Ana had entered Colm’s estate through the second-floor window of his study. The former Lord of Clan Boar was not surprised to see her.

  “Cousin,” he began, not looking up from his desk, “how nice of you to stop by.”

  “Colm,” Ana replied, her voice cold and distant, “I suppose you know why I’m here?”

  “I can hazard some guesses, yes, given your… well, everything about you really.” He finished his writing and turned to face her. His eyes were bright green, and they shone in the candle-light. “But if you’re expecting any help from me, then you are sorely mistaken.”

  She bristled at this, crossing her arms. “I had a lot of new recruits to the cause recently. The Firmans drove Clan Bear out of their homeland, not a year after signing a treaty with their chiefs. Anyone who didn’t flee to my lines was butchered, or put in chains.”

  Colm nodded his head. “Yes, I read about that. Absolutely dreadful news, an act of supreme perfidy on Bloem’s part.”

  Ana stepped closer. “I don’t get you, Colm. You’ve played the good little Firman for so long, managed your meager estate better than those two vampires could ever hope to, and certainly treated your servants better than any Confederal planter, all to lick the boots of those who will never respect you.”

  Colm raised his index finger. “That’s not entirely accurate; Sir Bernard is quite the agreeable and charming fellow, once you’ve gotten past the veneer of self-superiority. But as for Grayson, Griffenwald, and all the rest… you’re basically correct, yes. I suspect my fairer treatment of my workforce is part of it; they see my sympathy for my fellow Ostlanders as just another mark of my barbarity.”

  “Then why do you persist, Colm? Why do you continue down this path that will only lead our people further into the chains of the invaders?”

  He gave his dear cousin a sad smile, before unbuttoning his shirt just enough for Ana to see the wrought iron collar about his neck. “It’s simple, Ana. I’m in far too deep with this lot to pull out now.”

  This collar was very similar to the one I had seen about the neck of the old Fian on Grayson’s estate. It was a soul anchor, a device concocted by Firman alchemists to prevent werebeasts from transforming into their towering, animalistic forms. In Firma, where beastfolk were seen as menaces and outcasts, such devices were viewed as the humane alternative to exile or execution.

  The Ostlanders, however, trained their werebeasts to control their wild tempers, and championed them as their mightiest warriors and leaders. To them, a soul anchor was the most profane mark of bondage.

  Seeing that her dear cousin now bore this terrible mark, Ana could not help but rend her garments and transform into her own bestial form. The floorboards creaked as she stepped forward, and Colm was damn sure she was about to bite his head off…

  But instead, Anna pushed her talons between the metal collar and his neck, and tore the damn thing clean off his body, sending two half-rings of iron clattering onto the floor.

  Colm blinked as Ana reverted to her human form, before shoving her bodily away from him. “You do realize that if Bernard or one of his lackeys discovers I had that collar removed, they’ll have me killed?”

  Ana simply crossed her arms. “Precisely. I need you to die.”

  He scoffed at this. “Then why not just tear my throat out?”

  “Because I don’t want to kill you.” She replied. “Fake your own death. Hell, run into the woods and just disappear. My clan’s warbands have been circling and scouting this settlement the whole time I’ve been here, you can link up with them.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Right, and then they’ll butcher me knowing me as a traitor to the cause.”

  “Not if you bring out your war-form in front of them,” Ana remarked. “That will be proof enough that you’ve broken your chains.”

  There was a moment of pause between the two of them, as Colm glared at his cousin with some suspicion. “What are you planning here, Ana? And why does it need me to be out of the picture?”

  Ana simply smiled. “I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise, would I cousin? Or have you spoil it for me.”

  He sighed, then shifted into his beast form, his head transforming into that of a wild bore, tusks long and hard enough to gore a man to death with ease. He made for the same window Ana had entered by, stepping halfway through it, before turning to face his cousin.

  “I’m sorry about Aunt Niamh.”

  Ana did not smile, but she did nod in his direction. “She will be avenged, Colm. All of them will.”

  “I pray to our ancestors that you are right.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  As he bolted off into the night on all fours, Ana turned to his desk, and began rummaging through his documents for what she required.

  All this was relayed to Henrietta and I as we sat in our room at the Inn. Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), Ana had packed a spare set of garments to change into after morphing into her wolf-form. She and I stood at the foot of the bed, while Henrietta reclined on the mattress, occasionally taking sips out of her flask.

  “So why did you need Colm to disappear?” I asked.

  Ana smirked, picking up a ledger she’d taken off the bed and handing it to me. “Colm’s estate is smaller than Grayson’s or Griffenwald’s, but he’s brighter than both of them put together. He’s much richer in coin, and while his workers certainly don’t like him, they know him to be a far kinder master than any Firman planter.”

  “So you want to take over his estate?” Henrietta asked. “Use his coin to hire some mercenaries? I know a good band of Aquamere troopers from up north who’d love to cave in some Confederal skulls!”

  Ana shook her head. “Not quite. As Sig said, my people are kept in bondage through fiscal debt. If we just use the coin Colm had on hand, we could buy out the contracts of every laborer on either plantation.”

  “And if we had our own auction for Colm’s estate… we could buy the freedom of every Ostlander in New Charsburgh.” It was a genius plan, but I saw an immediate flaw. “The Firman planters would never allow it. At best they’d actually have to start paying their slaves, instead of putting all their wages into financing their own loan. At worst, they’d be totally out of a workforce and be ruined come next harvest.”

  Ana smirked. “You forget, Messer, that we’ve come here to liberate this country, not simply buy it out. If the Firmans refuse the buyout, their workers will riot. A riot that will be supported by my clan.”

  “And by your powers combined, New Charsburgh shall be free. That’s all well and good, but what about that garrison Bernard told us about?”

  “You said it had a watchtower with a beacon for alerting the rest of Bloem’s army, yes? Well just leave it to me!” Henrietta sat up from the bed and leaned over towards us. “My silver tongue can get me inside, and all I’ll need is a single grenade to knock the tower over.”

  “Well if we’re getting this done tomorrow, you’ll need to move fast.” I remarked.

  Henrietta just slapped her thigh. “Oh, Sig, don’t worry about that; I’m quick as lightning! Especially after stealing some pompous noble’s horse.”

  She chuckled to herself, and I couldn’t help but smirk. “I can get to work drafting a will, and I suppose I could copy Colm’s signature off of the papers you took, Ana. Not that we’re likely to reach a point where it matters much.”

  Ana put her hand on my shoulder. “Let me. Colm and I both learned to write Firman as a second tongue. I can better emulate his diction.”

  I smiled up at her, leaning into her touch somewhat. Henrietta took some notice of this, and stood up from the bed.

  “Well, if I’m to be going on a merry little adventure tomorrow, I oughta get my beauty sleep. I’ll get outta your hair, or fur as the case may be. Night night!”

  She went for the door and retired to her bedchamber, leaving me alone with Ana. “So, do you really think—”

  I was cut off by the matriarch of Clan Wolf pressing her lips to mine, jamming her rough tongue into my mouth with such force that I could scarce resist her advances, even if I wanted to.

  But I didn’t; quite the opposite, in fact. I felt a shudder run down my spine, blood pumping to my loins in a way it hadn’t since my Embrace, and I returned the kiss in kind as best I could, even if I was little more than a shuddering housecat in the arms of a great beast.

  Ana broke it off, her breath ragged in a way that made me squirm. “You want me.”

  “Yes.”

  “You need me.”

  “Yes.”

  She snickered. “Good. Get out of that boy’s suit; I’m going to make you my woman tonight.”

  Even when I was technically on top, Ana was in complete control. She could dominate with ease, through sheer strength and force of will, to the point where I was nothing more than a ragdoll in her hands.

  She milked me dry, from every angle, and demanded I did the same for her. I relished the opportunity; she was a goddess of shadow and sharpness, and I her willing devotee.

  I could not give you an honest estimate of the duration of our passion, but when it was all said and done I was thoroughly exhausted, dosing off against her bulky frame. I sighed, content, even genuinely happy, for the first time in a long time.

  The last time I made love for something other than material advantage or maintaining my own cover had been with Jurah, the night before we raided Castle Azure. I still cherished that memory, as I did all the memories I had of Jurah, but it was an awkward, fumbling affair, the result of two people who wanted each other but didn’t know what they wanted from each other.

  There was no such confusion from Ana: she knew how to take control.

  “Messer… what will you do, when you’ve had your revenge?”

  I hummed, thinking on that question for a long while. “I don’t know. What will you do when you’ve had yours?”

  She snorted. “I fight for much more than simple revenge, Sig. I fight for freedom, for survival. For the land my ancestors have stewarded for a hundred generations.”

  “So what, once you drive Bloem and his lot back across the sea, you’ll go back to cattle-ranching?”

  “I was actually hoping to retire to a cabin in the woods, become a hermit, a witch and a wise-woman.” She smirked. “I could get lonely, though.”

  I nuzzled myself further into her chest. She had a lovely chest; it was the softest part of her. “My master wouldn’t allow it. She’s a powerful woman, and a cruel one. Plus, it was her men who put my sister and comrades to death; my quest won’t be truly complete until she’s gone.”

  She grunted at that. “Do you think she could stop me from having you?”

  “She’s a vampire. As tenured as Bloem if not moreso.”

  She remained silent for some time, and I found myself crawling up her frame to kiss her. “You don’t need to worry about me, Ana. Let’s take it one day at a time. We have plantations to burn tomorrow.”

  She smiled, and held me close. “Of course. You’d best have my back tomorrow.”

  “I will if you have mine.” To look at her, Ana’s frame was cut from polished stone, but I never felt a more total and complete comfort than when I was lying atop her.

  What a simple but profound joy, to fall asleep in a lover’s embrace.