Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
“I did not realize I had a choice,” I reply bitterly.
I remember that first night. It lingers in my dreams, a nightmare I can’t escape. I was not given a choice. Sven came for me with his friends at his side. His friends held me down. I fought and fought, and I lost.
Helga frowns, and for the first time there’s sympathy in her dark eyes. “You didn’t, child. You haven’t had a choice in anything. It would have been kinder if the chieftain had left you on the mountainside to die as I suggested. Now, go. I will not risk my place for you. I am fourth among the women now. I am the keeper of this long house. I eat well and have good shelter. I will not lose my standing for the daughter of a traitor. You must go.”
I turn away. There will be no moving my foster mother. When Helga mentions my father’s perfidy, I know there’s no argument that can sway her. My father challenged Sven’s father and lost. That is what makes him a traitor. If I was born male, I would have been slaughtered along with my father. Perhaps that would have been easier.
As my father’s female pup, I was allowed to live but never given a place in the pack. Now that I think about it, I have been outcast all of my life.
I look around the long house. It’s the only home I’ve ever known. I’m allowed to sleep in the back where they keep the cattle. I never told them that I don’t mind. It’s warmer near the cattle.
Where will I sleep this evening?
I’m pulled from my misery by a rough hand. I look up and see it’s Sven’s closest friend, Stellan. He looks sad with his unkempt beard and dark eyes. Though his hand is tight around my thin arm, it’s not painful. “Come. You must go now.”
He begins to drag me along. The door to the long house is open. It’s dark outside, and I can feel the cold from here. Once I leave, I will never be allowed back in. “Please, take me to Sven. He won’t let this happen.”
Stellan stops and looks down at me. “Oh, little one, who do you think ordered me to escort you out?”
My stomach rolls. All around me the pack is watching with judgmental eyes. I’m weak, and they hate weakness.
“Out!” one of the women shouts. She tosses a rancid tomato at my face. It strikes me firmly, and my eyes burn from the juice it spits out.
Stellan hurries me along.
Others join in on the fun, and I’m covered in food and bruised by the time Stellan maneuveres me out. The cold hits me as hard as any of the objects they throw. The snow is deep, and I have no shoes. Shoes are a luxury. I am barely allowed food. When I turn, I see the light glowing from inside the long house. My heart aches. I have not known an ounce of real kindness here, but it’s safe. It’s warm.
“Sven is an ass,” Stellan says, not unkindly. He shrugs out of his fur-lined coat. “He never keeps a mistress for long. You were an easy one to get rid of. I would offer to keep you myself, but he’s made it impossible.” He holds out the coat, easing it around my shoulders. “You have to run. If they find you, they will tear you apart.”
“I’ve never been on my own.” The cold begins to seep into my bones. Though I was not particularly welcome in the pack, I was never on my own. I was always surrounded by wolves.
“That’s funny because I would say you’ve always been on your own. Perhaps Freya will be kind. Perhaps she will show you the way to a better place as she showed the People when we left the first plane. There are other planes with other people.”
I feel my eyes go wide. “That is sacrilege. There is only this world.”
“No, they want to keep you ignorant. This is a barbaric world, but it is home. My father traveled to other planes. He went to many worlds, some of which he should not have gone.” Stellan smiles a bit at the thought. He points to a place far in the west. “Beyond that mountain, that is where he said the door is. If you can find it, a whole new world waits for you. Do not waste yourself trying to get back into favor with the pack. They will never accept you. Find a new pack.”
I stare at the mountains to the west. They loom in the distance, mighty giants rising from the ground to touch the sky. Can I make it? Are the stories real? I shake my shoulders and let Stellan’s coat slide off into my hands. I give it back to him. I won’t need it.