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Mistress Mary, quite contrary
How does your garden grow?With silver bells and cockleshellsAnd pretty maids all in a row.
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I woke up feeling like Aeneas was right; I hadn't gone mad. The sheets were stained with his blood and my skin had the dewiness of slept-in sweat. Aeneas's hand curled around my hips. "You're an early riser," he said.
"And you're supposed to be too."
"It's five in the morning. This is early." He kissed my forehead. "How do you feel?"
"Better."
"Didn't I tell you?"
He rang the bell for breakfast and I sat up in bed. It was done. No more education, no more procedures. Most of the pain was done. Sure, it had jostled and ruined me like Hilla said it would, but I was pretty sure I didn't come away soft and sweet. "Are you training this morning?"
"Why?
"I want to watch." There was a knock on the door and Aeneas brought in a tray of eggs and two steaks, extra rare. On the side was a smoothie. He might've been watching, to see what I was reaching for. I picked up a fork and sank it into the steak. It oozed blood. I brought it to my mouth and expected to shrivel at the light iron tang that remained. But I didn't. It made my mouth water instead. His eyebrows lifted.
"I'm just surprised, that's all." He bit into his own steak. "Why do you want to watch?"
I shrugged. "I hear noblewomen train against each other for novelty. I think I might be good at it." He seemed to like the idea because he nodded. "And we could go hunting too. I've never done that before."
"You're moving fast on this." His eyes turned suspicious. "Are you sure you want to do all these things?"
"What else would I do with all my time? I don't have a job. I don't have any hobbies. I don't have friends."
His face filled with pity. It almost made me push my plate aside. "You will, but all in time. After all your treatments are done, this will feel natural. You won't remember what it was to be human. Then you could be the center of the court if you wanted to be."
"The center? How? With what intrigue, what skill?"
"You could dance, and sing, and tell them how awful their taste in books is." He wanted me to laugh, I think. His eyes still shined with pity. "You're the most beautiful, easily, Valerie." His face grew closer to mine. "And certainly the diamond of my eye."
"Isn't it too early for this?" I whispered.
"For what?"
"I'm not stupid, I can feel your emotions in mind. You never try to hide them." He grinned and began his rain of kisses.
"You're running late," I said. He pulled a sigh out of me. "Get up."
"I think I could hide from my court for at least a day."
I drew away from his mouth. "You think I want to lay in bed all day?"
His smile dimmed, and he sat back on his knees, looking at me. "All right, Valerie, what would you like to do?"
"Stand up. Walk around. Go outside. I'm restless. I've been caged all week."
"You weren't caged. It was education that anyone of your level would've gotten throughout their life. Only in your case, it had to be faster."
"It was torture."
"Not everything can be comfortable."
I pushed myself onto my knees until I was face to face with him. "It was torture," I whispered. His face softened. I knew it would. "And I want to walk around."
He hesitated, his jaw twisting with a knot. "Fine," he said. "Wear something warm. Until your procedures are complete, that room will be too cold for you."
I couldn't hide my own surprise when he left and a servant entered to pick me a thick sweater that dropped to my knees, overtop a pair of black pants. I marveled at them. When was the last time I'd worn something other than the layers of tulle, silk, and tight wool too stiff to move in? I let the girl pull my hair into a ponytail and wrap fur muffs around my hands and ears. She wound a scarf around my neck.
"There," she said. "I'll take you down now."
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When I entered the room, I learned it was just as cold as Aeneas said it was, though men and women alike strode around in tight fighting pants and not much else. My eyes darted from side to side. It was such a far cry from the traditions they clung to: tight-laced dresses and suits, rigid manners, and an unchanging social hierarchy. They prided themselves on being more "civilized" than the humans who called themselves the civilized species. And they prided themselves on being closer to nature than those same people. In everything they did, they believed they were better. So I guess it made sense, that they could walk around half-naked like this, being hypocrites and all—they thought they were above everyone else.
I found Aeneas with his bare skin showing the scars of a crescent moon carved into his back. It flexed with muscle as he rolled it. I swore I could see the faint pink lines of my fingernails too. In that second, his gaze snapped to mine, and he gave me a satisfied smile before focusing on the opponent in front of him.
The man across him was slightly taller, but wirier, with large hands and a mop of blond hair. Not to mention, he was older, in his thirties. Aeneas was twenty. That could be an advantage in the other Alpha's favor. A whistle went off.
"Begin!"
The men lunged, and in the process, they cracked. In stories, they'll tell you of mythical creatures that stood on their hind legs like men, but howled like beasts. No. A werewolf is just an animal. And when they become animals, there's no flash of light, nor a burst of stars. There's a quick and vicious cracking as their bones bulge from beneath their skin, and a well-tamped down—but evident—scream of agony as their fur finally shoots out through their pores. But as soon as it's begun, it's finished, and the wolves, much larger than real ones, are circling each other.
The first is brownish, with gray and white patches. Aeneas, is larger still, and mostly black, save the gray hairs that stretched across his face, as though he's been burned with the color. Still, there was a pink spot in the shape of a crescent moon. He must've been carved twice for that to happen.
The other Alpha was the first to leap, but Aeneas slid back. It made my stomach twist. Why was he dodging? Was he afraid? Wasn't he big enough to snatch the man by the throat, sink his teeth in his neck and tear the pelt from—
I sank my nails into my arms as a scream tore through the air, but not from this ring. I turned. On the other side of the room, a wolf shifted back into a man whose entire head was leaking onto the blood. A witch scuttled over to him, opened her work pouch, and began mixing her potions. It felt like such useless waste to me, and that always bothered me about the wolves; a witch's touch could keep countless people from dying, especially in the rural farm communities where there was no doctor, magical or otherwise. But the witches worked for the wolves, and humans died poor after suffering from their curable illnesses.
I looked back at Aeneas's fight. He'd stopped lunging. Now he had his teeth in the other Alpha's throat. They could've killed. And they might've, if I'd been able to see the fight through to the end. Instead, I felt a sharp stabbing in my side, the edge of someone's elbow digging into my ribs.
"Excuse me, excuse me." I turned and saw a girl I recognized from all the state meetings. Ravenna Shreer, the oldest daughter of the Alpha of the Black Foothills—an important pack for agriculture, and thus a powerful one in all.
I looked her up and down. "Excuse you for what? Did you think I'd move?"
"I expect you to. There are rules for humans around here."
"Even when I outrank you by far?"
She lowered her volume. "No subspecies scum could ever outrank me. I was born a wolf. You were forcibly made. But I guess they removed your ability to complain."
The light laughter around me made it impossible to focus on the fight. If I tolerated this, she'd have won, and the court would think they could shove me around as they pleased. Then my life would be hell, so she had to be stopped here. "Maybe I could show you how much of a wolf I am," I said.
Her black eyebrows lifted into her long hair. She pulled a hair tie from around her wrist and bunned her hair at the top of her head. "You mean you want to spar with me?"
"Yes, and I'll make you heel." There was more laughter. Did they think it was a joke? I folded my hands behind her back. Making her kneel would be a mercy; I'd make sure of it.
We slipped away from the crowd around the ring and found another. I never received fighting lessons. But something in my mind told me it would be like bathing in the blood of my dreams, and that I should strike hard and reach for the neck.
I refused to be humiliated.
I left my sweater on the ground and waited for the whistle. Goosebumps prickled on my skin. Her blood would warm me. I'd lap it up. My sight turned rage red. Everything they gave me--the shots, the pheromone torture, the pain---I'd give it to her. They wired me to be docile, but only to my Alpha. She was not my Alpha. It was her first and damning mistake.
The whistle blew and she shifted. When I shifted, it was in the heat of hallucinations, induced by chemicals to make me strong. I called on that feeling now, the sickness and the pain of a raw throat after unheeded shouting. And just like that, my bones cracked within me, and my body ached as I came lower to the floor.
As I stood up on four legs, a laugh rang out around the ring.
"Is that a dog!"
"That's why a wolf can't be created!"
They could think the worst of me. And it would still not save this girl. Her body was bigger than mine, as were her teeth, but she couldn't have been angrier than I was, not in this life.
I swiped to the left as she lunged. I didn't want to parade around, dodging and nipping as she was doing. The audience could go to hell, as far as I was concerned. I just waited until I was ready. And when I was, I snapped forward. My teeth met fur and I could almost taste crimson when she rolled away. Her eyes were human still, and surprisingly, they flickered with shock.
She moved in again, fast as a dart and I wasn't able to dash in time. She snapped at my throat—taking a chunk of hair and skin with her—but I bit her face. A gasp went through the ground as my teeth tore into her cheek. She bared her teeth, snapping at my throat, but I bit her face. A gasp went through the crowd. Ah, but they wanted a show. And I would give them something spectacular.
"Shift," I thought. I outranked her. I could command her the same way Aeneas could command me. And I would. Shift.
She changed into human flesh and so did I, but I kept on my assault. She had lovely, long black hair; I tore it out. Her skin was sun-kissed and beautiful. I ripped it with my bare nails. Her lips were red without lipstick; they might be even redder, forever after this. She was painfully pretty, the kind the servant girls often were born as but had to hide to save themselves from these zealots who thought their whim was enough to force a girl into a life like the one I lived now, where my body, mind, and soul were no longer my own. But no, she got to be beautiful, to be rude, to walk with her head high because she was born "above me." I laughed as I punched her again, again, again. Who was above who now?
As she threw her arms up to defend herself, she shifted back into an animal. I didn't need to be one to fight one though. Even as a human being, I could smell that the bitch was full of fear, enough of it to make her so stupid as to leave her neck wide open. I saw red. My body moved on its own.
I'd kill her.
I had the strength of three men at that moment, as I dragged her across the floor. Her body went limp. Was she paralyzed? Was she dying?
Did I care?
I shifted again to finish what I started. Ravenna let out a low groan as she stared at me with eyes filled with blood. She knew what was to happen.
There was a new commotion outside the ring. Or maybe it was the same commotion. I'd long since lost my hearing. No, no, it was new. Someone was entering. And he smelled like rage. I flinched and dropped my plaything.
"Shift," Aeneas commanded. He wore human skin covered in perspiration. "Shift!"
My bones snapped back into place, elongating. In agony, I returned to the body of a girl. He stepped forward and grabbed my shoulders, and with a sharp shake asked, "Why did you leave the ring? You were supposed to watch me."
"She shoved me." I said. "Then she insulted me."
"And you did...that for it?"
"You said I could cut down who I wished, save you. She is who I wished." He curled his lip in what might be disgust. It made my insides hurt.
"She could've killed her," someone shouted.
Aeneas whirled around toward the sound of the voice. The Alpha Shreer. "Well, your daughter shouldn't have provoked a Luna. That's a high offense."
"That girl you call a Luna is crazy! I say, return her to where you found her from. Before she kills us all."
"Not all of us. I'll survive." Aeneas looked at me again. "Because she heels to me. Heel, Valerie." My legs moved under me, twitched with the involuntary urge to bend the knee. It will be the greatest concession that I've ever made. It'll crack more pieces in my soul. "Bend the knee." I rolled onto my knees, with my neck bent. The position of executions. If he wanted to kill me, he could. "See? Who else dares tell her the same?"
Silence. They must've looked at my bloody face and bloody hands and surged with horror. I'd won their fear, and still, I was humiliated. Because though I'd beaten the court into submission, I bowed to the King."
"Good. Come with me, Valerie."
His hand burned a brand into my skin. It wasn't until we got into the hall that he stopped and pulled me closer. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"I wasn't lying." My voice sounded like a hiss. "She called me unnatural scum. She said I was below her, as I'm human."
"You're not. But why go so far? A Queen should be merciful."
"A Queen should be strong. If I had relented, they'd have bullied me until I killed myself. Or until they could kill me and make it look like I did it myself. They hate me." I grabbed his arm as my voice flew up an octave. "They hate me."
"Still. She'll be in critical condition for weeks. The witches will have to work miracles."
"You would've done the same." I pulled at his arm until his wandering eyes met mine. They too were full of fear, through a different kind. In his gaze, there was fear of the future. "No. You're the Iron King. You'd have killed them."
He didn't deny it. Of course, he didn't.
I burrowed into his chest, and Ravenna's blood smeared from me to him. "Did you see it? How sharp my teeth were? How fast I was?"
"Yes." His words are softer. "You're better this way. But the stronger you are, the more patience you need to have, the more responsibility. There's no use in fighting those below you, Valerie. Those you know you can kill. You need to learn that." He pulled me closer and kissed the side of my neck. Was he crazy, kissing a bloody woman? No, he was conceding to me, knowing that he ordered me this way, and acknowledging deep down that he approved of what I'd done. "You'll have to go back to the Education Center. Or the court will want your head."
"I'll give it to them if they can take it."
He sighed. "Oh, Valerie."
Valerie. Valerie. What am I going to do with you?
With time, the court would be mine. They feared me now. They'd resent the Alpha who wanted a bloody Queen soon. And later, they'd bow to me when I offered them more control.
Before, of course, I killed them.
At the moment, Aeneas led me—dragged me—back to our bedroom and ordered the servants to wash the blood off of me. He told them to pack me a long-stay bag for the education center. But before the car took me off, he kissed me deeply. I let tears fall against his mouth, as though parting was the worst thing that had ever happened to me.
I knew I had him then. He brushed his hand against my cheek, though I'd almost made myself a murderer. Foolish, little-boy King. I tucked my hand over his. I definitely had him then.
A/N
Um, so anyways. What do you think about Valerie's latest transformation?