The North

Chapter 3

Do you trust the Alpha?

Chapter 3
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Warmth enveloped me.
I snuggled closer to the softness that tickled my cheek and wrapped all around me. Fur, I realised, as I sunk my fingers deep into the soft bristles of a reindeer pelt, its heady musk filling every inhale. Groggily, I forced myself to push away the urge to sink back into sleep and peeled my eyes open.

Had I hunted, or found somewhere warm to sleep in the blizzard?
I sat up in a panic and the world swayed and tipped dangerously, blurring in and out of focus too much to make out more of my surroundings. My hand flew to mouth as my stomach heaved. This felt as bad as being back in the ship with swelling waves knocking me to and froe. But it wasn’t the timber walls of a ship that stood out once I’d settled, but of cold stone.

The room which I found myself in bore no resemblance to the tavern where I’d left my family. The bed was far larger and sturdier than those there too, piled high with lush pillows and grey furs. A crackling fire burned steadily in a hearth set deep into the far wall, and the only other things if note were a pale of water and a cup sat on top of a wooden stool.

Where was I?

I rubbed my pounding head, raking at my memories for some clue. However, after thinking I’d seen a female in the snow, I couldn’t remember a thing. Only the Gods knew if I was now amongst the wolves I was searching for, or whether it had been unsuspecting humans whom had stumbled across my freezing body. There was nothing to tell me any clue. Yet, it didn’t matter who awaited me outside this room; for if they’d been willing to help me, perhaps they would be willing to help my pack too.

The weight of my task, the reason I’d stumbled so deep into the snow, settled heavily on my shoulders.
I shoved the furs away, pausing at the sight of an unfamiliar dress hanging off my skeletal frame. Earthy green and thin, it smelt fresh and unmasked by the scent of another. Someone taken great care of me. Brushing my fingers over pale skin, I took time to notice it had been scrubbed clean, and that my hair hung loose and brushed around my shoulders.

Remembering the horrid sound of snapping bone, I yanked up the dress with baited breath. It wasn’t bone peeking through skin I found, though it should have been. An ugly black bruise encircled a pink wound in the middle of my shin, two inches long and around an inch wide. I hummed, prodding the wound experimentally, and was rewarded with a dull ache. Another mystery to add to my growing list. I’d never met a healer so proficient as to mend bone broken through skin so quickly.

Shuffling my legs off the bed, cold stone chilled my bare feet. I clung onto the edge of the bed while I tested weight on both legs. I winced at the sharp pain that shot up and even somehow tingled in my fingers. I could bare it though; I had to.

Strength of will, or maybe stubbornness, carried me over to the sturdy door. A small part of my worried about what I would do if I found it locked, but all thoughts of perhaps being a prisoner faded when a click resounded, and it swung open. It screeched and scraped loudly on its hinges, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end.

If nobody had heard me moving about before, they would surely be alerted to my being awake now.
A long hall spread out either side of me. The same gloomy grey stone was darkened by flickering shadows from the few lit scones lining the walls. I’d never known wolves to call such a place home but the lone wolf I’d met had said they’d taken over an old human king's residence. It certainly belonged to someone of note at some point if the size was anything to go by. Every sound seemed to bounce and echo ever on and disorientated me.