Page 41 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

Fen grinned, taking my morbid humor for what it was. If I was going to kill the kid, it would have been long ago. I was stuck with him. To my absolute delight.

He’s worse than barnacles,Lycus commented.

At least barnacles clean the waters.

Lycus snorted a laugh.

“Someday you’re going to realize the asset you’re consistently degrading,” Fen said, a smile on his face as if he could not be bothered by my mood.

He was a good sort. Not that I would tell him that.

The Glass Palace rose before us, a towering building with stained glass windows on its five floors. It had its own turrets around the edges of the roof and four watchtowers on top.

A frown marred my lips as an omega with silver hair and wrinkled skin was pushed from the door by a guard with a white wolf emblem on his chest. The mark of my Alpha.

I slid into a shadowed corner. Fen followed, silent as a wraith behind me as I scented the woman’s desperation.

The woman bowed her head, kneeling before the guard. “Please, kind sir, I have belonged to this pack since the days of your grandmother. I will do anythin’—”

There was a low, sarcastic grunt. “You can no longer carry dishwater, old woman. Find yourself a new home, you are no longer welcome here by order of the Alpha.” He shut the gated door with a screeching clang. The omega flinched.

Fen set a hand on my shoulder. A growl rumbled from my chest. I cut it off, but not before the omega glanced over, squinting her pale eyes to see into the darkness. She sniffed. Her eyes widened and the heady scent of fear brushed my nose. “Forgive me, sirs, I meant no disrespect. I will be out of your hair?—”

I stepped from the corner and knelt before her. She shrunk into herself, her body frail with age. She had a simple whitefrock with a threadbare cotton dress beneath. Her silver hair was pulled back into a bun, some strands escaping the pins and swaying in the wind.

It was times like this I cursed my appearance. “I will not harm you,” I said. My tone was hard with the anger coursing through my bones.

Fen sniffed in disdain. “Big Wolfie here is all bark, no bite,” he said in a conspirational whisper. I shouldn’t have told him what Alia called me. It was biting me in the rear.

My lips lifted in a mock snarl as Fen winked at the elderly woman who glanced up at him.

“I meant no harm, kind sirs,” she repeated, her voice faltering.

“It is us who should be ashamed. You have served my family well, Matilda.”

A tiny, awed smile crossed her lips. “You remember?”

I tried to return her smile, but dropped it when she recoiled slightly. “You changed my small clothes when I was a babe. Of course I remember you.”

Grinning, she slowly pushed up and took Fen’s offered hand to raise on shaky legs. “Ya were always a kind child, sir. I didna realize it continued to the man.”

I did not know what to say to that as she gently patted my cheek with her weathered hand that had served my family for decades. “I will find you a place, madame,” I said. “Do you care to answer why you were cast from the pack?”

Her face paled. She bowed her head, baring her neck. “I don’t mean to speak ill of the pack, sir.” She glanced back at the ten-foot-high wall and shivered.

“I understand,” I said as gently as possible. “But it would be helpful to know.”

She stared at me, her pale-blue eyes seeing more than I anticipated wanting her to know. “The Alpha—she issued a rulefor any pack member unable to carry on their services to be cast from the pack.”

My teeth clenched. “Why?”

She trembled at my tone. “For the strength of the pack, sir.”

“Fen, will your father be able to handle another pack on his lands?” I asked.

Fen nodded, anger flashing in his eyes bellied by the gentle smile on his face aimed at the elderly woman. “He will gladly do so.”

“Good. Madame, please gather all who are expelled. You all will be cared for, as it should be.” My being softened at the tears pooling in the bottom of her eyes. “No one should treat a valued member with such cruelty.”

---