Chapter Two #2
Ah, there it was. The stink beneath the silk. Knew it wouldn’t take long. “Do it, then. Kill me now that I’m in chains. That’s how your family likes it, isn’t it?”
She drew in a sharp breath and let it out through her nose, frustrated.
“I don’t want to kill you, you fool. But if you say no, you’re useless to me.
And if you walk away, you become a liability.
If they catch you strolling out the keep, my father’s males might have questions. And they always get answers.”
“You’ll only kill me if I say no.”
“Correct.”
Madness. This was madness. And why was my wolf not fighting over it? I chuckled, rough. “I could say yes and double-cross you.”
“Oh, please,” she said with a smirk. “If you were that kind of male, you’d be thriving under my father’s rule.
He rewards liars and backstabbers. Everyone knows that.
I’m sure even you do. All you had to do was knock at his door, maybe kill a few of his guards to get his attention, and he’d be salivating to have you.
Instead...” Her once-over was deliberate and not flattering. “You chose to be a vagrant.”
“Diplomatic,” I growled.
“Would diplomacy work with you?”
“No.”
“There you go, then.”
This entire idea was insanity. There was no chance her dream, her plan, whatever it was, was doable.
Her, a couple of Prowlers, and maybe a few soldiers against the ruling class.
Empty hope was never a thing for me. I shook my head.
“Whatever you think you can do, you’re wrong.
You should kill me now, Princess. Save yourself the trouble. ”
She raised one delicate eyebrow. “I’m not in the habit of wasting a good weapon.”
My wolf snarled his approval at that. I hated him for it. Hated how the fire in her eyes looked too much like mine. Hated how her words sounded like fate to a male who had never believed in it. Hated how I was still listening.
“Think about my offer,” she said, turning to leave.
“Think about what? Say no, I’m dead. Say yes, I’m still possibly dead.”
“Better to die with your fangs bared than shackled in silence,” she said with a smile that was ember and steel.
My wolf lifted his head at her words, restless, hungry for everything she’d offered. An offer that didn’t feel like chains but like a challenge.
“Think about it,” she repeated. “And eat. It’s not poisoned.”
She moved toward the door, but as she reached the threshold, she paused. “Do you have a name?”
“They call me the Stray.”
“I don’t care what they call you. I asked for your name.”
Her arrogance, her regal bearing, pulled another chuckle out of me as I gave her a name I haven’t heard in ages. A name that I remember meaning something to me. “Dierk. My name is Dierk.”
“Think about it, Dierk.”
Damn this female, but that stupid name on her lips felt right.
ELSKE
TINY FLAMES FORMED at my fingertips, sparking and dancing upward, curling into shapes at my command. I made them into leaves, red as those in the Autumn Kingdoms, let them rise, drift like sparks caught on a breeze, and disappear into the air. There were as many of them as my thoughts.
“You’re going to set my books on fire, pup.
” From behind his cluttered worktable, where a small ball of fire hovered under a suspended kettle to heat it, Adelmar peered at me from beneath his bushy, uncontrollable eyebrows.
They were rivaled only by his beard, long enough to have caught fire more than once during lessons.
His formal title was Feuermeister, Teacher of Fire.
To me, he was simply Adelmar—the male who had taught me to command my power, who had shown me the injustice in our pack, and who loved me like a granddaughter.
I killed the fiery leaves with a flick of my hand and dropped into the armchair opposite him with a sigh. “I don’t know what to do, Adelmar.”
“Phh,” he scoffed, filling two cups with tea and adding a generous splash of liquor before passing one to me and sitting down himself. “You very well know what to do. In fact, you’ve already done it. So no real point in fretting, is there?”
There were plenty of points in fretting. “If he refuses, I’ll have to kill him.”
“Yes,” he said, as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world. And it was. But the thought of actually doing it left me raw. “I’m sure you’ll make it merciful,” he added. “Quick and painless.”
“What a relief for my soul,” I muttered.
“We’re preparing for a civil war at best, my little wolf. No soul will be left unscarred.” He sipped, then sighed, satisfied with his brew. “I don’t think he’ll refuse you.”
No, I didn’t think so either. Anyone with half a brain would take my offer, and he didn’t look stupid. Untamed, yes, but not stupid. Which opened a whole new jar of trouble. “He’s wild.”
“You can domesticate him.”
I smiled faintly, lifting my cup. “You’ve always had too much faith in me.”
“Well, but of course. I taught you everything I know, so that you could be exactly who you are today. And today, you can tame that wolf. Better yet, sharpen him.”
“Him not using magic was odd. I don’t understand.”
“That’s something you’ll have to ask him yourself.”
The tea was strong, the liquor smoothing the jagged edges of my nerves.
“What are you not telling me?” Adelmar asked, his eyes keen despite age and his lazy posture.
I hesitated, self-conscious. I’d always talked to him, always unburdened the things that tangled too tightly in my head.
He’d taught me to balance wolf-instinct with reason.
How to trust my wolf and still be strategic.
I couldn’t stop trusting him now, no matter how hard.
How confusing. “She’s so quiet around him,” I whispered.
“My wolf. She... observes him. Studies him.”
“Does she fear him?”
“No. Not even when he attacked me at the cabin.”
Adelmar shrugged. “Our wolves know things that evade us.”
“She could help me, instead,” I muttered.
“Who said she’s not?”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Barely. By his chuckle, he knew it.
“I need to think of how to manage him if he takes my offer. I need him close enough to train, but not so close that it raises suspicion. If I disappear for hours every day, my father’s people will notice. But the closer I keep him, the more dangerous it becomes to be discovered.”
Adelmar stroked the length of his beard, leaning back into his chair as if this were all perfectly simple. “I'll keep him here.”
“Excuse me?”
“This place is shielded. Soundproofed, scent-proofed. He can stay here in my quarters. We’ll tamper with his scent and his appearance–I’ve got potions for that.”
“What if he has to go out? We can’t keep him locked here for.... however long it will take."
“Magic, magic, magic,” he chimed, swaying his head this way and that in that odd little rhythm of his.
“You want him here so you can also keep an eye on him,” I said.
“Obviously.” He laced his fingers over his stomach, smug as ever. “Trust is earned, and he hasn’t earned ours yet.”
“It might work in the short term. But he doesn't strike me as someone who’d do well close up here. I’ll figure something out.” I sighed, sinking deeper into my chair until I matched his lazy sprawl. “I’ll go talk to him tomorrow, and we’ll take it from there.”
“There’s the public flogging tomorrow.” Such sorrow weighed in the old wolf’s voice that my heart bled. For him, for all of us.
“I know. I’ll go to him before dawn. If he accepts, we can use it as a distraction. All eyes will be on that, and a Prowler can bring him here.”
“Come to me first. I’ll have a potion ready.”
I left Adelmar’s chambers with fire at my fingertips, a wolf pacing inside me, and the knowledge that after tomorrow, nothing would remain the same, whatever Dierk the Stray said.