Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Bea
My glare doesn’t last long. In fact, it’s hard to keep the smile off my face.
I all but skip down the battlements, down the twisting stairs, down and down—stairs that are suspiciously empty of guards.
It might have been a little loud at one point.
And besides, the other guards know what this is about. I dare say I’m not the only lass who creeps up here. And they all make themselves scarce.
It is a good place to live.
No, truth is, I’ve never felt a moment of worry, nor feared for my safety once since we moved here.
It is a good community, for the lord—an alpha himself—runs a tight ship. Then there is his twin brother, a former Imperium guard—who is more than a little intimidating—and even sterner when it comes to mischief.
I do not look upon this community through rose-tinted glasses.
There is trouble of all sorts on occasion, but it is dealt with swiftly.
A bit of thieving, a guard who got too rowdy and too handsy with an unwilling lass.
Some earn punishment—even a whipping. If the trouble is harsh enough, or so I’ve been told, they are sent to the prison at the capital where they meet the King’s justice.
No place is perfect. But we have found somewhere that is as close to it as can be found.
I exit the bottom steps of the battlements and glance around. It’s dark. The moon is still high. I convince myself that I am not sleepy, that he sent me on my way far too soon. My huge yawn makes a mockery of that.
Fine, I can admit that I’m ready for sleep.
My cottage comes into view as I exit the shadows of the battlements and take a right past the huge stable block where my father is the stable master.
My little home is made of sturdy stone, and although in such a premium location there is no room for more than a tiny yard where I can hang my washing and grow a few herbs in pots, I love it well.
There are two good-sized bedrooms and a big farmhouse kitchen.
I feel blessed to be here. Safe from raiders and their ilk who occasionally dogged my childhood home in the village not so far from here.
I see the cheery glow of a lamp peeking through the shuttered window. When I slip in the front door, I find a cozy setting with the fire burned low and my mother in the rocking chair beside it, asleep with a book fallen on her lap.
She rouses as I shut the door.
I grin.
She offers me a return smile and closes her book.
“Did he wake at all?” I ask quietly, going over to kiss her cheek.
“No, slept right through,” she replies. “He’s a little monster by day and has the energy of three lads, but you are blessed that at least he sleeps soundly of a night. Got the markings of an alpha, for sure.”
There is deep affection in her voice. She dotes on young Aiden, her first grandchild.
And she speaks true; it is a mercy that Aiden slept right through my clandestine activity.
My mother stands, tucks her book under her arm, and adjusts her shawl. Then she smiles and cups my cheek, chuckles, and shakes her head. “A mother never stops worrying over her daughter’s mischief, but I understand.”
She says no more of it, and I walk with her to the door. “Get some rest, love,” she says.
I watch her cover the small distance to her home and slip inside.
I close my door and, after checking on Aiden—still sleeping soundly—I take to my bed.
Unspoken words linger, the ones my mother does not need to voice.
She understands that my choice of husband makes me—a formerly sensible beta lass—occasionally subject to strange urges that will not be denied.
While my mother may never lose that motherly instinct to worry over her daughter, she has gotten used to my occasional foray, and at least she trusts me to come back unscathed.
But I do not linger on my mother’s words, spoken or unspoken, for long.
My mind is already wandering back to the happenings on the battlement.
The gruff alpha… a rough guard who caught a wench sneaking where she shouldn’t be and taught her a firm lesson.
My hand goes to my belly, where I already sense a new life is sparking.
Tiny now, but soon to grow, to make me swell until the day I meet her.
Her.
How do I already know it is a little girl?
Being with an alpha changes a beta lass in many unexpected ways. Some things are not questioned. Some things are just quietly accepted.
And on that contented note, I drift off to sleep.