Reaper: A raven paranormal romance (Crookshollow ravens Book 2) by Steffanie Holmes Page A

he’s a slave and he can’t even save the girl he loves. I knew they were just trying to make me feel better, but their pity forced anger to tighten my chest. Why was it me who was born into this servitude? Why did they have free will, and I didn’t? Why was I forced to stay here while Belinda was trapped in Morchard Castle, possibly being hurt?
    I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn’t see through my rage. Every word I thought of was poisonous. So I turned on my heel, and ran from the room.
    “Cole, wait!” Alex called after me. I heard Ryan’s voice telling her to leave me alone. I raced down the hall to the guest wing, yanked open the door to my allocated room, and slammed it behind me as hard as I could. The whole frame rattled on its hinges.
    Morchard had Belinda. I knew it. I had to do something. I had to go to her, to try and free her. But even as the thought entered my mind, Sir Thomas’s will superseded it, using the pain he could make happen inside my body to tether me. I wasn’t going anywhere, not without his explicit permission.
    I balled my hands into fists, and slammed them against the thick wooden door. Every punch drew out my anger, forcing it from my body, and every time my ring connected with the wood, a fresh wave of agony burst through my body. My knuckles burst with pain as I beat that door, until slivers of wood started to fall away and a splinter drove itself into my index finger.
    “Fuck!”
    I tore away from the door and flung myself down on the bed, wincing as I clasped my finger and pulled out the splinter. I glanced up at the door. The edge I’d attacked had buckled badly, the jagged edges of the splintered boards bent out like porcupine quills. It swung free on the hinges, and I suspected it now no longer closed properly. Great, Ryan lets me stay in his house and offers to spend a hundred grand of his own money buying my freedom, and I repay him by destroying his door.
    Over the last couple of days he – and the girls – had been better friends to me than anyone else I’d ever known, and I’d repaid them in the same way I did to everyone, by shutting them out and pushing them away.
    “Is this a bad time?” A muffled voice penetrated my thoughts.
    I looked up at the door, wondering how I was doing to explain the damage, but there was no one there. A quick glance around the room revealed I was alone. So where had that voice come from? Sir Thomas wasn’t somehow pushing his thoughts into my head, was he? Because that would be fucking horrible—
    “Come on, Cole, open the window. I can’t hang out here all night.”
    I whirled around. Byron’s face glared at me from outside the window over the bed. He had his elbows up on the sill, and appeared to be trying to swing the rest of his body up on to the tiny, narrow ledge.
    I leaned over the bed and pushed open the sash. Byron’s face contorted with effort as he managed to pull his torso up enough to lean against the window frame. He hung there for a moment, his breath coming out in short rasps.
    “A little help would be appreciated, brother dearest.” He managed to unclamp his hand from the sill and grab the frame, slowing inching himself forward.
    “If you don’t struggle for your achievements, you won’t appreciate them.”
    “Ha ha, very funny. Seriously though, I am about to slip.”
    Groaning, I rolled across the bed and grabbed him under the arms. He was naked, having just changed from his raven form, and his skin was so slick with sweat he slipped through my fingers. Bracing my feet against the wall, I pulled Byron through the window while he guided himself with his arms. With a final heave, I yanked him through the window, stumbling backwards as he collapsed against the bed, breathing hard. “You idiot, why did you change on the outside sill of all places?”
    “I’ve been tapping on the window for the last ten minutes, but you were lying on the bed with your head up your arse or something. I needed to