“She looked alone and desperate. Broken by whatever had happened, and I saw myself.” I link my fingers. “What is a bloodkin?”
He stands, walking over to me, the tip of his spear pressing underneath my chin. So much fury dances in his eyes, but it’s more than that—it’s grief. “It’s a name for a wolf who kills their family in cold blood.”
“Orion, back off,” Blackfire growls, leaves flying in the air around his feet as he stomps over to us. He grabs the spear and throws it straight into the forest, so hard that I can’t even see it anymore, but I hear it smash into something. “Enough.”
Orion sighs, not at all bothered about Blackfire. “We were just getting to know each other.”
“Enough taunting the human. We need her as bait. She’ll draw everyone out and make it easier for us to find them.” Blackfire reminds me once again that he isn’t protecting me because he is a good guy. I rub the mark on my neck, and I swear he flinches as he watches me.
“I can make her scream,” Orion offers, his voice dripping with darkness.
“Fuck off, you’re both scaring her, and right now, she isn’t needed as bait.” Reed appears out of nowhere, and I didn’t hear his footsteps at all. My stomach turns when I see his hands have blood all over them again and he is holding a plate of cooked meats. “We can’t have you starving when you’re going to need to keep up with us. We want to find high ground and somewhere safer than this, which means we will walk until nightfall.” Are none of them going to suggest finding our selected? Not even Reed? “I hunted a rabbit for you.”
“Erm. What about our selected?” I gulp, taking the makeshift stick plate off him and trying to change the subject. He doesn’t answer me. He must have made the plate for me. I don’t know at what point I should tell him I don’t eat meat, and anytime I’ve tried, I just throw it up and feel sick for days. It’s always been a problem for me, and more often than not, I’ve starved even with meat available to eat. My body doesn’t accept it, and evenlooking at the meat makes me feel sick at this point. I wait for him to walk off, but he doesn’t; he stands and waits. “Are you going to watch me eat?”
“Yes.” His voice is firm. “Now eat, little human. Let us worry about finding our selected once we have found somewhere safe. The monsters are unexpected.”
Dammit. “I’m not going to eat this. I’m sorry.”
Reed tenses, glaring down at me. His voice is clipped. “Why?”
I go to tell him, to explain, but Orion’s cruel voice cuts through the air like a knife, and I freeze. My body stops responding and my ears whistle, my heart racing loud. “Because she is a spoilt human princess who won’t eat rabbit because it must be beneath her. She has clearly used her good looks to get whatever she wants from men, and now she only wants the best. She is a brat, just like Blackfire told us. Leave her to starve and don’t bother, Reed.”
My jaw clenches, and I tell myself not to cry, not to let his assumption of me hurt, but it strangely does. Yet my mouth doesn’t open to defend myself, and I feel like I’m frozen to the spot, seeing another man called Eli telling me that I was spoiled by him and I deserved everything I got as his fire… I shake my head of that memory.Eli isn’t here; he is long gone, and I’m safe.
A tic appears in Reed’s jaw, and he stares for a long moment before he walks away, giving up on me. He should do, I’m not worth it, and Ineverhave been. I learnt that early on in my life when the matron at my orphanage screamed it into my face.
Orion pats Reed’s shoulder, comforting him and glaring back at me. Blackfire is silent, leaning against a tree and looking up at the sky. My stupid eyes are wet as I stand up, taking the plate with me, and I walk far enough away that I feel safe. I set down my bag holding Tannith next to the plate of meat for her to enjoylater, and then I find somewhere quickly to relieve myself before running my fingers through my hair and trying to sort myself out a little.
Making my way back to Tannith, I come across a small puddle of water, wincing as I look at the absolute state that I’m in. My hair is stuck in every direction, a wavy mess, and the braid hangs limply down my shoulder. My clothes are covered in dried blood, mud, tiny rips, and I barely see myself under it all. It would be embarrassing to womankind to die looking this gross, and yet I can’t find any strength to clean myself with the puddle water.
Tannith yawns, poking her head out of the bag, climbing up my arm when I sit next to her. She quietly eats half of the meat, and I put the rest in the bag for her to snack on.
“That Orion boy really likes you,” she whispers in my ear.
“No. No, he doesn’t. You’ve completely gone mad,” I mutter. “I should have just told them I can’t eat meat and that I’d look for my own food. I don’t need their help.”
Tannith’s scales tickle my ear. “Yes, you should have stood up for yourself and not frozen. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you freeze like that, and I hate them for causing it. Oh, and Ori-boy does like you. I feel the vibes, but I’ll still kill him if he hurts you.”
“He really doesn’t,” I protest, wanting to change the subject. Tannith is the only one who can ever get through to me when I freeze and my words just leave. It’s almost like I can’t talk, I can’t move, and my body ignores me.
She laughs and wraps her tail around my neck, almost choking me. It’s a loving choke…I think. “Everyone knows that responding to sarcasm with sarcasm is another way of saying ‘I want to fuck you.’”
“No one says that!”
“Yes, they do,” she whispers back. “Go ride that wolf! It will make this whole trip much better because we can talk about itafter, and the tension will be gone. It smells weird when I’m a drake and all my senses are heightened.”
“One, he is a psychopath and insane. Two, he wants to kill me. Three, and I can’t stress this enough, we are not on a fun forest holiday. We are literally fighting to stay alive. Well, I am. You’re napping,” I deadpan, trying to make her be reasonable.
“Exactly, you could die any moment, and that wolf has the body of a god, and I bet he’d fuck like one too?—”
“Please stop talking. I’m certain they can hear you now, and they are laughing,” I mutter, hearing three pairs of footsteps getting closer, and they are laughing between themselves.
She sniffles. “Everyone is boring and stressed out. I’m going to take a nap.”
I groan, slamming my head back against the tree. Hard. I wait a second, hoping I’ve knocked myself out, but I haven’t. Sigh. I try again.
“Why is the human slamming her head against the tree?” Orion questions, and I stop. Reed is staring at me like I’m a puzzle he can’t figure out, and Blackfire looks so stressed the poor baby might end up having a heart attack.
