AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I added, “In the extremely unlikely situation of us deciding we want to be together, I wouldn’t be willing to do so in hiding. I was trapped for far too long to let the fear of someone’s reaction hold me captive.”
His expression darkened. “Trapped?”
I supposed I’d have to tell him about my past after all. I found myself actuallywantingto tell him some of it, though.
“The tower you found me in was my prison. My mother ran the town, and she made sure I was kept starving and locked away so I could keep growing food for everyone.”
His expression grew murderous. “I would’ve killed all of them if I’d realized. I thought the tower and guards were for your safety.”
“They were for thetown’ssafety. To keep everyone else from trying to steal their food source, and to make sure I wouldn’t get more than a few feet away if I tried to escape on my own.”
I scooped another bite of the cake. It was probably the best thing I’d ever tasted, and I’d had some incredible things in the time I’d been in Jirev.
“As soon as I’m free of the beast, I’ll return to your town with a few of my warriors and end them all,” he said. Though his voice was calm, I believed him completely.
“I don’t want you to kill them all. The worst punishment would be to force them to relearn how to grow their own plants. But my plants shouldn’t be too hard to tend to—and the town has so much money from selling my food that I don’t think they’ll even need to start any new farms. You should see the size of the gemstones the women have started wearing. A lot of them would’ve been big enough to feed the whole town with for months, before my magic came in.”
“Then we’ll burn your plants down, steal their money, and take their finery for ourselves,” Kierden said bluntly.
My lips curved upward. “I appreciate that, but I don’t want the kids in town to suffer. They don’t know anything about the kind of hard work we put in before I was locked in the tower.”
“Then they’ll have to learn. Even if you leave them your plants and the gemstones you bought them, eventually, the money will run out. With the way humans age, it’ll be the children in a few generations who suffer if you leave the plants, not the ones who wronged you. How long did they hold you?”
I grimaced. “Nine years.”
His scowl deepened, his anger rising. “Theywillsuffer for it. I’ll ask a few warriors to remain in the Broken Woods to make sure the children don’t go hungry, but the ones old enough to make a conscious decision to use you will pay.”
“I just want to be done with my past, Kierden. I don’t want to go back there for any reason, including revenge.”
“Then you’ll remain here, while I deal with it.” He wasn’t fazed even slightly by my reluctance.
“Alright.” I leaned back against the wall.
He reached over, maneuvered my hand back to the cake, and scooped more food with my utensil.
We ate quietly for a bit, and my mind returned to what I’d said earlier about how I wasn’t willing to be his secret mate. Kierden hadn’t acknowledged that refusal—and I suspected it was because he had no solution for it.
Ultimately, nothing he’d ever said or done led me to believe he was willing to risk my life.
That put us in an impossible situation. The only way not to risk our lives was to keep any actual feelings for each other a secret.
According to Kierden, his people seemed to have accepted it when he told them that the bond was only to protect him from the Beast. That certainly didn’t mean they would accept him taking me as a permanent mate.
“You didn’t mention your father,” Kierden remarked as I finished up with my food. I hadn’t made it through everything he gave me, but I’d made a dent in it.
“I haven’t,” I agreed.
He waited.
I took another bite.
And another.
“You’ll tell me eventually,” he finally said.
Maybe he was right.
I guess that depended on what we decided to do when we were finally forced to make a decision about our mate bond.
