The Scarred Prince (The Wolf's Pet Book One) (8 page)

“His pack has declared war on us,” Blaise said. “Or don’t you remember last night?”

“Then he’s a prisoner of war. And you can’t harm a prisoner of war for no reason.”

“I have plenty of reasons,” Blaise said. “First one being that he won’t tell me a damn thing. Talk, dog!” Blaise kicked Alekk’s leg, and received only a grunt in response.

“Stop it,” I said.

Blaise crouched down and grabbed Alekk by the chin, wrenching his head upward.

“Talk!” he yelled.

“
Stop it!
”

Blaise looked up at me. My heart was beating as fast as it had been when I had first come in. I couldn’t let him do this. I couldn’t.

“If you don’t stop, I’ll tell Dad,” I said.

That did it. Blaise immediately stood up, his fists clenched.

“He’s off figuring out how to fight a war,” he said. “You think he cares about one prisoner?”

“Yes. And if you don’t stop—”

“Fine. You know what? Fine.” Blaise stood up and spat on Alekk’s robes. “I’m going back to spar with Francis. When the Scarred Prince comes here with his pack, you’ll be happy that I’m ready.”

He brushed past me without looking at me and left the cabin.

I was shaking. Even with how rudely Alekk had spoken to me last night, I felt sorry for him. Nobody deserved to be tortured. And our pack was better than that. Or so I had thought.

I didn’t look at Alekk as I put two logs on the dying embers of the fire and kindled a small flame. All of my focus was on restarting the fire. I couldn’t handle anything else. By the time the flames were licking the sides of the wood, my heart had slowed down to normal and I was able to turn around and look at him.

What I saw made my chest tighten. There was a bruise over half of his face, spreading across his cheek and eyebone. The cut over his eye was dirty.

“Give me a second,” I said. “I’ll get something to clean you up.”

I rummaged through the shelves on the other side of the storage cabin. There were clean linens in a box and I tore off a few strips. The guards had left the plate of food next to an iron kettle of water by the fireplace. The food had dirt kicked over it. I pushed it aside, swallowing, then set the kettle above the growing fire.

“Can I have some of that water?”

I turned around, startled by his voice. It was raspy and low. He looked at me from under his cut eyebrow. The top of his shaved head was smeared with blood.

“I haven’t had anything to drink,” he said, explaining slowly. He coughed.

“Sure,” I said, trying not to be afraid. I poured a cup of water and knelt next to him. His body was huge, and although I knew he was tied up, I was still wary about my every move. I put the cup up to his lips carefully, letting him tilt it his way. Water spilled over his lips as he drank deeply. Finally the cup was empty. He coughed again.

“I’m sorry, Princess. For what I said last night. For scaring you.”

“You didn’t scare me.”

“I did.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat as he looked up at me with those fierce blue eyes. Turning away, I put my hand over the kettle, although I knew it wouldn’t be hot enough yet. My mind was racing. Could I possibly get any more information out of Alekk? I didn’t know what the best way was to approach him, but he seemed to be more open today.

“When will your pack come to get you?” I asked.

“You mean, when will they attack your pack?”

I nodded.

“They won’t leave you here for long, will they? They’ll come to rescue you,” I said, trying to sound sympathetic. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too hard. With the bruises and cuts on his face, Alekk looked awful. I imagined one of our guards being hurt in the same way, and it made my eyes sting.

“I don’t know. They obviously didn’t tell me. They knew you would torture me to find out.”

I wanted to cry out that we didn’t do that kind of thing in our pack, but I couldn’t. Blaise had made it impossible for me to defend my pack’s actions.

“My brother was acting on his own,” I said. “If my dad knew—”

“I’m sure your dad doesn’t have any blood on his hands,” Alekk sneered. “Except, of course, for Trax.” His face contorted, and I frowned.

“I don’t know much about that,” I said. “It was a long time ago. Before I was born.”

“Yes, well.”

The water in the kettle was hot by now, and I poured some onto the linen scraps. Coming back to kneel beside Alekk, I tried to wash away the blood from his face. Lightly, I dabbed at the cut above his eye.

“You don’t have to be so gentle with me, Princess,” he said.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Are you playing good cop bad cop with your brother for me?”

“Excuse me?”

“He beats me up and then you fix me up?” Alekk asked. “It makes sense. To try and get more information out of a prisoner. It’s a common interrogation tactic.”

“I don’t know any tactics for interrogation,” I said. “But I know my dad wouldn’t want to abuse a prisoner.”

“Of course he wouldn’t.”

“He wouldn’t! You have no idea what my dad is like!”

“I know he’s capable of killing. He’s an alpha. He would do whatever it took to protect his pack.”

“Not torture,” I said firmly. Alekk only shrugged. I dabbed again at the cut above his eye. It was cleaned out. I could feel his gaze break against my skin as I worked my way down his cheek. Being so close to him made my body react strangely—it must have been the fear that he would find some way to get out of his ropes.

“You’re wrong about my dad. He would never—”

“My arms are deadened,” Alekk said. His voice rose only slightly, but in the small cabin it resounded off of the walls. “The blood has been cut off to my hands for the whole night. They’ve damaged me, maybe permanently given me nerve damage. Nobody except you has treated me like anything other than an animal to be put down.”

I swallowed. It was true; the ropes still cut into his wrists deeply. Maybe I could get the guards to… but no. It wouldn’t work. They wouldn’t help me at all. Hell, they’d left Alekk to be tortured by Blaise.

Whatever it took to protect his pack
… I thought about what he had said. A plan was beginning to form in my mind. It was half-formed, certainly, but it was better than nothing.

“Alekk?”

“Yes, Kinaya?”

His lips only moved slightly to pronounce my name, but for a moment I couldn’t breathe. There was something about the way he spoke that was hypnotic. It sent my nerves trembling. I sat back and threw the bloody linen into the fireplace.

“If you answer my questions, I’ll untie your wrists,” I said. I couldn’t stop my voice from trembling.

“You’d untie a prisoner? Against your father’s wishes?”

“We can retie your hands in front of you so that your arms aren’t hurting so much,” I said.

Alekk shook his head.

“I have no information to give you.”

“You might. I have an idea, and I need you to tell me if it’ll work. I don’t know anything about your pack, you said it first. But you do. So answer my questions, and I’ll cut the ropes.”

His eyes searched mine, as though looking for the catch. There wasn’t any. I was desperate for an answer to war, and this was the best way I could think to get it. Besides, despite his size and strength, the prisoner was weak. He hadn’t eaten in days. And his arms were useless. With my knife, I felt certain that I could keep him at bay, even if he tried to escape. And the longhouse was right there; if I cried out, the other members of the pack would be there in seconds.

“Very well, Princess,” he said, slumping back against the pole. “Tell me what your idea is.”

I bit my lip, the plan coming together in my mind even as I spoke.

“I have a proposal.”

Chapter Thirteen

“A proposal?”

“The Scarred Prince wants to take us over, right? That’s why he’s invading?”

“I’m sure he wants to take back what his father lost,” Alekk said. His voice was measured, cautious. He wasn’t going to give me any information. But as my mind raced ahead, I thought that the plan I had in mind just might work. It was dangerous, and it would require a tremendous sacrifice. But sometimes sacrifice was necessary. I thought of my mom’s face, and how she had cringed to think about war.

“Would the prince consider a union of the packs?”

Alekk paused, considering my words.

“A union? How?”

“My mother says that you want us for our women. If we married the two packs together, you would be able to court our women.”

“We don’t court our women,” Alekk said flatly. “We claim them.”

I bit my lip. His pack sounded so crass. I went on.

“In our pack, the females decide for themselves if they want to be claimed. In any case, that wouldn’t make a difference for my proposal.”

“What’s your proposal?” he asked.

I breathed in deeply. This wasn’t like any other game I’d ever played. This was real life, with real life consequences. I knew I had to continue.

“The Scarred Prince,” I said. “He isn’t married, is he?”

Alekk’s eyes narrowed.

“You think he’d want some whore from your pack?”

“He might take me.”

I sat up straight, my back erect. Again, Alekk burst out laughing at me. His howls of laughter echoed off of the cabin. I swallowed. I hadn’t expected this reaction.

“Kinaya, Kinaya,” he said. “You are too much, Princess. What would the Scarred Prince want with you?”

I stood up from the ground. Alekk raised his head, looking as though he expected me to slap him. But I knew something he didn’t.

“Do you smell me? Do you notice my scent?”

“Yes.” Alekk smiled softly. “You’re a fine girl, Kinaya. A strong wolf. You have a sweet scent.
I
might take you.”

I stared baldly at him, his eyes searching me. The strangest part? That I didn’t feel scared anymore. For some reason, his words thrilled me. They told me that I was a woman. His gaze told me that I could be desired. Someone… someone could want me… like that.

Alekk continued.

“But the Prince? He doesn’t need a bitch from another pack.”

I took a deep breath and shifted completely into human form. Closing my eyes, I took my wolf into my inner self and kept it there, hiding. I heard Alekk breathe in sharply as my scent disappeared. My mother had this power, and so did Dee. Blaise too, although he never used it and was out of practice. It was the secret of our family. Most shifters were always in a state that included both human and animal. But I could be fully wolf, and fully human. I could disappear into human society and never be found out, if I wanted to.

When I opened my eyes, Alekk was staring at me with his eyes wide.

“You’re purebred,” he whispered.

“Yes.”

“They said… they said the gene was lost.”

The way he was looking at me almost frightened me. He was alert again, his full attention on me. I could feel his gaze as though it was palpable, moving across my skin. Caressing me. I thought of what he had told me before. That he would tame me…

“I thought you knew about our pack,” I said.

He shook his head slowly.

“We didn’t know this.”

“Now you do.”

He was thinking about something. I could almost see the mechanism moving behind his eyes. What plans had they made? What would this change? I hoped that it would end the possibility of war. Alekk licked his bottom lip, opened his mouth as though to speak, then closed it. When he spoke again, it was slowly, evenly. I could tell that he thought of me as more of an equal than he had before.

“Why wouldn’t we conquer you anyway?” he asked. “When our pack moves against yours, we can claim any woman we want. Even you.”

I smiled. I’d anticipated this argument at least.

“Our women are proud,” I said. “We would kill ourselves rather than be slaves. I would kill myself. You would have nothing but these acres of worthless land. But if you accept, you’ll have the last purebred genes in our lineage. My mother can no longer have children. But you would have me.”

He leveled his eyes at me again, as though evaluating. I wanted to rephrase my last sentence. Not him. Not Alekk. But the Scarred Prince. For a brief moment, I felt that I was making a mistake, but then the feeling passed. Alekk nodded slowly.

“You might do. If I can take your proposal to the prince.”

I knew what he was saying. He wanted me to untie him, but not to give his arms rest. He wanted me to let him go.

“No,” I said. “We have to tell my father first.”

“He won’t let me go back to my pack.”

“He will if you think the prince will take me. He doesn’t want to go to war. I’m sure of it.”

Alekk’s eyes burned blue.

“You’re brave, you know.”

“Brave?”

“To give yourself up to the Scarred Prince.”

For the first time since I’d gotten the idea, I thought about what the decision would mean for me. It was silly, I suppose, but I hadn’t thought about myself at all. I’d only been thinking about the pack, and how I could save them from being killed. How I could save us from war. I hadn’t thought about what would happen to me if I gave myself over to the Scarred Prince.

Fear began to creep back into my chest. I pushed it away.

“What is he like?” I asked, keeping my voice bolder than I felt.

“The Scarred Prince?”

“Yes. Is it true what they say about him?” Curiosity filled my mind.

“That depends. What do they say?”

“That he has more scars than skin.”

“Every alpha has scars,” Alekk said, grinning. “That’s how they get to be the alpha.”

“Tell me more. Tell me what he’s like.”

“I’ll tell you. But untie my hands first.”

I frowned, looking down at the floor.

“I can’t let you escape.”

“I won’t. I’ll stay here. But you said that you would ease the pain in my arms if I answered your questions. And I’ve answered your questions.”

I gulped. I had promised. I took the wolfbone blade from my belt and went around the pole. His wrists were scabbed over with blood at the ropeline. I felt so bad for him—he’d been sitting there all night like this. It was abuse, if not torture, and I hated that the guards had done nothing to help him. He groaned when I pulled the rope away from the pole to have a better angle.