Chapter 4 #2
He was right, I supposed. Getting the lay of the land and seeing what the situation at the pack was should take priority, but my gut said my family—my pack—was in danger and that delaying gaining allies was wasting time.
“I still think we should head to the Ryland Pack. It’s only a short detour and I…
I can’t shake the feeling that our pack is in danger, Morden.
We can’t help them alone.” I cast the stick onto the fire and watched it catch alight, watched as it was devoured.
I lifted my gaze to find him staring at me, a strange look in his eyes, one I couldn’t decipher.
“Don’t you feel Danica is in danger? You said you did when we were in Falkyr. ”
“I do.” He leaned to his right, grabbed some of the sticks from the pile I had left there, and snapped them in two before casually throwing them onto the fire. “And that’s why we’re going to see what we’re dealing with.”
“Fair enough.” I tucked my knees closer to my chest, deciding to let it go for now, because Morden was clearly in a bad mood and I didn’t want to argue with him over this.
“Toss me your knife.”
I tensed and my hand flew to it, wrapping around the hilt and keeping it pinned close to my side. “It’s a dagger… and why do you want it?”
He lifted the brace of rabbits he had caught.
I pulled a face at them, my grip on my dagger tightening.
He wanted to use it to gut and clean our dinner, and the thought of him using something so special for such a menial task had me wanting to keep it locked in my grip, away from him.
Kaeleron had used such precious metals to make this dagger for me.
Metals reserved for royalty of the Shadow Court.
It was too special to be used for butchery.
Morden’s dark eyebrows lowered and he slowly looked from the death grip I had on the dagger to my face. “Where did you get it?”
“Kaeleron made it for me.” I didn’t loosen my grip on it.
His right eyebrow hiked up. “Really? I don’t believe someone who bought you would go to the effort of arming you.”
“You don’t have to believe it,” I snapped, tension cranking my muscles tight as instinct whispered that I knew where this was going to lead and I found myself bracing for another fight. “Kaeleron made it for me with his own hands. He taught me to fight.”
Morden’s eyes widened. “He really trained you?”
I nodded.
He rubbed his jaw, his look thoughtful. “No wonder you landed a pretty good blow on me.”
“It was more than good,” I muttered, “and you know it.”
He shifted his shoulders and held his hand out, expression expectant.
I huffed as I drew the blade from its sheath and leaned forwards to slap it down onto his palm. “Fine. Just, be careful with it.”
His grey gaze roamed over it as he held it before him, angling it towards the fire so he could see it better. “It’s a good looking blade.”
I grumbled, “You better hand it back just as good looking.”
He smirked and went to work, somehow managing to get rabbit blood over every inch of the blade, and then he wiped it on some leaves and handed it back to me.
I grimaced at it, at the blood that had pooled and dried in the beautiful markings and intricate hilt and guard, and scowled as I carefully cleaned it on my blouse, getting into all the fine details with the cloth and my nails, until it was clean and beautiful again.
I sheathed it as the smell of roast rabbit teased my nostrils, making my stomach grumble and drawing my gaze to them as Morden slowly rotated them over the flames. They were too small. Gods, I missed those piled high platters of meat Kaeleron had given me.
Trying to distract myself from the hunger that had been riding me almost constantly from the moment we had landed back in our world, I went over everything Morden had said about how he had come to realise what had happened to me and how he had entered Lucia, and his fears about our families and pack.
And got stuck on the part where he had confronted Lucas.
I looked Morden over, studying his strong corded forearms as he turned the rabbits, his broad shoulders and powerful biceps, and recalled all the times I had seen him fight.
He was larger than Lucas, rivalling Braxton in size, and he was strong, but I had never realised he was strong enough to beat both Braxton and Lucas—an alpha.
“How did you manage to overpower Lucas?” Just saying his name made my stomach turn. “Are you stronger than him?”
Morden looked up from the rabbits, his eyebrows pinned high on his forehead before he realised what I had asked and they lowered as the corners of his mouth turned downwards.
“The little Hunt prince isn’t as strong as you think.
He’s all show. Not sure anyone ever really bothered to teach him how to fight…
or his ego was too big to let anyone teach him.
I imagine he figured he was destined to be an alpha and therefore knowing everything about fighting was his birthright or in his genes or something.
Get him alone and he’s no stronger than me.
Might even be weaker. The position someone attains doesn’t automatically make them stronger, Saphi. ”
I glanced at the dagger against my hip and then down at where the brand sat on my chest beneath the left side of my blouse. “I know that. But usually to attain a position of power like an alpha or a king, you need to be strong to start with… no?”
He pulled the rabbits from the flames and pursed his lips as he checked them over. “Maybe. Lucas isn’t that strong though. Maybe that fae bastard isn’t either. Maybe it’s all show.”
I scoffed. “Kaeleron is strong. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve felt it. He could break every bone in Lucas’s body before Lucas could even blink.”
“If he was here.” Morden didn’t look at me as he said that and his eyes remained fixed on our dinner as he growled, “Which he isn’t. Because he’s got better things to do than help you, apparently.”
I scowled at him now. “He has a war to fight and a home to protect. So do we. Maybe we should focus on that.”
I leaned towards him to snatch one of the rabbits, done with this conversation.
His eyes widened as my blouse gaped open and he dropped the rabbits and gripped my wrist in a lightning fast move I didn’t see coming, pulling me onto my knees before him. He yanked my blouse aside, exposing the brand.
“What the fuck is this?” he snarled, his eyes leaping between the mark and my face, his expression darker than I had ever seen it. “I saw this symbol all over that city, and I really doubt you got a tattoo as a memory of that place. So what the fuck is it?”
I swallowed and looked down at the circular mark—an elkyn that had a crown suspended between its antlers and five stars above it, surrounded by a ring of fae symbols. I had to lie. I knew it. If I told the truth, Morden would be furious and his opinion of Kaeleron would never change.
“Kaeleron gave it to me—”
The brush of his fingers over the mark had my voice dying, and whatever excuse I had been piecing together dying with it.
Because Morden’s expression grew thunderous.
“This isn’t a tattoo.” He swept his fingers across the mark again—over the subtle ridges of skin that made it impossible for me to lie to him. “This is a brand. Some hero. You practically worship him, and he’s marked you like livestock.”
I twisted my arm free of his hold and snapped, “It’s not like that, and you don’t know him.”
“Oh, I forgot. He made you live. While he branded you. Owned you. Had some contract between you and was making you work to pay off the debt of what he paid to buy you.” Morden leaned back, looming over me, a vision of darkness as his eyes glowed silver and his fangs flashed between his lips with each harsh word he bit out and hurled at me.
“Forgive me for not seeing the saint you see when you look at him.”
Gods, it was going to be impossible to make him see the Kaeleron I had come to see, I felt it in my heart, but I was unwilling to just let him view Kaeleron as a monster, because I had been like him once, and it was only through coming to know Kaeleron that my opinion of him had changed.
So I had to try to make Morden see him as I did.
“I don’t see a saint,” I said, my voice surprisingly steady and strong as I held his gaze, weathering his dark look and the anger brewing in his eyes. “I saw a monster once too. It’s easy to see what you want to see when you don’t really know someone, isn’t it?”
He scowled at me.
I sighed.
“Yes, he’s as dark as they come, can be vicious and brutal, and cruel, but can you deny that you would be the same in order to protect our pack?” My eyes danced between his. “If your sister was killed, would you not crave vengeance?”
Another sigh escaped me as I lowered my eyes to the fire.
My mood slowly darkening.
“I would. I would hunt and kill anyone who took someone I loved from me.”
“Saphi,” he whispered, shock in his deep voice.
“Is that so unbelievable?” I lifted my eyes back to meet his and saw in them that it was. I shook my head as something dawned on me. “You don’t believe me when I say I’m going to kill Lucas.”
The twist of his lips as he tried to hold back whatever he wanted to say was confirmation enough.
“Because I’m female, right? Because I spent my whole life pleasing others, doing what others wanted or needed, never placing my own needs first?
I’m just some pack female who will fall in line the moment an alpha commands it.
” I shook my head as I glared at him, my lips flattening as I thought of how I had been when he had last seen me, the wolf I had been for all the years he had known me.
“You know what, Morden… I’m not that girl anymore.
I don’t need protecting. I can stand up for myself and fight my own battles.
And I certainly don’t need a man telling me what to do and controlling my life.
If I learned anything in the past few months, it’s that letting others take advantage of you is no way to live, and placing the desires of others ahead of your own dreams is the path to a shitty life you’ll only regret when looking back at the end of it. ”
He studied me closely. “Your fae king teach you that?”
“No,” I snapped. “Being rejected and sold by my fated fucking mate taught me it.”
He didn’t have a comeback for that.
Just sat there in silence, staring at me.
“I’m going to kill him.” Those words held more conviction, and confidence, than I had thought I had in me, unwavering and strong, a declaration that bolstered my belief in myself and my newfound strength and courage.
“We’ll talk about that later.” He picked up the rabbits and grimaced as he dusted them off.
That was code for me to drop it and never speak of it again.
“I’m going to kill him, Morden, and if you don’t believe me, if you don’t want to help me, that’s fine.” I touched the brand on my chest and looked at it. “This will make sure Lucas ends up dead, even if my strength fails me.”
He looked from the brand to my face, a puzzled look on his. “A mark is going to protect you?”
“Not the mark.”
I shook my head and met his gaze.
Feeling the power humming in the brand as I rested my fingers on it.
Power that was deliciously dark and comforting as it pulsed around the ring of ancient fae symbols, telling me that the connection between it and the one who had given it to me was still in place.
Still strong.
“The fae king it will summon if I’m in danger.”