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“I said, stop calling me that,” she retorted without looking at me, the sun rising higher in the sky.
I broke into a small sweat as we kept up a strong pace, heading toward a thick of trees which I now recognized—the far end of the Bellewoods. The very far end.
“It’s going to take us all day to walk back to Silverhold Tower from here,” I informed her.
“No one will look for us in the woods,” she reassured me. “It’s the safest way home.”
“Tomyhome,” I barked angrily. “Your home is with the Order of Souls.”
She stopped at the lip of the forest and faced me, her expression miserable. “I didn’t know,” she insisted. “If I’d known—”
“I don’t want to do this with you, Grendel.”
“Please stop calling me that.”
Ignoring her, I marched through the entrance of the woods, heading down the pathway toward the castle, which was still quite far. It would take us well into the evening to get there. I wasn’t wasting any more time listening to her excuses. I’d spent more than enough time being an idiot. My main concern now was returning home and determining how to regain my shifting abilities.
Chapter4
Mirielle
So many times during our trek, I wanted to stop and break down. I longed to throw my arms around Zen’s neck and beg and plead with him to hear me, really listen to me. I couldn’t blame him for being angry with me, feeling betrayed. But I was betrayed and hurt, too, by Agnan, by the world that had left me to fend for myself when I had no one else.
Of course, Zen wouldn’t hear any of it, not now, and probably not ever again. If anything, he only seemed to be growing more agitated with every mile we walked, his nerves fraying more as he came to terms with the fact that he wasn’t able to shift and that I was partially responsible for what had happened.
I’d been so very wrong about it all.
“What did he do? What is this spell?” he asked me again. “Why can’t you undo it?”
“I don’t know how right now,” I sputtered for the third time.
I couldn’t explain it to him when he was like this. He needed to be more rational, and nothing I could say would make him so.
“What do you mean, ‘right now’? Are you holding it over my head?”
He stopped again, the two of us in the thick of trees and brambles now, my breaths escaping in short, uneven rasps. I desperately needed water to drink, but I had no idea where the closest stream was from where we were, and I was afraid to ask Zen.
“I mean… I don’t know if I can,” I backtracked, answering him honestly.
“Well, which is it, Grendel—”
“Please, Zen—”
“ALPHA!”
“If you want me to call you Alpha, you’re going to have to respect my wishes and call me Mirielle,” I shot back angrily, my own nerves fried.
We’d been walking for hours, the sun sinking lower over the trees now and sweat drenching both of our faces despite the shade that the woods were providing.
“It’s not the same,” he grumbled, starting back through the thicket. “I’m really the king. You’re… I don’t know who the hell you are anymore.”
“If you’d let me explain—”
He jerked his head back toward me. “Why? So you can lie to me some more?”
“I really didn’t know who I was until Agnan showed up at the castle and removed the blocker from my mind,” I insisted.
Zen grunted in disbelief.
