The Syndicate’s Bride

Chapter 15

Owen

I spun Vanessa in my arms, enjoying her childlike giggles as she held me tightly.

It had been about three years since I last saw her having been in Europe for academic reasons and,

Lord, did I miss her.

Finally, I set her down on the fountain steps as she slowly released her clasped hands behind my neck and regarded me with a full grin that I easily returned.

I stooped low on one knee, bowing my head low to her in show of my loyalty and respect. It was something we started when we were little and I promised to train hard to become her personalguard.

And I worked towards it, working hard, day and night, enduring Mr. Logan’s brutal trainings and coming close to death a few times, until I got the title. From that day on, I vowed to protect her with my life.

And she let me.

“Long time no see, your Highness. Your Knight has returned.” I said in an accent to emphasis the dramatics, just like we always did.

She giggled and dipped low in a princess like bow as she repliedin a polished British accent. “Yes, long time no see my lord bodyguard.”

We looked at each other and burst out laughing again. Things were always wonderful with Vanessa. They were soft and easy, no doubt the best memories I had. She was and always would be irreplaceable to me.

Standing to my full height, she grabbed my hand and the warmth of hers made my heart skip a bit. “So, are you finally staying? Or do you have to go back to Europe soon?”

I smiled. “You practically own me, Princess. I’ll whatever you tell me to.”

Her grinned widened. “Then I order you to stay with me.”

“I’ll do as you wish.”

She went full on yapping after that, telling me about everything I missed when I was away up to the engagement.

My smile dimmed a bit at the mention of the arrangement. Mr. Logan wasn’t just strict, he was someone I could simply describe as a monster. So I understood why Vanessa went ahead with the engagement, because to say no to Mr. Logan was to defy him,

And he had gone as far as killing people for an act as simple as that.

I was there during some of Vanessa’s toughest times with her father. She endured a lot from the man from the emotional abuse to the physical aspects, to the extent that I began to fear for her life.

She was always soft and fragile by nature, easy to please and easy to break, but, at some point in her life, her father’s strong hand created a cold detached side to her.

I saw it in her relationship with people outside her father’s house. At some point, Vanessa because distrusting of people, even her friends, and she began to find it difficult to keep close relationships. Her father’s behaviour broke her without her permission.

So, it became my life’s mission to protect her.

I was only thirteen years old when Mr. Logan took me in, not as a son, but as another guard. He found me some years back, after a war broke out between my people and his, and having mercy on the broken orphan, took me under his roof and tKavand me vigorously. That was when I met ten year old Vanessa who wanted to be my friend at any means no matter how much I asked her to stay away from me because I was untrusting at the time.

But Vanessa being Vanessa, found a way into my life and healed my broken heart.

I had loved her in secret ever since.

As Vanessa endlessly yapped away, from the corner of my eyes, I finally noticed the shadow a few feet away from us. Turning, I locked eyes with the owner who was already looking at me with cold blue eyes as he leaned his large frame against the garden entrance. I immediately knew who he was.

I turned to Vanessa, politely interrupting her. “I have to introduce myself to your fiancé, Princess.”

She made an ‘oh’ sound with her mouth as if she had forgotten he was there for a second. I took it as my permission to go ahead so I turned back to Ryan and addressed him with a nod.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Winchester. I’m Owen, Vanessa’s personal bodyguard.”

He stared at me blankly, almost as if he was deciding whether he wanted to reply to my greeting or not, before he finally replied with a curt nod.

“What’s his problem?” I muttered, brows furrowed in confusion. Aside from his famous reputation, I knew nothing about the guy but I could right away that he wasn’t friendly, just like the rumours said.

But since he was engaged to Vanessa, I owed it to her to be at least tolerable of his behaviour, but the mere fact that he was engaged to the woman I spent years secretly loving already put us on bad terms.

Vanessa chuckled. “That’s just how he is. Cut him some slack,” she said and called out to him.

I looked between the both of them. Is it just me or am I sensing something sort of cordial relationship between them?

I couldn’t pretend, I was jealous.

“Sorry, Ryan, I completely forgot you were here,” she smiled apologetically and I blinked at her in shock. She smiles at him? “We’ll freshen up and come back for breakfast,” she smiled at both of us and disappeared into the house.

Ryan stared at me, a word of warning in his eyes before he looked away and disappeared after Vanessa.

I really didn’t like him.

The dining area was as pretty as the rest of the house designed in warm colours of brown and pink. Wordlessly, we moved to our seats as the servants began filling the table with our food.

Before taking the seat to Vanessa’s left, I reached for hers, instinctively pulling it out and gesturing at her to make herself comfortable. Wordlessly obeying, she smiled at me in gratitude before I pushed the chair in, close enough for her to reach for her food without any difficulty.

Next, I set out her cutlery and plates, arranging them to her liking before taking my seat and smiling at her thankful grin.

Suddenly feeling sharp piercing eyes drilling holes in the side of my head, I looked up, meeting Ryan’s narrowed eyes with my blank ones before looking away and busying myself with my food.

Ever since we regarded each other in the garden, I got a sense of his dislike for me and a feeling that he didn’t want me around,but since I was there for Vanessa and not him, I really didn’t care.

“Are you okay? Are you tired from driving all night?” Vanessa asked having noticed his sour mood.

His shoulders seemed to relax a bit at her question as he grunted out, “No, let’s eat.”

I focused on my food, eating away in silence and only bothering to talk when Vanessa excitedly engaged me in conversation. And for a split second, I forgot about Ryan’s presence, too lost in Vanessa’s, until he suddenly threw his paper napkin and fork on the table in irritation.

I mentally rolled my eyes. What now?

Vanessa stopped our conversation and snapped her head to him. “What’s wrong?”

He scowled and prepared to leave. “Nothing, I’ve eaten. You too go ahead. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen each other,” he snapped, almost sarcastically as he threw the knife in his hand to the table with so much force that it fell to the floor and nicked him.

Ryan slowly looked at the cut and by the time he looked up, long gone was the Ryan I met and in his place was a cold man I knew better than to annoy. I recoiled a bit, startled by the sudden change, as he stood to his feet and hurriedly left the dinning.

My eyes followed him, catching a glimpse of the injury that was beginning to bleed more than it was only a few seconds ago. For the size of the injury, it was seriously unusual.

Something’s not right.

“What the hell just happened?” Vanessa asked looking asconfused as I was sure she felt. I absentmindedly hummed in reply to her question, my mind solely focused on Ryan.

Something about the man just kept bothering me.

Without much thinking, I rose to feet, thanked a confused looking Vanessa for the meal, and exited after him.

I followed the trail of blood on the manor’s floors all the way to the underground garage. It was a wide space full of different cars but thanks to his large frame, Ryan was easily spotted.

He sat on the ground, leaning against one of the cars as he panted weakly. The small injury cause by his knife now looked ten times worse and was bleeding profusely.

I jerked back in shock at the sight. There was nothing usual about this. Even if the knife had hit on of his arteries, it would never amount to this loss of blood.

This wasn’t even human.

I came back with the sole intention of fulfilling my life’s purpose, that is, protecting Vanessa, at all cost, from everything and everyone, even herself.

I didn’t know who Ryan was and I certainly didn’t know what he was capable of. But if he turned out to be a treat to Vanessa

I wouldn’t hesitate to permanently eliminate him.

With my back to him, I left the garage. It was time to investigate Ryan Winchester.

Ryan

Those f*****g Rossi bastards.

My leg only got worse, bleeding profusely by the second. In my jealousy, I took my eyes off other important things and lowered my guard, forgetting to be mindful of little changes made by Rossi’s bastard spies like the silverware I was using.

And silver was one of the deadliest things to werewolves.

It didn’t matter how shallow a cut made by silver was, as long as it pierced through a werewolf’s skin, it instantly became a matter of life of death.

Moving my leg a bit closer to me, I winced at the amount of blood covering my skin and the discolouring bruise that was now surrounded by thick veins. I was running low on time. With my last strength, I opened my mental link, imagining my long haired beta until I found his connection.

“Ryan?” He called immediately alarmed. “Are you in trouble? Your link is weak.”

“I chuckled bitterly. “You could say that,” I winced at the sudden stab of pain. “Bring a doctor to the Manor. Make sure you follow the garage’s entrance. I don’t want Vanessa getting suspicious.”

His voice lowered an octave. “I’m on my way.”

A few minutes later, Kyle entered the garage with a familiar man in his signature white lab coat. Immediately noticing me, they ran to my direction, stooping low to my leg.

“What the f**k happened?” Kyle asked.

“Silver,” Doctor Brown answered before I could.

“How?” Kyle growled.

I chuckled bitterly. “You know the Rossis love me.”

Doctor Brown immediately got to work, first cleaning the blood and then placing his hand on the wound. A blue light followed immediately, glowing out of his hands willing the wound to begin closing up. Kyle and I watched in concentration as the doctor worked, already used to his magical technique.

In every wolf pack there were werewolves called ‘healers’. Unlike normal werewolves, this particular set of werewolves didn’t have the ability to shift as the moon goddess did not create them for the purpose of war.

While there were tKavand defenders of the pack created for the pack’s protection, there were tKavand healers created to treat the sick and injured only. They were also associated with peace.

Doctor Brown was one of them.

With the wound treated, I could finally breathe and even Kyle exhaled in relief. The doctor immediately excused himself, probably to overwhelmed at being in the same space with his beta and Alpha.

Kyle sat opposite me, resting his head against the car behind me. We sat in silence until he finally spoke.

“We need to do something about the Rossis.”.

I sighed. “I know.”

“If we keep letting them do as they like, they’ll eventually never stop until you’re silenced, permanently.”

“I bloody know, Kyle,” I roared then realising I had over reacted, I calmly said, “it just isn’t the right time. I’ll let you know when the time is right.”

With a sigh, he stood to his feet. “I trust you Ryan, as my best friend and my Alpha.”

“That’s all I need.”

He nodded and turned to leave but stopped and turned back to me.

“I hope you remembered what today is.”

I raised a brow. “What is today?”

He blinked at me. “You really didn’t remember? That’s dangerous, Ryan,” he sighed. “It’s the full moon. You need to restrain yourself.”

I sighed exhausted.

Oh f**k.