Mistress looks at me, then at the humans, and back. Something like understanding flashes in her eyes. “If you let them clean you without fuss, I will order your lunch. You may also choose what food you would like.”
“Finally, a last meal. I knew I’d get one!” I clap my hands. She stares at me like I’m deranged. I’ve been this way forever, thank you very much. “I want chocolate cake and cheese. A milkshake would also be nice.” I nod, thinking to myself if I need anything else. “Oh, and fruit please! I also love mushroom soup. Wait, also whatever drakes like to eat. She used to love burgers as a human…”
She mutters something about the goddess helping her before walking out. “I will get you that strange request. Maybe not the soup; I do not believe they make that here.” She waves towards the humans. “Let them do what they’ve been told.”
I sigh as they come over to me and start peeling off my clothes, and I’m glad Mistress isn’t here to get a look at my body. My eyes turn to the mirror by the shower, and I see myself. Burn marks, all old now and looking like white ripples, cover my back, my arms and stomach. My stomach is the worst of it—the burns almost look like a pattern.
The burns on my stomach have been there for as long as I can remember, but what happened to me when I was eighteen made them worse. Ugly. That’s what he told me he would make of me as he burnt me. As I screamed. I guess he got what he wanted, because I can barely look at my body right now and not see how horrible the burn marks are. I immediately climb into the tub and sigh as I sink into the hot water, letting it soothe me and wash away the horrible memories of the past.
The next few hours are quite rightfully torturous. They do everything, pulling and scrubbing at my hair until the water no longer runs completely black and red. They have to refill the bath three times for it to stay clean. Eventually though, I get out in a fluffy robe, and on the bed waiting for me is a tray of food. A big cheese sandwich, strips of chicken piled up, which I ignore, fruit and one single slice of cake. No milkshake though, and it’s not chocolate cake. After giving Tannith all of the chicken to eat, I scoff down the Victoria sponge cake and then the cheese sandwich and fruit, leaving absolutely nothing on the tray. Not even a crumb.
Mistress comes back in not long after, looking at the empty plate with shock. There was enough food for five people, and I have no shame. I smile widely at her instead. “Thank you! I’m happy to die now.”
“Die?” she sputters and looks away at the door. The same humans who scrubbed my body clean come in pushing a metal rack filled with dresses, coats and, at the bottom, a row of shoes. All of it looks fancy and worth more than my life. “Meredith,it was difficult to find dresses that would fit your…small, curvy figure.” Definitely sounded like an insult. “You have to choose what you’re going to wear from this. It will do. Do you want me to choose for you? I was going with something like this.” She holds up a floor-length red gown with no sleeves and a cut-out around the stomach.
Only stubbornness keeps the food I’ve inhaled from coming back up. “No, thank you. If you’ve got trousers and a long-sleeved top, I’d be happy with that.”
She looks at me and my sleeves I’ve rolled up, at the burns on my arms, and tuts to herself. She goes down the rack of clothes until she pulls out a one-piece black dress that’s long-sleeved. With no cut-out bits. It’ll fall to my feet, but it’s better than nothing. “This will make you look nice for the short time you’ll have left here in our world. The selection is fast approaching now.”
Okay, zero belief in me. Gotcha.Wait. “What’s the selection? I don’t really know much about the Folkland.”
She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “The priests of the goddesses will tell you all about everything as it happens, but in short, the Folkland is about building a pack, unity, everything that makes a magnificent wolf who will be a leader. Only three will live, but each chosen will be given a ward to protect. You will choose this ward at the selection, along with all the other fourteen chosen. It will be the first time you will see the others you will be fighting.” She pauses. “Well, the others who will hunt and kill you. I do feel sorry for whoever you pick in the selection as they are bound to your life force. You die, so do they. You will have trouble simply looking after yourself.” Ouch, but she has a point. “Tomorrow, you will be taken along with Blackfire and the other three from the Crone Pack to the north tip of our land through a portal. As there have never been heirs in the Folkland, it has been decided they will not need to marry if they survive.They can choose for themselves. When the sun disappears, you will enter the Folkland.”
That’s too much to process in one minute.
“Any chance that the offer to burn at the stake is still there?” I mutter. I peek an eye open, just in case she nods and offers to secretly show me the way.
Her eyes widen. “Did you want that? Are you mentally unwell?”
“It just sounds better than being ripped apart by wolves in the Folkland.” She still looks concerned about my mental health. She can join Tannith, who often worries too.
Instead of replying to me, she commands the humans to take me to the bathing room again and get me ready. They help me into the dress after I put on the silkiest underwear I’ve ever worn, and then they begin on my hair. When they’re done, they push me in front of the mirror, and I barely recognize myself. My long gold hair falls down in elegant waves around my shoulders. The black dress is tight, but the sleeves flow out around my hands. The rest of it falls to the ground and is tight around my waist and chest. The only part of the dress that shows off my skin is the deep neckline that dips down below my small breasts, showing off the mark. I glance at my golden eyes in the mirror, lined with black makeup that matches the dress. They almost seem to glow with the fear of what is happening next.
I barely get a second to take in how I look, because the door slams open, and Blackfire walks in. Everybody in the room, every human, falls to their knees, pushing their heads onto the ground as they bow to him. Except for the Mistress and me. I am not bowing to this monster who let his uncle burn me. He also punched me. Mistress bows low, and she doesn’t lift her head.
Blackfire looks at me, his hands clenching into fists as he slowly drags his gaze over me. “You still look hopeless.”
My spine straightens. “Don’t call me that, wolf.” There’s a tremble of fear, a shiver that goes through me that escapes in my voice, remembering him holding me against his chest and knocking me out. I run my hand over the mark on my neck, the burn that’s there. I think the rest of the burns all over my body didn’t need a new one, especially not one that binds me to the alpha of this pack.
Blackfire cocks his head to the side, and his eyes glow slightly, the red burning away for the black to take over. He is so imposing, so big, and it’s just as terrifying as it is attractive. “I will call you whatever the fuck I want, and you will call me Master. Am I understood,Hopeless?”
I’ve changed my mind, he isn’t attractive. He’s just another wolf asshole with big shoulders and thighs. I’ve always loved men with thick, wide thighs. His are the biggest I’ve seen and it’s a shame.
The wolf takes a step towards me, and I take two back. I should agree with the clearly insane heir, but I can’t help the laugh that echoes from the back of my throat. “I’d rather die than call anyone mymaster. So go fuck yourself.”
“We’re leaving.” His jaw clenches as he stomps over to me. I close my eyes and wait for him to hit me, wait for the pain. Tannith jumps onto my arm and disappears into the back of my neck and my hairline, somehow her tail wrapping around my neck like a necklace.
The heat of Blackfire seems to radiate off his body as he stands in front of me, but I refuse to open my eyes and look. In one swift move, he grabs my upper arm and starts dragging me out into the corridor.Well, I wasn’t expecting that.I barely get to see anything but massive corridors with ceilings towering above. Everything’s a blur as Blackfire continues to drag me before we get into a massive domed room, and he shoves me to his side.
In the room are dozens of males and a few female wolves, and all of their eyes turn straight towards me. Thirteen pairs of eyes, to be exact, and I can almost hear them questioning why Blackfire dragged a human in here. The tension in the room is almost like something I can taste on my tongue as all these quite gorgeous people in ballgowns and suits all seem to see the mark on my chest at the same time.
The silence is damning, and it drags on for a long time, until the most beautiful male wolf I’ve ever seen steps forward. Tall, with notable impossibly long eyelashes hang over soulless forest-green eyes, and a sprinkling of freckles mark the golden skin of his face that looks like someone spent years crafting it in the image of a god. His body is just as impressive, slim and toned but packed with arrogance and everything male that hangs off him like vines. There is a small gold crown nestled in his brown hair, and I gulp as I realize what that means. He must be another heir or someone important.
Even though he is breathtaking, I immediately do not like him because, just like most males, they ruin the pretty picture by opening their mouths. “Did the goddesses give us a treat to hunt in the Folkland? How kind of them. She ismineto kill.”
Chapter Six
Blackfire doesn’t defend me; if anything, he shoves me to the wolves with a thump in the centre of my back. The pretty wolf I don’t like is somehow closer than he was a second ago, and I blink, moving to step back only to bump into Blackfire. The pretty wolf looks above me and smirks before dropping his eyes back to mine. I don’t blink as I hold his stare for what feels like forever. His eyes are the exact shade of the forest, and this close up, he smells like maple syrup.Ugh, I really like maple syrup. When I don’t lower my head like most humans do, a sneer ruins his cute face. “Where the fuck did you find this one? She doesn’t even bow to her masters. Is she stupid?”
