Page 18 of Lily of the Valley

"It wasn't your fault," Lily said. "You came just in time. One of them wanted—wanted me as payment. The other one smacked my ass, so…thank you, Scout." She drew back. "I know I'm not your problem, and that you'd probably like to never see me again, but—"

"Shush," Scout said, and to Lily's complete astonishment kissed her temple. It was soft, fleeting, like the brush of a butterfly's wing, but a kiss all the same. "Stay here while I deal with the little cretin who is now going to die a much nastier death than I already had planned."

Lily could bring herself to feel sorry for the man. What he'd wanted to do to her, he'd probably already done to other women. Whatever horrible death he got, it still wouldn't be horrible enough.

Needing something to do, she went to the horse of the man who'd been holding her, calming it down, stroking its nose and talking quietly. Once the horse was settled, she riffled through the saddlebags. Just as she began, though, hands on what was probably a sack of travel mix, the man's cold voice cut through her, mostly because all it sounded now was scared, beneath a thin attempt at blustering bravery.

"Who the fuck do you think are?" the man spat.

Scout crouched down in front of him, though well out of range of any kick he might try to land. "Who I am is of no concern to you. What I want to know is why disgraced Rothenberg are aligning themselves with greedy, warmongering backstabbers. Well, the backstabbing isn't really a mystery. Rothenberg always had a natural instinct for it."

"That's what I smelled," the man snarled, jerking uselessly against his ropes, practically snarling and spitting in his fury. "You're the bitch! The backstabbing bitch who killed our Alpha! You! I'll fucking rip your head off your shoulders."

Lily gasped, dropping the bag of travel mix, which burst open and scattered across the forest floor, eyes wide as she stared at Scout, whose face had closed off as she met Lily's gaze. "You—you're one of them. You're a wolf."

"Not just a wolf," the man said with a mean laugh as Scout's expression turned bleak. "She's Lady Farahild Rothenberg, daughter of Alpha Alban Rothenberg, whom she heartlessly killed one night before running away like a coward in the night."

"My father was an abusive drunk who never got over the fact he was denied a wild mage he decided belonged to him. He beat my mother to death, and I wasn't going to let him do the same to me. The whole lot of you deserve the same death he got, and if I could have managed it I would have. I haven't been a Rothenberg in a long time. I haven't been a knight in a long time either. I'm just a woodcutter, and you are going to tell me everything I want to know or I'll simply leave you here for the forest denizens to devour at their leisure."

Lily swayed, then sank slowly to the forest floor, mind spinning, heart racing, holding a hand to her throat as if that would help anything. Scout…Scout was a wolf. The same kind of wolf as those that had murdered her father, her friends, who were helping that nasty little backstabber subjugate her people.

She barely noticed as Scout questioned the man. She barely even noticed his anger, his screams, as anger and fear turned to exhaustion and the world dulled further. The travel mix lay scattered around her, a few bolder birds and critters coming to take away the best bits of it. She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold, but she couldn't seem to make herself move to actually fix the problem.

Scout. Her Scout. Was a wolf. The thought wouldn't stop beating around the inside of her skull. She was so tired.

A hand fell on her shoulder, and Lily shrieked in surprise, reeling back. She stared wide-eyed at Scout. "Are you really—really—"

Looking sad, Scout turned her head to stare out over the forest. "Yes, Your Majesty. I am a wolf—a wolf of the Highlands, formerly of Pack Rothenberg. Should I ever return to Highland territory, my life is forfeit. I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to deceive you or anything. It's my past, and I don't like to bring my past up, and I knew you'd hate me for it the moment you told me about the invaders in your palace."

I knew you'd hate me. The words penetrated the fog, the panic, Lily's breath hitching. "I don't—I can't—I could never hate you, I'm just…" She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes in a futile effort to bank the useless tears. "Everything has been so much and I wasn't expecting—"

She froze as suddenly Scout embraced her, but she was just as warm and comforting as before, and Lily could no longer hold back the tears, sobbing against Scout's shoulder as she held fast.

How long she cried, she didn't know, succumbing to the heavy weight of exhaustion soon after, barely aware as she was swept up and carried off.

Gift

When she woke, it was in a familiar bed in a familiar cabin, tucked beneath the quilt she'd grown inordinately fond of.

Across the room, by the fire, Scout was bent over something, sewing with a large needle. Leather, then, probably. Nearby was her sword, bow and arrows, and several daggers. Like she was preparing for war. Lily's breath hitched.

Scout's head snapped up, face intense but inscrutable as she stared at Lily. "Feeling better?"

Lily flushed hot. "Yes. I'm sorry for acting like such a silly—"

"You acted like someone who had been betrayed and traumatized, like someone who was about to be raped and murdered," Scout said sharply, all but throwing aside whatever she was working on before striding across the room in that brisk, confident way of hers that Lily always caught herself staring after. "I'm sorry I added to that. Truly."

"You didn't," Lily said, looking at her before it was too much, dropping her gaze to where her hands clutched tightly at the quilt. "You have a right to privacy. Your reasoning was more than sound. I did take the news badly, after all. So you really are a wolf?" She shook her head, still hardly able to believe it.

"One hundred percent wolf, not a drop of human in my blood," Scout said with a sigh, sitting next to her on the bed as Lily swung her legs over the side. "My pack is not a nice one. Years ago, my father was meant to be married to a wild mage, but… well the short version is things went wrong, and the poor mage was wrongly thrown out. When that mage returned years later, bound to a different pack, drama ensued. My father rightfully lost the fight, and in the aftermath was even more rightfully left disgraced and humiliated.

"I was born some years after all of that, and by then the pack was even worse, instead of learning a single damned thing. One night he got so drunk and violent that my mother…" Scout's mouth flattened. "She didn't survive. She might have, if anybody at all had stood up to him, helped us. I was recovering for weeks after that, and I spent still more weeks off in the woods, hiding and training. When I returned I challenged him, ripped out his fucking throat, and then told all of them to go fuck themselves before taking my meager belongings and leaving. I was seventeen."

"Still so young…" Lily said, looping her arms around Scout's arm and leaning into her, offering what pathetically little comfort she could. Still a child. No adult should have to endure so much pain and anguish, let alone a child. "What did you do after that?"

"I wandered, down into the lowlands and across the continent. Honed my skills hunting and tracking, eventually found myself a royal knight in the kingdom of Barden, the land of the Black Mountains. Was there for nearly eight years, after five of travel. Retired after a rather nasty encounter with an ogre that took me six months to recover from, traveled again until I settled here about two years ago."

That would make Scout at least thirty-two. Lily was twenty-three. So Scout was at least nine years older than her, and probably more like eleven or twelve.

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