The Forbidden Wolf King: Kings of Avalier, Book 4(25)

She smiled, waving me into the room.

I stepped inside, taking in the luxurious digs. “Wait, why did I say no to this in order to sleep in a tent?” I asked.

She laughed. “I have no idea.”

It wasn’t a room, it was a house! Or as big as one anyway. There was a large great room with a small kitchen and what looked like two bedrooms. The floors were a rich brown-stained wood and the walls were painted a light yellow.

My joke had lightened the mood but I could tell by the look on her face, she was about to say something that would bring me back down.

“You’ll make an amazing queen,” she told me and I froze.

“Stop it,” I said.

She shook her head. “Zara, how do you think this ends? I just heard the next round is paired fighting. You and me against Ivanna and Charlize. The winning team then fights each other.”

I gasped. I didn’t know that. Did Cyrus? Maybe that’s what he was trying to say at the fire.

“I … can’t kill you, Eliza. I’m a lot of things but I’m not capable of that.” I was surprised to find that it was true. I thought myself tougher than that, especially considering I’d known this girl only a few days but there was something about her. A sisterly bond I couldn’t explain.

She shrugged. “You kill me or I forfeit and my pack tears me apart. Your choice.”

“Stop it!” I shouted. “Let’s not even talk about that. We could die in the next challenge.”

Eliza shook her head, her blonde curls spilling around her. “You know we won’t. We have a pack advantage. You lead, I’ll follow.”

My heart pinched at her loyalty to me. “We shouldn’t have become friends,” I said, feeling bad once the words left my mouth. I didn’t really mean it but I kind of did. It would have been easier that way. Somewhere in the last three near-death experiences I’d had with this woman, we’d forged an unbreakable bond. “I didn’t mean that,” I said.

She reached over and placed her hand on mine. “I know what you meant.”

“Axil said he still loved me,” I blurted out, changing the subject, not used to having a girlfriend to talk to, having grown up with two brothers.

She gasped and stepped closer to me, full-on grinning. “And?”

“I told him off. And then he sobbed.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “King Axil sobbed?”

I nodded.

“Damn, what did you say to him?” She looked concerned and now I wondered if I’d gone too far in some of the things I’d said to him.

“Just the usual post break-up stuff, that I was dead inside now, that he broke my heart and I was a shadow of my former self,” I teased.

She burst into laughter and then grabbed her bandaged side, wincing.

“You okay?” I asked, hoping she would be healthy enough for our doubles fight.

She nodded. “Still healing. Have you eaten?”

The moment she said it, my stomach came to life. That flatbread wasn’t enough and I’d been half conscious when I’d eaten it. Now I smelled the meat in her kitchen and my stomach growled loudly.

“Feed me immediately,” I ordered with a mock seriousness.

With a smile she walked gingerly over to the kitchen and pulled out a plate of various smoked meats, bread rolls and cheeses. I dug in without even waiting to be offered. Like a crazed lunatic I shoved meat and cheese into my mouth, half chewing before swallowing it down. It was spicy and salty and so, so good.

Eliza looked at me horrified. “I take it back, you would make a horrible queen, you have no manners.”

I gave her my middle finger and she grinned.

We got along so easily, it was like the best friend I never had in the Mud Flats. Every female there was either competing to be the most dominant, and therefore steering clear of each other, or they were so submissive they barely spoke to me. With Eliza, it was an easy friendship, she knew her pecking order in the pack was beneath me but she was dominant enough to give me crap, which I appreciated.

“Could you drop out?” I asked her. “You’re injured.”

She laughed. “You think they care about an injury? A drop-out is the same as forfeit. I’ll be killed and seen as bringing shame to the whole pack. The king’s pack.”

I lost my appetite then, feeling sick thinking about the possibility of eventually having to fight Eliza.

“Thanks for the food. I should probably go.” I suddenly didn’t want to be here, bonding with her only to be pitted against each other another day.

She looked sad but nodded, handing me a glass of water to wash all the food down. I drank it and thanked her, leaving out the door to her apartment.

SEVEN

As I walked the halls of the castle I couldn’t stop thinking about Eliza. Stupid Zara. I should have told her to pound sand the first day I met her. I never should have helped her win her fights or given her advice. And I never should have made her pack. Now I was stuck with her. The best part about the Queen Trials was that there was only one person per pack and you didn’t know any of them. It was easier to kill people you didn’t know. Like Ivanna.

I was so stuck in my head that I realized I was now lost. I’d gone the wrong way and turned to retrace my steps when I slammed into someone’s chest.

Axil.

My whole body froze.