Page 49 of Bosse
As the rescued children told the story, her mother unleashed a whirlwind that sent cars and trucks flying. When the men burst from the cabin with rifles, she’d spun each one in a different direction. She never wanted to kill anyone so long as she could neutralize them.
One of the children had been so terrified her mother had to carry her outside while pulling the other two holding hands. She started telling them, “Mr. Thornton is waiting close by to help once we get into the woods ahead. When I tell you—”
“Nice trick, witch, but I’m a warlock,” one of the men shouted.
She put the little girl down quickly to face the threat. When she swung around with the children behind her, he shot her with a titanium bullet, striking her stomach.
As she fell to her knees, she yelled at the children to run and wielded a last surge of her magic at the same time to shield them with a thick fog.
The clan called law enforcement, saying nothing about magic being used. As one of their council people, Thornton had been racked with guilt over leaving her mother, but he had done exactly as she’d ordered—save the children first, no matter what. He led the police to the area where he claimed to have found the missing children, who told him about Alifair’s mother saving them. Playing the role of the community leader, he’d explained that her mother had not returned after hunting the children on her own.
With a short search, the police found the cabin where no male bodies remained.
Evidently, the kidnappers had taken their time torturing her mother before cutting off her head and leaving her dismantled body to be chewed on by animals and vultures.
Alifair had been seventeen at the time.
With her mother gone, the clan turned to her for protection the minute she turned eighteen. She was a flawed replacement for her mother. Her father had been a lumberjack, just a human who loved her mother dearly, was fine with her unusual gift, and died in a logging accident.
Now Alifair faced the strong possibility she would not survive coming to this castle. She tried not to be angry, but she was.
Not for the first time, she wondered why her female lineage had been chosen to sacrifice everything for the clan.
Duty. Such a simple word with a high cost.
Shaking off that dark memory, Alifair searched for where she could be of the most use in the kitchen. She walked over to Hessie, the woman in charge of servants.
Alifair inquired, “What can I do to help?”
Taller than Alifair, thick with rough features and frizzy gray hair, Hessie paused from cleaning greens. She wiped sweat off her wide brow. “We will have no fresh game tonight with the hunters out tracking the wolf shifter. Peel and cut up fifty potatoes and thirty onions. I’ll have more when you finish.”
Nodding her understanding, Alifair ran over to the pile of potatoes and got to work. As the morning wore on, the other women finished baking bread and pies. One woman came in with an apron full of carrots and began prepping them.
How would a vegetarian meal go over with Krol?
Not very well.
Linota had been washing and drying dishes for a while. Based on the stack growing taller than her head, she was getting behind.
Alifair finished her task and found Hessie. “Do you want me to help clean the dishes?”
Hessie had her hands full of rabbits that one of the guards had surprised her with and waved her off. “Do that. I must get this meat ready. Krol will be happy for more than vegetables.”
Every servant would be glad to see something more than vegetables for the castle alpha. A hungry lion shifter scared even the guards.
Jumping in to help Linota, who smiled her thanks, Alifair went through the dishes quickly, directing the young woman to start drying. There was a side benefit to joining this woman in her duties because Linota had to set the large table with these same dishes. That meant Alifair could go out to the main room with her where Krol and nine of his best guards devoured meals every day.
She hoped to learn something about the hunt for Bosse.
It was past time for the noon meal when she and Linota set the table with heavy metal plates and mugs of beer. The men were tough on the flatware, but Alifair had spent time straightening the fork tines while drying them. Using metal plates served Krol’s need to keep a medieval air about the place and provided dishware the guards could not break.
Knives were kept in the kitchen and out in plain sight. Servants were not allowed to put them out for place settings. They were only used to prepare the meals. The men carried their own knives. Alifair had been fortunate to find a knife down in the storage basement when she went to look for the tunnel. She failed to find the tunnel access due to everything piled as high as her head and too heavy to move, but the knife had been a win. It could have used a sharpening. Still, that knife was better than nothing if Bosse needed a weapon besides his wolf.
Alifair had just placed the first fork by a plate when Krol came striding into the hall. “Why is food not on the table?”
Linota began to sob. That wouldn’t help.
He glared at her. “Get out of here until you stop bawling.”
