Chapter Twelve
Prince Orion, Heir of the Mother Pack.
The small golden human is shivering on the forest floor as night sweeps across the sky, and it vexes me.
She’s as far away from the fire as she can get, against the furthest tree that borders the magic protection we have set up.
Ungrateful, beautiful, golden human. Wait, not beautiful.
My wolf is mixing his feelings with mine, and I push the bastard back down.
I don’t understand why she isn’t on her knees, begging her masters to keep her safe and warm. No, instead, she seems annoyed that we are keeping her close and annoyed we bothered to light a fire for her. What the fuck is wrong with her?
I continue scraping my green dagger against the long stick in my hand, and I wonder how she would bleed if I cut her with it.
My wolf snaps his teeth in my head, and I wince.
He doesn’t like it when I threaten her, and it’s pissing me right off.
I begin to remind my wolf exactly why we do not like this human and why she is exactly like all the humans we have known. Cruel, nasty little things.
First, she decided to save my betraying half-sister, who definitely is going to die by the end of this Folkland one way or the other. Then she decides to look like that and smell way too fucking good, and have gold hair and eyes. Gold is my favourite colour and now it is ruined.
Reed rubs his jaw and stares at the human like she is a goddess herself. “Do you think she would be offended if I go and lie next to her so she’s not cold all night?”
“Yes,” I snap at the idiot. He’s been making gooey eyes at her since the moment we got here, and I can tell that he’s firmly obsessed.
I’m not sure if it is his wolf or him that wants her the most, but the human is going to have trouble getting him to back off.
I’ve never seen Reed obsessed with any man or woman.
He never has to chase them—they fall at his feet.
He only has to look at them, and everyone bends for the legendary handsome prince of the Maiden lands.
This is new. She doesn’t want him back, and it’s fucking weird.
Almost funny. I’d be teasing him and laughing my head off if the circumstances were different.
Maybe she likes women? I’m not sure because sometimes I get the scent of arousal from her, and there are no women around. Strange. I can’t tell whether he would even get the golden human out of his system if he fucked her.
Despite the fact that I hate the very ground she walks on, I have to admit there’s something about her that is interesting.
The soft gold hair that falls to her waist, the bright gold eyes that are huge, and her lips are plush and pouty.
The rest of her is a mixture of curves and soft pale skin.
The worst part is that smart mouth on her—it goes straight to my cock, and I want to hate fuck her every time she opens her mouth.
I like women with smart mouths and sassy comebacks…
just not here. She is my enemy. I vowed that she would be when we were at the selection, and hate fucking her would complicate everything.
Would she like it if I tied her up with my vines and used those vines on her body as I devoured her?
I discreetly adjust myself and tug my eyes from the golden human.
I’ve never hated anyone this fucking much.
I suck in a deep breath, only to choke on her scent instead.
She smells of cinnamon. She smells just like the cinnamon bakery that’s just down the road from my parents’ castle.
I escape there every Saturday morning and sit and eat to my heart’s content of everything cinnamon there.
It’s always been my favourite scent, and I’ve never met a wolf or human who smells like it.
But now I’m going to have to hate the scent because it’s hers, and that’s her fault as well.
Gold and cinnamon are officially not my favourites anymore.
Her blood even tastes sweet and godly, and I don’t regret biting into her ear. I can still taste her.
I feel the ground under me and focus on the hum of the earth, of the string of power that glows green and connects all living things.
The earth called me from the moment I was born, long before I took my power and made the world shake.
I am the most powerful earth Maiden wolf in our recorded history, a fact my mother hates and my brothers did before they died.
The ground shakes softly as I think of my family, and I push any thoughts of them behind.
When I return, I will be alpha, and they will bow to me.
Everyone who has hurt and degraded me in the Maiden pack will bow, and I will decide their fate.
I close my eyes and focus on the earth, calming it with my mind.
My vines are crawling through the soil, inches away from the golden human’s foot.
I tug at them and snarl. They want to go to her and strangle her for annoying me. We can’t do that. Blackfire is right.
We do need bait, and as much as I don’t like listening to anybody, he usually is quite reasonable in his conclusions.
It’s one of the reasons I call him a friend, a brother, and made vows with him to fix our fucked-up world.
The three of us are linked by that blood-soaked vow, made so many years ago, and I wonder if the goddesses knew about it.
Is that why we are here together? I was in the Mother Pack fighting rings when I was chosen for this.
There was so much blood on me that I couldn’t even see the mark before I was knocked out, unable to fight back because of the dust from the moons freezing me to the spot.
I lost a fuck-ton of money that night.
The little drake pet that she has peeks out from under her arm, watching me, and it lifts its tiny claw, running it across its throat in warning.
Did the drake just threaten to slit my throat?
Creepy fucking thing. I can’t remember if it’s a girl or boy.
What Blackfire told me about the drake was not interesting.
I glance at Blackfire, wondering what the fuck his uncle has been up to with this human before she got here.
I don’t trust her. There’s something not quite right about her.
If it wasn’t already suspicious that a human was in the Folkland to begin with, it doesn’t help that she’s so, well, her.
Meredith Crone, sassy and smart-mouthed.
She doesn’t fear wolves, and it’s fucking weird.
I’ve never met a human who doesn’t fear wolves.
We are their masters, after all. She will fear wolves by the time I am done with her.
A cold laugh breaks out of my throat as Reed continues to pace and tries to decide what to do about the shivering human. “Just leave her alone. Go and hunt or some shit to calm your wolf.”
“My wolf doesn’t want me to leave her alone with you,” he growls back at me, his eyes flashing blue.
I growl back, not liking being threatened.
We three of us get along, which is extremely rare for any wolves from other packs, but it’s not without considerable effort.
And right now, that effort seems to be wasted as he glares down at me and then back at the human like he can’t keep his eyes off her.
Fucking sappy asshole. “I will watch her for you. I promised Blackfire not to harm her yet. I am not a liar.”
Reed’s eyes narrow on the yet. I know he is going to fight me for her, and I should be a little concerned, but I am not.
I know how Reed fights, and how he bleeds.
I trained with him for years in secret, and everything he knows is from me.
I am the one who taught both these fuckheads how to fight like a wolf from the fighting rings and to fight dirty.
Blackfire and Reed have used brute strength and magic in the wars, and never much else until they met me.
Blackfire wasn’t too bad, but Reed was like a child when we began.
He used his wolf and power to win every time. I taught him better than that.
“I’m going to see if I can find the bat who dared to take her and bite her.” He storms off into the forest, leaving me with her, which is trusting for him. Fool. I could end her, even if it would make a liar out of me.
I breathe in the air laced with cinnamon, and I pause, smelling something different.
Darkness. Night air. Midnight. Who the fuck is that?
I walk over to her and realize the scent is coming from her.
The scent is mixing with hers as she sleeps, fitfully shivering, but the scent is like a blanket.
Her drake blinks up at me again, snarling and showing its teeth in warning, and I flash my teeth right back at it before turning and walking away.
This is a mystery I will have to figure out.
Maiden knows I will not sleep tonight when she is here and she is a threat. She is my prey. Mine.
Blackfire stops me with one hand on my chest. “Leave the human alone. I’m done warning you, brother. Don’t let her come between us.”
“Why do you care so much?” I shove his hand away. “And don’t tell me it’s just because your uncle’s told you to keep her alive. That’s bullshit.”
He bares his teeth. “My uncle is my fucking alpha, and he has control of me. You know this, and all of my carefully laid out plans depend on him trusting me. If I come back with news that she is dead, he will be angry and distrusting. If I bring her back alive, he will be distracted with the human and making deals with the other packs with her. It will be the perfect time to strike.”
Yes, I do fucking know it. Years and years of plotting between the three of us.
Years of implanting spies throughout all of our packs.
Years of building up something so we can finally win have just come crashing down to bringing a weak human back alive.
She could die at any moment; she is just human.
I rub my face and look back at her. I could agree with him, tell him I’m not planning to kill the human, and be a good fucking friend.
The words that leave my mouth are bitter as fuck instead.
“You forget that I don’t really need this alliance anymore.
My father’s dead. I’ll be alpha when I get back from the Folkland.
There’s no one in the way for me to become alpha, and all I care about is getting revenge on Elizabeth.
She betrayed me, and your human saved her. They are both dead.”
“Really? You’re going to be that much of a selfish bastard?” Blackfire snarls in my face. “You damn well know that as long as my uncle’s in charge—”
“I know,” I snipe at him. “That’s why she is mine the minute that you’re done using her as bait. She doesn’t walk out of here alive. Not if I have a say in it.”
I storm into the forest, shifting into my angry wolf and letting him run off all our anger, our aggression and pain. The bastard doesn’t want to leave the human, and I convince myself it’s because he won’t leave his prey. Not the fact he keeps growling—that she is ours. Mine. Mine. Mine.