Page 77 of The Ashpaw: Part One

And then her appetite disappeared.

“This will get back to him. I should go.”

He grabbed her wrist as she tried to rise, pulling her back down into her spot. “I will deal with my brother,” he replied, his tone clipped.

But his frustration towards her subsided as Fern began to shake.

“Damn him to Solas’s Hells,” he said on a harsh sigh, running a hand down his face roughly. “Go, then, but take the food with you.”

He crawled his way back out, and Fern almost thought to laugh at how undignified he made the process. Then he brought her out behind him, regarding her closely as they stood.

“No matter what I’m able to accomplish, take heart that tonight will be better.”

His hand reached out as though he meant to pat her on the head, but then it curled around the back of her neck, and he embraced her, his nose in her hair and breathing in.

“Things will get better,” he repeated.

Fern nodded, but knew, deep down, they were just as likely to get worse, too.

* * *

The wolfkin that had accompanied Eidan on his trip had all returned, and the dining hall was crowded and loud again.

Fern had not thought to ask what his business away from the castle entailed, but based on the snippets of conversation she gleaned from her corner, it had something to do with scouting near the border. The Bloodmoons stirring up trouble, skirmishes, raids…

Problems that might as well have been a million miles away for how they affected her.

Although there was one problem now much closer to home.

Harland’s gaze still fixated on her as she moved. A creeping thing, like fingers prodding for weakness to exploit.

And she was all weakness these days.

She saw Harland rise from the corner of her eye, the wolfkin beside him trying to speak to him but being pushed to the side as he approached her.

Fern dared a glance at the head table.

Darion was watching.

“Did you miss me, she-wolf?” he asked, crowding her against the wall.

She pressed her lips together, tightly closed, and tried to look anywhere but at him.

Before the last full moon, she’d found his proximity, if not so much his person, enticing. His scent appealing.

But now she felt nothing that resembled desire.

Her wolf was merely wary, keeping an eye on him from a distance, while Fern was afraid that Harland would cause some sort of disturbance, and she’d be punished for it.

“You shouldn’t forget I’m the Ashpaw, sir,” she said. “I mustn’t be spoken to or—”

“Touched?” he asked, tilting his head. His hand hovered over her chest, so close that if she breathed too deeply there would be contact.

“Doesn’t seem fair, because I’ve heard the Solvekh whispering about Alpha Eidan’s attention towards you. His words, his touches… Do the rules for the Ashpaw not apply to him? Or do you only enforce them with me?”

“Please,” she begged softly. “Alpha Darion will punish me if anyone intervenes.”

“Will he, now?” he chuffed. “Seems the Sabletail alpha brothers have both taken a greater interest in the Ashpaw than I’ve ever seen them do before. And do you know why that is?”