That had clearly not been explained to her dream godmother.
Sounds from Krol’s arena died down, giving her a moment of relief at the thought Krol might be disappointed again. Such inhumane entertainment to make captured shifters fight to the death, but a psychopath had no conscience.
Maybe not all captured. She couldn’t imagine the Frankenstein rhino shifter everyone called Beast being born.
Krol fed the caged shifters well until it was time to fight.
All except Bosse. The castle king seemed to resent how Bosse continued to survive and sent that nasty gruel to his cage. Her heart whimpered when she thought of Bosse surviving naked and in a cage every day for two years.
Shifters still terrified her, but... something about him had made her want to comfort him in any small way she could long before the dream involving him.
She lifted the empty tray, smiling to herself as she maneuvered around Krol to secretly feed Bosse meat when she carried food to the other shifters. She’d begun helping more in the kitchen and baking so she could sneak the wolf shifter spiced honey cookies known as Medovníky in this country.
Wonder what the big bad wolf thought about her treats?
An angry shout from Hessie had her and Linota racing back to the kitchen.
Just as she reached the kitchen door, a loud animal’s scream of pain soared through the castle.
Alifair stumbled and turned, her heart beating a crazy thump in her chest.
That sounded awful, like a death knell.
Chapter 3
Bosse watched in horrorthrough Titan’s eyes as time splintered into seconds.
The tiger had jammed his wolf’s leg against the stone. Panic tore through Bosse. How could he help his wolf?
Titan struggled, turning to claw his way free of being trapped under the tiger. He reached the cat’s leg, ripping wildly at anything soft.
The mighty cat screamed a gut-wrenching sound and tried to move away, but gravity dragged all that weight back down.
Jerking his head to the side, Titan began fighting to pull away before his entire body was pinned. The tiger’s weight shifted, falling half on Titan’s body and half off, trapping Bosse’s wolf from his chest down. He pushed with his three good legs, but exhaustion turned the struggle into a futile effort.
When the air quieted, Titan huffed with each breath. Warm and sticky liquid oozed all over his coat, some of it his. A specter of death hovered over the dirt floor once again, ready to claim the loser as soon as one of them gave in.
