Oh well.
Cyrus casually took a seat at an empty table as if my outburst was an everyday occurrence and I joined him.
Good girl, he hand signed and I grinned as I began to wolf down my food. I ate like a wild animal, half starved. I had skipped breakfast and lunch and other than snacking on a few strips of smoked meat, this was the only meal I’d had all day.
As I was tearing into a tender piece of elkin meat, a sturdy blonde wearing a blue dress sat next to me. She reeked of floral perfume, which my wolven nose hated, and she wore far too much makeup. The number twenty-four was pinned to her chest.
“Welcome. My name is Eliza Green of Death Mountain pack. I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself before we all try to kill each other tomorrow.” She gave a nervous chuckle.
I said nothing, continuing my meal.
“Wow. You really showed that girl who is boss. I don’t even know if we are allowed to start fighting yet, but that was pretty cool,” she added.
My gaze flicked up from my food and held her blue eyes as we locked in a stare. I was a good reader of people: this girl was way too nice to survive this thing. And she wasn’t being calculating, like trying to make an alliance only to kill me later. That did happen. There was a sweetness in her voice, along with an underlying nervousness. She was innocent.
“I’m probably going to be one of the first to go,” she prattled on. “But at least I’ll make my family proud, right? Sorry, I talk a lot when I’m nervous.”
Cyrus snapped his fingers and I looked at him.
Don’t make friends.
I nodded, but I also didn’t want this girl to be the first to go.
“Do you want to die tomorrow?” I asked her flatly.
She froze at my words, maybe because it was the first thing I’d said after she introduced herself so nicely.
“Of course not. I want to make my pack proud. This is my home turf,” she replied seriously.
I dipped my chin and then leaned in closely. “Then stop being so nice to people. In fact, I want you to spit in the face of the next person that talks to you.”
She looked appalled at that and Cyrus reached out and pinched my thigh to stop me from helping her anymore.
“Now go away,” I snapped and a growl rose in her throat as she stood so fast that her chair fell back and crashed on the ground.
Now everyone was looking at us again.
Good.
I wanted them to remember the face that was going to be the last one they saw before they took their final breath.
I didn’t want to kill anyone, but this was our way. The chosen queen must be the strongest among us and that had to be proven in battle.
There was a motion at the front of the room and then everyone quieted and turned their attention that way.
I finished my bite and stood, trying to get a view of what or who they were looking at. The crowd parted and Axil Moon stepped into the room with his older brother Ansel and two advisors. The moment my gaze fell upon him, it was like I’d been kicked in the stomach. The air knocked out of me, my mouth popped open and it was like I was right back at the training camp all those years ago.
Axil Moon was no longer a boy, he was all man and I wasn’t prepared for it.
The sight pulled me suddenly into a memory of our time together at camp.
We’d been inseparable for a month and had gone swimming at the lake with our friends. I splashed the water playfully at fifteen-year-old Axil, causing him to grin, and do the same. I squealed when a ton of water doused my face and hair.
“Too far, Axil!” I growled and took off after him to retaliate. Our friends cheered me on as Axil swam quickly towards the floating tanning dock that bobbed in the center of the lake. We’d all been wrestling and sparring for a month. Axil knew I wouldn’t let him live this down without at least getting a good dunk in.
He laughed wildly as I struggled to keep up with him. He was a better swimmer than I was and he knew it. Our friends were now like little blips on the shoreline.
Axil reached the floating dock before me and I kicked harder, wincing when my leg cramped up sharply. I was a decent swimmer, but this lake was really deep and all of a sudden, I had to stop and tread water.
“Axil!” I screamed in panic: my playful anger at him was gone.
He took one look at me floundering and dove into the water, swimming for me harder than a fish.
My leg. Stupid cramp. I tried to keep my head above water, my wolf wanting to come out to protect us.
Suddenly Axil was there, hauling me into his arms. His eyes searched my face frantically. “What happened?” he asked as he pulled us towards the floating dock.
“My leg got a cramp,” I told him breathlessly as the panic left my system.
We reached the dock and he hauled me up, and I settled in his lap. He was holding the sides of my face, peering into my eyes with terror.
“I thought … Zara, I can’t ever lose you. I’m in love with you. Now. Forever. Always.”
The air was knocked out of my lungs.
“I love you too,” I murmured.
Reaching out, he stroked his thumb across my bottom lip and then I leaned forward and captured his mouth with a kiss. He opened his lips to deepen the kiss and our tongues intertwined as I leaned further into him. Since my parents had died, not a lot had made sense in this world. Why bad things happened to good people. Why I’d had such a hard life while others had it easy. But being here now with Axil, wrapped in the safety of his arms, it felt so right. It felt like home.
My brother cleared his throat next to me, pulling me out of the memory and back to the room at Death Mountain. I blushed, giving him an apologetic smile and then looked next to Axil to see Ansel Moon.
His older brother walked with a permanent limp, the only reminder of their fight for alpha king two years ago. Axil had won and now I saw why. He was a head taller than Ansel and bigger too. Axil had a scruffy beard which framed his chiseled jaw and his blue eyes were like arrows seeking flesh as they scanned the room and stopped at me.
I looked away on instinct and found that the woman in the gold dress was watching me with a grin.
Damn. I’d shown my hand, unable to hide that I was affected by seeing the alpha king.
Hopefully she would think I just found him attractive and not that we had a history together.
I could feel Axil’s gaze on me and so I took the opportunity to take off my fur coat and showcase my lean chiseled arms and abdominal muscles. I was still just wearing a cloth strip over my breasts and the low-slung tight trousers made of elkin leather. My body was dotted with dried blood, dirt and fading bruises as my wolven healing took care of this morning’s wounds. I looked like a warrior, forged in fire and blood, a far cry from the girl he once knew at fifteen.
When I turned to face him, he was passing by our table and looked like he’d seen a ghost. I held his haunted gaze and tipped my chin up high as if to say that I no longer cared that he left me broken-hearted at the training camp all those years ago. I wanted him to think he was barely a memory to me, a wisp in my mind that had all but disappeared.
But I wasn’t prepared for the agony that crossed his features. Pure misery was etched into his face and I swallowed hard, trying to process why he would seem that way upon seeing me.
Did he recognize me? I had grown into a woman myself, but I was still the same brown-haired girl he’d asked to dance with at camp.