was acting, Eric gave a slow nod. “What do you want?”
“Help me wake Tatiana up.” She gave him a small shove in the direction of the entrance to the tent.
He frowned and looked perplexed. “I think it’d be better if you—”
“I can’t.” She put on her best poor-pitiful-me face. “I have too much to do.” Taking a deep breath, she dashed off in the direction of the horses, as though she had to make sure they were fed and watered.
When she glanced back over her shoulder, Eric was just ducking into the tent. She braced herself for the scream that was sure to follow. Any minute now...
Instead, she heard only silence. And Eric didn’t pop back out like she’d expected. Interesting. Maybe theirs would actually be the one arranged marriage that would work.
Humming to herself, she checked on the horses, making sure they were feeling well and had enough to eat and drink. As a group, they had appeared pretty well satisfied, glad to have been able to escape their humdrum lives inside the palace stables.
Now, something had changed. The horses were uneasy. Willow tried to calm them and attempted to find out what had gotten them so spooked.
Their answer so shocked her that at first she only stood, fixated on nothing in the distance, trying to think.
They were terrified of two people. Ruben and Chad.
In Ruben, they sensed his inner wolf, a predator toward their kind. She did her best to communicate the truth—that Ruben was no danger to them, whether in human form or lupine.
Chad however, was a different story. The horses feared him a hundred times more than any wolf. They considered him a monster.
Moving slowly, she cast a casual look back in the direction of the tents. Chad sat alone close to the fire, working on a piece of wood with his knife. Tatiana and Eric had not reappeared. And Ruben had gone into the woods. Since he was the only one who ate meat, he had to hunt his own. He’d gone off in search of fresh game.
Again she studied Chad. He looked ordinary and calm, his masculine beauty more subdued and somehow reassuring. Not at all like the monster that the horses believed him to be. Chad. Are you sure, she asked the animals silently. Are you certain about him?
The horses couldn’t use words so instead they gave her images instead. According to them, Chad was capable of a thousand subtle cruelties. Too tight reins, held in such a way that the bit cut into the horse’s mouth. A whip used indiscriminately, and in the same place so that it caused welts. The animals sensed violence in him, and claimed they feared the day when it would erupt.
What about Ruben, she asked, thinking of the huge wolf he could become. Such a beast was a natural enemy of the horse.
Oddly enough, they preferred Ruben and his wolf. The lupine beast was familiar and would act in ways that were in accord with nature. Though the wolf had sharp teeth and claws, he did not kill for pleasure but only for food.
The horses believed Chad enjoyed violence.
She knew what she must do. Tell Ruben. He’d know what to do.
Leaving the horses with a promise to do what she could, she strolled with studied casualness back to the camp. Since it wasn’t safe to go out in the woods in search of a hunter, she’d have to wait until Ruben returned. She took a seat on a fallen log well away from Chad and sighed.
“Good morning.”
Chad. She turned slowly, to give herself time to hide her instinctive—and unwarranted—reaction. “Good morning.”
“How are you feeling today?” He sat down next to her, close enough that their shoulders bumped. Too close.
She scooted away before answering. “Why do you ask?”
“That’s not an answer,” he chided, the way his voice purred sending a shiver of revulsion through her. “I ask because I’m worried about you. You look a little pale.”
“Do I?” She doubted that. Perhaps it was best to play along. “Now that you mention it, I do feel a tiny bit fatigued.”
“Perhaps you should imitate your sister and take a nap,” he suggested, the hint of slyness in his smile telling her he knew she’d do no such thing. Especially since they both knew Eric was still in the tent with Tatiana.
Chad placed his hand lightly on Willow’s shoulder, making her tense up so much that he couldn’t help but feel it. Shrugging off his hand, she stood and stepped