As I stood there holding Dare’s body I turned to Melokuhle and Bongani, “I want you two to bring Aphiwe back home. She doesn’t need to see what is discussed.” I watched as the little girl was scooped up and they hustled off. THe people around me came close enough to see the still corpse in my arms. Several of the older breeders in the cn openly wept at the loss of one of their own. Their caste being very tightly knit. I would have to join them soon if Ade had her way.

  “Halos,” I turned my head to her. Haloor’s ears swiveled and gave me her full attention. “Go be with your people.”

  Coming coldly into the pza I was standing in came Dare’s mate. Her eyes were cold and hateful as she took me in and barely gnced down at her body. She stood straight and looked me in the eye, “Are you the one that was trying to take her from me? After I gave her years of my protection?”

  “You had turned into a cruel and cold master. I merely showed her what warmth showed like again.” I didn’t want to engage in another fight this day. My arms were sore and heavy.

  The woman reeled back and spat in my face her spit spttering against my cheek as I refused to look at her. “How dare you! You are lucky she has died and I no longer have a reason to take you to the fields and cim your mates in return.”

  “Are you going to take her from me? Or are you just here to be a bitch?” I finally looked at her with all my malice and hatred that had built in me since the attack had begun. I wouldn’t be above putting her in her pce. Even if there was no one to fight over.

  The woman’s ears went ft and her eyes unconsciously fell from my own. Though she was a hunter it was doubtful that she had a powerful css of her own. Even though I was new I had probably gained a year’s worth of strength in the matter of days. Hunters got little from their successes and always split between the group.

  “I recognize no mate of mine. You wanted her, you take her.” The woman turned and stormed away growling at those that approached her.

  A few warriors came ushering in Ade to the circle of the vilge. Her eyes scanned the masses that followed her until they fell upon me and she approached slowly. She seemed even more impressive than before. Her back ramrod straight and the cold demeanor she showed the reverent people as she walked amongst them.

  I took a knee as she approached and ended up having to bend over Dare is if I was protecting her from the gaze of her queen. My mother stood above me as she looked down imperiously. “Did you sy another of our cn?”

  “No my queen,” I said with as much courage as I could. There seemed to be an aura that caused fear radiating her as the feeling of stones being strapped to my back settled into me. “We were at the river. A pair of crocodilekin attacked us. Before I could react one of them struck Dare and shattered her head, sending her to the gods.”

  “Stand, show me the body,” Came the command.

  I stood and uncurled myself holding Dare up to be looked at. I took this moment to look at her again. Blood was drying from where it had fallen from her nose. Great rivers of it leading down the side of her face. Blood was running down her chin onto her chest coating her once magnificent and marked body with the signs of her own death. Her eyes though, they made my stomach twist in rage. They were empty and cold, the blow so powerful that they looked in opposite directions in her final moments. Ade took her head gently and bent it so she could look at the back of her skull and see where it had been caved in.

  She pced the head back in pce, “What of her mate?”

  “She has decred that Dare was no longer her’s. I… I had taken her in secret st night. I had intended to fight her for Dare’s life.” I wasn’t sure if I should have admitted it but I had to tell her the full truth. Dare’s old mate would be vocal about it anyway.

  Ade measured me once more in her eyes, “Fighting for more mates? Maybe there is a warrior’s bone in your body. However you are to be breeding stock. Why come for one that would now be able to fulfill the duty I have pced on your growing house?”

  I had to tell her something more than that I was gaining power. “To have such an experienced breeder could only have made my and my mate’s journeys into raising pups easier. I knew she had carried many litters to term and raised strong children.”

  “You show wisdom for this decision. I enjoy that you are taking your lot in the cn seriously.” Ade looked down at Dare and stroked her ears back before closing her eyes. “She was given to you, bury her properly at the base of a tree so that she can become one with the earth.”

  I bowed my head at the command and fought off the urge to tell my mother what my true purpose was. The way that Hathor had given me could be one that within a few years time I could be stronger than even Ade. If only I could procure some cud to keep myself from being weighed down with pups and responsibilities.

  Ade turned and looked at everyone around us, “Today marks the start of a war! Long have we been without sves to drain and control. It is time to refill our coffers by selling our enemies to their betters. I will assemble my warriors and go out against those that attacked us. It is well known that Crocodilekin do not gather as we do. They live in small groups of ten to fifteen. But for their insolence we will take as many of them as we can and put them in ropes and whip them into their new pce. Honor your warriors tonight, for tomorrow we will head into the Savannah and show them the wrath of Montu!” Ade raised her arms as all those in the pza began shouting and calling for blood.

  I looked down at Dare, “You will be avenged. I only wish I had brought more warmth to you before you passed.

  I walked away from the crazed crowd as warriors from all over the cn were being summoned to the eating pits to feast and fill their bodies with the strength that they would need soon enough on the battlefields. I cradled Dare to my chest as I walked out into the nds. I found an ancient gnarled tree and began to dig down into the cool earth. The silver moonlight above seemed to fall on Dare with sadness.

  I dug long into the night making sure that her grave would be deep and into the roots of the tree so that she could be one with the earth soon enough. I picked up the old woman, someone that had done so much for the cn. Had brought so many pups into the world I felt deserved more than just one person burying her alone. I set her down into the grave and stroked her cheek with the back of my hand.

  “You were a good woman to the cn. I can only thank you for the small amount of time we shared st night. I would have fought for you and brought more warmth into your life if only you had lived.” The feeling of my gut wrenching filled me as I stood up and started to put dirt back over her body protecting her from the scavengers that would ravage her corpse. I was pressing the dirt and packing it when I felt cold deep in my body. My anger had subsided for a moment leaving me hollow.

  I summoned my rage and wrath to fight off the feeling, my hands curling in the dirt and raking my nails across it. My hackles raised as I used my anger as a weapon to fight away this cold feeling that was trying to take over my body. Why when I barely knew this woman was I so… affected. Hathor had been changing me, bending my mind into this new way of thinking. I should never have told Ade what had happened and instead gone out and cimed vengeance on my own. Invest my experience points into spells and stealth attacking from the shadows until the nds were rid of the bastards the two had come from.

  I stood and raked my nails hard against the tree, forever marking where the old breeder had been buried. I would remember the first person I saw die with my own eyes. I would remember taking the lives of others in retribution. “Montu damn their souls,” I growled deep in my chest. If I had no pride I would beg to be part of the warriors that went for vengeance. But, I would not do that to myself.

  “Rest well Dare,” I let out the growling goodbye as I turned, full of anger and rage. The desire for further vengeance burning in my soul.

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