Page 9 of Traitor Wolf (Bonded by Fate Duet #1)

Chapter Seven

I ’d never seen so much food in my entire life: fruits, pastries, glazed chicken on the bone, shredded pork with a dark brown sauce, whipped potatoes, herb salads in two different flavors, candied nuts, and chocolate! It was like a wedding for a king.

“How much does it cost?” I whispered to Cassian. He had become my confidant, answering all of my questions with patience.

“What?” he asked.

I gestured to the large buffet table where people were making their plates.

“Oh, the food is free. My family is hosting the ball. Please help yourself.”

Free!

I stepped forward, getting in line, feeling my mouth water to the point of having to swallow. The last time I’d eaten was last night, after getting in late with the food I’d gotten from the trash can. I hadn’t felt hunger this morning, but now I did.

People glanced my way, whispering and pointing as I waited in line. I made sure to stare them down when they did. Then I felt a presence at my back and turned to see Kaelric, one hand on his dagger.

I chuckled. “You think someone is going to try to kill me here? In front of everyone?”

“Yes.” His face was deadly serious.

That made me uneasy. I suddenly looked around the room with a new perspective. Some were just pointing to the sword on my hip with curious chatter, but some glared. Were they plotting? Plotting to kill me and take it?

Kaelric leaned into my ear, bringing the scent of freshly chopped wood and the forest after a hard rain. I inhaled and almost moaned.

“If you’re worried about them taking her, fear not. Valkaryn chooses her wielder. Anyone else who tries will be put to death at her hand.”

My eyes widened, and I peered over at him. “Then how do you know she’ll choose you if I win this?”

He peered again at my sword longingly. “I don’t. But she’s my only hope.”

I frowned. His only hope. For what ?

“I can’t believe your brother would do this to our family,” I heard an older woman snivel behind me. “Staining our name like this.”

I slowly glanced over my shoulder to see a tall blond woman speaking to Cassian. The longer I looked at her, the surer I was that she was his mother.

“I know, Mother, but we need to run with it now. For entertainment. To keep the Dreg rats from rebelling. She carries the mark, she has to compete,” Cassian told her, and for a wild second, I wondered if that was the only reason he was helping me.

She gave him a tight smile and waved to someone who passed.

I turned back around and pushed what they said from my mind. It was my turn, so I stepped over to the buffet table and began to heap large portions of everything. So much so that I ran out of plate room.

“Would you like me to carry a second plate for you?” Kaelric asked kindly beside me.

Redness burned on my cheeks. “No, that’s okay. I just… I’ve never had chocolate before. Or the candied nuts, but… next time.”

I turned and found an empty table, where Cassian was standing nearby. He wasn’t eating, but he held a drink and chatted animatedly with a fellow Elite.

“A total scandal. Can you believe your brother would do this?” the woman said to Cassian .

“Horrific,” Cassian agreed, and then peered at me, winking.

I liked him. Even though he was lying and playing a part, it felt like we had started a small movement, one where the actual possibility of me winning this could be true.

Kaelric dropped beside me, setting a plate next to me. It was teeming with chocolate truffle balls and candied nuts. Like, overflowing. An embarrassing amount.

“You didn’t have to do that. It’s too much. I’ll get sick,” I told him, but I couldn’t help but think the gesture was sweet.

He leaned close to me. “Chocolates and nuts keep for a long time. I thought you could send them to your family.”

My face went slack. It was a very nice suggestion.

“Oh. Thanks.” I didn’t know what to say after that. And I was too hungry to care.

He set down a plate of his own, teeming mostly with meats, and gestured to me. “Ladies first.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. I picked up the chicken thigh and tore into it, unable to keep the moan from my mouth.

I dipped it in mashed potatoes, sucking them right off the chicken.

Kaelric watched me the entire time. After mopping up all of the mashed potatoes with the chicken, I started in on the pork.

“Heavens claim my soul! Have you ever had food this good?” I licked the sweet dark sauce from my fingers.

Kaelric was watching me with an unreadable expression. “I have.”

Interesting.

“So are you rich where you come from?” I asked. I knew nothing about Fenmyr.

The wolfkin mountain range was a full day’s train ride away, nearly at the other side of the country. I’d never even left Aerlyn.

He seemed to think about that. “Wolfkin don’t use coin money, but I have always eaten well, had a warm, dry place to sleep, and nice weapons and clothes.”

I snort-laughed. “That’s rich.”

He nodded in agreement.

I didn’t think I’d like the salad as much as I did. It was sharp and vinegary, and the leaves were soft and earthy. My stomach was filling fast, but I had to save room for the chocolate and candied nuts.

Kaelric watched me as I popped the first one in my mouth.

I closed my eyes, and embarrassingly, a tear slipped from my eye.

It was the greatest thing I’d ever tasted .

When I opened them, Kaelric looked angry.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as the dark, sweet chocolate melted over my tongue.

“Where I’m from, the poor don’t have large houses, or power, or nice clothes, but they always have enough food. That is a basic right.” His teeth were clenched.

I squirmed uncomfortably. It felt like it should be a basic right, but that’s not how this world worked. It wasn’t how it was where I was from.

Kaelric kept glancing at something behind me as I drank my water. After a few minutes, I felt his presence in my head.

‘I think this female initiate is going to try to steal Valkaryn. I don’t think she means you harm, and if she tries to hurt you, I’ll kill her, but I want you to let her take the sword as a lesson to everyone else.’

I’d never get used to another person speaking inside my head! My eyes widened as he leaned away from her direction and purposely looked the other way.

He wanted me to just let someone steal my weapon? No way in Hades! I’d earned this. I protectively placed my hand on the hilt, then I felt a presence in my mind. It was similar to when Kaelric had just spoken to me, but different.

‘Listen to Kael,’ a female voice said, and I knew, though I wasn’t sure how, that it was Valkaryn.

The sword had a voice, and it was that of a woman.

In shock, I let go of the handle and sat there, patiently waiting.

Two minutes passed, then I heard scurrying behind me. Kaelric tensed beside me, and I turned just as one of the female initiates, Mercy Solvaris, lunged for my weapon.

I screamed, which drew the attention of onlookers.

As the young woman’s fingers clasped around the hilt, a shockwave of blue light shot from the blade straight into her chest, striking her dead on the spot. She collapsed like a sack of flour, mouth open, with a small trickle of blood coming from her lips.

My gaze frantically flew around the room, searching for Corvessa, who would surely strike me dead, but she wasn’t here.

I stared in shock at the dead woman before me, but Kaelric stood, opening his arms wide.

“Let that be a warning to anyone else who thinks they can take the King Killer by force.” His voice boomed across the room, carrying with it a physical power that felt like a slap.

Gasps, whispers—even the Watchers present didn’t move to confront me or question what had just happened .

Cassian approached us, face pinched tight. “I think you both should go now.”

Kaelric grasped the plate of chocolate truffles and candied nuts and inclined his head back to the buffet, urging me to follow.

When I did, he stopped and grabbed another plate, putting over a dozen chicken legs on it.

“Wolf shifters need a lot of calories,” he told the bystanders.

They just stared at him fearfully.

As we left, we passed a few other wolfkin guardians. They nodded ever so slightly, bowing their heads to Kaelric as we passed.

Interesting, but I didn’t have much time to care. I’d just seen a woman die.

By my hand.

When we got outside, my breathing came out ragged; black dots danced at the edges of my vision. Kaelric looked at me like I’d grown a second head.

“What’s wrong?”

“She’s dead,” I mumbled.

I’d seen death all my life, but never by my hand.

Kaelric frowned. “It wasn’t you. It was her.” He pointed to the sword. “But soon it will be you, and you need to prepare for that.”

He walked away, leaving me scrambling to follow .

“Where are you going!” I asked him. He was leading me away from Aerlyn Academy.

“To the Dregs. If everyone there is as skinny as you, they need this more than the Elites.” He said it so casually, like he could just do whatever he wanted.

What an arrogant idiot I’d bonded.

“You can’t just take food there. It’s illegal.” Not to mention rude to keep talking about how skinny I was.

He spun on me with venom in his gaze. “ Illegal to feed the poor? Oh, show me the man who made that law. I’ll tear out his throat right where he stands.” I noticed that his eyes had gone from green to yellow.

Was he serious? “You don’t know how things work here, do you?” Smuggling anything from the city to the Dregs without permission was a punishable offense. It was like they wanted to keep us poor and hungry.

His face faltered. “My people have their own issues. I’ve been focusing on that.”

I sighed, taking the plate of chicken from him, and the chocolate truffles and nuts.

“There is a way to get to the Dregs without passing the Elite Watchers, but I don’t trust a traitor with that knowledge, so go back to the dormitory and I’ll see you in an hour.”

He looked like I’d slapped him.

“I’m a bad guy? The one who wants to bring free food to your community?” He laughed, a biting sound. “You’re mental.”

Mental!

I set the chicken plate on top of the truffle plate, juggling both, and then reached out and touched the X scar mark on his chest. “That right there means something in my world. It means you left someone for dead in the middle of the trial. Why would I trust you with knowing where my family lives? That would be mental.”

He began to breathe deeply through his nose, slowly, as if trying to calm down, but pelts of fur rippled down his arms.

I took two steps back, balancing the plates in my hand while putting my other free hand on the hilt of my weapon.

He’d already broken my arm. What else would he do?

“Stupid woman, you don’t know anything.” He stormed off, back towards Aerlyn Academy.

Me, stupid? I peered down at the sword in my hand as if expecting a response from her. I mean, she had spoken before.

He bears a traitor mark! He broke my arm. He doesn’t expect me to lead him right to my little brothers’ and sisters’ front door, does he?

She said nothing in return, and so I started for the opening in the gate. Kaelric was right about one thing: the people in the Dregs deserved this food more than the Elite did.

“Hey, Brynn!” Cassian’s voice reached my ears, and I spun. He was running towards me, pulling a wagon behind him.

“Hey.” I tried to hide the plates teeming with food behind my back, but they were too big, and it was awkward.

“Going to see your family?” he asked.

Busted.

“I just thought… I mean… I over-served my plate by accident, and I didn’t want it to go to waste,” I lied.

He grinned, pulling back the blanket covering the wagon. It was piled high with glass-covered catering dishes that were filled with food.

“Can I join you?” he asked. “Everyone left after what happened, and technically, my family paid for the food, so it’s mine to do with as I please.”

My throat tightened with emotion at his kind gesture. “Cassian, that’s… so incredibly generous.”

“No, it’s not. It’s what any decent person would do. What my brother and I have wanted to do for years. Food should never go to waste when there are hungry mouths nearby.”

I eyed the wagon. Too large for the tear in the fence. “I don’t think this will fit through the hole in the fence that I snuck in through.”

I trusted Cassian way more than I trusted Kaelric.

He gave me a half-cocked grin. “Oh, we’re not sneaking through some hole in the fence.”

Just as he said that, a horse-drawn carriage pulled up. The red velvet curtains bore the House of Draven insignia.

“But… won’t you get in trouble?” I hedged as he began loading the glass containers into the carriage. His driver kept his eyes straight ahead and didn’t seem to bother with what Cassian was doing.

He raised one blond eyebrow. “You think an hourly guard is going to question the heir of the House of Draven?”

I laughed. “Hey, Kaelric is the cocky one. You’re supposed to be humble. Stay in your lane.” At least that’s how I had them in my head.

He gave me a flirty wink that caused my stomach to do somersaults. “We’ll be fine. Is your wolf guardian coming?” He peered behind me down the street, and I shook my head.

“No. The traitor wolf will not be coming to see where my family lives.” I hoped that my words had pressed across my point.

Cassian nodded, as if point taken .

After slipping into the carriage, we indeed passed through the front gates of the city with no questions asked. Cassian simply peeked his head out and bid the two guards a good evening.

Oh, how nice it must be to have power. And coin.