“But I don’t understand why you can’t be free,” I dared go on. “Why you can’t be wild. Surely you don’t have to marry Rona if you don’t want to.” As you said to Sergius last night, are you not your own man?
He shook his head, a bitter smile crossing his face. “That kind of transgression is simply not made in werewolf tribes. Once two wolves have been marked for each other, no other wolf will dare touch them, lest they face the wrath of the bride’s family.” He chuckled sourly. “No other girl would marry me. Not with Brucella involved.”
I cleared my throat. I could kind of sympathize with that… “Well, being single can be fulfilling, too,” I said. “Not everyone has to get married to be happy.”
He nodded again, though from the look in his eyes, something told me that he didn’t quite believe it.
“Anyway.” He drew in a deep breath, apparently coming to his senses and realizing the time. “We should leave.”
Victoria
Bastien headed into his apartment briefly before we left, to retrieve the satchel still filled with blades and arrows, as well as his belt and bow.
Then he took me downstairs, to a larger dining hall than the one we’d sat in last night, where a table was laid out with an array of breakfast items. There was nobody in this room, and judging by the mostly empty metal food containers, the rest of the wolves had already eaten. I forced myself to eat more than I had last night. I might not be hungry, but I also wasn’t stupid. I needed strength for the journey ahead. Still, I didn’t want anything too heavy. I filled my plate with a pile of exotic-looking nuts and a handful of round pink fruits that resembled plums, but whose texture was fleshy and slimy, more like jackfruit. Then I drank a large cup of milk—which, for all I knew, could have been wolf milk, for it didn’t taste like cow’s milk. I preferred not to ask Bastien.
Once I was done with my meal and he was done with his much larger one, we headed to the exit, where a large pack of wolves were waiting. I estimated over fifty in total. Surely not all of them were Northstones, though I guessed that they must have all been related to them in one way or another.
Many turned to eye me coldly as they noticed us approach. They had similar looks of suspicion in their eyes as Brucella. I guess they’re all wondering whether I have stolen Bastien’s virtue, too… If the poor guy ever fell in love with a wolf other than Rona, I wondered whether all of these wolves would go after her, along with Brucella. It certainly looked like it, from the way they were glaring at me.
I gripped Bastien’s arm, moving closer to him, as we all began to pile out of the mountain and assemble in the clearing outside.
It being daytime, all of the other wolves were stuck in their human forms. Although Bastien could’ve turned at will into his wolf form, to my surprise, he stayed human.
I climbed onto Bastien’s back as the wolves began bolting into the woods. Once he’d clamped his hands around my legs, checking that I was secure, he raced after them.
“So where exactly are we going first? Which tribe?” I asked Bastien, even as I struggled to breathe against his ear due to the speed he was running at. He had only just started and he was already outpacing all of them, even the werewolves who were taller than him.
“The Bonereaver tribe,” he said with a grimace.
“And do you know them personally?” I asked.
“Some of them,” he replied. “I can’t stand them. The only reason we’re heading there first is because Sergius has some relations with them. Otherwise, they would be the absolute last on my agenda… maybe not even on my agenda at all,” he added beneath his breath.
“Why do you dislike them so much?” I asked, as Bastien ducked down to avoid a low-hanging branch.
“Oh, come now, Bastien!” Brucella’s voice shrilled before he could reply. I cast a look back to see that she was trailing right behind us, not so subtly eavesdropping. “They’re not that bad.”
Bastien rolled his eyes, but said nothing.
“Just because you and Dane quibbled as children doesn’t mean you have to paint them all with the same brush.” She sped up in an attempt to run level with Bastien, but as she increased her pace, so did Bastien.
“It’s not just about Dane,” he muttered. “It’s their whole… vibe. I’ve never been able to see eye to eye with them.”
“You should get to know Dane’s older brother, Regnard,” Brucella persisted, as if she hadn’t heard what Bastien had just said. “I’m sure you would get on well with him.”
Bastien did not bother replying to this. Instead, he surged forward, making it even more impossible for her to catch up to us. Then, without warning, he thrust upward and we went shooting into the tree branches above.
“Bastien?” Brucella’s voice drifted up. “What are you doing?”
God. She behaves like his mother.
“Where are you going, Bastien?” It was Sergius this time.
“Just keep going,” Bastien called down over his shoulder, even as he swung higher with me. “I’ll be traveling alongside you still. Just from up here.”