Chapter 86. Anticipation

*Isla*

My stomach is tangled in knots as I stare across the room at the tray of table Poppy has brought me. She keeps bringing me things to eat that I’m too nervous to touch.

Poppy putters around the room, rehanging clothes, moving things from one place to another that don’t need to be moved. She’s cleaning the same surfaces over and over, too, as if she has nothing better to do but also doesn’t want to leave me alone.

Her sources, the other staff in the castle, have let her know that Maddox left Duster pack a few hours ago. Where he was going, they weren’t certain at first, which made me very nervous.

Then, Beta Seth came in to check on me, and I could tell he was nervous. He’d tried to play it down like everything was fine and he was just there to make sure I was doing well, but eventually, I got him to tell me the truth.

Well… part of it anyway.

Maddox had gone to Hill Country pack, the same place where he’d picked up Sydney and ended up killin