Текст книги "The wolf king"

Автор книги: Lauren Palphreyman

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He smirks and my cheeks flame. “That should work.”

He makes a sudden movement.

“FUCK!” roars Ryan.

The horrible wolf in the next cell chuckles. The alpha grins, too.

“Ah, be quiet, you big wuss.” He musses Ryan’s hair as the boy mutters obscenities under his breath. He shoves him gently toward me. “You’ll need to make a sling for—”

“I know,” I snap.

I lead Ryan to the wall and sit him down, grabbing the fabric from my satchel and crouching before him. His face is bright red and his breathing is shuddery as I slide the bandage beneath his forearm, then bring the top end around the back of his neck.

“You don’t like being told what to do,” observes the alpha.

“No one likes to be told what to do.”

“Some people like it.” I can hear the smirk in his tone and I look up at him, confused. He shakes his head. “Never mind.”

He watches me in silence as I tie the two ends of the bandage together above Ryan’s collarbone.

I’m just finishing up when the main iron door screeches open.

I still, panic writhing inside my stomach as I imagine what Sebastian will do to me if he catches me here.

A woman’s sultry laughter seeps through the darkness and I let loose a breath.

“Who’s been a good boy?” she coos, as if speaking to a dog, and I tense. “Who’s a good boy and deserves his treat?”

The horrible wolf who whistled at me chuckles. “I’ve been a good boy,” he leers. “You can come in here, sweetheart.”

“Oh, yes?” Her sweet rose-scented perfume permeates the dank air as her footsteps get closer. “And what about you? They say you’re an alpha. Is that true? I’ve always wanted to bed an alpha.”

I look over my shoulder.

A pretty woman with long blonde hair leans against the bars of the alpha’s cell. Her lips are painted bright red, and her cheeks are rosy. Her dark cloak hangs over one shoulder and reveals that she’s not wearing anything underneath.

She flutters her eyelashes, but the alpha keeps his back to her.

“No?” she coos. “Are you sure? How about now?”

She drops her cloak, revealing her naked body. I tense, my eyes widening. I have never seen anyone unclothed before. A muscle feathers in the alpha’s jaw and his gaze remains on me.

“Very well, pet.” She pouts. “I suppose you’ll just have to watch.”

She unlocks the door to the next cell and saunters inside, hips swaying.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” leers the horrible wolf, looking her up and down. “Get over here. I’ve got something for you.”

He pushes her to her knees and my heartbeat starts pounding too fast, too hard, as she smiles up at him. What is she doing? Why is she. . .?

The alpha before me shifts to the side, partially blocking them from view. “It’s time to leave, Princess.”

His low voice doesn’t cover the wet sucking sound that comes seconds later, and the horrible things the wolf is snarling under his breath in the next cell. All the warmth drains from my body and I’m frozen.

Is she. . .? With her mouth?

“Princess.” There is a command in the alpha’s tone.

I’m distracted by the blur of movement in the shadows of the cell beyond as the wolf flips the woman over so she’s on her hands and knees, and mounts her from behind.

If you wish to betaken like a common mutt, that can be arranged tomorrow night after the ceremony. Sebastian’s threat floods my mind and my heart beats faster, a trapped bird unable to escape its cage.

The man grunts, thrusting harder, his face twisted and ugly. The woman’s hair swishes in front of her face as her whole body jerks. Her hands slide through the dirt and her knees scrape against the cold hard ground. She must be in pain. And the sounds she’s making. . .

Dots dance in front of my eyes.

Tomorrow night. Tomorrow night this will happen to me.

The shadows tighten around me, bind me. I can’t move. I can’t breathe. I am trapped. A prisoner. I’m always a prisoner. I cannot escape this.

Who knows, perhaps I will throw you into the kennels afterwards.

The woman’s moans become louder, high-pitched.

“That’s it,” snarls the wolf. “Take it, you dirty little bitch.”

“Yes,” she cries back. “Yes.”

Perhaps I will even let this alpha have a go with you, seeing as you have denied him his kill.

My throat tightens. I can’t swallow. I can’t breathe. I clutch my chest. The darkness swims around me. The air is liquid and I’m drowning in it.

“Princess,” the alpha barks. “Look at me.” His rough voice cuts through the swirling whirlpool that is sucking me under—strong and demanding obedience.

Slowly, I turn my head.

“That’s it. Keep your eyes on me.” He’s crouching down so he’s almost at my level, big hands curling around the bars between us. I don’t know when he moved. “Deep breaths.”

I do as he says, and some of the tightening of my chest loosens.

“That’s it. Breathe in. Breathe out.” The raging waters become lapping waves as his voice washes over me. “Breathe in. Breathe out.”

Everything feels far away. Horrible sounds echo around the cells, but I keep my gaze fixed on the face in front of mine. I keep breathing. His expression is unreadable.

“That’s it. Easy now.” His voice is surprisingly gentle. “Good lass.” I snap back into my body. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” I say, my tone clipped, my voice hoarse. Because I’m not, and he knows it, and now I am weak. I avert my gaze, but something pulls it back again. “I’m fine.”

He studies my face, and I study his. He is younger than I first thought. Beyond the warrior physique, the layers of grime, and unkempt hair, there is brightness in his eyes and a youthful glow to his skin. I think he may be in his mid-twenties at most.

The noises behind him get louder and faster. “You’d best be taking your leave now, Princess. The lad’s okay. You did a brave thing coming here.”

I turn to Ryan, who is watching me with a strange expression.

The horrible wolf roars.

Ryan’s nose wrinkles. “I wish I’d never fucking come here,” he mutters again.

I take a deep breath, then stuff the spare bandages and the water flask back in my satchel. I throw on my cloak, pulling the hood over my head. It takes me two attempts to do up the fastening due to my trembling fingers.

I hurry out of the cell and lock it behind me.

The alpha stalks across his cell as I pass, his eyes dark. I’m only a few paces away when he says something.

I halt. “What?”

For a moment, all I can hear is the horrible panting sound from the next cell.

“He won’t touch you,” says the alpha—his voice barely audible.

“Who?”

“Sebastian. He won’t touch you.” His tone is so dark, so certain. I turn to face him—raising my head to meet his gaze.

“He is to be my husband,” I say softly.

Again, I am reminded of the rugged mountains when I look at him. His stance is dominant, powerful, and his face could be carved from rock. His eyes, though. . . those eyes. . . something that looks like remorse, or regret, passes over them.

“No,” he says, his voice equally quiet. “No, he isn’t.”

Does his plan for escape involve murdering Sebastian? Something inside tells me I should feel something about that. Sadness. Gladness. Anything.

I feel nothing.

I wonder if my body, this vessel that I trap my soul within, is slowly turning to stone. A statue for men like Sebastian to look at that has no purpose, no desire, no feeling.

And yet. . . as the alpha stares at me, something stirs.

I swallow hard. Then I look away—averting my eyes from the horrible wolf and the naked woman—and hurry to the main iron doors.

I feel alpha’s eyes on my back as I’m let out of the kennels.

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Chapter Three

I am to be wed tomorrow, and I cannot sleep.

I lie in bed, the covers pulled up to my chin, and listen to the wind howling outside of the window. Shadows dance across the ceiling, and there is a bite to the air now there are only embers in the grate.

I was trained for this.

I was trained to be beautiful and silent and obedient. I forged a prison for my wild and angry soul and I waited for the day to come when I was to be wed.

A small part of me dreamed that one day I would fall in love like the princesses in my mother’s stories, that one day I would be free.

But I always knew there would be no happy ending for me.

So I waited and I dreaded.

And now it is here.

Tomorrow I will wed a man who makes Wolves fight as if they are dogs. Who threatened to take me like a mutt. Whose leery eyes make my skin crawl.

A man who I do not know, I do not love.

He won’t touch you.

The alpha’s promise resounds in my mind. I should tell someone what he said. I should tell someone he means to escape. I should tell someone he made a threat to the lord, to my betrothed. He is a wolf. An enemy.

Yet I lie here in the darkness, listening to the wind howling outside the castle.

And I remain as silent as I was trained.

It was an idle threat, anyway. There is no way that he can escape.

We are both prisoner to these walls.

Still, I glance at the silver letter opener on the bedside table before sleep finally takes me.

***

Sometimes I dream I am a statue in the palace gardens.

People wander around me, commenting on my shape, my form.

Her eyes look almost alive, they say, when the light hits them.

And all the while, I’m trapped inside myself. Screaming. But my lungs are stone and my lips are hard and my mouth tastes like old cemeteries. So no one hears me, no one cares.

Other times, I’m back in that church and I’m so scared I think I’m going to pass out.

I don’t cry, though. Father doesn’t like it when I cry. And the priest is in front of me with his crop.

I didn’t sin, I protest.

Oh, child. All women sin. Your mother was a sinner, and you are a sinner too. Do you want the Sun Goddess to be angry? No? Good. Turn around.

Other times, I’m running. I’m running through the forest as fast as I can. The wind is in my hair, and twigs snap beneath my bare feet. I am free, but I am afraid. Because something is chasing me and I fear what will happen if it catches me.

My mother’s voice ricochets off the trees as I burst into the moonlight.

Wake up, Aurora.

Wake up!

***

My eyes jolt open.

Rain hammers against the walls, and the fire in the grate is completely out. As my vision adjusts to the darkness, I realize what woke me. There is faint shouting coming from somewhere within the castle.

I frown, my breath misting in front of my face.

Outside, something howls. The wind?

The door to my chambers bursts open and I sit upright, grasping the bedsheets.

“What is the meaning–?” The words die in my throat.

The horrible dark-haired male from the kennels prowls into the room. He’s still wearing the green kilt from earlier, but now he wears a linen shirt and boots as well. He smells acrid, like sweat mixed with something else unpleasant.

His gaze hones in on me and there’s something predatory in it. “Hello, sweetheart.”

Visions of his face, twisted and red, as he mounted the woman in the cells, flash before my eyes.

Two other men flank him, wearing the same green tartan. The bald one is tall and muscular with a dark beard and a serious expression. The other has ratlike features and mousy-brown hair that hangs to his chin.

Blood drips from their daggers onto the flagstones.

My heart stills. Time slows down.

One of them—the muscular one—closes the door behind him.

“You were right about her, Magnus,” says the ratlike one. “She’s quite a beauty.” He sniffs the air and grins. “Mm. So sweet and innocent too.”

“Aye.” Magnus’s thin lips curl into a twisted smile. “Not for long, though.”

I scramble from the four-poster bed and almost trip over my covers. I grab the letter opener from my bedside table and brandish it before me. Even though it is made of silver, it is a pathetic means to defend myself against three bloodthirsty Wolves.

They know it too.

The ratlike one snickers as Magnus stalks closer.

“Leave now.” My voice is shaking. “And Lord Sebastian will let you live.”

“Your lord is a bit busy right now,” says Magnus. “It’s just us, and you. I thought we could take the time to get to know each other better. What do you say?”

I want to clutch my arms over my body as he looks me up, but I do not want to lower the small blade. My nightdress is too thin and the ratlike one leers at my breasts. My nipples are hard due to the cold.

“Get. Out,” I hiss.

Magnus chuckles. “Come on, sweetheart. There’s no need to be like—”

The door to my room swings open.

“Out.” A low growl comes from the doorway.

The three males stiffen.

The alpha stands there. He’s wearing a crumpled white linen shirt and high boots as well as his red tartan kilt. His face looks like it is carved from thunder and stone. “Out.”

Magnus swallows, before a smile twists back onto his face and he turns. “It’s just a bit of fun—”

“Now,” says the alpha.

The alpha is bigger than the other three wolves, and there’s something in his eyes that promises death. Magnus seems to realize that, and shakes his head.

“Come on, lads. Time to get the fuck out of here.” He grins and gives me a mock bow. “Until we meet again, Your Highness.”

The alpha shuts the door behind them. My mouth is dry and my head is whirling. Is he my savior? Or does he have something even worse in mind?

“Are you hurt?” he asks.

I hold up the letter opener and curse my trembling hand.

“I’m sorry about them. Their whole clan—” His green eyes darken. “They’ll pay for it later.”

“You need to leave.”

“Aye. I do.” He swallows, and his gaze moves from the wardrobe to the crescent moon through the window. As the silence extends between us, I hear more shouting in the castle. “Do you have a warm cloak?”

“Why?”

“It’s cold outside.”

“I don’t see why that is of any relevance to me,” I say, my voice higher in pitch than I’d like it to be.

A flicker of regret crosses his face. “Aye, you do.”

A humorless laugh escapes my lips and I step back. “You can’t possibly think I’m going with you.”

“You are, Princess.”

“You. . . you won’t hurt me,” I say.

He sighs. “That’s where you’re wrong. I won’t kill you. And I won’t lay a finger on you in the way those bastards were threatening. But you’re coming with me. And if I have to overpower you in order to make that happen, I can’t promise that won’t hurt.”

I narrow my eyes, tilting my chin up. “I helped you, earlier.”

“Aye, you did. And I appreciate that, Princess. I really do. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m taking you with me.”

When he steps forward, I brandish the letter opener before me. “Stay back.”

The blade is laughably small in relation to his huge build, but he raises his hands placatingly. “Please calm down.”

Emotions that have lain dormant inside me for years awaken.

“How dare you tell me to calm down.”

Every time my father, or the priest, or my brother dismissed me for daring to show emotion, flashes before my eyes and feeds the wildness growing inside me.

“You come into my chambers in the middle of the night,” I slice the blade through the air, “thinking you can steal me from my bed.” I cut the space between us. “And you act as if I am overreacting?”

I jab the letter opener at his stomach and he grabs my wrist.

I still. His hand is callused and strong as it wraps around the bone.

“Get off me,” I hiss.

He bends my wrist and the tiny blade hits the stone floor and clatters. Crouching down, he picks it up. He winces when the silver comes into contact with his skin.

“You can have this back when you behave yourself.”

When he pockets it, I kick his chest. He grabs my ankle, putting a hand on my lower back to steady me. Our eyes meet, and my breath hitches at the intensity of his expression.

“What do you want with me?” I ask.

“I think you can help me end this war.”

I shake my head. “Kidnapping me will only worsen it. You’re going to get yourself killed, you fool.”

“If that is the price I must pay to save my people, I will gladly pay it. So, what will it be, Princess? Will you grab your cloak and walk out of this room with me? Or am I going to throw you over my shoulder? You have a choice. It’s not a very good one.” He mimics my words from earlier, a grim smile on his face. “But it’s a choice nonetheless.”

“You bastard.” I shake my head. “You can’t possibly think you’ll get all the way out of the castle.”

I can hear shouting and the thunder of hooves in the grounds below.

“See? They’re coming for you.” I jerk my head toward the window, and a strand of red hair catches in my mouth. “If you go now, you have a chance to—”

Before I know what’s happening, he’s on his feet, and I’m over his shoulder. I shriek, punching his back.

“Are you insane?” I snarl. “They’ll skin you alive for—”

He throws open my wardrobe and the words die in my throat at the inopportune moment for my threat.

In the current circumstance, guilt should not flood so powerfully through my chest at the sight of the wolf coat that hangs there. Nor should I want, desperately, to tell him that it was there when I arrived.

The Wolves have been attacking my people for centuries, yet I can’t bring myself to agree with some of Sebastian’s more barbaric practices.

He stills, the muscles in his back tightening.

Then he grabs a different fur and heads out of my chambers.

I punch him between his shoulder blades again, but I do not put my full force into it.

Perhaps it’s because his mood has darkened and I’m afraid. Or perhaps it’s because a small part of me is glad I’m being taken away from my fate with Sebastian, despite how frightening this wolf may be.

“You won’t get away with this,” I growl, regardless.

“I will. Now be quiet.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“Home.”

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Chapter Four

Shouts fill the castle and torchlight flickers as I’m carried through a labyrinth of stone corridors.

I struggle against my captor, but his thick arm only tightens around my waist.

I do not know where I’d run to even if I did escape him. Sebastian? My father? Would that be any better? Would it be worse?

Trapped as I am, something wild seems to have knocked loose inside me. It rattles around in my chest and I do not feel the hopelessness I should be feeling. The anger I have caged since my mother died surges hot and free through my veins.

I am not stone. I am not a statue.

I am fire.

And somehow it has taken this man, this beast, to make me see it.

I pound against the alpha’s back. “Get off me, you bloody horrible brute.” My hair catches in my mouth. I kick my bare feet and hit nothing but air. “Get off me. You’ll die for this, you horrible—” I cut myself off as we turn a corner.

There are two guards lying in a pool of blood. The alpha steps over the bodies, and I’m forced to stare down at their lifeless faces as he continues onward.

The reality of my situation slams fully into me.

These men are dangerous. They’re killers. They’re Wolves.

Of course being taken away from my homeland by the enemies of my people is worse than staying. Of course it is. And yet. . .

The alpha cuts through one of the servants’ passageways, almost as if he knows where he is going, even if I am lost, and a scream from a lady-in-waiting pierces my ears. She catches my eye as we pass, then runs in the opposite direction, her dark hair falling free from her cap.

The alpha won’t make it out of here.

They’ll imprison him until the full moon, then skin him alive.

The thing that’s knocked loose in my chest becomes frantic. My heart pounds wildly in my chest.

“She’s gone to get help, you horrible brute,” I hiss at him. “There are guards stationed only a couple of minutes away.”

“Aye?” he says, his voice low. He quickens his pace, half running down the servants’ staircase. “Thank you.”

I cling onto his shoulders, my fingers digging into his muscles, my body jolting against his back. “I wasn’t. . . I wasn’t trying to help you!” I say, shrilly.

Although I wonder, as I say it, if that is entirely true.

The alpha goes left, then right, bursting into a wider corridor. I recognize the mural of warriors slaughtering Wolves on the wall. It shows our victory in the Battle of the Beasts a century ago, and it is close to the western entrance hall.

He is almost free of this place. I am almost—

“Halt.” A male voice cuts through the quiet.

The alpha stills. Two guards block the corridor ahead. They have the sigil of the Southlands, a sun, painted onto their shields. My father’s men.

“Is that the princess?” one says incredulously.

The other chuckles. “Oh, I don’t envy you, dog. Do you know what they do to your kind up here?”

The rattle of swords signals three more guards stepping into the corridor behind us. I breathe in sharply.

“Don’t kill it,” says one of them—a burly looking man with the silver star of the Borderlands on his breastplate. “Lord Sebastian will want to spend some time with this one.”

The alpha’s body stiffens. “I’m going to need to put you down for this, Princess,” he says softly.

My breath hitches as he slides me down his front, and places me on the flagstones. The guards are charging, but everything feels still. His eyes bore into mine and they are as green and alive as the forest.

Don’t run, he seems to be telling me. Don’t run.

He pushes me aside. I flatten myself against a mural as he dodges the swing of a sword. He grabs his attacker’s head and twists. A sickly crack fills the hall before he hurls the body into the next soldier, who skids into the wall. He roars, and charges.

Blood and muscle and steel blur in front of me as he takes on three men at once.

He is a force of nature. He swings, and blocks, and dodges each lethal blow that comes his way. He impales one soldier on his own sword, then rams another into the far wall—smashing his head against the stone with such force that the chandelier above trembles.

My body trembles as though the decision that’s rattling inside my body is a tangible, living thing.

I should run.

But I don’t want to stay in this castle.

There are two paths ahead of me and I am lost. I do not know which one to take.

The alpha picks up a sword from the floor. He thrusts it through the chin of another guard, causing blood to spill from his mouth.

The horror of it forces me to face what the alpha is. A killer.

I flee down the corridor to my right, my bare feet slapping against the cold ground. My hair flies loose behind me, and my long nightdress bunches at my ankles. I’m breathing fast, and my heart is pounding.

I run wildly, frantically. This place is new to me and, though it is supposed to be my home, it is cold and unfamiliar. I am lost in a labyrinth of stone and there is a beast in here and I do not know the way out.

“Princess, wait.”

I turn.

The alpha stands in the corridor behind me. His shirt is slick with sweat, and his biceps strain against his sleeves. He walks slowly, carefully, toward me. He’s like a predator, trying not to scare his prey.

“Princess, do you really—”

He tenses when he reaches me, as if he hears something I cannot, then hooks an arm around my waist. My breathing sharpens as he draws me into a shadowy alcove. He pulls my back flush against his chest.

I am aware of every ridge of his torso, and the quick pounding of his heartbeat. His breaths are hot and uneven by my ear. His scent floods my nostrils—heat and sweat and the mountains. It overwhelms me. I still, even as my blood pounds through my body and my heartbeat hammers in my ears.

A scream builds in my chest, and he clamps his hand over my mouth.

“Find her!” Lord Sebastian snaps. “Find her now! She is my betrothed and I will not have her taken from me. If they touch her, if they defile her, she is of no value to me! Do you understand?”

I feel the slight growl building in the alpha’s chest.

For a moment, we are both breathing fast as Sebastian rants, just a few feet away, about the importance of my purity. Slowly, the alpha drops his hand from my mouth. It’s as if he’s daring me to scream.

“I need her with her virtue intact. Do you understand?” says Sebastian. “Find her. Find her!”

“Yes, my lord.”

The voices fade away.

I breathe out slowly. For a moment, neither of us move.

The alpha drops his arm and I step away. His face is as dark as thunder as he stares down the corridor.

“Do you really want to stay?” he asks.

“What difference does it make? I am a prisoner either way.”

“Aye.” He runs a hand over the back of his neck. “And I can’t promise you it won’t be dangerous up in the Northlands. My people don’t much care for humans. But I promise you that I’ll protect you.” He swallows. “And I’ll give you the choice. Run now, and I won’t follow. Come with me, and no one will touch you. I swear it on the Moon Goddess.”

He holds out his hand for me to take. I am trembling as the decision builds in my chest. My soul is rattling against its prison, wild and screaming.

The alpha’s gaze is unwavering. It’s as though there is no doubt in his mind what I will do.

“What do you want with me?” I ask.

He drags his teeth over his bottom lip, as if deciding whether to tell me. “Sebastian has something of ours. We want it back.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “You want to hold me ransom. You think he will make a trade.”

“Aye,” he says.

And there it is. My “choice”. The two paths that lie before me.

A choice between two men. Two killers. Two monsters.

Only it is not much of a choice at all, is it? Again, I am nothing more than a prize—an object—to be passed between men. A burst of hysteria builds up inside me and spills out of my mouth in a manic giggle.

“There it is,” I say. “That’s what this is all about! Well, you heard what the lord said. If I am defiled then I am of no value to anyone.”

“That’s not why I’ll keep you safe.”

I stare at his open palm, then I look down the corridor in the direction that Lord Sebastian went in.

“I heard what he said to you,” says the alpha, his voice quiet. “At the dog fight.” When I meet his eyes, there is a surprising amount of anger contained within them. “I will keep you safe. Then I will set you free. I swear it.”

I do not know if it is that word—free—that makes my heart beat faster, or whether it is the look on his face. Even though I am a statue, and statues don’t move, my fingers twitch at my sides.

“I swear it, Princess,” he says.

And somewhere beyond the adrenaline that’s pumping through me, a thought begins to form.

If I can gather intelligence on the Wolves, perhaps I can finally prove to my father that I am more than just a prize to be won.

And, if I help my father win his war, he will have no use for Sebastian.

Perhaps I can escape my fate on my own terms.

“What does Sebastian have that belongs to you?” I ask.

There’s a click behind me and the alpha looks over my shoulder.

“Step back, my lady.” A guard grabs my arm and pushes me behind him, his musket trained on the alpha. “They’re silver bullets, so don’t do anything stupid. Hands behind your head.”

Slowly, the alpha raises his hands and clasps them behind his neck.

“On your knees, dog.”

“Wait—” I start.

“It’s okay, my lady. He’ll be punished. I can take it from here—”

The decision, the choice, that has been rattling around in my chest since I laid eyes on the alpha, erupts out of me.

I grab a torch from the wall, and smack the guard in the head with it.

I expect him to fall down to the ground, unconscious, like the guards did in stories my mother would tell me as a child.

Instead he grunts, then turns to me. The mild confusion on his face quickly turns to anger.

I stagger back, dropping the torch.

“What’s going on?” he says, his face reddening. “Have you. . . lain with him? She who lies with a beast—”

The alpha darts forward and breaks the man’s neck, then shoves him aside.

He holds out his hand.

I suck in a deep breath.

I’m doing this to help my kingdom, I tell myself. Not because—even with blood on his shirt cuffs, and dirt on his face, and one of my guards, dead, at his feet—he is looking at me with kindness.

No one looks at me with kindness.

I place my hand in his.

His palm is warm and rough as his fingers curl around mine—sealing my fate. It is only then that a flicker of confusion crosses his face. Perhaps I imagined it, because a moment later, he gives me a small smile.

“Come,” he says. “More will be on their way.”

Together, we bolt down the corridor, into the western entrance hall. The door is already open, and the night spills onto the checkered floor tiles.

I smell the pine trees of the forest, and the rain-drenched grass. The cold breeze tickles my skin, so fresh I can taste it.

The wind howls, or perhaps it is the Wolves that await.

Alongside the beast, I break out of the labyrinth.

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