Chapter 11
Eleven
AMbrOSE
M uch like the first time, we were awoken by the sounds of the horses.
Godr stopped long enough to sneak a kiss before hurrying out to deal with them.
He left me alone in the mostly dark tent, thinking too much and blushing furiously as I remembered the night prior.
That interaction had been… interesting. I hadn’t thought I’d enjoy it so much.
And no amount of trying to convince myself it was only natural truly made any difference.
I liked it. I wanted to do it again. And I had no idea what that meant.
I’d never been interested in a man before now.
It never even crossed my mind that I might like being intimate with one.
I had only ever been in one other relationship.
Sebastian’s mother and I grew up together.
I knew in my youth that I wanted to be with her, and she felt much the same.
Thankfully, she came from a good family.
My father saw it as a good match and encouraged it.
Evie was still so young at that point, and our mother was still around to protect her, so I wasn’t worried about her as I focused on setting up my life with the woman I loved.
Alora stood by my side as I learned my trade, and she helped me set up my practice, making sure I was fed when I was working my ass off.
Everything had been… perfect. Until it wasn’t anymore.
Mother died before we could tell her about Alora’s pregnancy.
And Alora passed not long after during childbirth.
Father became obsessed with his connections and forgot his children existed.
I was all alone raising my son and my sister, who was old enough to understand and heartbroken at both losses.
It was the two of them that kept me from giving up entirely when Alora died.
I had to stay strong for what family I had left.
My interest in intimacy died the same night Alora did.
I ignored any flirtatious advances I got from women hoping for the stability of my career or my family name.
Father made some attempts to get me to remarry, but I ignored them all.
I never wanted anyone but Alora. I thought I’d spend the rest of my life alone.
So then why was I having such strong reactions to Godr’s touch? I’d never had any interest in men before. I wasn’t even sure I did now. Except…
An image of Godr’s face twisted up in pleasure, the sounds of his moans, the memory of his cock rubbing against mine, all drifted through my mind.
I had to bite my fist to curb the urge to stroke myself.
It was all too much. I couldn’t think about it anymore, or I’d do something foolish like seek him out for a repeat.
That wasn’t expected of me, as far as I knew.
And the only reason I let it happen was because it was expected.
I could hear the lie in my head, but I refused to think too deeply about it.
Forcing myself off the bed, I got dressed for the day and pulled on my boots.
I found my glasses where Godr had tucked them carefully out of the way, shoving them up my nose.
I was going to duck out and maybe seek out Zoya so I could check on my patients, but I ran headlong into Patrick in my haste to escape the memories of the night prior, sending us both crashing to the ground.
“Patrick!” a voice filled with concern bellowed.
My head jerked up to see a barbarian with a dark expression stalking our way. Shit. I hadn’t meant to knock the man off his feet and cause an injury. I’d been too busy trying to escape my thoughts to pay attention to my surroundings.
“I’m so sorry,” I rushed out, scrambling off of him. The poor man had taken the brunt of the fall, and knowing that he sometimes relied on a cane, I felt even worse for knocking him down.
“I’m alright,” he reassured me, but his grimace said otherwise. He was hurt.
He rubbed the leg I’d noticed was injured the day before, sitting up with a frown. He said something to the barbarian who skidded to a stop by his side, dropping to his knees to check him over. He looked ready to lose it, and I could only stare helplessly as Patrick tried to talk him down.
“Ambrose?” Godr called out from the nearby pasture. My stomach dropped. The idea of upsetting him as well hurt worse than I expected. Would he believe me if I told him it was an accident?
He hurried to join us and knelt beside me, putting a warm hand on my shoulder and giving me a worried frown. I forced myself to ignore the flutter in my chest at his concern, giving my attention to Patrick.
“Can you show me where it hurts? I can probably make you something for the pain if I know what’s wrong,” I offered.
He made a few abortive attempts to bat the barbarian’s hand away before giving up and giving me an exasperated smile. “I’m really alright. It just tweaked a little when we fell. I’m sure with some rest I’ll feel fine.”
I assumed he repeated the same thing to the barbarian because the barbarian’s attempts to undress him to look at the injury ceased, though the hovering remained.
Patrick looked at the spilled basket beside us and winced. “Yamileth will be cross…”
“It’s my fault,” I argued, worried that he’d be punished by whoever Yamileth was because of my mistake. “I ran into you. You shouldn’t take the blame. I won’t let them hurt you because of me and my stupid?—”
Surprised, Patrick put his hands up in a soothing gesture. “Woah, hey. No one is getting hurt. Did Finn not explain that to you yet? It’s usually the first lesson he teaches. You’re safe here.”
“Ambrose? Is everything alright?” Zoya asked, rushing over when she noticed me and Patrick still on the ground.
Finn was behind her, and the biggest barbarian I’d ever seen followed him like a shadow.
My eyes widened in shock, and for the first time since I arrived, I truly feared for my well-being.
He had massive swords tied to his belt, but with his size, he could probably rip me apart without any weapons at all.
“Ambrose.” Godr’s whisper caught my attention, and when I looked over my shoulder at him, he put his arm around me, shaking his head and saying something in the barbarian language that was probably supposed to be warm and reassuring.
It wasn’t as effective now that I was surrounded by others after accidentally hurting one of their own.
I knew they’d said I was safe, but how far did that go?
I’d been here a few days now. Surely if they were going to show their true colors, it would be now.
Would Godr truly protect me from his own people?
Was it wrong to hope he did? He’d been kind thus far, but I didn’t know the rest of them.
I spent most of my time with him or the sick and injured.
What if his clan didn’t act the same? Just how badly had I screwed up by being thoughtless and hurting someone by accident?
GODR
Ambrose looked terrified. I hadn’t seen what had happened, since I had been busy checking on the stallions as I did every morning.
I thought Ambrose would stay in my tent or join me in the field after he woke like he had the morning prior.
Seeing him and Patrick on the ground, I became worried and ran to check on him.
Patrick looked mostly alright, and Verus was already fussing over him, but Ambrose looked panicked, and I couldn't understand why.
“Finn. Ask him what upsets him,” I begged my friend.
I hated the look on Ambrose’s face. He had been steadfast since his arrival. Seeing him so panicked now worried me.
Finn, being the kind and amiable brother that he was, did as I asked, speaking with both Ambrose and Patrick in the common tongue. His brows snapped together and his eyes widened in surprise.
“O-oh…”
“What? What is it?” I demanded.
Guilt crossed both Finn’s and Zoya’s face before Zoya explained, “I took Ambrose away from his lessons before he could learn about tributes and their place here. I told him a little, but not enough it seems. He thought Patrick would be punished for dropping the food.”
She switched languages, speaking in the common tongue to Ambrose while shaking her head.
I shot a helpless look at Finn. I sometimes wondered if it was wrong of us to refuse to use the common tongue.
It would make a difference if we could converse with our tributes when they arrived.
I understood the older generation’s rule, not wanting our language to be lost as time passed, but if the tributes could speak both, why couldn’t we?
“She’s telling him what I should have told him.” He grimaced. “I thought it was a bad idea for him to skip the language lessons since I also talk about life here in general and the way tributes are treated, but he was so insistent on helping the people who needed it that I didn’t argue with him.”
My heart swelled in my chest. My Ambrose was a healer first. He put the needs of the clan before the lessons that would make life easier on him. I was proud of him for that, but it did bring up what I had been worried about before.
“Would you be able to teach him when he is not treating his patients? Perhaps lessons like Matthew had?”
Rath put a hand on Finn’s shoulder before he could respond, shaking his head. “He has been overworking himself just in preparation for this batch of tributes. It brings him stress to teach those of other clans. I do not want more pressure when he is already overburdened.”
True, and I felt bad for asking when I noticed how tired Finn looked already, but I wasn’t sure how to help Ambrose when I couldn’t communicate with him.
“I’ll teach him,” Zoya interrupted. She shot Finn a smile and a wink.
“I was the one who taught you, after all. And I’ve sat in during a couple of your lessons before.
Since it’s me who's keeping him from your lessons, I’ll take on teaching him the language while we work.
You can supplement where you think I’ve missed something. Alright?”
Finn’s shoulders slumped in relief, and he nodded rapidly.
“This group is a lot bigger than last time, and Simon already spoke the language. I could take the time to help Matthew on the side because I wasn’t teaching nearly as many people.
I only have a few weeks to teach everyone the basics this time, so I’m trying to cram in a lot, and I’m not sure I could do it all twice to teach Ambrose, too. ”
My gaze dropped to where Ambrose was checking Patrick’s leg with a serious expression. He must have convinced Patrick to let him look at it.
“Zoya. May I join those lessons? I want to learn the common tongue.”
Both she and Finn looked confused, and the way they both wrinkled their noses in the same way made me smirk. They spent a lot of time together and seemed to be picking up each other’s behaviors. I was glad my blood had found a true friend among us. He deserved the support.
“Why would you want to do that?” Zoya demanded.
I tipped my head toward Ambrose. “Because if I could understand him, I could put him at ease when he is anxious. And it might make it easier for everyone if we knew the language as well. I’m not sure who came up with the idea of forcing tributes to learn while we do not, but I don’t agree with it.
I want to make things easier on Ambrose. ”
They glanced at each other thoughtfully, and Finn slowly nodded. “Okay. But after the tributes from the other clans leave? I’ve got a lot to do right now, and so does Zoya if she’s helping Ambrose learn and doing her job as a healer.”
I stuck out my lip in a pout, which made Zoya twist her mouth to hide her laugh. “Tell you what. Have Ambrose teach you the basics. When you do your job teaching him words, I’ll tell him to say it in the common tongue so you can learn it, too. You’ll learn together.”
That wasn’t a terrible idea. I nodded in agreement. “Okay.”
“Tell him to go slow,” Rath said as he wandered toward the fenced area where his stallion waited for his attention. “Godr was never a good student. He could never sit still long enough to learn.”
I shot him a dirty look. Ambrose didn’t need to know that.