Page 10 of Savagely Mated

The guard starts absolutely roasting my opponents, which I enjoy greatly. I don’t know what he’s getting at, exactly, but it looks like there’s a pre-existing relationship here of some kind.

“Shut up, Stilton,” Rafe interrupts him impatiently. “Not a single one of us care what you have to say, and well you know it. Run along. This isn’t a duel. We’re dealing with a street rat.”

“None of you are King’s Guard anymore,” Stilton says. “And you’re not Nile Cops either. You have no standing to deal with rats of any kind.”

I snort. This is turning out far better than I had imagined it would. I don’t know these guys well enough to talk shit to them, but apparently Stilton here knows them quite well.

“You’re all under arrest,” he says. “You’ll see the inside of the cardinal’s dungeon for this.”

“That’s not going to be an option for me,” I pipe up. “I have to be back by seven.”

“Your mother will have to wait longer tonight, little boy,” Stilton says, now roasting me.

“I don’t have a mother,” I shoot back.

“I don’t care. It’s a figure of speech. Did you three pick the village idiot to kill for sport out here?”

Now he’s really insulting me. Fuck it. I came to fight, to test my mettle, to prove to myself that I am the equal of any man. I don’t really care who I do that with. These red-cloaked bastards are threatening my freedom, which is far worse than threatening my life.

I started to sweat when I was facing Einar. Now I’m sure that I won’t be able to fight effectively in all this clothing. There’s just no way. Fortunately when I get dressed, I keep the old motto in mind: if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.

I pull off my oversized top, and I kick my cargo pants off. They fall in a heap at my feet, leaving me standing in sneakers, short shorts, and a tank top.

“It’s a girl!”

The shout of surprise goes up, making me smile to myself. I love a good surprise, and this is a great one. There’s not a whole lot of time to enjoy the moment, but I make the most of it.

“Come at me, bros,” I say, twirling my sword again.

“Get her!” Stilton shouts the order, and the cardinal’s guards engage. Behind me the three men who were supposed to be trying to kill me now find themselves fighting alongside me.

The guards are instantly upon us, following Stilton’s orders. They have their swords drawn and they seem perfectly happy to kill us all.

One comes for me, his eyes flashing with vigor. Apparently the fact that I am a girl will not save me one little bit.

“Get the female! Get her out of here!” I hear Einar roar the words at Rafe and Kirin as he dashes forward to try to intercept the guards, but it’s all happening too fast.

Fortunately for me, I was not boasting about my sword skills without the ability to back them up. Years of training activate inside me and I react without thinking. Before I know what I’ve done, my saber has already gone through a cardinal’s guard.

Sword fights in movies last for long minutes. There’s a whole lot of clanging and banging and dancing back and forth. In real life, a sword fight lasts less than thirty seconds if the people involved know what they’re doing.

When you practice with blunted weapons, there’s always a point at which the armored body resists, or the other weapon stops yours. But these men are not wearing armor, and my blade doesn’t stop. It slices through a man like a hot knife going through butter. There’s a smooth, slight feeling of very satisfying resistance that is more like a massage to the blade, and that is it.

They can’t teach this in the academy. In later years, you cut through dead pigs, but the guy I just hit was alive.

I pull my sword free and a spray of hot human blood hits my face in an arterial spatter. The guard drops in front of me, bleeding profusely from the wound in his gut and making the worst gagging sounds I have ever heard as he clutches his stomach. He starts to cough up blood not a second or two later. It’s awful.He’s so vulnerable. He’s so hurt. He’s dying. And I did that to him.

I let out a sobbing gasp and drop my sword.

I can’t do this. I can’t see this. I can’t be this.

A streak of silver flashes over my head as someone strikes out and misses me because I am shifting, falling out of my human form entirely and taking animal form in pure panic.

Another cry of surprise goes up. My secrets are legion and layered inside me, but already two of my biggest ones have been displayed to all those present. I come from a bloodline that is not entirely human. I am a wolf. An animal. And I am frightened.

I run.

I am much faster as a wolf than I could ever be as a person, and I use that speed to escape back into the city. Wolves streaking through the streets are rare, so I will most likely be confused for a dog.

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