AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Thirteen
TALIA
Just as Bjorn promised, members of the House of the Bone Clan came to retrieve me. But instead of armed guards, two women had been assigned as my escorts and arrived at the kennel with fresh clothes and a foil wrapped plate of hot food.
Galen had been served the same meal as the sled dogs, one bowl half filled with scraps and another topped off with clean water.
I peeled the aluminum foil back, my mouth watering over the breakfast foods piled onto the plate, and crammed a buttered toast point into my mouth. I picked through the bacon, sausage links and country ham, and ate half of the portion; reserving the rest for Galen.
“Thanks.” I padded across the kennel floor and shoved food through the narrow steel bars of Galen’s cage.
“What are you doing?” One of the young women protested. She reached out but stopped short of touching me. “That food wasn’t prepared for him.”
“Do I look like I care?” I handed Galen the last of the bacon and a hash brown patty.
“No, your highness, you do not.” One of the older women spoke up, dipped her chin toward her chest and dropped into a half curtsey. “Please forgive, Erin. She spoke out of turn.”
Galen’s wide eyed expression mirrored my own.
‘Don’t call me that.” I rounded on the woman, who by my best guess was three times my age, and pointed my index finger at her. “I’m not your princess.”
“My apologies ma’am, but you are the Bone Clan heir whether you like it or not.” She tucked an errant strand of her salt and pepper hair behind her ear. “You cannot deny the title.”
“No?” I dropped the paper plate on the floor and charged toward her. “Let’s get something straight right now. I will never swear allegiance to your clan and I am not binding myself to your demon god. My mate, the one I chose, is sitting right there.”
“This is blasphemy.” The other woman, Erin, had ginger hair and a blotchy complexion. She clutched her gloved hand to her chest. “If the alpha were here-”
“I’d say everything I just did and more.” I had more than a few choice words for Bjorn and the rest of the Deofol pack.
“You bear the mark, Talia.” The woman, whose name I had yet to learn, tried to rationalize the situation and their position. “In fact, you bear not one, but two marks. This is your fate.”
“Yeah, like I haven’t heard that before.” I barked out a bitter laugh. “This isn’t the first time a wolf claimed to be my fated mate. It’s not even the second. So this demon wolf god is going to have to get in line. Which, for the record, starts and ends with Galen.”
“I don’t understand why she was chosen, Maria. Look at her.” Erin looked to her packmate for support. “She doesn’t deserve this.”
“Well, at least there’s one thing we can both agree on, Erin.” I spat out her name, knowing full well she hadn’t meant what she’d said the way I’d chosen to interpret it.
“Erin, please.” Maria raised her hands and let them fall at her sides with an exasperated sigh. “Just shut up. We can’t stand here arguing all day and you’re not going to change her mind anymore than she is yours.”
“Maybe you should be the one to shut up, Maria.”
The women glared at each other, animosity that probably went back more years than I’d been alive, simmered between them. If looks could kill, Maria and Erin would have dropped dead in the middle of the aisle.
Galen laughed, seeming to enjoy the show as he licked the bacon grease from his fingers.
“Are you going to come with us, or do we need to have one of the guards brought in?” Erin rested her hands on her rounded hips with a huff.
