“It’ll be okay.” He spoke calmly, his voice a much-needed balm to the senses.
No, it wouldn’t.
Trembling, I sat forward, resting my elbows on my thighs. “I have to get out of here.”
Poor Silvanus. The pain he must be feeling right now, the pure, unadulterated sorrow. I’d known my fair share of it, but on that scale? By Aidan, I couldn’t even begin to imagine it.
Caer! Not Aidan! Anything but that fucking name!
I leaned back on my hands, gnawing on my bottom lip.
“Are you okay?” the alpha wolf asked.
Since when did feral wolves behave this way? This lot weren’t acting like those wolves in the violent tales. My guts should be hanging from a tree, for starters.
“I’m so confused,” I said to Declan.
Yeah, understatement of the year.
Fellow executioner, really?
The alpha lowered his arse to the cave floor, sitting cross-legged. “Not what you were expecting?” He pointed at himself, offering a big grin.
“I expected to be mauled.”
A couple of wolves snorted.
“We’ve both got some stories to tell here,” the alpha said.
“I’ll say.”
“But tell me your name first,” he added.
I saw no reason not to after they’d saved me from the cold and Aidan. “Paris Raine. As you said, fellow executioner. Did you smell it on me?” I’d heard of wolf-born executioners doing that.
He nodded. “Along with honey.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “An elf thing.”
He chuckled. “Well, I’m Declan Carne. Nice to meet you.” We shook hands, which made my toes tingle a little.
Weird. And his calloused palms shouldn’t be stirring my skin cells.
“So, tell me what you’re doing here,” he said. “And who is that man calling himself Aidan?” A growl rumbled from him. “How could someone like that share a name with our blessed deity?”
The others all agreed enthusiastically.
Hmmm. Where to go with this? If I tried telling them their precious Aidan was a piece of shit, it likely wouldn’t go down well. My insides might well end up painting the cave walls if I didn’t tread carefully.
Damn. I really needed to get into the Carving Glade.
Rather than tell the truth, I spun a lie about some fucked-up mage cursing me with a spell that kept me alive and him getting off on taking me out repeatedly until the spell played out.
Oof. I only hoped they swallowed bullshit easily.
“We saw you die,” the same woman from before spoke. “So that’s what was happening, was it?”
Jenny. Also an executioner, and beta wolf to Declan.
