Or, we would have if Drifter hadn’t pulled up, sending both of us backward to the ground. All the air left my body as I lay on my back, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Still wheezing and attempting to get my lungs working again, I stumbled to my feet just in time to see the wolf moving right toward me.
I was so fucked. I didn’t have any weapons on me and I could barely outrun the kids in my classroom. There was no way I’d be outrunning a damn wolf. Maybe a rock? If I could find one, I could smash its face…
“No, no, NO!” I screamed at the wolf, attempting to startle it. I swear its eyes gleamed brighter, and I watched in horror as saliva began to drip from its open maw. I was two seconds from death and I knew it. The wolf lowered its upper body to the ground, preparing to strike. Suddenly, the animal yelped and jerked to the left. It looked just as shocked as I did as we both looked around, confused by what had just happened. The wolf stumbled twice and abruptly dropped to the ground and was still.
I sank to my knees with my heart in my throat and my eyes locked on the lifeless form in front of me. It wasn’t a moment later that I saw the glint of metal as the sun finally broke through the clouds. The handle of an axe. Someone had thrown that and saved my life. A twig snapped to my right, and I prepared to run to my horse, who was now happily grazing on some tall grass behind me.
“Miss Evie, thank the Goddess!” I squinted, trying to see who was speaking, when Curly stumbled out of the tree line.
“D-did you throw that?” I sputtered, still reeling from the adrenaline that coursed through my veins.
“Aye, I did. Just in time, too,” he explained, only a little short of breath, as he walked over to the dead wolf. “I tried to catch up with you a ways back, but the rain was coming down too hard. Glad I got here when I did, though.”
I grimaced as he bent and retrieved the axe with a hard tug, wiping the blood off across the animal’s wet fur. He moved as though this was nothing out of the ordinary. As though he slung axes through the air daily and saved women from wild wolves. “Where are the others?” I wasn’t sure why I was asking or looking around like I expected them to walk out of the treeline. I knew there weren’t any others. Not anymore.
Curly sighed and shook his head. “We’re in The Pale Forest. Wolf country. It’s on the insignia of this territory’s Goddess damned royal family. I bailed right after you did.” He approached me next, moving slow and steady. “May I assist you to your feet, my lady?”
I hadn’t even realized I was still on my knees. Warily I reached up to take Curly’s offered hand, but only because my legs were half asleep and hurting like hell. I still didn’t trust him or anyone who was in close connection with the royals, but I was grateful that he saved my life.
“Thank you,” I offered as I rose to my feet. “I’ve never seen a wolf that big.” Even in death, the beast looked as though it would return from the afterlife just to end me.
Curly shook his head. “Me neither.” A distant howl had both of us looking back in the direction we’d just fled. “Better move on before the rest of the pack comes looking. Stay vigilant because we’re getting closer and closer to bear country.”
“Fantastic,” I muttered and turned to retrieve my horse. Both horses had gotten their fill of grass, but having also heard that howl, they knew their well-earned break was done. I got lucky, and I didn’t believe things like that happened more than once.
I was no less suspicious of my lone guard now than I had been before the attack. I didn’t trust him or anyone else. He’d saved me, but that was his job. He was under orders to deliver me to the Isle, and that’s what he was going to do. I had questions though, and my mind ran wild with them for a solid hour before we slowed our pace enough to actually have a conversation.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, and he glanced over his shoulder at me.
He raised a blond eyebrow. “For what?”
“Your, uh, friends back there.”
He huffed. “Not my friends, but thank you just the same.”
Now it was my turn to be confused. “Not your friends? Weren’t you together all the time?”
“Aye.” He slowed his horse to allow me to ride next to him so we could talk easier. “I joined their unit fresh out of training three years ago.”
We were quiet for a moment before Curly spoke again. “I’m sure you’re wondering how one could spend three years with a group of people and not feel some sort of connection to them?”
I chuckled and patted my horse’s neck. “You caught me.”
“I don’t agree with many things that happened while I was a part of their unit. Eddie was a brute and disgusting toward women. It got so bad at times that I started carrying purple shade seed powder, and I’d sprinkle that into his ale at the pubs before he could drag off some poor woman who had no idea what he was capable of.”
The mention of purple shade seed made me think of my father, and my heart clenched as guilt seized me.
“The commander knew everything that went on and did nothing to stop it.”
Anger simmered beneath my skin. I knew Brow was that type of asshole, so it wasn’t surprising to have it confirmed. “So why did you stick with them so long?”
“Because, Miss Evie, once you’re in the Royal Guard, you’re in for life. I’m not in any position to be making demands about where I’m assigned. Better the devil you know, and all that.”
It was only then I realized I didn’t know what his name was.
“I can hear you thinking from here,” he said with a grin.
“Well, I just realized I don’t know your name,” I admitted, a bit embarrassed.
