Page 56 of Wolf's Bane
“Back in the carriage. We can make Fallkirk by evening,” the coachman said.
Fallkirk. Alek recognized the name. He had been attacked by two beasts near there, but he had only defeated one. The other still prowled the territory.
When they arrived at the tavern on Fallkirk, the sun had slipped behind the trees. Alek scrubbed off the dirt and the mud, and sent his clothes out to be laundered, despite knowing they would be just as filthy in a day. He requested to eat in his room. Alone. Music and laughter drifted up from the tavern through the floor, but it was better than listening to Mrs. Parkell recite her numerous complaints to Dr. Sheldon.
A knock sounded at the door, and a young woman appeared with a tray. The aroma of roast, potatoes drowning in gravy, and warm bread instantly set his mouth watering. She set the tray down on the small side table by the window.
“You’re that hunter who came through two months ago,” she said.
“I am.”
She lifted her chin, as if unimpressed. “You only did half the job. It’s not safe outside after dark.”
“It was unsafe during the day before I reduced the beast population.” A thought occurred to him. Fallkirk was near Boxon but not part of the area the Marechals guarded. “Where are your hunters?”
“All dead, three years ago. Then that thing moved in.”
“Why have you not requested Founding to fill the post?”
The woman gave him a look that suggested he was simple. “Oh, excellent idea. Why didn’twethink of it? But we’re only simple country folk—”
“I did not mean to imply—”
“You did,” she said curtly. “The mayor and council wrote, and do you know what those stuffed shirts in Founding told us?” She continued without pause, not looking for an answer. “Offer a bounty. They wouldn’t send troops to a backwater on the edge of nowhere, and the mayor can’t find anyone to take the job. Don’t suppose you’re interested in finishing what you started? That thing helped itself to my ma’s chickens. What are we supposed to do now? The ones that are left are too scared to lay eggs.”
“Have chicken for supper, I imagine,” he said, which earned him a frown and a slammed door.
As he ate, he pondered what the woman told him. The hunters were killed before the elder beast moved in, so what killed them? The beast itself? A pack that moved out of the territory?
When he had still hunted for bounties, Alek encountered many villages on the fringes of the civilized world with the same story. The local hunter families had died out, either through bad luck, poor health, or acts of monster. Drifters like himself filled in the gaps until local officials found replacements. But it sounded like no one wanted the job.
He couldn’t blame them. Hunting was all danger, little to no pay, and every resident blaming you for chickens too scared to lay eggs.
The likelihood of two older beasts, a day apart from each other, worried him. He did not like such a threat so near his territory, his home and his mate.
Huh. He guessed Godwin had been right about the territorial nature of the beasts. He hadn’t felt it before, but he had nothing he wanted to guard. Now he had everything.
And like called to like.
Alek mopped up the gravy with the last of the bread and decided.
“You can’t leave us unprotected,”Mrs. Parkell wailed far too loud for so early in the morning. She did not take too kindly to Alek’s change of plans. “I can’t imagine what my brother was thinking, sending you as his errand boy.”
Alek wondered about that himself.
“I’ve encountered this beast before. It will follow me. You’re safer without me. Dr. Sheldon was a military man. He’ll keep you safe,” he said.
Dr. Sheldon nodded. “I know my way around a pistol. Never fear, Mrs. Parkell. We’ll be in Boxon by mid-afternoon.”
Alek didn’t linger while Mrs. Parkell’s considerable luggage was packed into the coach. He saddled up the horse borrowed from Chambers and took off on a smaller, less traveled road that went through the heart of the forest.
He’d use himself as bait and lure the beast back to Boxon. With any luck, the two beasts would tear each other apart.
Solenne
Boxon
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