“Beta Sullivan, today’s milled corn’s looking coarser than usual. Is that supposed to happen?”
Kendra chuckled at the question.
Normally she’d have no knowledge on that, but her love for reading had made her quite the expert. “Well, technically, no… but it does happen sometimes, Mavis.” She addressed the short, chubby, woman with raven dark hair. “And I’ve told you to call me Kendra.”
“I’m sorry, milady— I mean, Kendra…” The older woman corrected with a soft chuckle, “That is going to take some time to get used to.”
Kendra giggled. “No problem. Take all the time you need. Now back to the corn… you’ll have to mill it again. Keep doing it until the fineness is up to your taste, alright?”
“Yes, mi—Kendra.”
Kendra laughed out loud as she watched the older woman leave, going back to her work of sorting out lentils.
She had to admit, working with the women wasn’t so bad…
At all.
She had had more fun in the past week than she had had her entire adult life, and she wasn’t even kidding.
And the women…
Gosh, they had been so welcoming. They had overlooked her first awkward stages of getting familiar, and had tried not to mind her outspokenness too much.
“Beba!!!”
Kendra sighed deeply.
And then there was young Elinor, the wee pup who had made it all happen. The female-Beta couldn’t deny it anymore, even if she tried.
The young child had won her over, completely in fact.
“Elinor!” She called right back, chuckling softly when the blue-eyed kid’s eyes lit up in recognition of her name. Kendra closed the distance between them and swooped the crawling child right off the ground. “What have you got in there?” She chirped softly, trying to pry the young pup’s tiny hands open.
After a few tries, she gave up. Little children could be very strong when it came to taking things out of their grasps, and she didn’t want to risk hurting her, so she stopped.
“Where’s mummy?” She cooed again.
“Mama!!!”
Apparently that was all the young one was willing to share.
Placing the child on a bench beside her, Kendra went back to her work, occasionally pausing to play with her so she wouldn’t get bored.
*****
Kendra was exhausted.
She couldn’t believe that all she had done today was sort out lentils and stack sacks of grains.
Hell, she didn’t even feel this knackered after a long day of sparring with other male wolves.
Speaking of sparring, she hadn’t practiced in a whole week.
Kendra couldn’t believe it!
She, who could barely go a day without a quick spar had managed an entire week without it. It was a miracle!
Kendra had discovered her passion for scuffling at a rather tender age, and her father, a former alpha himself, had actively encouraged the interest, taking time off his busy schedules as Beta to train her himself.
Her mother had also been a warrior, so she had grown to be an expert at quite a young age.
As Kendra wearily trudged towards her chambers, she silently wondered how her parents would feel about her apparent break from fighting. Would they be happy to know that she was finally starting to make friends aside Killian and Artemis, and people who were older than her?
Or would they be disappointed and think that she now had misplaced priorities?
She liked to think that the first option sounded more like her parents.
For in the end, her happiness and protection had always been the reason why her parents made any decision.
She was the reason why her father gave up his position as Alpha to come work as Beta for Alpha Jackson.
She was the reason why her mother had left her high position as Warrior Queen for the Female Werewolves Association to come be with her father.
Honestly speaking, not a single day went by that she did not miss them, but she had found ways to deal with it— found ways to still connect with them.
Sparring was one of those ways.
“Kendra!”
Kendra snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of her name, a look of disbelief on her face at the sight of her friend, excitedly waving at her.
“Artemis!” She ran toward the redhead in excitement, “I can’t believe you’re here, I thought you were not due back here for quite a while.” She wrapped her arms around her friend. “I’m so glad to see you.”
Artemis chuckled mirthfully. “Wow, you missed me that much? Well, that’s alright… because I missed you just as much.”
Kendra snickered at that.
“So, what did I miss? Where’s Killian?”
And just like that, Kendra’s happy mood abruptly deflated.
Killian.
Sincerely speaking, she had barely thought about him all week. And guilt, primarily… and a whole other myriad of emotions flooded her entire conscience at that.
“Uh… I haven’t really seen him the entire week, we have been quite busy, you know? A lot has happened since you’ve been gone.” She explained weakly quickly grabbing the opportunity to change the topic. “So how was Quirkshire? And everyone back there?”
“Good, I guess. Turns out the Curers attacked a werewolf village not too far from us during my stay.”
“No!” Kendra interjected in disbelief.
“For real, Kendra.” The red-head insisted. “We heard rumors that their general, Alaric Macintyre was with them this time. And get this, Kendra… they completely decimated the place. And when I say completely, I mean completely. Absolutely no one was left alive, not even livestock. The entire village was burnt to the ground.”
Kendra was devastated.
How could human beings be that heartless? Where was their sense of sympathy? Where was their sense of concern?
Her blood boiled at the incredulous tale her friend had just shared, and she vowed deep within her that she was going to do everything within her power to take down that Alaric Macintyre. All those unnecessary deaths were not going to go unpunished.
The brute was going to pay.
“Come on Kendra, let’s head inside. It’s a little cold out, and I really want to tell you everything I’ve learnt about the general,” Artemis called out, taking her out of her reverie.
“But wait, where are your luggage?”
“Oh, they’ve already been sent inside. Come on,” Artemis looped her hand around her friend’s. “Let’s go in. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
*****
“Okay Kendra, I need to ask you something, and please promise you’ll be honest with me, alright?”
Kendra swallowed shakily at that. She had literally been dragged into Artemis’s room against her will, but she hadn’t minded much because she had actually missed her friend, but now… she wasn’t exactly sure.
“Uh, sure…” She dragged out, “I’ll try my best. What is it?”
The red-head scooted closer, “How was Killian like while I was gone? Was he miserable? Did he look like he was yearning my company?” She asked, her green eyes shining ever so bright with hope.
Well he might have missed you… but with all of his watching me pleasure myself to thoughts of him and later getting to know that we’re apparently mates, I can’t really tell.
Her subconscious snickered darkly.
She didn’t say that though hating the fact that she was feeling this vindictive towards her friend.
Instead, she said, “I should think so… although I’m not quite sure since I haven’t seen him much in the space that you’ve been gone.”
Liar.
“Oh good.”
Kendra could literally see her friend’s shoulder’s slump in relief. “I was beginning to think that perhaps, we aren’t exactly on the same page after all,” The green-eyed she-wolf reached out to lightly touch her friend’s hand in gratitude, “I’m so glad you have cleared all those thoughts.”
Kendra could only swallow at that. She tried to tell herself that it wasn’t her place to tell Artemis what was going on. If anyone should do it, it had to be Killian. Better it came from him than her.
Or maybe she needed to come clean?
The brown skinned she-wolf just shook her head at that. She had decided.
She was going to leave it to Killian to tell her.