AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Uli sent a search party looking for you. We’ve all been very worried. But at least you found your way home.”
“Yes.” I sigh heavily, and a weight lifts off my shoulders. “I am glad we have made it home.”
We gather up the half-cooked food, and the orcs show us the rest of the way home.
“We’ll finish cooking it at the camp. Nothing goes wasted,” Ezren assures Amara whose face brightens at his words.
Uli is waiting for us at the camp. My eyes widen when I see that Fever is sitting quietly at his side.
“Brother! We prayed to all the Gods and Goddesses for your safe return! We kept all our fires burning every day and every night to give you a way home!”
He pulls me into an even rougher hug than Ezren did.
Thank the Gods my wound no longer hurts,I think gratefully.
“I’m glad to be back, brother,” I say with a smile, and Uli’s eyes widen.
“Who has softened you so?” he asks me in a low voice.
I look over to Amara. “My love. Amara. The wolf girl. I want her to be my mate,” I tell him. I am looking for his blessing more than anything else.
Uli claps me on the back and throws his head back and laughs loudly.
“The more the merrier, brother! I look forward to having a new sister. I have always thought our family was too masculine! Besides, my own mate will be happy to have the company of another human.”
He points to a young woman he calls Julie who has pulled Amara to the side. The two women are talking excitedly.
After a while, I pull Amara to the side and ask her the question I have been waiting to ask for weeks.
“Will you be my mate?”
“Yes. Of course.” Her eyes shine with happiness, and I bring her over to Uli to introduce them properly to one another.
Uli asks Amara several questions and eventually declares that she’ll be the second Healer in the camp.
Then we show her around the camp until Amara starts to sag from exhaustion. The wolves have disappeared into the darkness at her command.
I lift her into my arms and carry her into the little structure that I have called home for so long.
“We’re finally home,” I tell her, but when I look at her, she is fast asleep.
31
AMARA
Settling into my new life in the Risen Ash clan camp is difficult at first. I have spent so much of my life in solitude with only sporadic human contact that being surrounded by the orcs and Julie all the time is disconcerting.
I think the rest of the pack has also had a hard time being surrounded by so much noise and activity.
In our first few days of living in the clan’s camp, the wolves spend a lot of their time in the forests surrounding the camp.
And while I enjoy joining in with the clan’s activities, I find myself taking several long walks every day during my first week with the Risen Ash clan.
“It’s a lot, isn’t it?”
“What?” I look up at Julie who is looking at me with sympathy on her face. She is on the other side of the long table in her home, which she has invited me to. Probably because I keep taking so many walks and avoiding her.
“Living here is just… When I first got here, fitting in and adjusting to this kind of society was difficult. Kian and Uli have told me some of your background, I hope you don’t mind.”
