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“You decided?” Nikandr asked, surprised.
“Didn’t you decide too?” Avenel asked in return. “I mean, Jorgen and Hati found you in a bad state, but didn’t they give you the chance to say no to becoming their pups?”
Kliment and Nikandr exchanged looks as if they’d never considered it before and needed to give the matter some thought.
“I suppose we did choose, in a way,” Kliment said. “Or maybe it would be better to say there really wasn’t any choice. Death or being a pup.” He shrugged as though that explained everything.
“But if you wanted to be released from pupdom, could you be?” I asked. It was more of a question than met the eye. I was suddenly curious about what the rules of pupdom were in Jorgen and Hati’s eyes, because whatever they believed about it would be the way everyone else in their kingdom behaved.
Again, Kliment and Nikandr stared at each other while they thought about it.
“I suppose they would?” Kliment said, still looking at Nikandr. When Nikandr nodded, Kliment glanced to me and Avenel. “I don’t think they would hold either of us against our will. But that’s not really an issue, because both of us very much want to be right where we are.”
“It’s so much safer than trying to make it on our own in these turbulent times,” Nikandr agreed. “And the sex is amazing.” His face went bright pink at the confession.
Kliment giggled along with him, and he had just opened his mouth to add more when there was a loud banging on the door.
“Sebald!” a booming, male voice sounded through the door. “Sebald, come out! I know you’re in there, and I know you have Premila with you!”
I froze at the anger in the man’s voice—it had to be Barthold—and my heart instantly beat three times as fast. Men shouting, angry, yelling…it was never a good thing. Panic reached up and gripped my throat. I felt sick. I wanted to cry. Without thinking, I clasped a hand to my neck, feeling the collar. I couldn’t let them take me again. I couldn’t go through the pain and the torture and the humiliation again. I couldn’t let myself be caught and beaten and—
“Gennadi, are you alright?” Kliment asked softly.
I blinked and discovered he was kneeling beside my chair, grasping my arm. Nikandr stood on the other side, hands out in front of him, like he would grab me, but wasn’t certain that was the best thing to do.
“—not here, so you should go away,” Avenel spoke by the door.
I blinked again and forced myself to take a breath and assess the situation. The front door was open, and a burly man several inches taller than Avenel had pushed his way into the cottage’s main room. He was red-faced and panting, as if he’d run the whole way to the cottage. His anger was palpable as he glanced around the room. He glared at Avenel, but I felt a degree of wariness from him where me, Kliment, and Nikandr were concerned.
Avenel stood his ground just out of Barthold’s arm’s reach, though he’d lost some of his color. “Premila isn’t here either,” he added, his voice sounding small and soft compared to Barthold’s louder growl.
“You’re lying,” Barthold said, huffing his breaths. “She has nowhere else to go, no other friends in this city. She can only be here. Premila!” Barthold pushed past Avenel and rushed into the kitchen. “Premila! I know you’re here!”
The moment Barthold disappeared around the corner, I pushed myself to stand. “Run next door and tell Ox and Katrina,” I whispered to Kliment.
Kliment stood as well, nodded, and rushed out the back door.
I turned to Nikandr. “Do you think you can find your way to the palace to fetch Sebald?”
Nikandr sucked in a breath, like I was asking him something big and frightening, but he nodded and immediately moved to the door.
“Fetch Jace too,” I added. Jace was strong, sometimes murderous. He would be able to scare Barthold away even more than Magnus or Jorgen, both of whom needed to stay at the meetings.
“Premila!” Barthold hollered, storming back into the main room. “You can’t hide her forever.”
Barthold pushed right past Avenel, nearly knocking him over, as he marched toward the stairs.
I rushed to catch Avenel as he stumbled.
“I feel like I should stop him from invading our home,” Avenel told me quietly as we both followed Barthold up the stairs with our eyes only. “But he’s not going to find anything, and getting in his way might end with someone being hurt.”
“I agree,” I said. I glanced around, made a decision, then drew Avenel to the door. “I don’t like it either, but we need to wait this out. Help is coming.”
