Female Novel
Chapter 35
The Hyenas Gather
Exhausted, she only woke when Baron leaned over and kissed her cheek. She was on her stomach in atangle of sheets, as their last round of sex had left her. He was showered and had dressed, the freshscent of his cologne still heavy on his skin after recent application. His cheeks were smooth, and his hairslicked back as he preferred it.
“I have to go into the office,” he told her, stroking his hand down her spine. “Sleep, Jane. It is still early,and we have a function tonight.”
She could not fall asleep again and so she rose and had a shower before stripping the over-usedbedding off the bed and stuffing it into the hamper. She dressed in running gear, and cautiously made herway through the house hoping to avoid Angelique. As she reached the front door, movement on thelanding caught her attention, and she looked up meeting Angelique’s eyes, before she dropped her gazeand hurriedly escaped into the morning.
She ran to the café and knocked on the kitchen door.
“Good morning,” James opened it. “We were beginning to worry,” he added as she stepped inside. “Ithas been a few days.” His eyes searched her for bruises. She had deliberately worn a long sleeverunning top to hide the now yellowing bruise left by Baron’s teeth on her shoulder and so knew there wasnothing for him to see.
She smiled brightly. “I just couldn’t get away, I am sorry. They would stop me if they knew, so sometimesit’s just harder than others.”
“They?” Patrick was in the kitchen unpacking boxes onto the shelves.
“It’s complicated,” she rolled up her sleeves.
“Baron is... Well, that is complicated too, but not in the way you think. I don’t think he will hurt me. Not onpurpose. But my family… and Angelique… Well, they would be furious. Baron would be too,” she addedunder her breath. “But I don’t think he would hurt me.”
“Honey,” James exchanged a look with Patrick. “I don’t even know where to start with that.”
“I just need to… If I can just, somehow, disappear,” she dropped her voice to a whisper. “I often fantasizeabout becoming invisible, just… dissolving away, vanishing out of sight, so that no one can find me. I justneed to be invisible and then…” And then what? She asked herself. She did not know.
As she washed the endless stream of dishes, she thought through the last three days with Baron. Alicewas to blame for the unhappy start to their marriage, she thought angrily. Baron had been cold and cruel,and deliberately trying to wound her, because of what Alice had said, and perhaps that made adifference, but she no longer believed that her mother had been right, and marrying her true mate, herOne, her Only, would lead to happiness.
Life was just not that simple.
Even if her marriage to Baron changed, there was still Angelique in the house until his mission forrevenge was fulfilled, there was still her pack and the other packs in the city to contend with, and shewould still be the runt, the weak, snivelling, pathetic omega of the pack. She would still humiliate andembarrass Baron at social functions because she would still be the subject of the pack’s vindictiveness.At some point, their opinions on her would penetrate, and Baron would look at her with distaste andwonder what he had been thinking in taking her as a mate and wife.
He would curse the fate that had brought him her as his true mate and come to resent Jane as her fatherhad come to resent her mother.
She needed to escape that future, she thought, or, like her mother, she would surrender to their hatred.
As she ran back along the road, a car swerved and deliberately drove through a puddle dousing her in itsspray. She stood for a moment in shock as the cold, filthy water covered her head to toe, and thengrimaced and continued towards the house. She was not surprised to see the same yellow sports carparked out front of the house. As she ran across the lawn, other cars began to pull up.
She groaned. Angelique had called in her friends. They were gathering out front of the house, beinggreeted by Angelique, exchanging air kisses, their laughter and exclamations loud. One of them spottedher cross the lawn, and all turned in unison to stare at her, wearing identical expressions of hostility.
What had Angelique told them? She wondered. Not the truth, of that, Jane was sure. Not withoutbetraying the secrets Baron was paying the she-wolf to hide. How would Angelique explain her demotionfrom mistress and future wife to employee? Had she even said that much, or was Jane still theunwanted, unloved wife of Baron Western and Angelique the long-suffering mistress?
Jane approached the kitchen entrance and found the staff busily prepping for Angelique’s guests,arranging petit fours and canapes on high tea plates, mixing cocktails, and filling champagne bucketswith ice.
“Madam,” Heathridge met her eyes across the frantic activity. “Best to be to your room quickly now. Thehyenas are gathering, and it will not be pretty.”
The kitchen staff sniggered, and for once, it was not Jane being laughed at, but included in the joke, apart of the pack, rather than the subject of its vitriol. Here, it was Angelique who was reviled and hated,not Jane.
This is what it felt like, she thought, to be included rather than an outcast.
Baron’s office was closed when she snuck past it on her way to the back stairs. She wondered if he werein it, or whether he had gone to the glossy tower in the city. It was impossible to know. She crept up theservant’s stairs and along to her room. There was no one in it. She closed her door and pushed a couple
of the armchairs against it to discourage attempts of entry, before showering quickly and dressing incasual clothes.
She sat on the couch with her laptop and studied, managing to regain lost ground. She did the practicetest and had begun the final assignment when the door handle turned, and the furniture lurched.novelbin
Baron’s muttered curse had her set aside her laptop and hurry to move the furniture aside for him.
“Thank f-k,” he said entering and closing the door behind him. “When your door did not open, / thought Iwas done for.”
He crossed the room to look out the window. “They are everywhere,” he muttered and then turned toJane. “Well, I guess we are prisoners, Jane,” he observed. “What is it that you are doing, anyway?”
“Nothing,” she said guiltily as she saved and closed her file. “Nothing important,” she lied.
He threw himself onto the couch beside her, his big body sprawling and taking up most of the space.“You were working very hard at it when I arrived,” he pointed out. “So, I am intrigued. I am curious as tohow you spend your day when I am not filling it.”
Her heart was racing. “I was online shopping,” she lied.
“Or online selling?” His body remained relaxed, but his eyes were sharp. “A notification popped up theother day when I borrowed your computer,” he said. “You sold a pair of shoes. Which made me wonderwhy you were selling them in the first place?”
She swallowed, hard.