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m sorry his masculinity in so fragile.”
She tried to control herself. Took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling. One, two, three times. Before bursting into laughter that drew a few looks toward us.
“Gal, you’re really crazy.” She shook her head and ran her fingertips over the sides of her eyes, drying a few tears
“I’m not crazy, I just have nothing left to lose. I’m not afraid of Tenit, he can do whatever he wants with me, nothing shakes me anymore.
He didn’t know about Selena. He couldn’t use her as nty weak point. I was so… tired of all of this. Of being humiliated, despised, and rejected, that I longer feared his anger. I just didn’t care anymore.
Hope or not. That was how I felt.
I no
“Im
Sava,” she said, and I felt sincerity in every one of her words. “Fenrir has been like this since Catalina’s death
I gave her a look and raised my lips in a sincere smile, though it didn’t reach my eyes.
“Fenrir is a broken male. And that’s why he tries to destroy me too. But there’s something about me he doesn’t know.”
She furrowed her dark brows..
And what’s that?”
what isn’t whole.
“You can’t destroy what isn’t whole anymore,” I revealed, shrugging off the magnitude of it. “Hunter got to me first.“
She blinked, frozen, as if she couldn’t show any reaction, shocked. I quickened my pace, passing ahead of her and approaching the group
There was a small group of pups, males and females, around ten to thirteen years old. Mihaela stood before them, reading a small list been hidden throughout the forest, while the mothers leaned against the trees, watching, anxious and hopeful for their pups‘ success.
of things that had
I felt Alexandra approach me.
“I thought there would be more pups,” I confessed, not taking my eyes off them. “I mean, for such a big pack. In my old one, the number of pups seemed
bigger, even though the pack wasn’t.”
The Danesti pack wasn’t small, compared to most packs I knew. It had a decent population, but… the number of pups didn’t make sense, it seemed off
“We have fertility issu
Alexandra confessed.
I widened my eyes and turned to her.
“You do?”
“We only reproduce if the partner is our destined one, that’s why there aren’t many pups. Some wolves find their partner, but others don’t, and so they never reproduce.”
Finding the destined partner was so uncommon, so difficult. Our wild nature already acted on its own to make reproduction possible. But… what Alexandra was saying went against everything I believed.
“I don’t know if I can understand how this works,” I confessed.
She laughed
“Don’t try. It’s just something… our people suffer with.”
“And is it easy to find a destined partner like that?” I asked. “In my old pack, it was kind of a legend, how uncommon it was.
but about a third manage to find their destined partner and reproduce. That’s why our pack isn’t big or small.”
I placed my hands on my hips and observed the pups, who were smiling excitedly, eager to start the challenge.
“I’d really like to find mine, I murmured, my voice barely a thread. “It would be so much easier.
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Alexandra nodded.
“Most would like that.”
1 raised my gaze to her.
“But you don’t?”
She nodded toward Mihaela.
“I’ve already found mine.” She smiled, her eyes shining. “She’s everything I’ve always dreamed of for myself.”
As if sensing our conversation, Mihaela turned toward us and waved.
“Alexandra and Savannah, you’re in charge of the boy Ruda. Follow him, without intervening in his activity. Ruda needs to find a piece of lamb meat.”
Alexandra waved back.
