”

  Oh—hell, it is, and it’s raining, and I’m just standing here like a fool, gawking at him. I bend to pick up that trunk and usher him inside. Benjamin sighs in relief as he slips out of his overcoat and turns to hang it up.

  “I’m sorry for showing up unannounced. I know you’re preparing to leave.”

  I close the door behind him. “It’s all right. Is everything—”

  A delighted squeal cuts me off. “It’s Benji!” Alice comes barrelling down the hall from her room, launching herself at Benjamin with outstretched arms.

  Benji laughs, dropping to a crouch just in time to catch her up into a hug. “Goodness! It’s so late. I was sure you’d all be abed by now.”

  Alice clasps her tiny hands behind Benji’s neck, hanging off him when he straightens up, and she gazes at him as though he hung the moon and stars themselves. “We were warning Preston about America. Are you here to comfort me?”

  Benjamin strokes a hand over her hair. “Having him go so far away must be very frightening for you all,” he murmurs, already taking her off to her room.

  “Dinosaurs are gonna eat him!” Alice insists, sniffing as she shoves her face against his shoulder.

  I roll my eyes, carting the trunk down the hall into my room and depositing it near the foot of my bed, right next to the other trunk of Benjamin’s that I’m currently in possession of, in fact. The last time I saw him, after his mother had passed, he asked me to keep some of her belongings safe from his father, and I’d done so without a second thought.

  I move to the door to listen to the girls in the neighbouring room. Well, Alice, Margaret, and Clara, anyway. Emma and Louise share the room directly across from mine, though often the girls will switch it up. Half the time Alice and Louise end up in my room, damned near crowding me out of my own bed.

  I can only just hear the soft voice of Benjamin talking to my sisters and although I pick out a few words, he’s speaking gently enough that it’s impossible to decipher. At one point, Alice gets out of bed, and I hear a dresser drawer opening and closing.

  A few moments later, Emma slips out of the room to return to her own, and Benjamin steps out after her, easing the door shut after calling one last good night to the girls. It figures they’d listen to him; every one of my siblings is utterly enamoured with Benjamin, thinking him lovely in every way a man can be. Gentle, smart, kind, nice to look at. Alice insists she’s going to marry him someday. The first time she’d announced that at the dinner table, I’d laughed until my sides hurt.

  When our eyes meet, I cut a small smile. “I’ve been trying to get them to bed for the last hour and a half.”

  Benjamin’s eyes crinkle when he smiles back at me. “You ought to be resting too, I should think.”

  “I’m getting there. Can I get you anything? Something to drink, something to eat?”

  “No need to fuss over me. I had snacks on the train.” He rolls his shoulders back, reaching for his hair again—he’s always messed with it when he’s nervous. “Are you all packed to leave?”

  I move out of the door to coax him in from the hall, not wanting our conversation to wake my parents (if Alice’s shrieking earlier didn’t already). “I am. I have to say, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

  Benjamin tugs at his tie as he surveys my room, as though he hasn’t been here many times before. He knows it almost as well as I do, likely. We’ve shared that bed many nights. He’s penned letters home to his mother seated on it with me napping beside him. When Benjamin is here, I’ve considered this our room—we’ve spent some of the happiest days of my life in this space.

  And now Benjamin is standing here again when I never thought he would be, because the last time we stood face to face, I had told myself I needed to let him go.

  He’d made his choices. He wanted to lead the life his mother laid out for him, and I… I had to respect that, no matter how horrible a choice I thought it was. No matter how badly I wanted to beg him not to.

  Benjamin takes a deep breath, shoulders slumping, and turns to face me. “I’ve quit my job.”

  I clearly did not hear that right. “Sorry?”

  “I’ve quit my job,” Benjamin repeats, ducking his head to stare at his feet. “I was hoping that…maybe there’d be room for one more on your trip.”

  I slowly lean back against the closed door, crossing my arms. “I feel like I’ve missed something.” Something important, at that.

  He wrings his hands together. “Yes. Um. Well, I’ve been thinking a lot. I had intended to follow Mother’s last wishes because…it’s what a good son ought to do, yes? But the more thought I gave it, the more I realised that Mother would have wanted me to simply do what made me happiest.”

  Despite myself, when Benji looks up at me, I feel my own expression beginning to soften and my heart catch in my throat. “And…happy means going to America?”

  Benjamin manages a small smile. “Oh, well, I don’t know. Perhaps I’ll hate travelling. But I wasn’t exactly happy where I was, and so… Why not, right? I ought to try something new. And if it’s at your side…then…all the better.”

  I want nothing more than to take Benjamin into my arms, and I refrain because I don’t know if I should. I’ve never known. There’s always been that nagging worry in the back of my head that being too forward with him will ruin everything, that one misstep might fracture this relationship we’ve always had. Especially now, I’m so unsure of where things stand that it’s almost paralysing.

  “If you hate it,” I say, “there’s no easy way back. We could be stuck there for weeks, maybe even months.” Months could be an exaggeration, but the boat trip alone across the Atlantic would set us back ten days in decent weather, and even I don’t know many details beyond that once we actually get there.

  I also think that Benjamin is far too cautious a person to not have thought about this already. Never have I known him to make a decision without mulling over every possible outcome—perhaps that’s another reason I’m shocked he’s here. And another reason why I had not previously pressed him nor asked him to accompany me. I have no illusions that this trip will be easy or something someone like Benjamin would enjoy.

  He nods, long lashes lowering demurely as he takes a step closer. “Then we’ll be stuck together, won’t we?”

  A blossom of warmth spreads through my chest. “I think I could live with that.”

  Benji smiles. “In that case, I presume we’re departing early, so we really ought to get some sleep.”

  Not that I’ll be able to sleep now, I think. This turn of events has energised me, and I want to grab him and dance about the room rather than go to bed. Instead of thinking of all the reasons Benji might come to sorely regret this decision, I’m thinking of all the good that could come of it.

  I get to travel, I get to see a new world, and I get to see it with Benji.

  He brushes a hand against my arm, such a simple, innocent gesture that he likely doesn’t realise it makes my chest flutter. He has no idea the effect he’s had on me ever since the day we met, when he’d been such a small, seemingly timid boy getting shoved into the dirt. I’d come to learn in the years since that although Benji is quiet, reserved, careful, non-confrontational, he is no coward.

  But...sleep. Right. I leave Benji to change while I duck into the other room to fetch a spare blanket at his request. When I return, he’s made himself at home in my bed. I had changed a while back before starting in on my siblings about going to sleep, so all I need do is blow out the lamp and slip beneath the blankets beside him.

  I settle down and roll onto my side to face him. “Mum and Dad will be ecstatic you’re going with me.”

  “Alice is pleased too,” Benji murmurs. “Though she
did sound perplexed why anyone would want to go along with ‘stinky old Preston.’”

  I whisper back, “It’s only natural that she’s angry. I’m taking away her fiancé.”

  Benji chuckles. “I shall have to try to find a nice gift for her while we’re overseas.”

  “Something to make her permanently shut that sassy mouth of hers, perhaps.”

  “Terribly rude to speak of my fiancé that way,” he teases with a smile. He scoots a bit closer. For warmth, I tell myself. That’s all. “Now, sleep. We have a big day tomorrow.”

  CHAPTER 2 - BENJAMIN

  Morning arrives with an invasion of Preston’s sisters crawling all over us and demanding we wake before the sun has even risen. But there is a promise of food involved if we get up, and it would be wise for us to arrive at the train station early and with full bellies. I slip out of bed, sleepy-eyed and sluggish. Lying there beside Preston is so very warm and pleasant that I’m tempted to stay where I am and get a few more minutes of sleep—except that Alice and Louise are presently hopping on Preston, undeterred by his grumbles.

  This is not unlike many a morning that I’ve spent in the Alexander household, though perhaps most of those did not come with quite an early wakeup call. This was a home away from home in many ways, a place where I felt appreciated, safe, loved. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander are kind people and although the girls can be a handful, I adore every one of them.

  Preston finally drags himself from bed and shoos the girls out long enough for us to wash up and dress. I wait for Preston’s back to be turned before I change out of my own shirt, not wanting him to lay eyes on the sizable bruising upon my arm.

  The decision to leave London had not been an easy one, but I had taken it as a sign when I came upon Mother’s favourite jewellery that had previously been lost to me. Something had quietly clicked in my head and I had known what I needed to do. I sold what I could, I resigned at the factory in which I worked, and I had hoped to clear out of my small flat before Father caught wind of what I was doing.