Surrogate for My Brother-in-law - Chapter 41: Chapter 41

I shoved at Leo, desperate to get him into the safety of the hidden passage. No one but Eva and I knew about the secret tunnels hidden within the walls of the manor. Even Alpha Arthur and Luna Annette didn't know. Eva and I had found them by accident when we were both tiny children, and never told anyone else.
Leo caught my shoulders and leaned in close.
“Thank you,” he whispered, and pushed me into the passage.
Then he turned and twisted, his spine bowing with the first movements of the shift to wolf. I watched, as fur flowed along Leo's chest and shoulders. His head fell back and his eyes gleamed gold in the dim light.
Leo stopped the shift halfway through, gaining muscle mass and claws and fangs but keeping the ability to stand on two legs. I was impressed; not many wolves could balance the two forms so easily.
The half shifted wolves in the office looked like monsters, all patched together. One had the head of a wolf but no other lupine features. Two others were off balance, with one wolf paw and one human hand. The last had wolf legs and a tail but a human torso.
Leo looked like the perfect melding of man and beast. His legs bent oddly with a wolf's joints, but he'd kept the strength and bulk of a man's thighs. His shoulders were broad and fur covered. His eyes were wolf but his face was still his own. He looked like something out of the legends my mother used to read to me. He was beautiful.
“Hide,” Leo growled.
I nodded and tucked myself behind the door to the passage. The Rogue wolves paced the confines of the office. They snarled and growled as Leo turned to fight them.
The two Rogues in full wolf form jumped at Leo at once. I gasped, and clapped my hand over my mouth to keep quiet. Leo knocked them both aside with a single swing of one arm.
One of the wolves slammed into the wall next to the passage. Leo looked over towards me, alarmed. The werewolf with the wolf head used the distraction and jump him from behind.
Leo caught the wolf headed man around the throat and held him up in the air. The wolf whined and kicked at Leo's legs. Leo snarled and threw the man hard enough that the wall he hit cracked. The wolf headed man did not get up.
I realized that the biggest danger in the room to Leo was me. He was distracted by my presence. I needed to go, but the thought of leaving Leo to face so many enemies was physically painful.
My wolf tugged at me. I was surprised. She'd mostly been silent, except for the occasional moment of advice when I tried to heal someone.
I followed the tug. The wolf wanted me deeper in the passage. Her warning came just in time. One of the unbalanced wolves reached in after me with his clawed arm.
Leo caught that wolf around the waist and dragged him away from the passage. I didn't see what happened next, I was too deep inside the wall. I heard it, though, the sound of snapping bone was very distinct.
I stayed out of reach after that. I couldn't see much from my angle, just a few shifting shadows. I could hear fine. There were snarls from the Rogues, growls from Leo, and then screams.
The screams came from the Rogues, and they abruptly cut off.
I huddled in the secret passage. I was afraid to look. Leo was strong but there were so many of them and Zane was there, too. What if he attacked him?
There was a crash inside the room. I scrambled towards the opening to see. The guards had finally bashed through the door.
Zane bounced to his feet.
“The alpha! These Rogues attacked your alpha!” he yelled, pointing to one of the obviously dead wolves.
“Zane,” Leo's voice was quiet, and so, so sad.
“Leo, I think you got hit in the head, we need to get you to a healer,” Zane said.
Leo only shook his head. “No one hit me in the head,” he insisted. He turned to the guards. “My brother, Zane, orchestrated this attack somehow. He is in league with the Rogues.”
Both guards growled and turned to glare at Zane. He shrank back.
“Take him to the cells in the basement,” Leo ordered. “We'll need to question him later, to find out if he's acting alone or if he has accomplices.”
“Leo, no, you can't! I'm your brother!” Zane wailed.
“You should have remembered that before you sided with our parents' murderers,” Leo said, “and tried to have me killed.”
Zane shook his head. “No, no it's not like that, I swear, it's not!”
“These wolves came here to kill me. You can't deny that,” Leo said. He shook his head. “Never mind. You can speak your side at the inquest. Take him away,” he ordered the guards.
The guards obeyed. Of course they did. Leo was Alpha and he'd just proved why.
Zane went quietly, which surprised me. I'd honestly expected him to scream curses at his brother. Then the office was empty except for Leo and the dead Rogues.
Leo approached the passage. He shifted back to fully human. He wouldn't fit inside with his wolf features.
“Tessa?” he called out.
My wolf wanted to answer him. She wanted to rush out and give him a good sniff and make sure he wasn't injured. He had to be injured; he'd just fought a half dozen Rogues single handed.
I knew better, though. Leo would be furious. He'd just been betrayed by his own brother. He would not have any kind thoughts for the maid who had exposed Zane's treachery.
Leo didn't know for sure that I'd written that letter. But he did know I was out in the garden with Zane. And he knew that I knew about the secret passages.
Any alpha would put those pieces together and decide that I was in on the conspiracy. I could not afford to be imprisoned alongside Zane. For one thing, I would be unable to help the wolves in Ethan's hospital and search for my mother. For another, I would be completely unable to hide my pregnancy in a cell.
So there was only one thing to do. I turned and scrambled deeper into the passages. Leo tried to follow me, but even as a man his shoulders were just a bit too broad to fit easily. And the passages were dark. I could only navigate by touch and memory. Leo would be hopelessly lost if he followed me.
“Tessa, please!” he called out behind me, “Wait!”
I didn't pause. I found the ladder that led down to the first floor. There were places I could hide in the walls for hours and no one would find me. I'd wait until I had no choice but to leave. Surely with everything else going on, Leo would give up on me soon enough.