Sold To The Cruel Prince

Did she really escape?

The thought should have prepared Theron.

It did not.

Maybe he pushed her to it. He was guilty and avoided her whenever she tried to talk to him. Was she angry and wandered away. She tend to do that when they were younger. She would just run wherever her little legs would take her.

What if she were lost?

And even if she had run, then she had done it into a forest full of danger. Into darkness. Into creatures that did not care how fragile she was, how soft her hands were, how easily she could be hurt.

His throat tightened painfully.

No.

He refused to believe she had simply vanished by choice and left herself unprotected.

Not like this.

Not without a trace.

Not without telling him.

His gaze sharpened, scanning the trees again, as if sheer force of will might make the forest return what it had taken.

"Find her," he said at last, his voice low and edged with something far more dangerous than anger. "Search every direction. Every cave. Every hollow. She could not have gone far."

The knights bowed and scattered.

Theron remained where he was for one beat longer, staring into the trees with a grim, unreadable expression.

If Aveline had run from him... He would find her.

And when he did, he would not know whether to be relieved or furious enough to break something.

-----

Aveline clutched her skirts tighter as the wolves drew nearer.

The cave, which had already felt oppressive, seemed to shrink around her all at once. The darkness thickened. The air grew heavier. Even the silence between the sounds outside felt alive, as though the forest itself were holding its breath.

Helena remained behind her, still straining through the pain of labor, and yet Aveline’s fear shifted, strangely and unhelpfully, away from herself.

Wolves she understood. Wolves had teeth. Hunger. The terrible certainty of a beast that knew exactly what it wanted.

But Helena... Helena was suffering.

"Helena... can you move?" Aveline whispered.

For some reason, that was what frightened her most. Not the wolves. Not the dark. The thought of this creature giving birth alone, in pain, while danger waited just beyond the cave mouth.

Helena did not answer.

Aveline crawled closer and carefully laid her hand against the creature’s side.

The moment she touched her, the thoughts came clearer.

’They will not touch us. Do not be afraid.’

Aveline blinked.

She stared at Helena in the darkness, uncertain whether to believe it, but something in the creature’s silent certainty settled strangely in her chest.

Still, she needed something...anything, to hold onto.

Her fingers groped along the cave floor until they closed around a stick. It was rotten and brittle and barely fit for anything at all, but it was still a stick.

Even then, absurdly, Theron came to mind. He and his ridiculous fascination with sticks. The way he had once treated every branch like a treasure uncovered by fate.

Help me, Theron...

The plea rose in her heart before she could stop it. She did not dare call out loud.

Instead, she squinted toward the cave mouth.

Moonlight slipped through the trees in broken silver bands, painting shifting shapes on the ground outside. Beneath that pale light, the wolves moved.

Not one.

Several.

Their bodies circled the entrance, their eyes catching flashes of silver as they paced and watched and waited. One of them stood nearest the cave, hackles raised, head low, but it did not enter.

Then another joined it.

Then another.

But none stepped inside.

Aveline’s grip tightened around the stick.

Why?

Was it because of Helena?

Were they afraid of the creature because they were her prey? Because they could sense what was in the cave before they could reach it?

An odd little spark of curiosity cut through the fear.

Ah.

Interesting.

The terror knotting in her chest began to loosen, little by little.

And then...

A wet, gentle slush.

A sudden thud.

Then a frantic, skittering movement beside Helena’s body.

Aveline turned so fast her breath caught in her throat.

Another life.

Another presence had entered the world.

Joy surged through her before she could think to stop it. It was so bright, so immediate, that it almost hurt.

"You did it, Helena!" she whispered and crawled toward her at once.

She knew better than to rush a mother and her newborn. Even horses and dogs could become fiercely protective after giving birth, and this was no horse, no dog, no creature she understood at all. It had claws. Teeth. Enough strength to tear her apart like parchment if it chose.

And yet curiosity, warm and helpless and foolish, tugged at her.

She leaned closer anyway, eager to see the new life, to reach out... But Helena stopped her at once, nudging her hand away with her nose.

Aveline pouted and sat back on her heels. "All right, all right. I am staying away."

She glanced between mother and baby, her voice softening. "Are you feeling better? Is the baby all right?"

Helena gave a low grunt, but Aveline could feel the answer in the creature’s quiet certainty.

She was all right.

The baby was, too.

Time passed in the dark.

Slowly, Helena gathered herself and rose to her feet. Aveline could only make out her silhouette now, broad and dark against the cave’s black mouth. Beside her, the newborn had already found its footing, wobbling on small legs as it trotted near its mother with awkward, endearing movements that made Aveline’s heart melt despite everything.

"Does he look like his father?" Aveline asked before she could stop herself.

The calf—or baby, or whatever the proper name for a monster’s child was—did not seem to resemble Helena at all.

"Is it a he or a she?" she wondered next.

But Helena did not answer.

Instead, a strange unease rippled through the creature, and Aveline felt it even before she understood it. The worry came through like a tremor under her skin.

Something was wrong.

The fear that had begun to fade in Aveline’s chest came back at once.

Outside, the wolves that had been circling the cave all at once scattered, as if something had driven them off in a panic.

Aveline stiffened.

Then came the sound.

A heavy thud.

So heavy it seemed to shake the cave itself. So deep and massive that her heart lurched in answer, as though her body understood the danger before her mind did.

Whatever was making that sound was enormous.

Bigger than the statue of the Lord of Light in the temple.

Aveline swallowed hard and looked at Helena. "What is that?"

Helena moved closer at once.

And when Aveline laid her hand on her, the thoughts came—clear and urgent and full of dread.

Save us from him.

Aveline’s eyes widened.

Who was "him"?

And how, exactly, was she supposed to save anyone from something sounded like it could flatten the cave with a single step?

Her breath turned shallow.

Then the thought struck her with a cold jolt.

Was this why Helena had brought her here?

To save them.... From whatever terrible thing was coming toward them?