Chapter 16
That night, dinner goes as well as I could expect. We reenact the scene from the tent for half the meal, and Kai talks at us for the rest, giving Aurelia an easy excuse to speak out loud.
Unfortunately, the second night is somehow worse than the first.
Just because Aurelia and I can’t be together doesn’t mean I want her any less, and sleeping next to each other is torture. The scent of her—pine needles and something sweet and fruity—fills my lungs with every careful breath.
I’m almost expecting it when I wake up the following morning with my cock straining painfully against my trousers.
Aurelia’s long, dark hair is tickling my nose, and her back is pressed against my chest, her ass nestled perfectly against my hips.
I lie there, frozen, afraid to move and wake her; afraid to stay, and lose what little control I have left.
Choosing the easier option, I hold my breath and ease away from her body. The furs crinkle. She stirs. I freeze until her breathing steadies, then slip to the edge of our bed. Cold air hits my skin as I leave her warmth behind.
Without bothering to put my boots on, I stride out of the tent and through the silent camp. On the outskirts of the rows of tents, I shift again and go for a run until I can think straight.
When I return to the tent to get dressed, I’m too preoccupied to consider that she could be awake. I duck under the tent flap and step inside. Aurelia shrieks and whirls around, holding a crumpled dress up to her naked chest to cover her breasts.
Immediately, I’m hard again, completely negating the point of my run.
“Sorry,” I grunt.
She gives me a reproachful glare as she pulls the dress over her head.
I can tell she has a lot to say, but for once she remembers not to talk out loud.
Once she’s dressed, she jerks her chin toward the table where we still have the parchment laid out.
I brace myself for whatever she wants to write.
I’m surprised though that she doesn’t comment on me walking in on her—or the very obvious bulge in my trousers that she can’t possibly have not noticed.
I want to go exploring today.
Without a second thought, I shake my head. Absolutely fucking not.
She glowers and scribbles angrily on the parchment.
I’m bored.
It’s dangerous.
She rolls her eyes.
What am I supposed to do all day? No one will talk to me.
We could go home.
She lets out a frustrated sound, turning her back on me and stomping toward the door. I whip a hand out and grab her arm, pulling her back.
What would you be doing at home?
Magic
I give her a dark look and she quirks an eyebrow, in a clear challenge. I scowl. She rolls her eyes.
Or training, I guess
My heartbeat picks up. This is a war camp; there’s not much else to do here except training, sleeping and eating because everyone is always too exhausted to do anything else.
Come train.
Will they let me?
Fuck, that’s a good point. The wolves would never let her join in, but maybe I could just order them to.
One thing I liked about living with wolves instead of Fae is the hierarchy. In Vernallis, I have to deal with soldiers arguing with me and complaining all the fucking time, or trying to act like they know better than I do. In the camps, dominance always wins.
I jerk my head toward the tent entrance, indicating that Aurelia should follow me. We’ve barely stepped outside when I nearly run into Kai.
“Morning,” he says to me in my head. Then, glancing at Aurelia, he repeats himself out loud. “Morning.”
Aurelia waves cheerfully, and I narrow my eyes. I doubt he came by just to say hello.
Kai gets straight to the point. “A patrol just returned and told me there’s more wyvern nesting in the caves on the eastern ridge. I’m going to lead a hunt up there, but one of my best soldiers died last month so I’m a wolf short.”
“Understood.”
“Would you like to come?”
I raise an eyebrow, remembering the old days—when our old alpha, Olaf, would bark orders across camp and stare down anyone who didn’t bend their necks. “Since when does an alpha ask instead of command?”
A muscle works in Kai’s jaw as he tries to hold my gaze with his one seeing eye. Out of curiosity more than anything else, I stare straight back. After a second, Kai lets out a breath and drops his gaze to the ground. He doesn’t bare his neck, but it’s nearly the same thing.
“I’ll go,” I mutter, glancing away.
“Excellent! That sounds fun.” Aurelia beams, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. “I’ll come too.”
“No,” I growl.
She slants her eyes toward me. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she says sweetly. “I didn’t mean that to come off as a question. I wasn’t asking you.”
Kai’s face splits into a wide grin, and any awkwardness is immediately forgotten as he switches to speaking mind-to-mind. “She’s a spitfire.”
I turn my narrowed gaze on him instead, another growl bubbling up in my chest. “Tell her she can’t go.”
He raises an eyebrow at me. “I don’t know if I want to get between you and your—”
“Tell her she can’t go!” I command, practically shouting in my head.
“Fuck, fine.” He flinches, then turns back to Aurelia. “Sorry, we can’t allow any outsiders to join in on our patrols.”
Her face falls, and I immediately feel guilty, both for disappointing Aurelia and for overpowering Kai. I don’t feel nearly guilty enough to back down, but still.
“How fast can you be ready?” Kai asks me. “The rest of the party is already waiting.”
I glance sideways at Aurelia. “Five minutes.”
“Good. Meet you down there.”
It takes more than five minutes to put my armor on, and longer until I’m convinced that Aurelia won’t go exploring alone while I’m gone. I’m actually glad that she might be bored all day, maybe she’ll decide that she wants to go home.
When I finally arrive at the center of camp, there are six other wolves there, all wearing armor and with swords strapped to their backs. One is Kai, one is a kid who looks no older than fourteen, three I don’t recognize, and one is—
“I can’t believe you’re alive!” a round-faced blonde man shouts, jumping out of the group and bounding toward me. “Fuck, brother, that’s incredible. Has anyone ever escaped Dyaspora before? No, right? Fucking brilliant.”
I clap Luka on the back in greeting when he reaches me. “I would have bet money you were dead too,” I say by way of greeting.
He grins. “Never.”
Kai and Luka were among my few close friends growing up. Luka reminds me a lot of Jett—or rather, Jett reminded me of Luka when I first met him in prison. That was the initial reason we became friends. Jett has a dark side to him, though, which Luka doesn’t have. He’s more like a dog than a wolf.
“Alright!” Kai barks, getting everyone’s attention. “Everyone listen, because I don’t want to say this twice.”
Luka’s spine straightens instantly, his body responding to the command before his mind can process it.
I notice the difference immediately—where once I would have felt that same pull, that same instinctive need to obey, now there’s nothing.
I turn toward Kai anyway, partly because I still feel bad for forcing him to submit.
I think I just wanted to know if I could, but now that I’m sure, I don’t know what to do with that information.
“There are three wyverns nesting up on the eastern ridge. A full-grown male and two adolescents, which makes me think that the female that you killed the other day—” Kai nods to me “—was likely part of the same nest.”
A few of the soldiers glance at me curiously, but Kai doesn’t wait for them to ask questions. “This is Fox,” he explains. “He’s going to take Brenna’s place. Fox, this is Dagfinn, Ilona, and Mynthe.” He points out the unfamiliar man and two women. “Mynthe is the scout.”
I nod at them in disinterested greeting. “Who’s the range?”
“Me.” The kid who looks to be about fourteen holds up a crossbow to show me. “I’m Gunnar.”
I glance at the bow, then at the kid. He’s short, only an inch or two taller than the women, and skinny, his armor hanging loose at the joints.
That might be alright for a range fighter, but his eyes are wide and earnest, like he’s just happy to be included.
I meet Kai’s eyes over the other’s heads and silent understanding passes between us.
The kid isn’t cut out for this. We’ll do our best to keep him alive, but there’s only so much we can do to prolong the inevitable.
“Right,” Kai barks, “I don’t want this to take more than a day, I’m planning to be back in time for dinner. Understood?”
There’s a general murmur of agreement, and we set off, retracing the same path Viktor led Aurelia and I along to get here.
When we reach the field where I killed the last wyvern, Kai veers left into the woods.
Despite myself, my lips turn upward as we walk.
I’m actually looking forward to a real fight.
Luka speeds up to walk next to me. He’s grinning and swinging his ax back and forth with each step. “Bet you’ve missed this,” he says, as if he’d read my mind.
I shrug. “I don’t miss the fucking snow all year long.”
“The fighting though? What do you do now, just training?”
I grunt in dismissive agreement. He’s not wrong.
I like living in Vernallis—it’s not goddamn cold all the time for one thing, and my friends are all there. I like training the army. I like…other things. Still, I do sometimes wish that Daemon was more of a Warhawk.
I wanted to attack Hydratta last year when their king kidnapped Odessa and Kastian.
Our army wasn’t ready for a war and it certainly wouldn’t have been an easy fight, but we could have won.
But once it was clear that both Kas and Dessa were fine, Daemon and Alix didn’t think the loss of life was worth it anymore.
If it were up to me, Hydratta would be part of Vernallis by now—I suppose that’s why they’re the king and queen and I’m just the commander of the army.