13. A Battle for Life
CHAPTER 13
A Battle for Life
SHEN
“ A re you certain you wish to forfeit your right?”
“I am,” I said.
Fen met my gaze head on, his blue eyes searching mine. Not quite a challenge, but too close for Lycus. He edged forward, taking a hint of control over this form, and we grabbed Fen by the neck.
Fen lowered his gaze as protocol demanded when dealing with a stronger pack member, but his scent was neither repentant nor submissive.
“The human girl?—”
My hand spasmed and choked off his voice before I released him. “Do not speak of her.”
Fen rubbed his neck, eyeing me. “Sure. Don’t speak of the one human who made you smile. Don’t speak of the person who?—”
I glared. He raised his hands and his smile returned, but the expression behind his eyes said he saw more than I wished. “Sheesh, you’re extra touchy today. Need a spar?”
“I would likely kill you.”
Fen grinned, taking my morbid humor for what it was. If I was going to kill the kid, it would have been long ago. I was stuck with him. To my absolute delight.
He ’ s worse than barnacles, Lycus commented.
At least barnacles clean the waters.
Lycus snorted a laugh.
“Someday you’re going to realize the asset you’re consistently degrading,” Fen said, a smile on his face as if he could not be bothered by my mood.
He was a good sort. Not that I would tell him that.
The Glass Palace rose before us, a towering building with stained glass windows on its five floors. It had its own turrets around the edges of the roof and four watchtowers on top.
A frown marred my lips as an omega with silver hair and wrinkled skin was pushed from the door by a guard with a white wolf emblem on his chest. The mark of my Alpha.
I slid into a shadowed corner. Fen followed, silent as a wraith behind me as I scented the woman’s desperation.
The woman bowed her head, kneeling before the guard. “Please, kind sir, I have belonged to this pack since the days of your grandmother. I will do anythin’—”
There was a low, sarcastic grunt. “You can no longer carry dishwater, old woman. Find yourself a new home, you are no longer welcome here by order of the Alpha.” He shut the gated door with a screeching clang. The omega flinched.
Fen set a hand on my shoulder. A growl rumbled from my chest. I cut it off, but not before the omega glanced over, squinting her pale eyes to see into the darkness. She sniffed. Her eyes widened and the heady scent of fear brushed my nose. “Forgive me, sirs, I meant no disrespect. I will be out of your hair?—”
I stepped from the corner and knelt before her. She shrunk into herself, her body frail with age. She had a simple white frock with a threadbare cotton dress beneath. Her silver hair was pulled back into a bun, some strands escaping the pins and swaying in the wind.
It was times like this I cursed my appearance. “I will not harm you,” I said. My tone was hard with the anger coursing through my bones.
Fen sniffed in disdain. “Big Wolfie here is all bark, no bite,” he said in a conspirational whisper. I shouldn’t have told him what Alia called me. It was biting me in the rear.
My lips lifted in a mock snarl as Fen winked at the elderly woman who glanced up at him.
“I meant no harm, kind sirs,” she repeated, her voice faltering.
“It is us who should be ashamed. You have served my family well, Matilda.”
A tiny, awed smile crossed her lips. “You remember?”
I tried to return her smile, but dropped it when she recoiled slightly. “You changed my small clothes when I was a babe. Of course I remember you.”
Grinning, she slowly pushed up and took Fen’s offered hand to raise on shaky legs. “Ya were always a kind child, sir. I didna realize it continued to the man.”
I did not know what to say to that as she gently patted my cheek with her weathered hand that had served my family for decades. “I will find you a place, madame,” I said. “Do you care to answer why you were cast from the pack?”
Her face paled. She bowed her head, baring her neck. “I don’t mean to speak ill of the pack, sir.” She glanced back at the ten-foot-high wall and shivered.
“I understand,” I said as gently as possible. “But it would be helpful to know.”
She stared at me, her pale-blue eyes seeing more than I anticipated wanting her to know. “The Alpha—she issued a rule for any pack member unable to carry on their services to be cast from the pack.”
My teeth clenched. “Why?”
She trembled at my tone. “For the strength of the pack, sir.”
“Fen, will your father be able to handle another pack on his lands?” I asked.
Fen nodded, anger flashing in his eyes bellied by the gentle smile on his face aimed at the elderly woman. “He will gladly do so.”
“Good. Madame, please gather all who are expelled. You all will be cared for, as it should be.” My being softened at the tears pooling in the bottom of her eyes. “No one should treat a valued member with such cruelty.”
Her lip trembled. “Source bless you, my boy,” she whispered, leaning up to kiss my cheek in a show of respect.
She went off with Fen, and it hardened my resolve. The pack was slowly strangled under Mother’s rule. It had to change.
The guard bowed when I walked in. A runner darted from a darkened alcove, racing ahead of me through the passageways of the cold, huge building some would call a palace, but which I knew was merely a shell where the pack slept at night.
A long hallway lay before me with ostentatious statues painted in gold and precious metals—some of snarling wolves, others of knights in full chain-mail, and a few of scandalously clad women. Behind them were highly detailed tapestries, each depicting various battles of all kinds of creatures. From werewolves and dragons to dark fae and nymphs, should you look hard enough, you could find nearly any known being. The ceiling, high above as it was, had paintings of cherubim and palaces and endless forests.
My feet sunk into the deep red fabric lining the hallway. A mouse squeaked behind one statue, his little heart racing as I passed. A tiny smile creased my lips. Mother hated the little creatures with a passion. It was good to see one had survived her extermination to chew on her precious tapestries.
At the end of the seemingly endless hallway was a door. Quite plain compared to the rest of the hall, for reasons I had yet to discern.
My heartbeat was steady, my mind caged, my wolf sleeping. It would do no good for him to be party to what would come. I had fought a direct order, something she would not abide.
Why return at all? Lycus whimpered.
Dragon breath. I thought he was still asleep.
Better to be free for a time of our choosing and death to be by our hand than a lifetime of chains, Lycus said.
Were it not for my pack, I might have agreed. I could not leave them behind.
Lycus whimpered, but he knew as well as I what would happen to the pack should we leave without placing another in power. I could not challenge her and win—the Command insured such things. That did not mean I could not have her replaced, though.
The door opened beneath my palm. My oldest sister and my mother sat on glass thrones at the head of a massive hallway cloaked in a red runner. This area was much plainer compared to the hallway outside, putting the emphasis on the sparkling throne chairs on a dais at the far end.
“Come, protector. Come, tell me of your adventures.” Mother’s gentle, feminine voice echoed in the throne room.
I drew a deep breath, clenched my teeth, and barely kept my heart under control. Werewolves heard heartbeats. Mine would not betray any hint of emotion she could use against me.
It was not pain I feared. No. It was the thoughts she may draw from my mind should she enforce a Command to make me speak. It had happened before when she had been suspicious of my actions. Mother was meticulous about obedience.
“I infiltrated the stronghold as asked. They have no one speaking of anarchy. A well-armed party took me from the residence, keeping me for undisclosed reasons. I escaped, but the party later attacked while you were present, knocking me from the cliff as I was attempting to hand the puppy to your knight.”
Mother’s blonde hair uncoiled from its bun as she removed a blade made to look like a fine, silver pendant. “Oh. Do go on.”
Go time. “I survived. My attacker and the puppy did not.”
“Hmmm. And why did you survive?”
“You have trained me well, Mother,” I said, bowing from the waist. The words tasted of ash on my tongue, but they were necessary.
A small grin pulled at her tight lips. Mother’s blue eyes glistened with malice.
My sister, however, sat with her eyes on me, her eyebrow raised a tiny hair and forehead creasing. I might have passed Mother, but Beatrice knew. It would only depend on how she planned to use that information to her advantage that was concerning.
“Good. But you hesitated before giving up the puppy. Why?” Mother asked.
I bowed my head to avoid meeting her eyes as protocol dictated for a contrite werewolf. “Forgive me, Mother. I saw a being behind you. I worried they would attack you, and I struggled within the haze of command.”
Beatrice coughed into her hands. I feared she’d caught my morbid humor. Nothing I could help now.
Mother’s sharp fingernails clacked against the edges of the throne. “Good. Then you will bring me the body of the puppy.”
“I do not know where it is,” I said.
“You bury the bodies of your dead. Do not deny it.”
“It was swept downriver. I did not take time to retrieve it.”
The noise of her nails grating on my ears was nearly as bad as her voice. “I have another mission for you.”