WolfeBlade: de Wolfe Pack Generations by Kathryn Veque (top 20 books to read .TXT) 📗

will fall. The de Soulis family was the most powerful in the north until the rise of de Wolfe. You took that from us. You took our dignity, our lands. But we shall gain them back, mark my words.”

Andreas was having a difficult time comprehending what he was being told. “You intentionally impregnated de Leia’s daughter?”

Nicholas started laughing again, a weird sound because his mouth was so swollen. “It was a pleasure,” he muttered. “She is my cousin, after all.”

Andreas had heard enough. A wild store of fulfilling a prophesy by impregnating Gavriella and harvesting the child for evil purposes. It was the wildest thing he’d ever heard. But clearly, Nicholas believed it. He believed it enough to ruin a young woman’s life and attempt to regain the child of that ruinous act.

It was a horrific and vile tale.

One that Gavriella would never know. The woman had already suffered enough.

Although Andreas had lost his broadsword, he had an array of daggers on his body, including a large one on his left hip, next to his empty broadsword sheath. He unsheathed the dagger, its enormous and razor-sharp blade gleaming in the moonlight, and went over to Nicholas as the man lay in the snow looking up at him.

“And she is my love,” he said, his voice raspy. “This is for anguish you have caused her family.”

With that, he tossed the dagger into Nicholas’ left shoulder, where it plunged deep. As Nicholas let out a cry, Andreas unsheathed another dagger from its place along his right forearm.

“And this is for taking that which did not belong to you,” he said. “Her innocence.”

The second dagger flew into Nicholas’ groin. The man screamed as Andreas unsheathed a third dagger located in his left boot.

“This is for Corey,” he said.

Another dagger flew, this one into Nicholas’ left thigh. Nicholas moaned and wept as Andreas removed a fourth dagger from his right boot. This one was long and slender, the blade serrated on one side. It was meant to slit throats silently and efficiently, or any other body part worth slitting. Andreas moved up to stand over Nicholas, looking down at the man as he wept in pain.

The fourth dagger went flying, right into Nicholas’ neck, severing the windpipe.

He wasn’t dead yet, but Andreas knew it would only be a matter of seconds and he wanted to make sure Nicholas de Soulis knew why he’d been killed.

And who had killed him.

“And that is for Gavriella,” he muttered. “For the pain and agony you dealt her, I’m privileged to watch you suffer for it. My name is Andreas de Wolfe. I want you to know the name of the man who bested you, you vile bastard. The day you touched Gavriella de Leia is the day you signed your death warrant. I hope you rot in hell.”

Nicholas’ eyes were wide and panicked as he slowly suffocated to death. Andreas crouched down beside him, watching the life go out of the man and feeling a hollow sense of satisfaction. Certainly, he felt avenged. He felt as if Gavriella were avenged. But he found himself wishing Nicholas’ death had lasted longer.

Loup tueur.

The killer wolf had struck again.

“Dray?”

He knew that voice. In his determination to make Nicholas pay, he hadn’t even been aware of his surroundings. Standing up, he turned to face his father.

Troy was in full battle regalia, sword in-hand, looking at his son most urgently. But one look at his father and Andreas dissolved into tears.

“Papa,” he said tightly. “Corey fell. He tried to save my life and he was struck down.”

Surprisingly, Troy waved him off. “He took a gash to his chest and fainted,” he said, coming to stand next to his son as his attention moved to the body at his feet. “He’s perfectly fine, although I’m not sure he’ll live down fainting in battle. Your brothers are already teasing him mercilessly about it. But you… what in the hell happened?”

Learning Corey wasn’t mortally wounded did Andreas in. He sobbed as his father put his arm around him to comfort him.

“God,” Andreas wept, wiping his eyes. “I thought he was dead.”

“He’s not dead,” Troy assured him softly. He’d never seen Andreas weep, not ever, which was indicative of the emotional situation at hand. “Dray, what happened? Please tell me. Gareth could not tell us much, only that you were in trouble, so I took half my army and rode here like a madman. Thank God it was not too terribly far. We came as quickly as we could.”

Andreas took a deep breath, struggling to regain his composure. Corey was well, Gavriella was well, and that was all that mattered. He kept telling himself that.

Everything was going to be all right.

He gestured to the body on the ground.

“That,” he said wearily, “is Nicholas de Soulis. To understand this situation, I must start from the beginning. It is a complicated tale, but I will try and simplify it. When I was in London, I met a woman. She was special, Papa, and I knew… I knew she was the woman for me. I do not think you ever thought you would hear me say such a thing.”

Troy grinned. “Never,” he said. “Will told me that you had met a woman, but he did not know more than that. He said that she disappeared, however, and that was why you were so moody when you returned to the north. I saw that moodiness in every battle we fought.”

Andreas nodded. “I know,” he said. “I was… hurt. Disappointed. Angry. That emotion found an outlet against the Scots. But I have discovered that she left London to return home – to Falstone Castle.”

Troy’s eyebrows lifted when he realized what his son was saying. “You found her?”

Andreas smiled weakly. “I found her,” he said. Then, he looked to Nicholas’ form in the snow. “But this bastard violated her. She became pregnant as a result. As it turns out, he did it intentionally so he could harvest the child and use it to fulfill