Chapter 4

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Are there any myths and legends you were told as a child that you still love to hear?

Chapter 4


Bread crumbled beneath my fingers, sodden in the warm broth I'd been wolfing down in giant gulps. It melted away the last of the ice that had clung to my bones but my hunger refused to be sated. Even after I'd eaten enough venison to get me through the winter, alongside vegetables I'd never seen before, and oh so much bread, I gorged on.

Cooks tittered in quiet conversation as they cleaned up from the evening meal in the large stone kitchens down in the belly of the castle. Astrid, the blue-eyed, blonde-haired female who had been the one to watch over me while I slept, studied me intently. She didn't judge my ravenous hunger, nor had she wasted time trying to talk until I nearly choked on a mouthful of water.

"Slow down." She shook her head gently. "You won't go hungry again, not now you're under our care."

I glanced over at her, wiping my mouth with the sleeve of my dress; an act that had the older female grimacing in dismay. Little did she understand, that despite the promise made by her Alpha, I couldn't be certain we'd be taken in. At least, I wouldn't, and couldn't allow myself to believe it, until we were all back here.

Slowing down as she suggested, I decided I'd possibly eaten far more than I should have as an ache stabbed into my side.

"Thank you for feeding me," I said, wiping my hands clean on my lap.

She smiled brightly, all sense of dismay fading in the blink of an eye. "Of course! I tried to get you to eat when you first arrived here, but you were hallucinating so badly with the cold. Alpha Hati thought it was best to let you rest. You're lucky he caught your scent while we were hunting."

Astrid frowned at me when her words made me clench my jaw in further infuriation with the male. She'd clearly expected a different reaction, but to hear he'd been the one to find me, that he'd seen how close to deaths door I'd been and still made me wait to see him, and then acted so coldly. . .

My back prickled with awareness and I whipped around on the bench to see the Alpha himself blocking the doorway with his bulk. I swallowed harshly and felt my cheeks heat as golden eyes took in the mess of food remains and spilt broth on the wooden table.

"You've eaten your fill, little Alpha?" There was no inflection of teasing in his words, but rather satisfaction as he nodded and folded his hands behind his back.

"Yes," I grit out hating the nickname that had stuck. He knew I felt about it, had admitted as much, and still he threw it out.

He held my glare with a passive expression, and Astrid had to break the silence.

"She's eaten about everything that was left over from this evening's meal. I don't doubt she'll do the same again, skinny thing needs it."

My blush deepened at that assessment, my gaze darting down to the table when Alpha Hati smirked.

"Did she now." He chuckled. "Will you find her something warmer to wear, she'll need boots too if she can stand them. We're going to ride to the coast with one of the carts."

"I have never ridden a horse before!" I protested quickly, feeling no small amount of unease.

"Then you can ride with Farrin. If your father is as injured as you say, and your pack weak, it will be safer and easier. We will draw less attention to us when we arrive at the port if we arrive as any other travelling humans would." His tone was firm and his eyes flashed a warning to accept his words as final.

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