“Just…freaked out a little,” I said. Arii’s hand was hot in mine and I squeezed it. “I should go clean up.” I wavered there for a minute, looking at the frightened faces around me.
He nodded and I headed for the door. Arii didn’t leave my side, not even as I stripped down to my bare chest and mopped the blood away with a wet rag. Arii’s fingers traced the gash across my neck and I blotted at it.
I looked into my reflection in the mirror and saw my father’s eyes, haunted, with dark circles beneath them. I quickly looked away, feeling bile touch the back of my throat once more.
“Goddamnit.” I rammed both hands through my hair, fingers snagging on tangles.
“Shh…” Arii wrapped both arms around me and held me close. “It’s gonna be okay.”
But it wouldn’t be. This couldn’t be a full scale attack. The Rashti couldn’t be this small. And if this was just a raid, just a scare, if we ever went to war… I shuddered again and leaned into her.
“God. “ She slowly rocked me and together we just stood there, holding each other. Then I saw the tears slide down her face and noticed the horror in her eyes. “Arii…”
“I killed him, Kia. You were screaming and I-I didn’t know what to do. I wanted you to be okay…” Her breathing was ragged, her shoulders quaking. “I just slit his throat. I watched him bleed out. I killed a man.”
I held her against my chest and I burrowed my face in her hair. “It’s gonna be okay, Arii. You did what you had to do. Thank you.” Because without her, I’d probably be dead by now.
“I’m sorry you couldn’t go to the other side,” she said after awhile, rubbing at her face tiredly.
I shook my head. “No. It’s important for me to stay here now.” I took a deep breath, then held Arii out at arm’s length. My thumbs brushed tears away and I tipped her chin up to place a gentle kiss upon her lips. She returned the kiss, in no hurry, and then broke away. Her eyes met mine.
“We should head back. Your people need to see your strength, Kia.” She smiled wistfully and when I nodded, she laced her fingers in mine and together, we headed back out into the storm.
***
I awoke with a headache after having slept on the floor with the pack. Their fur stuck to my sweat-damp skin and I gently untangled myself from them. One of them gave a soft moan and stretched out, filling my space. I got to my feet and went to my room.
Pulling on clean clothes and a pair of boots that weren’t blood-splattered, I pushed my dark hair away from my face. When it flopped back defiantly, I grabbed a rubber band off the counter and tied it back in a short ponytail, then headed out the door.
I found Arii with little searching. She and Aliel were near the fire, which was already blazing. I settled down on the log next to them, bumping my thigh against Arii’s. Her eyes looked tired and worry lines etched into her forehead. Still, she smiled. I nodded to the group of werewolves surrounding Tallys, muttering between one another. “What’s up?”
“Lyra didn’t return to the Den last night,” Aliel supplied, sliding down so his butt was on the ground and his back rested against the log. His long legs stretched towards the fire, boot tips turned inward.
My mind flitted to the lead huntress, her belly swollen with child. I frowned. “She shouldn’t have been allowed to fight.” The Rashti would’ve targeted a pregnant woman, maybe slid a knife in her belly, killing both mother and unborn child. “Are they going to look for her?”
“They have been all morning,” Arii said. “Tallys doesn’t want to alarm everyone, so it’s being kept under wraps, but they couldn’t have checked everywhere.” Her blue eyes lit with a smoldering eagerness as she perched forwards, touching my knee with her palm. “Let’s go look ourselves, you guys…”
“Sis, even if we found their hunter, they’d just find a way to blame her absence on me.” Aliel’s words cut sharp, his brows furrowed.
Arii spun on him. “That’s not true and you know it. Things are getting better.” She shot a glance my way.
“Yeah.” He hunched his shoulders and a storm warred in my stomach, telling me things were still far from perfect. “Kia, what do you think? Should we go look for her?”
I didn’t want to be the one to find her body, stomach torn open, blood soaking the snow and grass, but if she was alive? If she was out there, wounded and hiding? She needed someone to find her.
“Yeah. You coming?” When he hesitated, I reached around and flicked him on the nose. “C’mon, Aliel. You’ve got the best nose of us all. If she’s injured somewhere, she deserves help. What if you’re the only one who can find her?”
“They’d never see me as a hero,” Aliel mumbled, but he nodded anyway.
Arii danced to her feet and clamped him in a bear hug and I laughed. Impulsively, I wrapped my arms around them both, grinning like a fool. Aliel gasped dramatically, trying to climb away.
“The love—I’m dying…” he wheezed and the three of us giggled. It was cut short when Tallys shot us a glare.
I pulled away first. “C’mon guys. Let’s find her.” I gave a soft hum, wiggling my fingers as my wolf stirred, awakening from his slumber. He blinked sleepy golden eyes at me, then wagged his tail at the prospect of a run. Fur was quick to overtake me and in a matter of moments, the three of us were loping into the forest on four legs.
“Let’s start at the graveyard.”
We slid silently between grave markers. Aliel scented the air, then dropped his nose to the ground. There was a dark patch where Arii had killed that Rashti fighter, but the body was gone. I suppressed a shiver and Aliel flicked an ear.
“Got it,” came his rumble in my mind. Nose to the dirt, he took off at a trot into the surrounding woods. Arii shot me a wary look, as if she was remembering the night before, and I wanted to hug her. I licked her face instead and then, with steel resolve, we took off after Aliel.
We ended up splitting up. I found the scent of the earlier search party easily. Arii and I trotted through the woods, sniffing around before Arii paused with a lift of her head.
“They didn’t search over there.” I followed her gaze to a small cluster of caves, only the mouths peeking up from the ground. Arii’s den was around there somewhere. She caught my eye and we headed down the slight incline.
She wrinkled her nose as we crawled through the caves, popping our heads in. Then, in Arii’s secret den, we found her scent.
“She’s been here.” She touched a paw to the darkening stain on the floor.
Blood. My heart quickened. Had she been injured? I dipped my nose to breathe it in. It smelled fainter, weaker than blood. And then it hit me.
“Arii. She had her babies in this den. She’s out there somewhere with a couple of newborns and it’s the dead of winter.” My hackles prickled at the thought. She wouldn’t have had blankets or anything to keep them warm. If she was hiding from the Rashti, the infants might never make it back to Altehrei.
She looked to me, starting to say something before Aliel’s howl cut her off. Both our heads popped up, hitting the ceiling of the cave with a resounding thunk.
“Damnit.” I darted after Arii.
Aliel stood at the edge of a clearing, his body stiff and his gaze wary. Arii sidled up next to him, but my eyes were locked on the woman hunched over a pile of upturned earth. Her silver hair was tangled and her clothes were torn. I quickly shifted back to human and took a step towards her.
“Lyra?”
She didn’t seem to hear me. I saw the dried blood staining her jacket and her hands as she slumped there. I took a deep breath to steady my pulsing heart and rested a hand lightly on her shoulder. It was only then that she tipped her head slightly, one pale blue eye looking up at me. Exhausted. Haunted.
“Are you alright? You’ve got the entire village worried about you.” I knelt down next to her. She dropped her gaze back to the dirt and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that her child was buried in that unmarked grave. My heart twisted in my chest and I wrapped an arm
around her. More than anything, she needed comfort after a loss. I rubbed her back with the palm of my hand. “I’m sorry, Lyra…”
“They were born dead,” she whispered. “Twins. I would’ve had twins. I don’t know if it was because I over exerted myself? I tried to do everything right, but when the Rashti attacked, I couldn’t…” She pressed her eyes tightly shut, to ward back tears. “Maybe if I hadn’t… Oh, Skoll.”
I did the only thing I could think to do: I wrapped both arms around her. She clung to me, her shoulders quivering slowly and then she quaked with sobs. Arii came up beside us and licked the tears away. I found tears in my eyes too. Lyra pulled away and took a shuddering breath, trying to regain her composure.
“Okay. Okay I can handle this. Chase will understand. We’ll try again,” she said, then lifted her eyes to mine. They locked together and for a moment, she looked almost angry. Then the emotion flickered like a candle, to sadness once again. She forced a smile. “Thank you, Kia’la. I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.”
I leaned back as she stood and straightened herself up. Raking fingers through her hair, she took a deep breath.
“I’m going back to Altehrei to break the news.” She didn’t shift, instead skimming past Aliel into the woods on two boot-clad feet. I took wolf form once again and the three of us followed her, but at a more subdued pace. None of us were eager to get back. A heavy weight lay on my heart, making it hard to breathe.
“Kia?” Arii’s voice was distant, but I could no longer see her. Darkness edged around my eyes as a vision like the ones the night before came upon me.
A little boy of maybe four or five, chubby with baby fat, laughed with joy. He had a mop of dusty blond hair that fringed over his eyes, shielding them from view. He grinned and looped his arms around the neck of a nondescript black wolf. The wolf licked his face and he giggled.
Stinging pain snapped my eyes open and I stared up at Arii. I rubbed my muzzle with the side of my paw. “Did you just…bite me?”
“What was that?”
I shook my head. I’d never seen the little boy before my life.
“I don’t know. I kinda blacked out there for a minute.” She stared at me, so I added, “I think it’s stress.” I sighed. “I’m okay, Arii. Don’t look at me like that. I’m alright. Really.”
She didn’t seem to believe me, but she fell into step beside me without another word.
Chapter Fourteen
Beyond the steady thump of my pulse pounding in my ears, I could only hear the twack of wood against wood. I dashed to the side, swinging my practice blade with careful force. Zephyr blocked and parried with a blow that, had it been a true blade, might’ve sliced my arm off. I brought my stick up deftly, breaking her blow and wood crashed against wood once again.
“Quit smirking, Silverwind,” Zephyr said from behind her face mask.
I couldn’t help the grin that played across my lips—triumphant. As she stepped back, dropping her arm, I kept a careful eye on her. The minute I let my guard down, she’d try and beat me. I knew her games too well. So I faked it. I dropped my shoulders, relaxing the tiniest bit. When she swung her blade, I blocked and twisted quickly.
She offered a smirk of her own. “Pretty good.”
This time she was done. She tossed her practice blade to the floor just outside of the sparring ring. I rolled my shoulders, easing the kinks in my back.
“I didn’t think you had it in you to learn everything I was willing to teach,” she said after a moment, giving a little wave that indicated I should follow her. She pulled a slender blade off a hook on the wall. It had a leather-wrapped hilt and a steel finger guard. She slowly pulled it from its tooled leather duster, revealing a gleam of silver. To my surprise, she offered it to me, hilt first.
“Congratulations.”
I blinked for a moment, taking the sword. It was lightweight, but firm in my grasp. I gave it a swing and it arced through the air like a warm knife cutting through butter. I slowly smiled.
“Wow. What for?”
She snorted. “You passed my class. I hear Sikta dismissed you yesterday.”
I nodded slowly, a little astonished. Sikta had told me, quote-unquote: ‘If I let you get any better, you’ll be able to beat me, and I don’t think I’d like that.’
“She did.”
Zephyr bent down to loop the scabbard onto my belt. I fingered the blade for a moment longer before sliding it back into its sheath. It hung steady at my side and I felt like a true warrior.
I grinned, maybe a little recklessly, though it faded to wistful as I remembered what day it was. Tonight was the full moon. Tallys was going to initiate me as Altehrei’s Alpha. I rubbed at the goose bumps lining my arms and Zephyr shot me a smug look.
“Not nervous, are we?”
“Maybe a little.” I scuffed the toe of my boot against the wood floor.
“Relax, milord,” she said, squeezing my shoulder. “People already respect you—I know, I watch them. They were wary at first, but you’ve earned their trust. It doesn’t hurt that Tallys feels you’re a good fit, that you’ll follow in your father’s footsteps. But I’ll let you in on a secret.”
I lifted a brow.
“I think you’ll be a stronger Alpha than Kitane. Besides, you’ve got one hell of a mate.”
I started to nod, then paused, feeling color flush to my face.
“Arii?” I clapped a hand over my mouth as the word spilled from my lips. I glanced around to look for her, but the coast was clear. When Zephyr nodded, I shook my head. “She’s not my mate. My friend, sure—one of the best friends I’ve ever had. She’d be considered a girlfriend back where I’m from. But a mate…” I remembered back to my lessons.
“When a werewolf takes a mate, they’re in it for the long haul,” Zephyr amended. “You’re young; I get the hesitation. But the way you two look at each other.” She shook her head with a chuckle.
“She’s a loyal, stubborn little spitfire, but it’s obvious she adores you. You may deny it, but give it a few more months. I’ve got a natural eye for the art of love.” She winked, then shooed me away with both hands. “Go ready yourself for your ceremony. And relax—you’ll be fine.”
I headed out the door, blade swinging gently at my side. Sure, I was used to carrying my short dagger, but this was something else entirely. I touched the hilt with my fingertips and smiled to myself.
“Congrats!” Arii bounced out from behind the building, falling into step beside me. At my curious look, she explained, “Zephyr never gives her students a blade until they pass.” I grinned and reached for her hand, which she relinquished without a word.
“Tallys wants you ready by sunset. You’re to be washed and properly clothed. Then we’ll offer Skoll song and dance until the moon reaches its peak in the sky. Scythe will give you the ceremonial blade and Tallys will conduct the ritual. I’ve heard it’s fairly simple, so don’t look so pale!” She squeezed my hand.
“But.” Her eyes were filled with excitement. “We have time for a romp in the woods if you want?”
“How can I say no to that?”
We ran and played in the snow, first as humans chucking snowballs and rolling a lopsided snowman, then as wolves. We tumbled and rolled until snow clung to our fur and our feet were like ice cubes. As the sun began to set, Arii nudged me back towards the village.
“There you are.” Scythe noted the blade at my side with an easy smile. “Ahh, and here comes the day that my charge no longer needs a guard.” He chuckled and patted me on the shoulder.
“Come along, Kia. Marrie will help you get ready.”
I shot Arii an, ‘Oh, Skoll, save me,’ look and followed him.
Marrie beamed at me from behind a rosy blush before bowing and striding off down the hall. I followed, my heart racing like a rabbit’s. She presented me with the spotless bathroom with the wolf-foot tub I’d bathed in at the start of this strange journey.
“Soak in the bath salts, then bathe with t
he little blue soap on the cabinet, please. I’ve laid out clothes for you here. Towels are here.” She smiled and backed out of the room, the door clapping gently shut behind her.
I found the bath already drawn, the water steaming. I opened the small bag of bath salts, which didn’t seem to have a fragrance. They scattered and dissolved in the water. I stripped to bare skin and slid into the tub. The water eased the aches from my body and I tipped my head back, relaxing.
I grabbed the small, wolf-shaped blue soap off the counter and lathered up a wash cloth. I scrubbed myself clean, washed my hair, and then pulled the drain as I stepped out onto a mat. I wrapped a plush towel around myself, leaving behind a trail of water on the tile flooring as I drip-dried. I fluffed my hair with the towel and tossed it into the waiting hamper, along with my dirty clothes.
The clothes laid out for me were a pair of tight calfskin pants with a sun and moon—Skoll and Hati—stitched onto each back pocket. My shirt was made up of flowing gold silk that buttoned up the front. I miscounted the buttons and had to recount and start all over again. Last was a thin, black leather band. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure where it was supposed to go, so I grabbed it and headed out to find Marrie.
She grinned when she saw me. “You look…very handsome, milord.” I offered her the band and she buckled it snug around my neck. I reached up and touched it. She nodded.
“It’s a tradition. All of our Alphas have worn one.” Then she grabbed a comb and got to work on my hair, though she needed a stool to reach. After I finally looked presentable, I guess, she led me back outdoors.
The haze of twilight cast a magical glow on the trees. As I wound through the village, headed for the fire pit, I heard the soft chime of bells and the strum of a guitar. The fire was massive, a ceremonial pyre fed with giant logs. It flickered and danced in tune with the people, who swayed and laughed and chattered. The mood was jovial, excitement crackling in the air.
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