Page 11 of The Alpha's Arranged Bride

“I like the Roman era,” the older boy said. “I’m Blake. This is Levi. Dad said we needed to introduce ourselves to you and help you until he was back.”

Levi’s nose wrinkled. “You’re still all bloody. It’s fine to be dirty and bloody, but I think that you wouldn’t like it. We can run you a bath. We have bubbles if you want.”

“She needs a shower, she’s not going to want to bathe in blood.” Blake was clearly used to being the older, logical, in charge brother.

“We can show you where it is and make you something to eat if you’re hungry.” At the expression on her face, Levi grinned. “Maybe not yet, but you probably will be once you get clean. Getting clean changes people. And you’ll need something anyway. Dad is foul after feast and celebration nights because his head hurts the next morning, but in the afternoon, he eats. We all need good food if we want to be strong.”

“That’s right.” She tried not to sound patronizing or let her amazement work its way out. She wasn’t used to being looked after by children. It should be the other way around.

“We don’t know what they gave you, but I can try to make something that will help you feel better. The shower might work better than you think if you make it only lukewarm, or cold if you can take it. Maybe some mint tea?”

“Blake wants to be a wiseman when he grows up.” Levi clearly wondered why anyone would want to be such a thing. “He knows lots about herbs.”

“Some mint tea sounds good. And I’ll try to take the shower cold and see if it clears my head.”

Levi laughed at her. “If you can pick up a battle axe and save Dad, you can survive a cold shower.”

“I don’t remember the part about the axe. Just a lot of blood. I remember it was in my mouth. It was so hot.”

“Blood is hot. It’s always surprising that first time.”

“Blake sewed Dad up, but he didn’t need it in too many spots. I helped clean and bandage the rest.”

Jesus. These poor kids. It wasn’t her place to say how they were raised or what they could and couldn’t learn, but seeing their father like that must have been awful. She had a brief mental picture of Agnar last night, and it made her pulse leap. He had been half dead, or more than half and trending towards ninety-some percent after those wolves did their worst.

“That must have been hard for you,” she offered. She couldn’t say any of what she really thought.

“It’s not the first time. He needed to come back somewhere safe. We’re his sons. We’ve seen a lot of blood,” Blake said quietly.

“Dad says you weren’t raised like us and that you don’t fight or train.”

“I mean, we know how to do basic self-defense, and any wolf is a nasty piece of business when threatened, but no. We don’t train like you must here.”

“Do you have a tetanus shot?” Blake asked, surprising the hell out of her again.

“Yes. But why?”

He shrugged. “Just that of all the animals, humans have very dirty mouths. You’re bound to get bit around here at some time or other.”

She gulped down the rising saliva in her throat. It was still foul tasting. “Is there anything else I should be aware of?” That came out far more sarcastically than she meant it to.

“Snakes,” Levi said with all seriousness. “They’re around lots and some are bad. Some can kill you dead with one bite and it’ll be too fast to get the antivenom or the wiseman.”

“Are you scared of lizards?” Blake asked when she paled.

“I don’t know. Can they kill you dead?”

“Just the Gila monsters.”

“What?” She shuddered.

“They’re a big lizard and they’re venomous, but they’re endangered so you don’t usually see them.”

“Some of the spiders can hurt you bad,” Levi added cheerfully.

Awesome. Just what she wanted to hear. It seemed that the harsh pack she’d mated into was no stranger to the many dangers in the desert. “Which ones are those?”

“Just the black widows. And, like, the brown ones.”

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