Chapter
Nine
CORDELIA
“You’ll go south and find my sister. Jazzy is her name. She lives in Red River, that’s a shifter town. It’s Bloodstone territory. I’d feel better about sending you back to your pack, knowing there’s someone you can go to. If you run into any trouble out that way you just ask for Jazzy and she’ll find you.”
Bloodstone territory.
I bite my lip so hard it nearly bleeds when she mentions the home I’ve only heard of. When things were really bad I used to daydream about escaping from here and running away to Bloodstone territory, but reality always had a way of digging its claws into me and dragging me back to Frostclaw.
There was never any escaping Frostclaw Pack. At least, not until tonight when I was banished.
“There’s shifter towns? Like…with humans?”
In all my dreaming I don’t know why I didn’t think there would be full on shifter towns. Yes, we have the village but that’s Pack territory. We never have humans here. Humans are an entirely new experience I’ve only interacted with on supply runsand then it’s just been in passing when I’ve bought something with Maud.
“Oh yes. Growing up here you’ve been…” she pauses and gives my hand a pat, “sheltered,” she says after a second. We’re sitting at the table with cups of tea. I try not to think about the fact that I won’t do this with Maud ever again but no matter how hard I try there’s a bittersweet flavor to our night. I grab her hand tightly while she goes on speaking.
“There’s a whole world of shifters out there, Cordelia. You’ll find more than a few shifter towns out that way. You could settle in any of them if you wanted. If Red River isn’t to your liking there’s also Oak Fast out that way, nice little place but it’s more bear territory than wolves, and you know how they can be.”
I crack a smile. “Big and dumb.” I’ve never met a bear. I’m just saying what I’ve heard in the village. I can’t wait to meet a bear to see how they really are.
“Exactly. Wolves would be best, and if you wanted to return home you could finally do it.”
My heart beats so hard that I think Maud might be able to hear it. I didn’t want to ask after my pack. Couldn’t bring myself to do it for fear of what Maud might say. I find the courage to ask now that I have the chance to well and truly go home.
“I-Is there anything left?”
In all of Alpha Ashford’s history lessons on Bloodstone and the Crimson Winter the only mention of Bloodstone Pack was the Frostclaw Pack’s victory over them. All the others taken with me were too young to know anything about the pack just like I was. As hard as I try, I can’t remember anything about my life before I came to Frostclaw. I grip her hand tighter while I remember the speech Alpha Ashford gave the very first night he threw us all in front of the pack in the village square.
“Those that would stand before us have been destroyed utterly and completely. Their territory no longer exists. Nonewill ever challenge us again. Let that be a lesson to those who challenge us! The Bloodstone filth has been wiped from this world save for these disgusting wretches.”
We’d huddled together in the square while the pack had crowded in around us. Everywhere I looked I saw angry and mean faces. I’d been so terrified that night. I was convinced I was going to die. Why else would they have brought us in front of everyone like that when it was clear they didn’t want us there?
That night of terror was one of many. I don’t know how long it went on for, but it followed the same routine. All of us terrified orphans were together with a few she-wolves watching over us during the day as we were shuffled along through meals, and then finally out to the village square to face the pack. Until one night things changed. Instead of forcing us back into the dorms to sleep they’d seperated us.
I’d been sobbing along with the other children before the Alpha had grabbed me by my arm so hard that I saw stars from the pain. When I’d looked back I’d seen the others dragged off by different adults. They were dividing us up how they pleased, but where was I going? He’d dragged me along behind him through the village and out to the woods and finally to Maud’s hut.
I’d run to her without thinking the second her door opened. Maud had taken me in that night like she’d been expecting me, with a set of new clothes, a hot dinner and just like tonight, a steaming hot bath and a cup of tea before bed. I looked down at the cup in front of me. It was the same tea she’d given me that night. Fitting that I was drinking it now on my last night in Frostclaw territory.
My last night before I try to go home. What is my home like now? No matter how hard I try, I can’t remember a single thing about it. Except for one memory. My shoulders get tight and I hunch in on myself just like I always do when I probe at the edges of that memory. I’m holding my mother’s hand whileshe runs with me through the fire that had swept through our home. I can’t see her face. She’s always turned away from me, pointing ahead as we run. All around us the entire village burns. I’m holding so tight to my mother’s hand until I lose her. I don’t know where it happens or how but I’m alone and running down a long hallway. A man comes into view, I know he’s bad. He’s one of the Frostclaw Enforcers. I see red and I go for right fo the man. I try to hurt him.
I want to hurt him. The only thing I remember more than that are the screams.
The fire in the hearth pops and I jump.
“Are you all right?” Maud asks, giving me a curious look.
I pull my hand away from hers and push away the memories of Bloodstone. “I-fine. Yeah, I-I’m fine.” I give her a tight smile. “Ah, so Bloodstone territory. You said there’s still a pack there?” I get up from the table and go to the clothes Maud has laid out for me. Thick wool socks and a flannel nightdress worn so soft from use. I dress while Maud talks.
Maud hums. “And a thriving one at that.”
Surprise shoots through me at her words. What Maud is saying is beyond my wildest dreams. Not only is my home not destroyed butit’s thriving.What if my home is waiting for me? What if it’s not the wasteland the Alpha said it was?
I rush back to take my seat at the table. “But Alpha Ashford always said-”
“That what? It was decimated? Laid to waste and nothing ever shall grow there again?” Maud snorts and refreshes my tea for me. “He lied. It’s in his nature to be deceitful but that’s his role to play in all of this, Cordelia. His wolf is wrong, do you hear me? He’s greedy and mean. Nothing at all like what a leader should be. He’s not fit to be Alpha.”
