Hunted(45)

She let that sink in to her sister’s heads. They nodded, begrudgingly, and allowed her to stand up.

Feeling began returning to her limbs with pinprick stabs of sensation. She smiled at the tingles of awareness and carefully placed one foot after the other until she walked to the opposite side of the room—to the soup.

They ate their mother’s recipe for chicken soup, filled with yummy dumplings and potatoes, and ate a piece of crusty bread with it. When they were full, Penelope convinced her sisters, as she was the oldest, for them all to head downstairs. She had to hold the railing as she took each step, one at a time, but she made it.

Each minute she was on her feet she felt her strength coming back to her.

A few hours later, the sun began to sink down below the horizon. Her sisters looked ready to leave and get back to their own lives as they ran out of gossip and things to dish about. Ryon would be back soon and Penelope had her own plan she’d been secretly concocting all day long.

“Why don’t you two go on and leave early,” Penelope suggested. She picked up book she’d started recently and thumbed a page, pretending to read.

Phoebe looked at the door anxious to leave. She probably had plans, Penelope figured. “I don’t know. He said to wait here until he came back. He was pretty strict with us about it.”

“That, and since you plan to let him claim you, I don’t want to cross him,” Priscilla added. “Not if he’s going to soon be part of the family.”

Penelope was surprised. She hadn’t thought of it at all, since the incident. The Claiming Ceremony for her was canceled. She could still marry Ryon in the traditional sense, but neither of them had discussed it. Nothing much had been discussed since the accident.

“I promise, he won’t be mad at you. If anything, he might be a tad cross with me. Nothing too awful, I promise. I’ll just sit here and read anyway.”

Her sisters didn’t look convinced. They watched her with hard, measuring eyes much as Ryon had done earlier. Then, they shrugged.

“You’re a grown woman and I trust your decision. Besides, you look perfectly fine to me. Especially now that you’ve been moving around,” Phoebe said.

Priscilla looked less likely to budge. “I don’t know, Phoebe. Maybe we should stay…”

Penelope decided to throw icing on the cake. “I’ll tell him I forced you to leave by throwing a screaming fit. How’s that? I’ll be good. I just want to walk around some by myself.” She crossed her index and middle fingers in the promise position and held them up. “See?”

Priscilla cracked a smile. “Fine, fine. I’m leaving. I have things to do anyway.”

“Ditto; but Pen, I don’t have to leave,” Phoebe said. “I don’t mind staying a few more hours until Ryon gets back. Are you sure you don’t want the company?”

Penelope grinned like a prized cat—everything was falling into place. “I’m certain. I love you gals. Thanks for coming, now leave.”

Her sisters didn’t take offense, but gave shared hugs and kisses before departing.

Penelope saw the sun nearly gone from the sky. He’d be back soon. Time to put her plan into motion—and claim her husband like she wanted.



* * *



Ryon returned home late that evening.

Penelope waited for him like an assassin—only she had no death wish for him—at all. She did wish for something else. Something carnal, and perhaps a little hot. She hadn’t gotten to experience her claiming like she should have. If that day hadn’t been interrupted, she would have been in the arms of Ryon that night, claimed in every way possible by him. Well, she was done waiting. Tired and anxious. She wanted him, and tonight she was going to have him. Whether he knew it or not.

Penelope waited at the back of the house, sniffing a dandelion she’d plucked.

He stomped through the house, calling her name, then her sisters’ names. Hearing no response, his bootsteps boomed up the stairs, then shouted into her empty bedroom. He cursed.

She laughed.

But the fear in his voice took her by surprise. She wasn’t trying to make him mad. She wanted him…supple, not tense. Quickly she turned toward the house and shouted back, “Out here, Ryon!”

Ah, yes. Ryon. His real name was no longer a challenge for her to say. In fact, she could do so with a cheeky grin and without so much as a lick of hesitation.

He charged outside, the door slamming against the house in his wake. She nearly took a step back at the sight of him. She hadn’t expected this. He was quite…livid.

His fists hung in monstrous fists at his sides, teeth were clenched tightly, brow furrowed in a vicious V.