Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
While the castle was always beautiful and grand, the dull, black stones and high, arching ceilings of the entryways were much more welcoming than before now that Ren’s wrists were unbound.
“Careful,” Falk chuckled when Ren nearly tripped over his feet for the tenth time in their short walk.
“Sorry,” Ren murmured. But he didn’t mean it at all—he couldn’t stop from staring up at everything.
He kept turning in circles, his legs tangling as he tried to take it all in.
He wanted to explore every room, every hallway—figure out where they all led to, and now he could actually go and see for himself.
Ren still couldn’t believe he was here as anything other than a prisoner.
When he had followed Falk back down the long stairway to the cells below, he almost thought they were going to put him right back in there and lock him away forever.
But Falk opened the door and stood to one side, motioning for Ren to grab his things.
He didn’t have much, and most of what he had didn’t even belong to him.
Ren took his time folding Falk’s sweaters which fit easily under one arm, and in the other he was able to hold the handful of books and the ball Falk had brought him. When he stood up with his belongings, staring down at the empty, cold mattress, he couldn’t believe he had lived here like this.
“Ready?” Falk asked him.
Ren paused for a few breaths before handing Falk the stack of clothing. He raced further into the prison.
“Here,” he whispered, getting the other prisoners’ attention. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled when he saw Falk had turned his back to him, pointedly looking away as Ren handed books and the ball through the gaps of the bars to several prisoners.
“You’re getting out?” one of the Alphas asked.
Ren smiled and gave a quick nod, “I am.”
“They changed your sentence?” the Alpha asked.
“Falk… Falk took responsibility for me,” Ren whispered.
“Wow,” the man whispered before a smile tugged on his face. “He’s a good guy, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he is,” Ren admitted. “Do you need any extra clothes or?—”
“I’ll be out soon,” the man said, grinning wider. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“I’ll have Falk come bring you extra food when he can,” Ren promised. “I’m sure he will?—”
“It’s okay,” the man hummed, “you should go.”
Ren shoved the ball and a book toward the man, “Take it.”
The Alpha ducked his head but took Ren’s offerings. “Thank you, Ren.”
“Ready?” Falk repeated. A small smile played on his lips as Ren raced back over to him so they could start their journey up into the castle together.
Ren was surprised when Falk started leading him up and up and up so many flights of stairs.
He had assumed they were going to Falk’s room to drop off the few, meager possessions Ren had and show him where he would be staying from now on.
He had assumed it was the same place Falk had spent his rut.
But as Falk led them higher up into the castle, Ren realized he was wrong.
“Where are we going?” he questioned, panting slightly at how his legs were burning from so many steps.
“It’s only a bit further, we’re almost there,” Falk hummed.
Ren peered down the hall when they made it to the top of the steps. There were a few doors leading to individual rooms. He pointed to the large, steel doors far bigger than any of the others. “What’s that?”
“That,” Falk said, “is the king’s bedchambers.
” Ren glanced over his shoulder at Falk, confusion pinching his eyebrows together.
Falk laughed at the expression before continuing, “It is tradition for the king to keep his closest friends and his family near him—in this case, by physically putting their quarters near to his own.”
“You’re one of his closest friends?” Ren asked, baffled.
“I told you we were close,” Falk reminded him.
“I didn’t know you were this close!”
Falk shrugged before placing a hand on Ren’s waist to steer him further down the hallway. Ren tried not to flinch away from the touch, but once he got comfortable with the weight of Falk’s hand on him, he leaned into the warmth.
“These are my quarters,” Falk said once they stopped in front of a door further down the hall. He pulled out a pair of keys, easily finding one that fit into the lock.
“What was the room we were in before during the Blood Moon?” Ren asked.
“Those are special rooms for heats and ruts,” Falk said.
Ren furrowed his brow, “I assumed it was your room.”
“Alphas and Omegas without mates move into those rooms before their cycles begin,” Falk explained. “Which is why I had some of my things there. It also probably smelled strongly of me because I’d been there for a week by that point.”
Ren didn’t have time to ask any other questions before Falk pushed the door open and motioned him inside.
The quarters were small—only a bit bigger than the little house Ren had grown up in—but it was a perfect size for a single Wolf. Ren was hesitant about walking in, but Falk waved his hand again to urge him forward.
A bathroom was off to one side and Ren was baffled to see a bathtub big enough to hold multiple people; he hadn’t ever taken a hot bath in a tub before.
He put it on his list of things to do in the near future.
The rest was a single room, with a bed pushed against one wall and a desk and bookshelf set up on the opposite one.
Books lined the shelves to the point they were bowing under the weight of the double and even triple stacked novels.
“It’s not much,” Falk’s voice made Ren startle like he had been caught doing something wrong. He looked sheepish as he moved to set Ren’s stack of sweaters on top of the dresser shoved in one of the corners. “But it’s cozy at least. I’m hardly ever here anyways, so.”
“It’s nice,” Ren said. “It’s bigger than my house was.”
He trailed further into the room and let his fingers drag over the desk—perfectly organized with not a paper out of place, a stark contrast to the chaos of the book shelf—and over the spines of the novels. Falk stood back as Ren made his way around, trying to acquaint himself with his new home.
Ren slowly lowered himself onto the bed, the duvet soft under his palms. He shivered at how comfortable the mattress was.
He thought about what it would be like to sleep here—so warm, on such a soft bed.
His mind immediately flashed back to the Blood Moon, to waking up in Falk’s arms. His cheeks pinked and he stood quickly when he saw Falk was watching him, “Do you… have any extra blankets or something? I can sleep on the floor, right?”
Falk stared at him for a second before walking over silently.
Ren cowered back a bit when Falk’s hand raised, but realized he didn’t have anything to worry about when he laid on his shoulder instead of striking him.
Falk slowly pushed him back down into his seat on the bed, “You will sleep here. I’m not going to have you sleeping on the ground like a dog, Ren. ”
“But…” Ren trailed off, nervous to ask the question. “Where will you..?”
Falk blinked at him slowly. “We can just share the bed, Ren.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. When Falk nodded, he whispered out the question, “Why do you trust me? Why do you trust me to not run? Won’t you get in trouble if I do?”
“Because you trusted me, didn’t you?”
Ren stared at Falk for a long time, neither of them saying anything nor looking away. After Ren counted ten of his own racing heartbeats, he took a long breath and nodded.
“Come,” Falk hummed. “I have a lot to show you.”
The first order of business Falk had them attend was getting Ren some new clothes of his own.
Ren scowled down at the sweaters, shirts, and pants laid out in front of him.
The Omega selling them looked nervous, glancing quickly back and forth between Ren and Falk.
“Are they okay?” he asked after several long minutes of Ren’s scrutiny, voice high pitched with his anxiety.
“There are other people who make clothes, you can?—”
“No, he is just picky,” Falk assured the man quickly. “He was a tailor himself before.”
The Omega peered at Ren curiously. “Really?” he asked. “Will he be working with one of us? I know Chaya is searching for an apprentice?—”
“I don’t want any of these,” Ren said, interrupting the Omega.
“Why?” Falk questioned. “This is where I get most of my clothing—which you seem to like.”
“These do not smell like you,” Ren said, pointing at the clothing. “I like your clothing because it smells like you.”
The Omega’s eyes went wide as he continued glancing between them, “Oh, are you two mates or?—”
“Stop being difficult,” Falk sighed. “Please just pick something out—you cannot go around wearing this”—he motioned to the dirty, stretched out sweater and too-big pants Ren was wearing.
It was what he had been wearing for a few weeks now—“anymore. You need things that fit you and aren’t covered in grime from the prison. ”
“Prison?” the Omega echoed.
Ren pursed his lips in annoyance at Falk but also at how the Omega took a step backward from Ren. “Pick something for me,” Ren said, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’s not my money, and I don’t care what I wear.”
The two of them glared at each other for a while, the Omega merchant twitchy from the tension in the air, before Falk turned around and pointed to a few things. “He will take these for now. Please wrap them for us.”
The Omega practically ran to put the four pairs of pants, two shirts, and a sweater into a bag for them. He wasn’t expecting Falk to immediately hand him the bag.
“Do you have somewhere he could change?” Falk asked the Omega. He nodded furiously and stepped around his table to show Ren to a small, closet-sized room.
Ren frowned. “I don’t want to change right now.”
“Why not? You reek,” Falk said, scrunching his nose to prove his point.
“It’s not my fault this kingdom doesn’t let their prisoners bathe more often,” Ren scoffed. “I do not want to change—this sweater still smells like you, so I will not take it off,” he hummed.