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I thought it over, settling back against Draven with more comfort than I ever would’ve believed.
My entire history had been the word of Father Borodin. And I knew he was a liar.
Why did it seem so difficult to accept that everything I knew was a lie?
Maybe because my history was the one thing that kept me grounded. I knew what I had been brought into this world for; my entire life had revolved around it.
The idea that it had all been bullshit was almost too painful to contemplate. All that pain, all the suffering… for nothing.
For a lie that had been spoonfed to me since birth.
But even the Father had walked back his story the last time he’d held me in that basement. I’d never known my mother had been meant to marry and breed with a village man; I definitely hadn’t known that she’d been caught in the Wood with a Beast.
Unless that was a lie, too. One designed to make me believe I was worthless and shameful.
I couldn’t live on lies anymore.
But before I could ask Torr to tell me the truth, every muscle in my body locked up tight.
Ash was across the fire, staring at me through the flames. His cold, pale eyes reflected the light like it was hellfire.
My lungs didn’t want to work. All I could think of was how close he had come to killing us out in the Wood, and that he’d been right.
I’d tried to sacrifice myself for a man who would’ve happily watched me burn. When I was in Vostok, I was weak and compliant.
And he wanted me dead because of it.
“Ash,” Torr rumbled low in his throat.
The pale Beast’s lip curled in a sneer. “Fire nights are for everyone, Alpha. You cannot force me to leave.”
He settled himself in a crouch, still watching me. The flames dancing between us made him look more sinister than ever.
I decided right then and there that I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of fearing him. Rationally I knew he could take my head off with one swipe, but if Torr really believed I was meant to be here, then Ash couldn’t make me leave, either.
I stared back. We could have this stand-off all night, if necessary.
A cold grin spread across his features, and he took a sliver of red, raw deer meat from the communal pot and began eating it as he watched me. Blood dripped over his fangs and he licked it away, almost suggestively.
I stared harder.You don’t frighten me.
He did, actually. But I would not allow him to know that.
“As long as you keep your mouth shut.” If anything, Torr was glaring even more coldly than I was.
Ash took another bite, still grinning.
One of the Beasts was carrying the pot around, ensuring all the others had their share of meat. When it came to us, Torr took a handful, and so did Draven.
I did not. The idea of eating raw, still-bloody meat turned my stomach. But I blinked, and Torr’s hand was in front of my face, holding a sliver of it to my mouth.
“Eat, little one,” he said gently.
I stared at the bloody meat. “I… can’t.”
Torr sat back on his haunches, both ears flattening. “I give you meat from my own hand,” he said, affronted.
“I need to at least cook it first. Humans get sick if they eat it raw.”
