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“Because you want the crown of Igella! Because you’re a terrible person, who-who lies! I hate you!”
“The feeling is mutual,” he said calmly, but I could hear the anger in his voice. “How can you expect us to think you never knew any of this?”
“My mother died when I was only a few days old. If she was so powerful, why didn’t she prevent that?”
“Only the gods have power over life and death. Your grandfather tried to heal her, but he failed.”
“You seem to have the answers to everything, so I don’t suppose you require my input.”
He looked away, rather than give me an answer, and I was too cold and miserable to keep talking to him anyway. After a few more minutes had passed, however, he must have grown weary of my constant shivering and teeth chattering, because he picked me up bodily and turned me around to face him. I gasped and tried to reel backward, almost falling off the horse. I grabbed for the nearest object, which happened to be him, wrapping my arms around his waist.
He pulled me closer. “Good. Now stay there and be still,” he said.
“I’m afraid I’ll fall.”
“Keep your arms around me, damn it. I won’t let you fall.”
Huffing and puffing, I did as he asked, leaning against his chest. Secretly, I loved being so close to him. He wrapped his cloak around both of us, and I was immediately enveloped in his body heat, and I wasn’t alone in the dark anymore. It was so glorious and felt so good that I sagged against him, exhausted by all that had happened. I was asleep in only minutes.
Chapter Six
I awoke as dawn was breaking and Lexington was handing me down to Brandon. I pretended to still be asleep, because I couldn’t deal with any of them right then. I had way too much on my mind and way too many things had happened to me in the span of a short time for me to be able to process them all.
Brandon carried me over to a fire that Wyatt was feeding small sticks and branches into. He put me down on a bed of furs close to the fire and covered me with even more furs. I could hear the Alphas’ soft voices around me, and I found that it soothed me, though I had no idea why. Lexington had already said he was taking me “to be contained,” whatever the hell that meant. Nothing good, I was willing to bet. I was beginning to drift off to sleep when I felt Lexington lie down beside me under the covers. I peeped out from under my eyelashes to see Wyatt still building up the fire with his back to us, while Brandon and Asher were taking care of the horses. They were still talking in low voices.
I was glad it was light outside and besides I was toasty warm there under those furs with Lexington at my back, blasting me with his warmth, and I dozed off again immediately. Maybe a few hours later, I roused a bit and opened one eye to peek at my sleeping arrangements. The sun was up, but the light was still weak and dim, and thick clouds covered the sullen skies. I ducked back under the covers. Lexington was lying beside me, with one arm and leg thrown across me, and he was radiating heat. His scent was strong under the furs, musky and dominant, and fucking mouthwatering, though I couldn’t have said why. It comforted me, though there was no reason why it should after the things he’d said.
I flopped over onto my side to get away from it, but he hooked his arm back around my waist and pulled me back into him. My nostrils filled with his scent, so I inhaled deeply and gave up. My last conscious thought as I closed both eyes again, was that I never realized sleeping outside could be so comfortable.
The next time I woke up must have been close to late afternoon, with Lexington still plastered to me, and his arms around me. I was facing him this time and one of his hands was up under my cape and cupping my naked ass cheek—he hadn’t bothered with underthings when he put that horrible thing on me. He had one knee resting inside my thighs. Gods help me, I think I’d been riding that knee in my sleep, and my ass and thighs were damp with my slick. His face was no more than two inches away from mine, and his lips were so close that all I had to do was lean toward him ever so slightly and we’d be kissing.
Instead, I began to move away from him as slowly as I could, easing Lexington’s knee away and gently rolling him over onto his back. I pushed his hands off me so I could ease out from under him. I just kept scooting down under the furs until I felt my feet coming out the end and then twisted around and crawled out. When I first poked my head out, I saw Asher sitting by the fire, but I could hear snores coming from two figures rolled up in furs next to him. It must have been Wyatt and Brandon, making enough noise that Asher didn’t notice I had roused and was crawling out of the furs.
Not that I was trying to get away, because where the hell would I go? I was in the middle of who knew where with no money, no food and nowhere to run. But one thing was certain. I desperately had to pee.
Since they were all asleep, I didn’t have to go too far away—just behind a nearby tree to give myself a modicum of privacy. That was the plan anyway.
I didn’t want to deal with any of them yet, and I resented strongly the idea of asking their permission to relieve myself. I sneaked quietly past Wyatt and behind a big oak tree, and I gratefully relieved myself against the trunk of the tree. Navigating the heavy folds of the cape was a chore, but I managed to hoist up the hem and hold it out of the way.
When I finished, I wrestled the cape from hell back down, shivering with the cold, and that’s when I heard a tiny little peep coming from close by. It sounded like a baby bird, but what was a baby bird doing on the ground? I only had to search for a moment before I found it—a tiny, newly hatched one that hardly had feathers yet. It was lying on its side in the grass under the tree, and I thought it must have fallen out of its nest. It looked as if it were about to breathe its last, and I was overcome with pity.
“Oh, you poor thing,” I said softly, bending over it. I was afraid to touch it, because hadn’t I heard the servants say that if you touched a wild, baby bird, then their mothers wouldn’t have anything else to do with them and they’d die? I thought I’d heard that anyway. This poor little mite looked like it was almost dead already, so in the end, I picked it up carefully and let it lie in the palm of my hand, hoping I might be able to give it a little warmth and comfort as it died, at least.
As I knelt there, holding that little thing, I thought that if I could had been a witch—and I refused to think I could be an evil, nasty warlock like Lexington said I was—then I’d try to heal that baby bird. I wanted to save it and put it back in its nest. But it had stopped moving completely by then and was no longer making those tiny peeping sounds. I put a finger on its chest and felt it barely moving.
On a crazy whim, I decided why not give it a try? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, after all, and there could be some life left in the little bird yet. I closed my eyes and pictured the tiny thing waking up in my hand. It would blink its eyes and stretch out its little wings and… well, that was as far as I got, but I wanted that bird to wake up so much. I concentrated on that picture in my mind really hard until I felt a tiny movement in my hand. I was so excited my eyes flew open and the baby bird opened its eyes at the same time and looked right at me.
But its eyes were glowing red.
Horrified, I dropped it back down on the grass and jumped to my feet. The bird opened its little beak and let out a horrible, screechy squawk. It sounded like it came from some much larger bird of prey. More and more of those awful squawks came out of its mouth, and it began to beat its tiny wings. I yelled in alarm and did the only thing I could think of to do. I turned to run like the hounds of hell were after me and slammed right into a wall of hard flesh. That brought on an even louder shriek and before the sounds echoing through the forest could all die down, the clearing I was standing in was chock full of Alphas.
It was Asher who had reached me first, his face alarmed as he grabbed me and pushed me behind him, pivoting in a circle trying to spot my attacker. Before I could show him the bird thing, I was pulled back into Brandon and held tightly as Lexington rushed past us with his sword drawn, scanning the woods around us, back-to-back with Asher.
Meanwhile Birdzilla was still squawking on the ground by their feet. Finally, Wyatt looked down at it and then back up at me.
“This?This thing is what you were screaming about?”
“Yes! I-I thought it was a baby bird that fell from its nest, but it suddenly turned into a-a monster!”
