No.
This couldn’t be happening.
Not when she was getting closer to Alaric Macintyre… not when she was just starting to regain his trust.
What was she going to do?
“Artemis?”
Her heart skipped a beat at the mention of her fake alias from behind her tent. The General wanted to see her, but for the safety of her secret identity, she contemplated letting him in, trying to come up with or some excuse to keep him away even. She didn’t know any more if it was safe for him to see her, scared that he would find out who she really was.
“Artemis, are you in there?” She heard him call out again. Taking a deep breath, she hollered, “Please come in, my lord,”
The first thing General Alaric Macintyre realised when he stepped into the lass’s tent was how distressed she looked. He was by her side in a minute, his scary blues analyzing her as his mind struggled to guess what had unnerved her so. “What is it, Artemis,” He growled lowly. “Did anything happen during your sparring session with Pollion?”
What?
She thought she had been exposed, wanting to get it all over and done with, and this was what he wanted to talk about? Whether something had happened during her sparring session?
“N-no, my lord… nothing happened. W-why would you ask me that?” Her bewilderment was blatantly obvious. “Uh, never mind,” he said. “I can feel that there’s something bothering you, but I can’t tell what it is.”
“It is most definitely nothing, my lord… just some slight lady issues,” She brushed his worry off. He didn’t seem to believe her, but he thankfully didn’t press for more information. “I believe I have told you to just call me Alaric,”
“And I believe I told you I can’t do that, my lord,” She insisted stubbornly.
“Why not? I’ve only known you for two days, but you already mean a lot to me, you’re the one Aph…” He trailed off suddenly.
“I’m what?” Kendra stared at the tall blond man suspiciously, what was he going to say?
“Don’t worry about it,” He assured her, pacing the large tent leisurely as he took in the sparsely decorated enclosure. He couldn’t believe he had almost let his secret slip like that. Pausing in his stride, the General turned to shoot her a smirk, “So how did you enjoy your first sparring session with us?”
Kendra beamed at the question, the brilliant light that lit up her face dazzling Alaric for a hot minute, “It was challenging, and quite stimulating if I’m being honest, I’m already looking forward to tomorrow.”
Gods, she was so perfect.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you though,” The lass started, pulling him from his thoughts,
“Yes?”
“How do you know someone is a wolf?” She asked, her heart thumping heavily against her chest with each breath she took, “Because I spent some time at the Silver Crest Pack, and save for when they shift, there’s no way you’d know who they really are… no way you can tell. I've been pondering over it for a while now, but nothing I have come up with has made sense.”
The General chuckled, his voice filled with mirth, “You are one curious lass, Artemis…”
The curly head smiled tightly at that, desperately wishing that he’d get right into it and stop beating about the bush.
“You see, that’s the difference between me and you,” He finally continued. “I am able to smell them, sense them. Call it a gut feeling if you may.”
Smell them.
Boy, wasn’t she in some huge trouble.
How he wasn’t calling her out on her many lies yet, she had no idea… but one thing was very much clear;
If she hadn’t been discovered yet, she didn’t have that much time left before she was.
She needed to hurry up and get out of here before it was too late.
Lost in thought, Kendra forgot for a second that she needed to say something in reply to the General’s statement. She shook her head to rights her thoughts, “Wait, I don’t understand. B-but how’s that possible?”
The broad General chuckled heartily, “You see, Artemis… not everything in this world is about the physical. Uh, let’s just say that I have some supernatural help.”
Gods, finally.
She had the vile man where she wanted him all along. They were finally making progress!
“Supernatural help?” She repeated in mock confusion. “As in you’ve been cursed too?”
“No! The gods forbid that.” He spat vehemently. “Somebody has been helping me out… a witch.” He finally confessed, a proud gleam in his eerily blue eyes. He didn’t know why he was telling her all of this— telling her things that nobody knew about… yes, not even his soldiers. Maybe it was because he was already smitten by her.
Or maybe, it was because he needed someone to appreciate his level of geniusness.
Maybe he desperately needed to win her over too.
“I see,” The woman said, her eyes shining in awe as she stared at him… the feeling he had wanted to see in her eyes completely present. “Thank you for sharing a huge part of your life with me, General, you have no idea how honored I am.” She finally finished, her dark head of curls bent in submission. She had long hair— long curly hair that he so desperately wanted to run his hands through, long hair that he wickedly wanted to pull and tug at while he gave her pleasure,
But he knew he had to take things slow.
He had this feeling that this wasn’t a woman he could easily smooth talk into his bed.
“Now please, if you’d excuse me,” She started, shifting his attention, “I’d like to take a bath before I have dinner, I’m afraid I’m quite sweaty from all that sparring,” She giggled amusedly.
“Oh, but of course, though I have one favour to ask of you.”
“Uh, sure…” She dragged out tentatively, “What is it?”
“Have dinner with me tonight… in my tent, I’ll have the maids cook anything you want. We can eat, talk… you can tell me more about these people after you, perhaps I could help you out.” He said. Even though he was asking, there were hidden undertones of an order in there, one that made Kendra want to out rightly say no because he wasn’t the boss of her. But on the other hand, they were making so much progress, and she felt like she’d have more information concerning the witch, even though that was going to be quite a risky situation she’d be putting herself in, given that her wolf was coming back and all.
“Alright.” She finally conceded, “I’ll have dinner with you, General Macintyre.”
The man’s grin was almost impossible to hide when he said, “Wonderful! I’ll leave you to get ready then.”
Kendra watched him exit her tent, and then a huge sigh of relief slipped past her lips at her narrow escape from death.
*****
Dinner was a sordid affair.
One that had Alaric totally confused. He had thought they were making so much progress from the time they had spent together earlier, but now that the beautiful, dark skinned dame was sitting before him, it was like he was meeting an altogether new person entirely.
She was edgy… that much he could tell, but why exactly, he had no idea. Her state of nervousness was so bad that he couldn’t even pick up on her aura, and her unusual intoxicating scent that had him intrigued with her. For the third time that night, he asked her again, “Are you sure you’re alright, Artemis?”
Kendra smiled tightly, “Yes, my lord… I am.”
“But you have barely touched your food, is it not to your taste?”
Kendra eyed their dinner of pasta and fried eggs tossed with vegetables with masked disgust. The food was absolutely delicious, don’t get her emotions wrong, it just wasn’t what she needed in that moment.
She needed something raw, and juicy, and bloody.
RUN.
FEED.
The piercing headache was back with a vengeance, its intensity causing her to moan softly in pain.
“Artemis? What is wrong?”
“Mmmm.” She could only whimper in response. The General stood up from his seat, meaning to come over to her and help her out, but she screamed frantically, “No! Stay back!” Her wolf was desperately fighting her for control, how the General had still not figured out what she was yet was beyond her.
“You’re not well, Artemis…” He countered, absolutely worried for the girl, but she weakly brushed him off, standing up to her feet, “It’s just a headache, General… I get them sometimes. You’ll have to forgive me for ruining dinner, we can do this another time.”
“Nonsense. I do not even fucking care about dinner, Artemis. We need to get you to the healers—”
“No! I’m fine,” She cut him off again, “All I need is rest, I promise you, I’ll be good as new tomorrow.”
“Then let me help you to your tent,” From his tone, there was absolutely no room for argument, and so Kendra weakly conceded.
“Thank you for bringing me back here, General Macintyre,” She painfully managed to breath out as he tucked her into the makeshift bed, “Have a good night.”
“I’ll have one of the soldiers stationed outside your tent so that I can know if you need any help—”
“That is a sweet thought,” She shook her head, “But it is certainly not necessary, I’ll be fine in the morning… this isn’t the first time I’m getting this.”
He didn’t look convinced, but he nodded his understanding.
He wished her a good night,
And then he was gone.
Not even fifteen minutes after his departure, Kendra’s fingers began to shift into claws, the unbearable pain causing her eyes to toggle between her sultry browns and her wolf’s scary blues. Finally unable to hold it in anymore, she shifted into her wolf form… or rather, it completely took over.
Her wolf was beautiful, with an almost coffee colour for fur—one that was almost similar to the color of her eyes in her human form— and a lighter tone of white fur at her belly side. Black guard hairs coated her shoulders, some parts of her back and the tip of her tail, and a scar ran across her left eye… battle scars that she wore proudly. She was really a sight to behold.
RUN.
EAT.
She was going to do all that…
All consequences be damned.