Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
‘She said the same to me about Emberlyn,’ Mari piped up. ‘And although she didn’t tell me I’d get the house, she hinted at it. Said stuff like how I’d make a good lady of the manor one day. What about you, Emberlyn?’
‘I never asked; she never said,’ Emberlyn replied. ‘I figured she’d leave everything to your mom and Dez.’
‘She should have,’ Gill insisted. ‘It’s our birthright. She might not have made you false promises, but she’ll have taken magickal measures to make sure that you don’t get inside the manor. By leaving the earrings in there, she ensured you’d never get them.’
‘No, she ensured I’d have to try to get them,’ Emberlyn said. ‘And I am going to try.’
Gill hissed and then turned to her High Priestess. ‘But Reena, she—’
‘Enough, Gill,’ ordered Reena. ‘May I remind you that though I was asked to read the will aloud, I am not the executor – Millicent’s lawyer is. You are complaining to the wrong person. If you are set on preventing Emberlyn from trying to enter the manor, you must take it up with him. But I think you know it will amount to nothing.
‘Your mother did not state that Emberlyn could not partake in this – in fact, Millicent all but dared her to try to gain entrance to the manor. He will not favor your wishes over that of his client.’ Reena rose to her feet. ‘Let’s get this done. Ripper, I am sorry that you were dragged into Millicent’s games. She was cruel to have done that. The land—’
‘Is mine,’ he finished, his tone non-negotiable. Standing upright, he pinned her with a serious look. ‘I’m not giving it up.’
Reena pressed her lips tight together. ‘You’re not thinking clearly. I have already signed a contract with Carver,’ she said, referring to another werewolf Alpha. ‘I paid him a small deposit, not the amount in full, but he practically spent the rest of it in his mind. He won’t like hearing that the money will not be his.’
No, he wouldn’t. Because Carver was a gambling addict with far too many debts.
‘Not my issue,’ said Ripper with a lazy, uncaring shrug. ‘You shouldn’t have gone ahead with plans that you had no guarantee you could follow through on.’
Reena’s cheeks went red. ‘None of us could have foreseen what Millicent would do.’
‘Maybe you should have. It isn’t exactly strange, given her character, that she’d take this one last opportunity to stir some shit.’
He had a point there.
‘We will be contesting the will,’ Dez told him. ‘The land won’t be yours.’
‘Seems to me that it already is.’ Ripper gave Emberlyn one last – and again unreadable – look before prowling out of the room.
Reena cursed beneath her breath and marched out, Ward trailing after her. Emberlyn’s relatives fell into step behind them.
Taking up the rear with the twins, Emberlyn said to them, ‘I was not expecting Millicent to leave the land to Ripper. And yet, it doesn’t surprise me that she did.’
‘She also left him you,’ Kage reminded her.
‘As a joke. When Michael first hinted at claiming me, she tried talking me out of it; said I’d be a fool to let a man own me. I told her that no man ever would, mate or not.’
‘So she “gave” you to a guy, thinking it’d rile you up,’ said Paisley.
‘Exactly.’
Outside the house, everyone hopped into their respective cars and drove through the neighborhood, past its outskirts and up the hill on which Black Willow Manor stood.
Emberlyn smiled as it came into sight. The tall building was magnificent. Regal. Timeless. Elegant.
Painted in both red and black, the house had a wraparound timber porch, elaborately carved doors, stained-glass bay windows, a steep gabled roof, beautiful decorative trim and grand towers and turrets.
To its left was a huge-ass black willow tree – hence the manor’s name. Beyond the tree was a spacious plot of land that bled into the thick forest . . . but not a plot big enough to build new homes on. On its right, however, was a huge stretch of sparsely forested land. Land that now belonged to Ripper.
Pulling up outside the house, Emberlyn felt her smile kick up. Growing up there had been no easy ride, but it had been the only place that had felt like a true home.
As she slid out of the car, her gaze flicked to one of the other parked vehicles – a truck against which Ripper and a member of his clan leaned. Apparently they’d decided to see who the manor would choose.
Ripper’s eyes clashed with hers again, but she turned away, her focus now on entering the house in front of her.
Like the other witches, she stopped several feet from the front yard’s gate. From there, she could feel the buzz of the manor’s defensive magick in the air. If it read anyone as a physical threat to its owner, it wouldn’t allow them to get to the front door. As it currently had no owner, they were all vulnerable to an attack.