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)
Bennet answered after only a few moments – his recently shiny-black hair now a dull gray, since she’d undone her spell. His gaze darted from Ripper to Emberlyn, a frantic glint flickering to life in its depths.
He swallowed hard, inching back a little. ‘I . . .’ And that was all that came out.
Ripper watched him, his stare unblinking and flinty; menace cloaking his large frame. ‘I have a question for you,’ he said, his voice low, danger looped through each word.
Bennet jammed his hands in his pockets. ‘If it’s about the Rabid, it ran off before—’
‘The Watchers filled me in on the details,’ Ripper told him. ‘I just need to know why you thought you could get away with what you did to Emberlyn.’ A query laced with ire.
Bennet, well, it turned out that he was dumb enough to raise his chin defensively. ‘I wasn’t one of the people who circled her,’ he proclaimed, as if that meant no anger should be directed his way.
Unbelievable.
Ripper moved fast. So fast he was almost a blur. He fisted Bennet’s long-sleeved tee, yanked him outside and then slammed him against the wall beside the front door.
Bennet expelled a pained cry, his eyes wide with shock. He flinched as Ripper went nose to nose with him.
‘You yelled at her.’ Ripper’s words were low. Ultra-soft. Coated in rage. ‘You insulted her. Laid unfounded accusations at her door. Insisted that the Watchers should detain her. And you did nothing when the others came at her.’
Bennet shrank in on himself, his face ashen, breathing so fast he was close to hyperventilating.
Snarling, Ripper sliced out his claws and held the tips against Bennet’s chest. ‘Tell me how that makes you innocent.’
‘It-it doesn’t,’ Bennet stammered.
‘You have a woman of your own. What would you do to a man who put her through that shit?’
Bennet squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face away. ‘I-I don’t know.’
‘Probably nothing,’ Emberlyn hedged. ‘He’s only brave when he has backup, Rip. I’m pretty sure the only reason he held onto his daughter earlier was because he figured I wouldn’t hurt him.’
Bennet’s eyes popped open and landed on her. ‘That’s not tr—’ He made a choking sound as her wolf snapped a hand tight around his throat.
Ripper’s upper lip quivered. ‘I didn’t say you could talk to her, did I?’
His face going redder and redder, Bennet flapped his hands near the large palm still squeezing his neck.
‘You might want to let him breathe, Rip,’ she said.
‘Why?’ A careless question.
She pursed her lips. ‘I actually can’t think of a reason.’
‘You didn’t answer my question before,’ Ripper said to him. ‘What made you think you could get away with it?’ He loosened his hold on Bennet’s throat.
The witch coughed and heaved in mounds of air. ‘I-I wasn’t thinking anything,’ he eventually replied. ‘Not really. M-my emotions were running high – my daughter had been attacked, my whole family was a wreck over it and all I could think was that she could be dead. At the time, it just felt like only Emberlyn could be the culprit.’
Ripper squinted. ‘At the time? Not now?’
Bennet hesitated, dropping his gaze. ‘Having had a chance to reflect on things, no, I don’t now believe she was involved,’ he begrudgingly admitted. ‘Reena was right in all she said. Besides, Emberlyn has an alibi. You. It couldn’t possibly have been her.’ He slid his gaze briefly to her. ‘I apologize for my behavior earlier,’ he said, stiff. ‘I . . . I was not myself.’
‘No, I think you were,’ said Ripper. ‘I think you felt bold enough to be that person to the fullest extent because the woman you’d targeted was all alone.’
Bennet shook his head. ‘It wasn’t like that.’
Emberlyn personally didn’t agree. ‘Who was the first to suggest that I must have sent the Rabid?’
‘It was . . .’ He trailed off, his expression turning shifty. ‘I don’t recall.’
A growl rumbled out of Ripper.
‘Actually, come to think of it’ – Bennet cleared his throat – ‘it was Hank.’
That fit. He’d pushed to the front of the crowd earlier, hadn’t he?
‘Reena disagreed, and we all conceded that she’d made valid points,’ Bennet told Ripper. ‘But after she left, Hank insisted it could only be Emberlyn. The things he was saying made so much sense at the time. Looking back, I don’t understand.’ His brow furrowing, he gave his head a little shake. ‘It was like . . . like someone used magick to manipulate me – maybe even all of us.’ His eyes went wide at the idea. ‘That must have been what happened.’
Hmm, it was possible that a spell had been cast that put the angry crowd into a suggestible frame of mind so that ‘seeds’ could be planted. But it wouldn’t have forced them to blame Emberlyn for the crime, or forced them to circle and attack her.