Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Prairie Rose

"Do you think she really cut that guy's arm off?"

"She doesn't look strong enough."

"She looks kind of like a flower. She's pretty, I guess."

"She's too dainty to protect us. Like a lady from that book all those years ago. We'll probably be the ones protecting her."

"She saved Dad. We have to be nice to her now."

"Dad didn't say that."

"He didn't have to. It's obvious."

Prairie Rose had been listening to the conversation, carried in childish voices, for quite some time. It wasn't that she didn't want the kids to know she was awake. She couldn't get her head sorted out and her eyes unglued. She tried one more time to free herself from the sucking sea of darkness, and actually succeeded in getting her lashes to twitch. Her eyes felt gummy and glued together. Her mouth tasted foul, a little bit like the bitterness left after puking. Her belly heaved when she finally cracked her eyes open, and the light hit.

Two faces hovered over her. Chestnut hair and soft gray eyes, their expressions a mix of childish wonder and older-than-their-years understanding, from the way they talked, they had a heck of a personality each. They were obviously incredibly smart. Both of them looked like miniature versions of Agnar in a way. The older and slightly taller boy had the same jawline and hooded brow. The other boy's face was more oval shaped, his eyes slightly darker than his brother's. More like his mother, then?

"You're awake." The older boy grabbed a glass of water off the nightstand and thrust it literally into her face.

The glass shoved past her lips and clinked against her teeth. She winced, but he didn't pay that any attention before he tipped it up, way too far up. She coughed and spluttered, water cascading down her chin and neck, soaking her and the pillows. She was in someone's room. The walls were either tan or a light orange. Sun floated in from a large window, but letting her eyes go there was a straight up no go if she didn't want her brain to crack in half. It looked like a sort of cave, but she knew Agnar lived in an Earthship. Castor told her that. Or was it Agnar himself when they'd met that one time? In the SUV?

It all blended together and twisted painfully in her skull. It felt like she needed to drill a hole in it to relieve the mounting pressure.

"Drink." The cup was shoved in her face and upended again. She managed to get her hand up and take it from the well-meaning boy.

"Thanks," she croaked. She sipped it gently. The water was cold and sweet.

"That's pee water," the younger boy leaned in and announced proudly.

Prairie Rose nearly spat it out.

"He means that our house recycles all the water, but we have a good purification system, obviously. There's something to be said about completing the cycle, but no one wants to drink their own pee, Levi."

Levi, the younger one, swiped at his brother and would have succeeded in giving him a clean uppercut, but the older one danced back, grinning ferally.

"You'll have to be faster next time, little brother."

"Where's Agnar?" Her throat didn't feel inflamed, but it sure sounded like it. The water didn't help the bitter taste back there either.

"Probably kicking ass," Levi stated.

The older one crossed his arms. "Seeing to pack business after the challenge last night."

She had to shut her eyes again when the images rushed up at her, one after another. Had she really shamefully basically humped Agnar's leg? All those wolves jumped him at once. He'd barely survived the fight. And then… the blood."

"Oh my god!" She shot upright, spilling the cup of water all over the floor. She frantically looked from one boy to the other. Their words over her while they thought she was sleeping made sense. "Tell me I didn't—that I didn't cut that guy's arm off."

"We don't know yet. Dad left early and he hasn't come back. Either way, he deserved it. He was going to kill dad and then they would have come and killed us."

"What the fuck? I mean, no!" Jesus, when did she ever say that word? Almost never. And in front of children. She slapped a hand over her mouth. They stared back at her gravely with those striking gray eyes. Castor's were blue, which was rare among wolves, but gray? She'd never seen that either. Everyone she knew had brown or golden eyes or a mix of both.

"It's what happens when there's a new alpha. They don't want the old alpha's family around. They get rid of anyone who might fester with resentment or have the means to attract enough supporters to get revenge and unseat them. Think about it. It's happened lots of times in history."

She'd heard of it, and definitely in the northern packs where she lived, but that hadn't been done for a long time that she knew of. "Yes, but that history was before, in a different era."

"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."

"All the brown ones?"

Both boys frowned and looked hard at each other. They both offered a shrug. "We're not sure, actually. Just avoid them altogether if you can. If you find one in bed with you, run. If you find one in the house, run and get us to trap it. If you find one outside, run."

In bed? They had to be fucking kidding.

"Sounds like good advice," she choked. "Really good advice."