I laughed. “Aww, your little wolf is mad I’m yelling at you? Well, tough crap!” I pulled my blade, feeling at the end of my rope, thinking of my mother with a death rattle in her chest and a fever on her skin. “I’m mad too. My mother is sick, and you made me think you would go and get help, and?—”
The look in his eyes stopped me dead. The power I’d felt before washed over the entire room, so thick that I felt the urge to take a knee before him and bow my head. A whimper formed in my throat.
‘You insolent little human,’he spoke into my mind.‘I don’t need a courier. I don’t need to speak with words or send letters. I have someone en route to your mother’s now. Someone I trust. I did not lie to you, but if you ever pull that sword on my wolf again, I am not liable for what he does to defend me.’
He spun and left the room, slamming the door so hard the casing cracked.
I staggered backward, falling on my butt as I hit the bed.
He must have spoken into the mind of one of his friends… a magical gift I had forgotten he possessed. I stared at the blade in my hand and knew I’d made a horrible mistake. Cassian had said that in order to survive this next trial, Kaelric and I would have to trust each other. And weclearlydid not.
I was probably about to die.
Awesome.
Chapter Twelve
After sulking for a few hours alone inside the empty train cabin, I left the room in search of Kaelric to find that he was right outside the door waiting for me. He leaned against the frame, staring off into the distance, looking extremely bored.
Did he ever leave? Or did he just stay out here and guard me?
“I’m sorry,” I blurted out. “I just really love my family, and my mother being sick is?—”
“It’s fine. Let’s eat,” he grumbled and walked towards the back of the car.
Okay… not one for verbose make-ups, totally cool.
The man ate six meals a day. I had chest burn just thinking of eating again, but followed him anyway.
We moved through three cars until my nose pickedup hints of rosemary, salted meats, and something sweet.
The food car.
Once inside, we slipped to the end of the buffet line, and I froze.
The spread was overwhelming. My eyes flitted from the towering slab of chocolate cake, frosting glistening like satin, to the golden whipped yams crowned with candied nuts. My mouth watered at the buttery scent of roasted meat and warm bread. It felt like we’d stumbled into a wedding feast, not a train bringing most of us to our deaths.
“You can go ahead,” a female wolfkin said, her voice respectful as she dipped her chin toward Kaelric.
He gave her a nod and reached out, his hand gently closing around my elbow. His touch was firm but unhurried as he guided me past her.
As we moved forward, a wolfkin male stepped aside. Then another. And another. Until, without protest or question, we were at the front of the line.
Why are they doing that?I wondered.
Valkaryn’s voice slid into my mind like smoke:‘Because his rank in the pack is higher than theirs.’I managed not to jump, barely. Her and Kaelric’s mental intrusions were becoming a regular occurrence.
Pack rank? I knew next to nothing about it. Sure, I’d heard whispers—one wolf at the top, the alpha,with others falling in line beneath—but I hadn’t paid it much attention.
‘In Fenmyr, there are only two packs,’Valkaryn continued,‘Valewulf and Ashmane, and within each a hierarchy that spans tens of thousands. Every wolf has a place.’
My jaw nearly dropped.Tens of thousands?That kind of scale was unfathomable. I glanced sideways at Kaelric, who was quietly selecting food for his plate.
Then I spotted the guy who had challenged him, the shaved-headed one who’d later attacked me. He hadn’t seemed nearly as deferential. Maybe he was higher ranked. Or close to it. Or…?
‘Or from the rival pack,’Valkaryn added, her tone calm.
Oh. That possibility hadn’t even crossed my mind.
