New Beginnings

Chapter 17

"What happened?!" Grey screamed in the face of her warrior. "You had one job! Just one!"

He kept his eyes on the floor not making eye contact with her. Grey's arm shot out at lightning speed and her palm smacked across his face with a sharp crack dragging her nails across his skin. She smiled at the violent red nail marks that were forming on his cheek. Then she spun on heel and started pacing the ship.

They were on one of Grey's ships in a small enclosed space just large enough for Grey to pace a few steps. She walked from wall to wall back and forth over and over again. The warrior had just returned to her a few moments earlier empty handed. She had wanted the girl. If she had Rollo's sister she could make demands and hold her hostage. Rollo would never do anything to put one of his beloved siblings in harm's way. He was weak like that. Grey didn't understand how anyone could make it as far as Rollo had and still have weaknesses like small children that demanded so much of him. She felt bile rising up in her throat at the thought. He was always spending time with them. She would have to break him of that. She should be the only thing in his life that mattered. They were a distraction from what was really important. Grey knew that if she had possession of one of his younger siblings she would have power over Rollo. What a weakness.

"Where is the child, Rollo's sister? Was a child too difficult for you to capture? Just one child?" Grey jutted out her lower lip in a mock pout. Then she glared and snarled at her soldier. Her pacing resumed back and forth her hair bouncing on her back at the force of her footsteps. Blood was starting to ooze from the angry red stripes that marked the face of Grey's warrior. Grey didn't care. In fact they made her happy. Many of her other warriors were marked in a similar way. Forever they would bear the scars of their failure. Their embarrassment.

When the warrior stayed quiet with his gaze locked to the left above Grey's head her thin patience snapped. "Answer me!" she bellowed in his face raising her hand again prepared to strike the man. She would hit the other cheek this time to show how incompetent he was.

"A man stopped me. He prevented me from taking the child."

"A man? What man? Was it Rollo's friend, Torin?"

"He was tall." was the warriors reply.

Grey perked up. Rollo was back. He had finally returned. Grey was determined to question him. She wanted to know what was going on. She wanted to know why he hadn't come to claim her, they had be betrothed ever since they were children yet he never showed his face. He had humiliated her by not coming to get her and marry her.

Then there was this Anna girl. Had Rollo taken a mistress? Had he chosen another? Grey didn't like to share with anyone especially not with some worthless woman and especially not a husband. She kicked the wall of her ship. It echoed with a satisfying thud. The ship was rocking back and forth on the water that was steadily becoming wilder. There were waves forming and then rolling into the shore. A storm was coming and the ocean knew it. Grey felt like the ocean. She felt like she was rocking back and forth just like the waves. She had a darkness coming towards her just like the dark thunder clouds. A storm was headed towards her.

She was angry with Rollo. She was also angry with her father for not allowing her to come out to meet Rollo sooner. If she had been here earlier this whole entire thing could have been avoided. She could be the happily wedded bride of the future Earl. But she was mostly angry with Anna because she had stolen from Grey in the most personal way possible. Grey didn't like thieves.

Then and there she decided that she would teach this Anna girl a lesson. She would teach her what it meant to steal from a trained warrior that wasn't opposed to teaching a lesson even if it meant death. Anna's death would serve Grey well. It would teach Rollo to never deny her or go behind her back again. And it would destroy what the real problem was anyway. The ocean continued to rock the boat with more and more force as the waves grew larger.

With Anna in the way Grey would never be Rollo's bride. Rollo wouldn't be able to see past the weak girl. Grey needed to get rid of her. There was definitely a storm on the horizon and when it hit chaos would break loose.