Her breath punched out of her, her chest rising and falling in sharp heaves. She should have known better than to leave Saga unguarded, even for a moment. She should have known better than to trust the king’s useless gaggle of soldiers to actually follow her orders and keep their distance. The king was brutal, yes, butshewas the fool here.
This was her mess. Her fault.
She raised her chin, finding strength in the flood of her adrenaline. ‘Please, just listen to me,’ she said, calmly. ‘I will explain.’
The snow leopard let out a strangled mewl. Greta’s heart ached as the thrum of Saga’s anxiety brushed up against her own. She scented the acrid tang of her terror, and feared the creature might bolt any second, likely right into the king’s sword.She turned her face into the leopard’s fur and hummed, low and soft to settle her panic. ‘It’s all right,’ she murmured. ‘I’ve got you.’
The leopard snuffled, then fell still. When Greta looked back at the king he was staring at her as though he had never seen her before.
‘What are you doing?’ he said, in a low voice.
‘Wrangling,’ said Greta, keeping her voice soft. ‘She’s frightened.’
‘Imagine how my soldiers feel.’
‘That’s not my job.’
His nostrils flared. ‘What did you just say?’
She swallowed, thickly. ‘I’m here to take care of your beasts. Not your soldiers.’
‘You’re here totamemy beasts,’ he barked. ‘Not set them on my soldiers.’
Greta’s eyes flashed, her words coming fast and sharp. ‘Your soldiers set themselves on her!’
‘Enough,’ he hissed. ‘Get up, Iversen. I won’t ask you again.’
Greta quailed as the heat of his anger rolled against her. His jaw clenched the same moment as his fist, the sword rising over her. She had pushed him too far, protected one beast only to corner another. If she wasn’t careful, he really would strike her. And she did not wish to die here in the dirt. She would not let her temper destroy the fate of her family.
‘I will get up, Your Majesty,’ she said, a plea in her voice. ‘But when I do, please let me return Saga to her pen.’
‘You are in no position to bargain with me, wrangler.’ He flicked his sword, gesturing at her to hurry up. ‘That beast will be meeting the swift point of this blade before she can do any more damage.’
Panic flared inside Greta.Sensing the shift in her mood, the leopard released a rasping cry.
‘There’s been a terrible misunderstanding.’ Greta sat up, still using her body as a shield.
‘Of what sort?’ sneered the king. ‘Did your pet mistake my soldiers for a sack of feed?’
‘Of course not,’ she snapped, bristling at his tone. So much for leashing her temper. ‘Saga was protecting her family when those dead-brained oafs you call soldiers barrelled into her pen.’ The king’s eyes widened at her words. Greta ploughed on. ‘Saga gave birth to cubs this morning. I had to step away briefly, but I left orders that she was not to be disturbed. Her pen should not have been opened.’ She clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palms. ‘Your soldiers didn’t care to listen to those orders. They chose not to listen to me. They thought they knew better, so they stormed into her pen anyway and decided to prod at her cubs for their own amusement.’
Alarik frowned, his gaze flitting over his shoulder to where a group of soldiers were hovering by the treeline, nervously watching their exchange.
‘Perhaps they did not know,’ he muttered.
‘Or perhaps they did not care,’ said Greta, pointedly. And that was the truth of the matter. She might have garnered the respect of Grinstad’s beasts, but many of its soldiers still looked down on her. More than once, she had overheard them talking about her in the hut. They thought her too weak and too small, too easily startled. She saw how they stared too long at her scars and knew they passed judgement about her skills as a wrangler because of them.
To most of the king’s soldiers,she was just a lowly farmgirl, flung too far from home. A poor addition to their courtyard and a shoddy replacement for her brother. No, Greta was nothing at all like the brave and fearless Tor Iversen. A man of beast and war.
She brushed it all off. Other people’s opinions never mattered to her. It was the beasts she had come for, the beasts she cared for, but today, the soldiers’ lack of respect for her position had caused unnecessary carnage and she would not let Saga pay for it.
‘If your soldiers possessed even half the sense of a common moth, they would know a mother will always attack to defend her cubs.Especiallyright after giving birth.’
He cast his eyes at her. ‘You should have told them as much.’
‘What makes you think I didn’t?’ she replied. ‘It’s not my fault they don’t listen to me. I only hope they listen tosomeonearound here. Otherwise, there’s no hope for them on whatever battlefield you find yourself next.’
The king curled his lip. ‘You certainly have a lot of thoughts in your head, Iversen.’
