Beast
A Faery Story - 2
Sophie Oak
This book is for Liz Berry, tireless champion of authors both big and small—and for her Wine Wednesday girls. Ladies, I believe you’ll find this one goes with a nice red.
Prologue
The Werewolf Plane
Kaja looked up into the eyes of the woman who had raised her. She had not been a kind mother. Helga wasn’t her mother at all. She had been designated by the First as her keeper when she’d been orphaned. But Helga had been the one to ensure Kaja survived. Helga had given her food and grudging shelter when the weather was too cold for any wolf to stand. Helga had only beaten her when there was no other option. Kaja was aware that she was far too thin for a woman of four and twenty, but that was only to be expected. She had no mate, and Helga must think of her own children first.
“What does it mean?” Kaja asked.
She could hear the fear in her voice. Her hands shook as she pulled the thin shawl around her shoulders. She thought about changing. She always changed when she felt this anxious. Fur and fangs and four strong paws seemed more solid than her two-legged body. She held fast to her human form since she needed to understand how her life had changed following the wise woman’s pronouncement.
The wise woman, a large, sturdy wolf, had stood up in the middle of the evening meal and spoken. Kaja had been at the edge of the dining hall. She knew the wise woman had spoken of her. Though she hadn’t been able to hear everything that was said, Kaja had felt the eyes of the pack turn, seeking her out. They had stared, some with open sympathy, most with sneers. She did not understand what was happening.
Helga’s eyes were anything but kind as she looked at Kaja. “It means you are outcast. Do you understand the word, girl? You are no longer welcome in the pack. I risk the First’s anger by even speaking with you, but you are too stupid to be expected to understand on your own.”
“Why?” Her voice was as small as she felt.
She ignored the insults. They were as ordinary to her life as breathing. She had never been particularly welcome in the pack, but it was the only home she knew. The world was a cold place. How would she survive on her own? It was winter, and there was barely enough food to feed the pack. She couldn’t compete with the warriors on her own. If she was outcast and they caught her poaching in their territory, they would kill her.
Sven would kill her.
Tears pooled in her eyes at the thought of the handsome Second. He was every inch his father’s son. He would be First someday. She’d fought him, but he hadn’t taken no for an answer. She’d hated the mating, but somewhere in the back of her mind she’d wondered if Sven wouldn’t help her. He desired her. That had to mean he cared about her. She had always known that Sven would not ask her to be his permanent mate. He would select a much more suitable she-wolf for that honor. But he had promised her the role of concubine. It was not without its benefits. She would be respected as the Second’s mistress. She would be the she-wolf who held his heart.
“Sven will not allow it.” Kaja felt her face firm as she said the words.
He’d said she was beautiful. He wouldn’t allow her to be thrown out of the pack. He couldn’t. He’d been the one to pursue her. Surely that meant he cared.
Helga sighed. “He’s done with you, idiot child. He’s going to permanently mate with the wise woman’s daughter. Did you think she would allow her daughter’s future husband to keep you as a concubine? That is an embarrassment she could not endure. You should never have given yourself to the chief’s son.”
“I did not realize I had a choice,” Kaja said bitterly.
She remembered that first night. She had not been given a choice. Sven had come for her with his friends at his side. His friends had held her down as Sven took her. She had fought, and she had lost.
Helga frowned, and for the first time there was 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.”
Kaja turned. There would be no moving her foster mother. When Helga had mentioned Kaja’s father’s perfidy, Kaja knew there was no argument that could sway the older woman. Her father had challenged Sven’s father and lost. That was what made him a traitor. Kaja knew if she had been born male, she would have been slaughtered along with her father. Perhaps that would have been easier.
As her father’s female pup, she’d been allowed to live, but never given a place in the tribe. Now that Kaja thought about it, she had been outcast all of her life.
She looked around the long house. She had lived here for many years. She was allowed to sleep in the back where they kept the cattle. Kaja never told them that she didn’t mind. It was warmer near the cattle. Where would she sleep this evening?
She was pulled from her misery by a rough hand. Kaja looked up and saw it was Sven’s closest friend, Stellan. He looked a little sad with his unkempt beard and dark eyes. Though his hand was tight around her thin arm, it was not painful. “Come, little one. You must go now.”
He began to drag her along. She saw the door to the long house. It was dark outside, and she could feel the cold from here. Once she left, she knew she would never be allowed back in. “Please, take me to Sven. He won’t let this happen.”
Stellan sighed. He stopped and looked down at her. “Oh, little one, who do you think ordered me to escort you out?”
Kaja felt sick to her stomach. All around her the pack was watching with judgmental eyes. She was weak, and they hated weakness.
“Out!” one of the women shouted. She tossed a rancid tomato at Kaja’s face. Stellan hurried them along.
Others joined in on the fun, and Kaja was covered in food and bruised by the time Stellan maneuvered her out. She shivered in the cold. The snow was deep, and she had no shoes. Shoes were a luxury. She was barely allowed food. When she turned, she saw the light glowing from inside the long house. Her heart ached. She had not known an ounce of real kindness there, but it was safe. It was warm.
“Sven is an ass, little one,” Stellan said, not unkindly. He shrugged out of his fur-lined coat. “He never keeps a mistress for long. You were just an easy one to get rid of. I would offer to keep you myself, but he’s made it impossible.” He held out the coat, easing it around Kaja’s shoulders. “You have to run. If they find you, they will tear you apart.”
“I have never been on my own,” Kaja muttered, feeling the cold seep into her bones. Though she had not been particularly welcome in the pack, she had never been without them. She had always been surrounded by wolves.
“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.”
Kaja felt her eyes go wide. “That is sacrilege. There is only this world.”
“No, they just want to keep you ignorant. This is a barbaric world, but it is home. My father travelled to other planes. He went to many worlds, some in which he should not have gone.” Stellan smiled a bit at the thought. He pointed to a place far in the west. “Beyond that mountain, that is where he said the door is. If you can find it, Kaja, 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.”
Kaja stared at the mountains to the west. Could she make it? Were the stories real? She shook her shoulders and let Stellan’s coat slide off into her hands. She gave it back to him. She wouldn’t need it.