Page 30 of Brutally Mated
“She’s scared?” Skor’s tone dips into disbelief. “I’ve seen her kill vampires and zombies without breaking a sweat, but she’s scared of a train?”
Nobody responds to him.
The train keeps rocking.
Skor
Something doesn’t make sense here. Thorn has her cuddled up and she is obviously crying and the train is rattling along like oldtrains do, not particularly fast compared to some of the bullet trains in Eclipse City. She hasn’t seen anything yet, and she is already pale and teary-eyed.
I wonder if we are not doing her a cruelty taking her from the only world she has ever known. She said as much, and I felt it inside her when we were connected.
I pull Krall aside, back into our cabin. “We might not be able to take her from the mountains.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean some things can only live where they’re made to live. Caterpillars only exist on some leaves. You can’t just put them on any plant. We might be separating her from a source of nourishment she needs.”
“You don’t usually talk in poetry,” he says. “And she’s afraid of the train, that’s all. She’s scared and she’s young, and this is her first time away from home. She will be fine. Thorn is taking care of her.”
He’s not exactly open to the idea of returning to the mountains, evidently. Krall wants to retire to Eclipse City, take up a post in the royal guard, breed his mate, and live a quiet life.
Even though we’re brothers and have shared basically everything in our lives, we never planned to all share one girl. Though we’ve played along so far, there are some very hard conversations to have.
Krall doesn’t want to have them. He’d prefer we all defer to him and go along with his wishes because he considers himself alpha of our unit. So far he’s getting his way. I’m going to let him keep thinking that.
Talking to him won’t get me anywhere. He’s too simple minded. A grunt who got promoted to the limit of his incompetence. He doesn’t see Tabby for all that she is, and the few bits he does see because she forces him to see them, he resists and resents and tries to stop her from manifesting.
“Last night, when she broke into the candy shop, you know she used magic, right?”
His face hardens. Oh, yes. He doesn’t like that thought, not even a little bit. He was trying not to think about it, and he doesn’t like that I brought it up and made him face it.
“I can deal with that later,” he says. “Magic is outlawed.”
“It’s really not,” I say. “Maybe in the isles we come from, but we’re not taking her back there. We are taking her to Eclipse City, where they just don’t believe in it.”
“I don’t want a mate who does magic. Not around my pups.”
“They’ll be magic too, your pups,” I say, trying not to grin as I rub salt into the wound. “You can’t change her fundamental qualities. She has abilities that we do not, and they will not stay with her. They will pass through her.”
He scowls at me. “Are you trying to wind me up?”
Yes.
“No,” I lie. “I’m just having a necessary conversation. We haven’t had a moment to talk since we agreed to take her and share her.”
“That’s true,” he admits, unwittingly falling into my trap. “I intend to take up my post in Eclipse. You and Thorn will have a place there. We will be among our own kind, and it will be safe to raise pups. Is there any objection to that plan?”
“I had intended to return to the isles,” I say.
“You can do that on vacations,” he dismisses me immediately. “Eclipse City is the best place in the world to raise wolf pups. They can attend the academy there, too. The king’s own mate was raised there. It’s the only choice that makes any sense.”
We are interrupted by the cabin door opening. Thorn carries Tabby inside and lays her down on one of the bottom beds.
“She hates it here,” he says grimly. “I think we need to reconsider the train.”
“What are we reconsidering about the train?” Krall is already tense. Good.
“We should get off of it at the next stop.”
