A Sinless Betrayal by Cherie Benjamin (books to read for 12 year olds .TXT) 📖

for endangering the only thing I hold dear to me? She almost died! You will die, you wretched kariya and your severed, bloody head will be mounted right next to your lovers on the gates of Castle Rock. It will serve as a warning to all—never betray me, because your fate would be theirs!"

She is wailing in fear, sadness, and anguish. "Oh, please…"

I can feel my other form biting at the inside of my skin with the angrier I get. Steam rolls off of my body in white clouds as I turn away from her. I'm shaking. I try to calm myself down. "Enjoy your last few hours on earth, Ivona. Get a good night's sleep."

And I walk away, never turning to look back.

Barbarians do not forgive.

Wolves do not forgive.

I do not forgive.

0o0o0o0o

ELIZA'S POV

Abigor does not wait until his men come home from the war to behead Ivona. He holds a trial in front of his people in the freezing cold, forcing the whore to her knees and condemning her to the eternal flame for the catastrophe she caused.

I sit in the snow, listening to Ivona's terrified screams as they lay her down on the chopping block. Abigor assures her that she won't feel a thing as long as she didn't move.

Ivona's last, bloodcurdling scream echoes in my ears before the loud chop and squishing sound is heard throughout the square. I watch as Three Horses goes forward and holds up the severed head by the silky black hair and shows it to the crowds. They all roar with excitement; at last, the woman was dead.

Abigor smears her blood over his chest and the crowd roars even louder. I feel sick to my stomach as I get back into the carriage, wrapping myself in a fur blanket. I will remember that scream forever.

I hated Ivona, and she got exactly what was coming to her. She got exactly what she deserved. I rub my hands together as I lean against the side of the carriage.

So I wait for him to come back. When he finally does sit in the carriage, he is wearing his animal skin cloak. I look up at him and he looks down at me, gulping. He pulls me into his arms and kisses the top of my head.

"I'm sorry," he whispers to me.

"For what?" I ask him, puzzled.

He sighs. "That you had to see me like that. I went ballistic. I saw red."

I nuzzle my head against him and stroke his rigid jaw with my cold fingertips. He leans into my touch. "I have seen worse. Nothing you do will ever make me think less of you. You just continually prove and prove your love to me."

He smiles a half smile, the sides of his lip pulling up and creating creases at the corners of his mouth. He's beautiful; the dimple in his chin, his perfectly sculpted nose, rigid and prominent cheekbones, and dark eyelashes framing chocolate eyes. "I'd do anything and everything for you," he whispers into my ear, his lips grazing my neck as his hand roams over my stomach.

I snuggle against his warmth. His supernatural heat makes me warm from the freezing cold. "Let's go home," I say.

The carriage begins to move a second later. "It's over now," his deep bass croons. "The white man got his silvertongue and his ticket to the flame; my brother and Ivona will also be joining him there with a little souvenir to leave behind on the gates."

I chuckle at his little joke. "Yes, but it is not over yet. The war still rages. Black Bear is still dead and the men still fight."

"Peace will come upon us," he assures me. "I promise you."

I lean forward to kiss his lips when my stomach cramps up. He closes his eyes, waiting for my lips to touch his. But I hiss in pain, shrinking away from him. Abigor's eyes widen and he looks at me, grabbing my hand in worry.

My baby kicks and moves around for a few moments, making it quite a painful experience. I whimper in pain, doubling over and wrapping my arms around my belly. "Tell me what is wrong," he pleads with me. The cramping slowly begins to fade away and I can finally catch my breath.

"I don't really know," I reply. "The baby. It just really hurt for a moment."

He gulps and his face pales a little. "Monitor it. Tell me if it happens again."

I furrow my brows together. "Why do you look so anxious? The baby just kicked something, I suppose."

"No," Abigor replies. "Just please listen to me. Your time is near."

I look down at my stomach as my baby kicks me again. I take a deep breath. "But I am only six and a half months along," I say. "It cannot be so soon."

Abigor's face is still pale. "That is my baby in your stomach, Tiger Claw. I'm a wolf. I've read the legends countless times. My great great grandfather documented his third wife having a child at six months since the children have rapid growth."

My swollen stomach stretches out before me. "Okay," I whisper. "I promise to monitor it." He kisses my temple as we are being led back to the castle through the snow. Weakness

Just like he had promised, Iron Coyote and Ivona's heads were on the entrance gates to Castle Rock. Their cloudy eyes stared out into the distance at nothing forevermore. A crowd had gathered at the gates for a short time in the middle of the day when Abigor had the servants mount the heads.

People stared in shock as the heads of the prince and his whore stared down at them. The snow had stopped since we'd arrived back home after Ivona's beheading. Abigor threw the rotting bodies of the prince and the whore to his wolves. Scar even got a taste of damnable flesh.

In Hausa society, the custom, after a good person, or royal died, they would set them on a boat, light it aflame, and push it out into the great, yet menacing waves of the Barbarian Sea. "Not worthy," he kept murmuring to himself as the servants lugged the rotting bodies of the two deceased out into the open cold of winter. He was upset, he was angry and confused. Abigor was so disgusted with the both of them that he did not even burn their bodies—he did not set Iron Coyote's body to the Barbarian Sea.

Instead, he stands there staring at the wolves tearing apart their bodies with a blank expression on his face. I'm not able to look upon the feasting without the persisting urge to retch so instead I turn and I look at him. He looks emotionless, his empty eyes staring down at the bodies. I am about to say something to him when he just turns around and walks into the castle.

I follow him, eager to escape the cruel cold. The crown on my head jingles as I trudge through the snow to keep up with him. He's making me wear my crown all of the time now. He even had it modified so that the topaz from my necklace would be in my crown.

He too wears his crown. He wants everyone to know who's in charge…who's boss. I wrap my arms under my belly to prevent the child from weighing me down. My skin feels so stretched out that it almost hurts, but not enough to cause persisting pain. Abigor is right; I am close.

The cramps have been coming more and more since the two days since the carriage ride home. Abigor's been fussing over me constantly, freaking himself out about the baby's arrival. He's never calm around me—always jumpy, thinking that the baby would pop out of me right then and there. Constantly nagging me about laying down when my cramps came, monitoring me when I roam the halls, telling the maids and servants to keep a watchful eye on me.

It might be irking, but I sympathize with him. He lost his sister to the battle of childbirth. He's lost everyone he's ever loved. It's hard to think that I'm all he has left. Me, and the baby in my stomach.

His mother and younger sister perished with a disease, his father died in battle, White Fawn and Snow Lion died in childbirth, and he'd just killed his last living relative: Iron Coyote.

I understand him. And I love him, so I'm more than willing to comply with his rules. He's given Evalyn the job of monitoring me since she's been unofficially upgraded from "whore" to "midwife-healer" in the time that Abigor and I were away. Evalyn isn't bad company at all. She chatters to me about new concoctions she's making and occasionally we sit with Michelle and little Red Flower.

Evalyn braids my hair, keeping me company while Abigor oversees the war happening in the Battle Tactics room with Three Horses, Little Sea, and some other men. The troops have dominated the northeast region against Pateros and are slowly picking off Bellechestermen like grapes off of a vine.

We are winning this war, but not without a price. About a quarter of our massive army has been killed off in what has been named "The Vengeance War." No vengeance has been sought from the barbarian country through the Paterosians and Bellechestermen. They were losing their Vengeance War.

Michelle had been crying earlier, wondering if Drinks of Waterfall was all right. Abigor appointed him to lead a platoon into battle against the Bellechestermen, and the army had been hit the hardest there. Abigor hadn't received word from Drinks of Waterfall for a couple of days and Michelle was distraught.

"Drinks of Waterfall fine," Abigor had told the weeping woman. He'd grown a soft spot for his right-hand man's wife and my dearest friend. "You should not worry. He is my greatest warrior."

Evalyn finishes my braid and ties the end with a small piece of twine. She then wraps the braid around my hair and pins it into place with small jewel pins from the kingdom of Seattle. She then places my crown on my head and nods her head in approval. "I love it, my Queen."

She hands me a small mirror and I hold it up, looking at my hair. It's intricately braided, and wisps of my glossy chestnut curls hang out around my face. "I love it as well," I say with a small chuckle. "You should be named my personal braider," I joke.

"Well," Evalyn says. "Anything's better than being a whore." She meant it as a joke, but I hear what she's saying. When I first came here, the men were so disrespectful towards me. Even though I no longer have to endure that kind of humiliation, my friends still have to.

"Once this war is resolved, I'm going to talk to Abigor about the harem," I say to her. Evalyn just laughs her tinkling laughter.

"And say what? Abigor, before he met you, was a lover of whores. He'd fuck every night. He took pride in his harem, holding beauties from far and wide." Evalyn tells me.

This upsets me. "But to put you all on display for the eyes of cunt-hungry men…do you not find it shaming?"

"Of course I do," the pixie replies. "But think of Abigor will think.