Wife for the Wolf-Shifter (BL Novel)

Cavinglen

“Insolent. Smart mouthing me.” Jarcada puts his hand up in surrender.

“I dare not. Titles can be bought and traded but respect has to be earned my Hsivana.”

“I don’t give a dung about that primitive title.” Arden spat out before tugging at the horse to move, leaving Jarcada standing and scoffing in amusement of their young Hsivana’s sharp tongue, while laughing to himself of the misery his brother was going to suffer and the hard lesson ahead for Arden.

*           *           *

Arden was laughing in enjoyment at the feeling of the wind brushing against his face as he rode the horse past the moving trail of Calvinglen troops. If he was more aware of his surrounding, he would notice that some of the younger soldiers were paying a little too much attention to him than necessary. But he was enjoying the ride too much pay attention. It took all he had to convince Einarrys that he was perfectly fine riding instead of being inside the carriage when he was caught earlier by Einarrys. Luckily Einarrys was busily called out left and right by other soldiers that he couldn’t stay long enough to force Arden off the horse.

The weather was quickly getting cooler as each day they inch closer to Cavinglen. And Arden was too carefree in the new environment that although he had notice that for the past few days he had not seen Einarrys, he had chalked it up to be a blessing.  It wasn’t long before fields of farming quickly surrounded them and no longer dirt road. Farmers and villagers no matter what they were doing the moment the troops past by would wave and shout a phrase that Arden could not comprehend. 

“My Hsivana.” Arden ignored the title Starra called him by but did not brush her off as she walked beside his horse.

“Good, now that you are here. What are they shouting about?” He asks while urging the horse to go slower.

“It’s an ancient saying, roughly translated to: Your presence is a blessing.”

Arden raised one of his eyebrows.

“I am going to presume it’s not my presence they are praising.” Arden spat out not expecting an answer back from Starra. Villagers that caught sight of Arden was instantly mesmerized both by his foreign clothing and presence but Arden ignored them without even an acknowledgment look.

“Do not take ill feelings from their ignorance my Hisvana. Your marriage was done in FairFray based on a spontaneous treaty, the news have yet to reach Cavinglen. Your people have yet to know your face. By the next moon, when you are presented in court you will receive every respect due to your status.”

Arden rolled his eyes. Again he thought, another person easily throwing around the words ‘his people’ and ‘respect’ as if it mattered to him at all.

Arden was content just continuing the rest of the journey on his horse. Although, as they enter into Cavinglen provinces, Arden was quite surprise to find that he was actually treading on a real road and the towns they pass by actually seem more civilized than he had imagined earlier.

Arden gasps as he finally laid eyes on Cavinglen’s capital city, Wolves Den. At the angle where he sat on top of his horse, he could see the peaking structures behind the large stone walls. He gasped at the view. Truth to Cavinglen’s renowned military strength, for the first time Arden finally laid eyes on the famed Dryden Castle.

Wolves Den was built alongside the high mountains of the North coast. Long ago it was once a fortress to its blood-thirsty and war-loving ancestors before Dryden Temperance, The Wolf-Shifter joined all the clans under his rule. And into the mountain his craved it into an impenetrable castle.