Page 14 of Born of Blood and Thorns

"Oh, you poor thing. Come with me, and we'll get you some food."

I hesitated despite her kind face and soft words. I wasn't used to kindness, and my first instinct was not to trust it. So many times in the past, kindness had been twisted to ugliness in a split second. After standing there awkwardly deliberating over the risk of following her, the aching hunger in my belly won out. I nodded but stopped as a big, callused hand reached out to stop me.

"I'm Lore MacCain. Welcome to my home. You're not welcome, not really. So don't get comfortable." His overly warm arm barred the way to the woman who now stared at him with little patience and a thinned expression that irate women far too often gave when they were being pushed too far.

"Fucking alpha prick," I muttered under my breath.

A ghost of a smile flitted across Lore's lips before he released me. “Don’t let Alysha hear you using those types of words. She’ll wash your mouth out with soap. Actually, it’d be funny to watch. So be my guest.”

I sneered at him, baring my teeth. “I’d like to see her try.”

I turned and left him in the tomb of a once-upon-a-time throne room. The promise of food lifted the deep ache of long-time hunger in its promise for the barest of moments.

CHAPTER 6

Bella

As I stepped inside, the kitchen door creaked open, a symphony of old hinges and drafty corridors. A warm gust of air, thick with the scent of baking bread and simmering stew, enveloped me like an embrace. I blinked against the sudden brightness, adjusting my eyes to the glow of the hearth fire flickering in the dimly lit room.

Alysha brushed past me to stir a steaming pot of something that made my mouth water. Her blond hair was pulled back into a loose bun, framing her kind face, unlike mine. Beside her, the young boy leaned over to smell the contents with a toothy grin that was missing a front tooth. His pale blond hair caught the light from the open window in the morning sun. A smudge of flour dusted his cheek as he turned to grab bowls and spoons before thrusting one in my hand with a shy tentativeness that had me grinning back at him.

"Cut that out, Billy, and wait for our guest," Alysha chastised the boy before turning her kind eyes to me. "Are you hungry?" she asked.

"Um, yes, I am," I replied hesitantly, my stomach growling loudly at the tantalizing scents surrounding me. "Is this your kitchen?"

"It is now," Alysha said, smiling warmly before pointing toward a chair. "Please, make yourself comfortable and have something to eat. I thought you might be hungry."

"You've been expecting me?" I asked as I studied her, unsure how or why this woman would expect me for anything.

"My..." she trailed off as if considering her words carefully. "My Lord Lore informed us of your arrival."

"You mean when the dragon snatched me up and dropped me in a cave?" I said more than asked in a clipped tone.

Alysha stared at me for a long moment, then sighed and nodded. "Yes, I'm very sorry that you had to go through that. He..." She trailed off again as she turned her attention to what appeared to be a stew, steam wafting up from the boiling pot. "He can be a little overly protective sometimes. He shouldn't have thrown you on the cave ledge like that."

"Left me there all night in the cold, too."

"Yes and left you in the cold." She exhaled with a sigh. "He's more beast than anything these days."

I considered her words, wondering not for the first time what she meant. How could he be a beast? Dragons had long since been gone from the lands, and dragon shifters were rare and extinct.

They were also dangerous, the mortal enemy of my father's people. The reason the war between the sun and the moon had started so long ago, leading to us being mortal enemies. If Lore was a dragon shifter, which I suspected he was, he was, without a doubt, my enemy.

I was still deep in thought when Alysha handed me a steaming bowl of stew. I breathed in the fragrant, hearty meal, and the smell alone could have filled me. Yet, I almost began to cry as actual food filled this bowl.

It had been far too long since I'd had a proper meal. The gnawing, aching emptiness had become so sharply intense that it had become a part of me, eating away at me every second of every day. The ability to enjoy a full meal nearly threw me into a new wave of dizziness.

I forced myself to swallow and take a long, deep breath to center myself before I clawed my way to the food. The smell hit me as my stomach twisted, demanding I fill it. I held back, fearful I would make a scene.

"Thank you," I murmured gratefully, slowly taking a seat at the long wooden table that dominated the center of the room. The savory aroma of the food was almost too much to bear, but I forced myself to restrain my hunger. I didn't want to appear ungrateful or, worse, animalistic.

"Can I ask you something?" I ventured after a moment, watching as Billy expertly slid a tray of golden-brown loaves from the oven. "I've heard there's a curse on the woods outside the castle. As a matter of fact, I've never heard nor seen this castle before. Where did this come from and why doesn't anyone know it's here? Is it cursed?"

Alysha glanced over at her son before answering. "Yes, there's a curse, placed by the moon goddess herself centuries ago. We're bound to these castle grounds, unable to leave." She paused, moving to wipe her hands on a cloth as she sat across from me. "The reason you have not heard of the castle is because of the curse's nature. It shields the castle not only from outsiders who might find themselves running across it but also from the memories of those who might remember it."

I thought back to the sounds of the roar of a giant beast, my memories fuzzy. The crimson eyes watching me in the cave before I passed out still clear in my mind. "So how did I get here then?"

"Most likely the dragon brought you."

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