Defiance at Werewolf Keep (Werewolf Keep Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF

one they had told her.
    ‘I didna have to for verra long. She died…’
    ‘Will! Do not give her more than s he can handle!’ Fidelia snapped, more fiercely than Lily would have expected from the lady-like noblewoman.
    ‘How did she die?’ Lily wasn’t about to have such a crucial piece of the puzzle held back from her now . Surely, if she knew this, the rest would start to make sense.
    ‘She took her own life. The horror of her condition became too much for her. It does , for some. But it doesna have to be the case,’ Will rushed to assure her as he saw the shock she was feeling.
    Lily felt sorry for all those poor people who had been turned into werewolves; people who had been driven to end their own lives because of the horror of being turned into a werewolf; people just like her who had been victims ; people just like her who had become monsters.
    People just like her?
    * * *
    Will felt the moment when realization came. Lily's body went very stiff and still in his arms. It was as if she had stopped breathing, had stopped existing, for those long moments that it took the reality of her situation to sink in. Then she went limp in his arms, and he hastily sat down with the unconscious girl across his lap.
    When he made no move to reposition her on the seat, Fidelia tutted. 'Will, that is hardly appropriate. Anyone passing our compartment will think her a drunken doxy passed out in your arms.’
    'I donna give a dev’ l’s damn what someone passin’ will think. She isna waking up to this nightmare alone. I’ll hold her until she's strong enough to bear it.' Will's tone brooked no argument.
    'It i s so unfair that someone so innocent should be burdened with this,' Fidelia went on, giving in to Will’s decision with no further argument. 'She has suffered so much in her life. Now this. I do not see how she will be strong enough to withstand it.'
    ' She's a survivor. They didna think she'd live when she was born, and she did. She's battled all manner of ailment every day of her life. This is just one more. If anyone can be strong enough to survive this, she can,' Will snapped back, trying to convince himself as much as Fidelia.
    'I hope you are right. It is a miracle she survived the attack. Children and the very weak and infirmed usually do not,' Byron said, taking a sip of his now cold tea.
    Will knew that, in moments like this, Byron hated his job. He hated what he was forced to do, to protect his people. If he didn't have his beloved Phil awaiting him at the Keep, pregnant with their first child, Will thought he would have been beaten-down by it by now.
    One night in his cups, not long before Phil’s arrival and shortly after the death of Captain Davenport, their leader, Byron had confided that he found his job harder with each passing year. If Phil hadn’t come into his life, Will thought that Byron’s burden would have finally become unbearable. But the last year had changed their guardian, eased his lot so much that it was only in moments like this, when the victim was someone so wholly innocent and overburdened as Lily Farnsworth was, that he appeared overwhelmed by it.
    'I will help her through,' Will spoke softly to no one in particular as he stared down at the unconscious girl in his arms.
    She looked more child than a dult in that moment. His index finger traced the spattering of freckles across her sharp, upturned nose, then found its way to her wide, full lips and the pointed chin with its delightful little cleft in its centre.
    It was a fey face that denied her strength. But she was strong, he knew it. And what strength she lacked he would supply for her. He would get her through this. Not because he lusted after her, certainly not because he loved her, but because protecting her had become a personal need. A need he was more than happy to meet.
    * * *
    When Lily returned to consciousness, her first impression was one of safety. She felt enveloped by the warm comfort of a caring heart.
    Not since