Chapter 14: Careful, Some Mistakes Are Permanent
The warriors who were told to escort her were keeping their distance for fear of being attacked by the woman.
They didn't know what she wanted and why their alpha wanted her, but from the moment they had seen her, they knew she would be trouble; and they were planning on keeping their distance before she decided they were useless to her.
"Aren't we there yet? I feel like I'm walking on sand," Awuor said and the warriors just pretended like she wasn't around or that they were not ordered to take care of her.
"So you guys won't talk to me, great. If you must know, I'm really famished, since I didn't go hunting. I would really appreciate it if you gave me food," Awuor said and the warriors sent a message to the Greyson kitchen to get her food.
A few more minutes, they stood before a door, one that Awuor was sure was hers to lay in. It had been so long since she slept under a roof and that too in a place that reminded her of home. The door staring at her was a painful reminder that nothing would ever be the same.
The mahogany door reminded her of the Sicario alpha's suite, the place she had woken up and found herself clawing at her mother's throat. That one incident broke her and it still hurt, even to this day.
"That's an actual door, not a shelter like the one you're used to," one of the warriors said to Awuor and surprisingly, she didn't say a word to him. She just looked at the door, then back at the warriors, before making up her mind.
"Do you have a shelter for the ferals you capture?"
"What?" the lead warrior asked, shocked by the tone this woman was using considering she looked like the goddess of death. The look on her face was lonely and sad. She looked mortified, and they didn't even understand that.
How could they, when they don't know why she had gone away from home?
How could they when her whole life crumbled to pieces like she hadn't worked so hard for it?
Her life had been turned upside down and a good shelter in the night wasn't going to change the fact that she had trust issues, with anything and everything that had a door.
"The rogue shelter. I don't mind sleeping in the stinking dungeons or torture chambers. You can even hold me in the lethal dungeons. I know every pack is required to have one. I just— I can't sleep in this room," Awuor said and the warriors once again looked at her.
What the hell were they supposed to make of her sudden change in mind? This woman was dangerous and she has proven that to them when she lived in the free lands, where the rogues and the possible wild animals roamed and she never once got hurt.
"If you insist," the warrior said before adding, "are you okay?"
"Absolutely perfect. Which reminds me, you guys said you have a kitchen, no? Can I please eat before going to the dungeons, y'know since they are stinging and I would probably die of the stench—
"— rather than my own hunger?" Awuor said, her tone changing from the vulnerable and lost tone, to one that they had just witnessed out there. Either this woman was bipolar, or she hated it when people took pity on her. It wasn't hard to guess which one it was.
"Alright, as you wish. But on the condition that you at least put on a shirt over your banana leaves, okay," the warrior said and Awuor smiled sinisterly at him.
"Tell me something, are you turned on seeing me this naked, with perched tits and lean thighs? Or is it that my ass makes you unstable?" the rejected alpha asked not even pitying the warriors who had come along with her.
She was doing this on purpose but at least they were already aware of that. Whatever it was that she was doing, they had already resolved to their fate and figured that it wouldn't be any close to sane.
"How about you eat first, pretty darling, and then we can see whether the warriors will have you, or I can have you all to myself?" a woman in her thirties approached with a food tray in her arms.
The reject's eyes lit up instantly at the beautiful scent of food. It had been long since she had eaten any good food or even properly cooked food.
Her meals in the wild always consisted of raw meat and bloody food, which she always preferred to eat in her wolf form, so it wouldn't be so hard to digest and that she wouldn't be in pain from the possible bacteria.
She had learned to survive, but just for this moment, she would enjoy the food that was about to be presented to her.
"As you wish, my darling I could even eat you as dessert, if that works for you, y'know," Awuor said and the warriors looked at each other, almost like they were intruding in their moment. it was quite interesting how this woman was becoming more and even more confusing to them.
"Go on, boys. This will be a ladies' night. I wouldn't want her thinking we poisoned her, no?" the woman said and the warriors looked at her like they weren't sure she would be safe in Awuor's company.
They were right to be skeptical though. This woman was a piece of work and if they weren't careful, she would ruin them all.
"Alright, Sherry. But if she looks at you the wrong way, please be sure to call us. We wouldn't want alpha Rukiya murdering us for leaving her best chef with the psycho we picked in the woods," the warrior who was the other's spokesperson said and Sherry just shooed them.
She was sure they were right to be skeptical of the woman before her, but there was something different about this woman. There was an aspect of loneliness in her, and the fact that she didn't trust any ales made it certain that she wouldn't agree to take any help for the warriors.
However, until that time came, she would remain in her company.
"Now darling, the boys are gone, it's just us girls," Sherry said and Awuor looked at her skeptically, like she was studying her prey. She had fallen for her family's tricks and as much as Sherry was charming, she wouldn't fall for hers too.
It was something she had learned the hard way.
"I love food. Dammit, I feel like I haven't eaten in years. Tell me something Sherry, is your food poisoned, or laced with something to make me subconscious so I would reveal the secrets of my oh so mighty kingdom somewhere in this realm?" Awuor asked and Sherry just smiled at her.
"Darling, if Rukiya wanted to get information from you, trust me, she wouldn't lace your food with anything. You would willingly give it to her, that much everyone knows," Sherry said and Awuor got curious about this alpha. Maybe that's why she was so respected.
"Well, I wish her luck with me then."