Claimed (11 page)

He placed his hands on his hips, droplets of water still streaming down his
damp body. “This ain’t gonna do, Wolf. I need her out of my system.”

He strode over to his wardrobe and flung the doors open. “Where is that jacket?” he grumbled. He
finally let out a satisfactory sigh and pulled it out, displaying it proudly to his dog. “Moreau- fifteen hundred dollars. James said I would need it. But really Wolf, why would I ever need a dark, hooded, expensive-very very expensive body snug leather jacket?” He threw the jacket onto the bed and then scrambled in his drawers. “Unless… unless…,” he muttered.

He pulled out a pair of scissors, declaring “Voila!” as if he were working a spell on the animal. “I suppose James was right. This jacket could indeed be very useful.” He made two clean snips at the back of it and then swung it behind him, threading his arms through it.

“Let’s try this out,” he mumbled to himself, studying his reflection in the mirror. He extracted his wings and they spread out perfectly through the slits in the jacket.

*****

Outside, he maneuvered his way expertly around the house through the darkness. Clouds hovered above him, blanketing out the stars in the sky.

“You’re ready for a run, Wolf? It’s going to be a long way but I need to see her. I
know it’s just lust and I should be over her once I see her. Perhaps, then I could properly focus on her sister.”

He caught his reflection in a window pane and stepped back with a startle. His green eyes sent an eerie feeling up his spine. “Get used to it
, Ryder. It’s only you,” he told himself. He threw his hood on and began sprinting down the hill and towards the woods. Cutting through it would be the easiest way to Callum House.

The wind blew against his face as he gained speed. His body lightened as he bo
unded agilely through the trees. He felt his heart race against his chest walls, an electric stream of excitement dashing through his veins. He glimpsed to his side, looking at Wolf running in stride with him.

He smiled. “Come on, you lazy
ass! You’ve slowed down!” he shouted out with a chuckle as he picked up speed.

He panted, as he came to a stop at the edge of the woods. The magnificent Callum House loomed in the distance on the hill.

“Okay, Wolf,” he whispered. “Where could she be?”
His mind raced through everything he had learnt of Callum House. James had thought it was important that he should get familiar with the layout of the house. And thanks to Sam and Tara, he now knew perfectly well where Ellie Callum could be laying her pretty dark slumbering head. “Stay, boy,” he ordered. He ruffled the dog’s fur and then moved lithely up the hill.

The wind rustled the leaves of the trees in the woods. And other than the clicking of the crickets and the cries of the bats, nothing much stirred in the dimly lit night. The massive shadow of the mansion threw itself on the north of the hill which was perfect for Jared. He knew Ellie’s bedroom lay in the north and the darkness would camouflage his climb up to her room.

Voices of a couple of guards interrupted the silence.

“It’s now or never, Jared Ryder,”
he thought to himself.  He neatly anchored his claws onto the gaps in the stony walls, levering himself up it.

He swiftly climbed up the walls
, peering into the windows he passed, mentally deducing each room as he had learnt them. He limberly moved across and to a corner of the mansion. The doors of the balcony he was aiming for were open. Whoever had decided that it was safe to leave them open like that, would have supposed that the fifty feet drop to the ground below would deter anyone from scouring up it. And anyone would have been deterred- anyone but him.

He threw his legs as quietly as he could over the balcony rails and crept into the lavishly decorated bedroom.  He saw her sleeping form on her bed.
The little blue light of her recharging phone threw enough light in the room to catch her refined features and her strong nose. Her dark hair was strewn haphazardly over her pillows and as he bent closer to her, her fresh scent invigorated his senses. She was as beautiful as the day he had first seen her. His fantasies of her had not disappointed him. In fact, his doubts on his emotions had underplayed her beauty.

Her forehead creased and he realized she was frowning in her sleep. He placed a gentle finger onto it and she gradually released the clinching folds between her immaculate eyebrows. She stirred slightly and he froze. Her eyes fluttered sleepily, as she tried to fight against her overpowering slumber.

He retracted quickly into the darkness and back into the shadows of the looming mansion. He couldn’t afford for her to see him. At least not now. And frustratingly, his night visit had also done little to help how he felt about her.

Ellie opened her eyes abruptly. A strange feeling surfaced from her dreams
along with her. A feeling that she had not been alone as she had slept. A feeling that she had been watched.

She turned towards the balcony and wondered if she had imagined the man standing there. She brushed back her hair from her face. Perhaps it was simply the shadow of her drapes.
She shook her head out of her trance-like state. She had been dwelling so much on the man called Jared Ryder that now he was beginning to seem more like a dream than reality. She was getting married and it was time she emerged from her infatuations and acknowledged the man who would be standing by her side at the altar.

She strolled into the dining room. Her family was already seated around the table, chatting in that high-pitched tone that echoed a mile away. She lazily took her usual place beside her father on his right.

“Morning,” she mumbled as she reached for the coffee jug.

“Morning, darling,” her father said. “And how was your evening with Edmund?”

She groaned.
“The usual. But must I have to keep up with the appearances, Dad? I’m sure we’ve announced it well and truly enough that we’re getting married.”

Her father tapped into his digital newspaper tablet.  “Edmund is contending to take over governorship once I retire. It will do the both of you well if you support him. People like to know that the man who is going to lead them is rooted firmly in his political, personal and social life. People love stability.
Particularly, when they’re chaos everywhere else. It is why I have stayed in power for so long.” He turned to her and smiled. “They look at Callum’s Hill and say ‘that’s the kind of family I would like’. Women look at my girls and wish they were like you.” He squeezed her hand. “I’m hoping you and Edmund would continue the same for yourselves.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, Dad. You really think they would be admiring me?”

“Yeah, imagine that! In your dowdy state, I doubt anyone would,” Evelyn grinned, throwing her golden locks off her shoulders. “I really feel sorry for Edmund. I wonder if he knows he will be inheriting a morning frump.”

Ellie chuckled. “I guess it would have to be a surprise
wedding gift.”

Her mother sat back in aghast
of her two daughters. “Ellie! Please! You are getting married and it would certainly do you good too if you make it a habit of presenting yourself a little better at breakfast. I would be very disappointed with you if you made these sorts of entrances while you were married.”

“What does it matter, Mom?” she drawled lazily, biting into a croquette. “We’d be married anyway. I
don’t think he would even care. Besides, if a man doesn’t appreciate a woman in all her naturalness, then he is a man I doubt who would appreciate her at all.”

Her mother scowled. “Have you now seen for yourself, Aaron, what I go through each day? I’ve never been in favor of sending her to university because I knew very well the ideas that would run through her head. It was bad enough while she was in college.
I sometimes am terrified of what she would make of her marriage. And Edmund is as fine as you will ever get, Ellie. You should consider yourself lucky that despite that horrendous wild side of yours, you have a wonderful man who is absolutely elated to marry you.”

“Mom,” Ellie sighed. “And what would you have me do if I had not got myself an education?”

Myra Callum threw her hands down onto the table. “Do what Evelyn is doing. What I have been doing all this time. Even though your sister’s younger than you, she has her head in a better place. She’s gone to finishing school and she’s even had a cotillion- both of which you refused to have. How much further are you going to disappoint me?”

Ellie sipped her cup of coffee slowly, waiting for her mother to catch her breath. “Don’t be surprised, Mother, but your disillusionments of me are going to soar to new heights.”

Myra stared at her, dumb-founded; her mouth slightly ajar with disbelief.

Ellie turned to her father. “I was thinking of taking a drive down to Sector
8 Central.”

Her father looked at her over his glasses. Her mot
her covered her mouth, appalled while Evelyn, watched the incident unfold with a glint of amusement in her eye.

“Ellie,”
Aaron Callum said. “We’ve talked about this. Sector 8 Central is not the Capitol or Bergstrom Mall where you can stroll at your leisure without being harassed or assaulted. These are underprivileged people who will do anything to have a little of what you have. As a parent and a governor, and as the law of the country requires, we curb their criminal activities silently and with as much efficiency as possible. Just because you don’t see these crimes, doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”

“My
fiancé is going to take over your position in your party. I need to know what I am prepared for in order to support his political career,” Ellie insisted.

“Oh, that’s just rubbish!” Myra exclaimed with horror. “There is no need for you to
learn about these people’s social problems. That’s why we have our husbands deal with them. I have managed fine without having to get my fingers dirty and you will be absolutely better off keeping your hands off things you can’t handle.”

Ellie let out a tired breath. “Mother,
had you done anything constructive with the power you’ve held in your hands, it would have done enormously to the lives of both these so-called
underprivileged
- and mine.” Her mother gasped again but Ellie simply ignored her. “Dad, I’m not asking for your permission. I’m telling you. Just in case I don’t return from my trip and the poor have taken me captive as food.”

She pushed her chair back, not waiting for her father to give her an answer and walked away from the table.

“At least, take someone with you if you’re insisting on going!” Aaron shouted out, before she could disappear out the door.

Ellie smiled- a cheery swing in her
arms as she strode out of the room.

“How could you just let her go?” Myra exclaimed in shock.

“And what would you have me do?” Aaron muttered as he
scrolled down the page in his tablet. “Tie her up? She is bound to make a visit to Central sooner or later. She’s been talking about it for so long. Might as well sooner. Let her get it out of her system so to speak- before she gets married.”

“I can’t believe she is my child. How could she have come from me?” Myra complained.

“Okay, I’m done,” Evelyn stood up. “That was interesting while it lasted. Can we cut back the family breakfast to two in a week, please?

“
Three is already stretching it” Aaron mumbled, without lifting his eyes from the tablet. “You’re not home all the time. So whenever you are, the staff is watching. It is integral to my political stability, the fruits of which you undoubtedly are enjoying back in the Capitol, that we at least have three family meals.”

“I can’
t wait to get back to the Capitol,” Evelyn droned as she walked out, her voice echoing in the distance. “I’m going out. I have an appointment at the nail parlor.”

“Now
, why can’t Ellie take a little after her sister?” Myra whined. “Put herself to better use than meddling in affairs that aren’t hers.”

*****

“To the right, Miss,” Nessie directed, holding onto her seat as Ellie swerved the car around the bend. “Miss, you sure know how to drive an automobile?”

Ellie laughed, glancing at her bewildered passenger. “A thousand years ago, everyone knew how to drive. I read there were mor
e than a billion cars on earth until the corporations took a stand and cut down on the productions. You see, they were worried about what we were doing to the world. If they hadn’t, we wouldn’t have all this now, would we? The earth would have been depleted of all its resources and they would have basically killed it. Things may be hard now but they would have been tougher had the government and corporations not acted wisely for the good of the world and its people.”

Nessie
shook her head, not understanding the slightest of what her mistress had said. “Whatever you say, Miss.” She licked her lips nervously. “Why are we going to see Tara Ryder, Miss? Her brother will never allow her to work for…,” she coughed. “the Callums. Jared Ryder is not the kind of man you’re familiar with. Actually, he’s not the kind anyone knows. He’s handsome, almost perfect. But can you not wonder why no woman in Central will go near him?” She huffed in evident stupor. “What a waste of a beautiful man.”

Ellie stiffened. Her eyes lay fixed on the road ahead as her thoughts drifted to the image of the man
Nessie was talking about. She had to admit it to herself that she wasn’t visiting Central for Tara alone. She was engaged and getting married, and yet her mind couldn’t escape far from her thoughts of Jared Ryder, whom she had only ever met once in her life. He intrigued her, challenged her. She needed to make certain that all she felt for Jared Ryder was mere infatuation and perhaps an outlet of fear for taking the plunge with Edmund.

She had tried denying her feelings these past few months, but last night she had almost felt that he had stepped out of her dreams and into her bedroom.
She could have sworn she smelt his musk linger in her room, his touch caress her face. Perhaps, her infatuations were growing worse now that she was hallucinating about him.

“Tara is a good, efficient worker. We would need someone like her for the Tea Rose
Ball,” she rambled. “And besides, I was none too pleased with the manner in which her brother dragged her out of her job. He needs some sense drilled into him. He can’t treat a woman like that.”

Nessie’s
eyes widened in a panic. “But Miss Ellie, you have no idea who Jared Ryder is. He detests the Callums terribly. I hate to even think that you’re turning up at his door- but to challenge him, that’s taking another risk altogether.”

Ellie smiled. “And what do you think Jared would do to me? Bury me alive?”

Nessie shook her head worriedly. “You never know with Jared Ryder.”

*****

Ellie pulled over in front of the quaint little house. Climbers of passion-fruit raced over the beams and posts of its little veranda.

“Are you sure this is the right home,
Nessie?” she asked, swallowing nervously. Now that she was here, she didn’t know if she had the courage to face him.

“This definitely is,”
Nessie peered at it through her window. “I should know; I visit Tara occasionally. But why does it seem that the house has been shut up for a while?” She opened the door and stepped out of it. “Stay here, Miss. I’ll go and check for you.”

But Ellie was never one to follow instructions easily. She opened her door as well, stepping into the dusty air of Central.

There were children who were beginning to gather about them, staring at her and her car curiously. Some of the neighbors peered out of their porches with suspicion. She smiled at them but they merely returned her with blank stares. When she tried to coax a child to come to her, the mother of the scruffy blue-eyed child called back the little girl, obviously wary of why a well-dressed woman of means and money was even in their poverty ridden suburb.

“They’re away, Miss,” Nellie returned after some investigation with the neighbors. “They seem
ed to have left the house not long after Jared Ryder pulled Tara out of Callum House. They say they might have moved. They haven’t returned to the house since.”

Ellie’s heart sunk. Where could they have gone? Surely, Jared Ryder couldn’t have moved his enti
re family only because Tara had been working for her family. He can’t be so petty. Heaviness weighed in her bones. Perhaps, she
had
been misled by her emotions. Perhaps, she had imagined the same attraction in his eyes. It was
she
who was the more fascinated with this man called Jared Ryder. Perhaps, he was merely nothing more than a dream.

*****

The night stars shone upon them. The weather was perfect. It was cool and breezy and as they neared the gates of Callum House, Jared admired the swishing canopy of the woods in the distance.

“Remember, Jared,” reminded James
, sitting comfortably in his limousine. “Nothing funny tonight. All you have to do is win the trust of the Callums and the heart of Evelyn Callum. Everything we do henceforth will ride on how much of a place you’ve secured amongst the social elites.”

Jared turned away, preferring to calm his rapidly beating heart by focusing on
the stream of steady cars filing through the huge, solid double iron wrought gates. He would see her tonight. But it was how he would react on seeing her swooning in the arms of another man is what he was more worried about. He’d never been placed in such a position before. He’d never fallen for a woman with such intensity in one glance and he had certainly never challenged his right to her with another man.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Tara whispered ne
rvously. “Not long ago, I was nothing more than a maid in this house. Do you think they’d recognize me?”