No. He lookedfurious.
“I travel through the night to get there before morning, and sometimes I have to wait another couple of hours for her to wake, and you’re mad I didn’t wait even longer to watch her open a fucking necklace?” Finn shook his head with an incredulous laugh. “Find someone else to do it.” He stalked off, and Rennick stared after him in shock.
“Finn, wait,” he called after him, jogging to catch up. “I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.”
Finn kept walking, his strides heavy. “But you are.”
Rennick grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop. “I’m sorry. I do appreciate what you’ve been doing, and you know anything you want is yours.”
Rennick paid Finn handsomely for his time. He bought him the finest horse and anything else his friend even looked at with longing, but those were material things, and he realized now that he treated Finn like an errand boy instead of his best friend.
“If I could defy the gods and take them myself, I would,” Rennick said quietly. “It kills me that I can’t.” He’d tried crossing the barrier more times than he could count over the lastfew months. The guards at the barrier gates merely watched him with amusement as he bounced off the invisible wall.
Finn hung his head. “I know.” He met Rennick’s stare. “I saw what losing your mother did to Callum. I’ll do what I can to help you with Amelia, but I have a life, too.”
Rennick rolled his lips together to hold back the emotion that swelled up at the mention of his mother. “You’re right. If it gets to be too much, you don’t have to do it.”
His best friend sighed and slapped him on the back. “Stop being a dick and we’re good.”
7
ONE YEAR LATER
Rennick watched Amelia through the window of her school as she grinned at a boy with dark blond hair and a stupid smile.
The boy had approached her after class ended and kept her inside for too long. Rennick couldn’t visit her often due to increased training back home, but when he could, he didn’t want to see a lanky boy, with no right to make Amelia smile, holding her up at school.
Her walks home were Rennick’s favorite, especially when she and her friend went to the library, swapping one tall stack of books for another. She always left the library happier than when she’d gone in.
Now that the harsh snowy months were coming to an end, Amelia milled around the village a little longer, looking into shop windows or playing with the tiny fennec fox that followed her everywhere.
If this guy kept her inside too long, Rennick would have Greta gouge his eyes out.
“I’m not doing that,”Greta replied, but Rennick ignored her.
When Amelia finally gathered her lunch pail and books,Greta took flight, already knowing where Rennick wanted to go to see his mate better.
Perched on the rooftop across from the entrance to the school, Rennick stared intently at the door, and when Amelia stepped outside and the sun hit her face, he sighed to himself. He’d not seen her in weeks.
She set down her pail, scooped up the little fox waiting faithfully on the steps, and rubbed his body to warm him up before tucking him into her oversized coat pocket. After securing him safely inside with only his giant ears poking out, she grabbed her pail and picked her way down the front steps.
She forgot to put on his sweater again, Rennick thought crossly. He would send her more.
A small grin graced Rennick’s face, but it turned to ash when the lanky boy with the stupid smile appeared and murmured something. When Amelia nodded, he took her hand in his to walk her home.
SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY
Letter #47
Happy Birthday, Love,
I hope you like the book bag. I noticed you juggling stacks of books and thought it would be easier if you had a sturdy bag to put them in. Ora said the bag was “cute” and that you would like it. I included one for Clover, too.
Inside the bag is a mold of my hand, so when you feel like holding someone’s hand, you can hold mine and not the lanky blond boy’s who walked you home.
Seeing your perfect hand in his unworthy one made me murderous, little mate. You are mine, and I will do whatever is necessary to keep you, no matter how unconventional or vicious I have to be.
Always remember that.
