Page 13 of Wolfkissed
“He’ll… eat me alive.”
“He’s muzzled and tied up, so please stop with the melodrama. It’s exhausting.”
“And how am I supposed to convince this beast to follow me and protect me?” I rally my thoughts, my rational mind that’s cowering behind the instinct to scream and flee. “Why would he, once we’re out of here?”
Sympathetic murmurs rise from the tables around me, and it’s crazy what a balm they are on my soul. Stepfather wants to present me as a deranged, whiny girl, but my concerns are valid.
Gods, what am I saying?Heis the deranged one.
“I’m not a monster,” Stepfather says, and I blink. “Despite what you seem to think.”
How does he do that, turning the tables on me again and again, never giving me time to regroup? And what does he even mean?
“I will, of course, give you a way to control him,” he goes on and returns to cutting up the meat on his plate.
“Control him? How?”
More murmurs and whispers from the tables around us. Looks like I’m not the only one confused.
“What are you talking about?” his wife demands. “You can’t control a beast such as this one.”
Ah.She obviously was hoping the wolf would eviscerate me the moment he stepped out of his cage.
“We want her to reach her future husband’s house, don’t we?” Stepfather says, as if it wasn’t evident before. When I glance at her and my stepsister, I see scowls on their faces.
“What are you saying?” I demand.
I know that silver is unpleasant for werewolves. Most metals are, due to the nature of their magic. There is wolfsbane, a plant, but that won’t do much against an enraged werewolf. Is that what he’s planning? Is he?—?
“I will give you a sword. So you can fight him off if he attacks you.” Stepfather smirks when tittering rises from the seated guests. “Am I not kind?”
“How dare you?” My hands curl into fists. “Sending me to my death.”
“Ah, that’s slander. I’m doing no such thing. In fact,” he waves a hand at me, dismissing my concerns, “I’ll give you a magical sword. It belonged to your mother.”
I stare at him. My chest hurts. Is my heart seizing? He’s going to kill me from disbelief and anger alone. “Are you listening to yourself? You’ll send me out there with a werewolf and a sword?”
“Your mother held it in her hands as she died,” he says. “I’m being generous, giving you something so precious.”
I swallow past the lump in my throat. “If it really belonged to my mother, then it’s mine by rights. It was never yours to give.”
His smile is slimy. “We are a family. What is yours is also mine.”
I draw a shaky breath, my jaw ticking. “You…”
“Besides.” A bored expression comes over his face. “No sane werewolf would try to eat someone as bitter and hard as you, Stepdaughter. They’d get indigestion. He’ll realize it soon enough. So have no fear. Right, wolf?”
An angry snarl echoes behind me.
It’s too much. I slide down to my knees and bow over, unable to catch my breath. The hall closes in around me, the walls crushing me, until I curl up on the floor and close my eyes, shutting the world out.
CHAPTER SIX
ROSAMUND
The panic. The terror. The feeling I’m dying all over again.
I haven’t had such an anxiety attack in a long while. I never thought I’d be back to hiding in the dark, in my bed, the covers pulled up to my nose. It should feel cozy, or even too warm, but shivers rack me.
