Izabel’s cheeks flush and she throws her hands up into the air. “Seriously? You don’t know?!”
“You’re upset I wasn’t around when Egith broke the news that Alpha Markos had died, just like everyone else. You think I prioritized my relationship over our pack.”
Izabel lets out a cry of irritation and grabs her sword out of the dirt, waving it at me again. “No, Meryn! I’mhurt. You hurt me! You’ve been hiding this relationship from me for months. I understand not wanting all the Rawbonds to know, but I’m your friend. Or at least I thought I was, but clearly not if you can’t trust me with the truth about who you’re seeing.”
“Oh,” I say, feeling suddenly foolish. Of course she’s hurt. That’s the most obvious thing in the world, probably. But all of this is new to me—not just this world, but having friends.
Guess I’m not a quick study.
Her eyes get glassy. “That’s all you have to say? Oh?”
“No, Izabel,” I breathe, chest aching. “I?—”
Deafening horns sound over the training yard. They don’t sound like they’re coming from deep within the castle. The three loud blasts echo over the side of the mountain, from the south.
The castle gates, I realize.
The Sovereign Alpha has arrived.
Practice ends quickly after that,and we’re shuffled back toward Rawbond quarters. Izabel and I didn’t have a chance to finish our conversation. She stormed away as soon as she could, obviously very eager to put space between us.
No one knows when we’ll hear from the Sovereign Alpha. Presumably she’s going to commune with the king first, and then discuss the Strategos leadership with the wolves. The whole pack is antsy, even Egith. After a few minutes of pacing in the anteroom, she locks herself in her private quarters.
I’d like to do the same, frankly. I know I need to finish my conversation with Izabel, though. And she’s doing an impressive job of avoiding me. She’s not in the Strategos anteroom, nor is she in the bunkroom or the bathing area.
Next, I check the Rawbond common lounge, but she’s not one of the many people in there, either. I look around the room helplessly, and then my gaze lands on the door to the Kryptos quarters.
She’ll be in there, likely, hiding out with Venna. The two of them regularly go back and forth between each other’s pack quarters and no one blinks at it. They’re identical twins, after all—it would be strange to expect them to keep their distance.
For everyone else, though… it’s not the done thing. You don’t just go waltzing into another pack’s anteroom. Technically, there are no rules disallowing it, but I’ve never seen a non-Strategos other than Venna in our space.
Nicely played, Izabel.
Resolve bubbles up in my veins. We’re going to finish this fucking conversation, even if it makes a whole other pack hate me too.
In a few quick strides, I make my way through the common lounge and open the door to the Kryptos quarters. It looks identical to the Strategos anteroom; the same plush couches, the same fireplace. And there, in the center of it, sit Izabel and Venna.
A couple of the Kryptos Rawbonds sputter in indignation as I swiftly walk through their space. I don’t care.
“I’m sorry,” I say, reaching the twins. I sign it, too, moving my hands in the way that Izabel and Venna showed me, in case Venna missed that. They’ve been teaching me some phrases in sign language when we have the time.
They’re unmoved. Izabel glances over to the tapestry on the wall and Venna crosses her arms, scowling.
I sit down at their feet—clearly, I’m unwelcome on the couch with them—and keep going, quietly but loud enough for Venna’s ears, although I can tell everyone in this anteroom right now is trying to eavesdrop.
“I’m an idiot. I’m sorry that I didn’t realize that I had hurt your feelings, either of your feelings,” I say, looking specifically at Venna this time, because she’s clearly mad too. “This friendship thing, this is new to me. I know how to be a sister, a daughter, a lover, a fighter. I didn’t realize that being a friend meant something different.”
Venna softens first. She reaches a hand down and grasps mine, squeezing it. Izabel’s a tougher nut to crack.
“I kept this a secret because I wasn’t sure how I felt,” I continue. “Killian and I have been seeing each other for over a year.”
At this, Izabel’s head whips back toward me, eyes widening. The juiciness of this is too tempting to her, I can tell. But she doesn’t ask any questions, she waits for me to continue.
“We met in the Central Market. He, apparently, ventures into the commoner part of the city on occasion…”
Over the next thirty minutes, I give them all the lurid details of our relationship. Izabel gasps in the appropriate places, and by the time I’m finished, she’s pulled me up on the couch to sit between them.
Anassa softens toward me, too. She still hasn’t entirely forgiven me for putting up such a big barrier between us, but something has changed—thanks to my openness with the twins, maybe.
