Peter's Point of View
She stood there holding the knife as if it were a snake. Iremembered those clothes, they were mine. A woman had never worn my clothesbefore, and here she was.
"I have something you might want to eat.Downstairs," I told her.
I didn't wait for her but left the door and headed down thestairs. There was the painting of my father wearing a red suit and sitting inan orange background.
I had arranged a table and two chairs by the fireplace. Isat down on one and waited for her to appear.
It was the first time in thirty years since I had a mealwith someone. I wasn't sure how it made me feel, but it was different. On anyother day, it was just me and the fireplace with my father's paintings lookingdown at me.
When she finally joined me, she looked at the platesarranged on the table, and asked, "What are we eating?"
"Meat," I said.
"What kind of meat?" she probed.
"Does it matter?" I asked. "We are beasts inhuman clothing."
"For us to work together, there should be some sort oftrust," she said.
I took my fork and knife and said, "Then it is venison.And the thing in the cups is grape wine."
The table was small. I had forgot to change it to a longerone since I was already used to it. Our knees touched more than once and sheglanced at me to see if I had noticed it. Well, I wasn't wood. I certainly did.
"So tell me why you did not listen to youradvisors," I said, breaking the awkward silence.
"Beg your pardon," she said, and toyed with thefork in her hand like it was sweet on a stick.
"I know you had advisors and they probably told you notto go ahead with your plan, but you refused anyway. Why?"
"I trusted him," she said, and that made me smile.She scoffed when she realized the reason.
"You do take trust seriously, don't you?" I said."You trust people enough to be blinded by their real intentions."
"Kevin didn't have any unreal intentions. He wascompletely open with me."
"Kevin, huh? That was his name?" I asked.
"Yes. Kevin Oates. Why that look, do you knowhim?"
I looked at my father's painting on the wall again."No, I don't."
She stopped eating the meat halfway and told me that she wasdone with it.
"Great, then I'll take your ration," I said andpicked the rest of her meat and added to mine. "This place is like ajungle. You eat what you get."
"How long have you been here?" she asked.
"A generation."
"What really happened to you?"
I stopped eating. "Was a mistake. Went out of controland there she was. Innocent and for the taking. Tried to hold back the pull ofthe moon, but no. Jerked me off balance and I bit down on her."
"They said she was a witch."
"Who did?" she asked.
"The sages."
"No, she wasn't. But her mother was. The girl was justsacrificial lamb. The coven was going to offer her to some spirit in exchangefor power. And I tainted their sacrifice so I paid the price. Wrong place wrongtime. When that time comes, I get to relive the pain she would take on thataltar before she died. Only I can't."
As I spoke, her eyes went round like ostrich eggs. They werefilled with horror and shock.
"I never heard that part of the story," she said,and I could hear her voice tremble.
"Why would you? It's a man's personal experience."
"But you were king then. How come you couldn't controlyour change?"
"No, I was just boy of twelve years old. My father haddied and left me an empire. It is the pain that makes me go crazy and beinghere alone just worsens it."
"So why don't you get help?" she asked.
I chuckled. "No one wants to come near me. They arescared of what I might do to them. So I made the blade. And that's for anyonewilling. It keeps me down until morning."
"Sounds like you have tried it on yourself a couple oftimes," she said.
"Yeah," I said. "It is the only way I cancontrol the pain and rage."
She just nodded her head and we were back to that awkwardsilence. I stood up and took the plates to the kitchen. Dumped them in the sinkand left them there. I leaned against the cabinet and thought if bringing herto the old house was a good idea. I didn't even want to know her name. I wasn'tsure how long she would last with me, but something inside of me said I need totry.
She walked into the kitchen tentatively, her eyes dartingeverywhere. To the corners, possibly wondering if I had something or someoneelse in there.
I folded my arms over my chest and watched her.
She stopped some paces away. "I have somequestions."
I waited for her to continue.
"About what we are going to be doing. The revengestuff. How are you going to make it happen?"
"We do to him what he did to you," I said."Simple."
"You think it is that simple?" she asked.
"Is it not?"
She shook her head. "Alright, so how do we begin."
"First, I need to know that you are not going to backout when we start."
"Seriously?" she said.
"Yeah. Once you are in, there is no going back. It ispart of the deal."
"I thought I was already in the moment I took that vialand didn't die."
"Just want to be sure," I said.
She breathed our slowly. "Look, maybe he was seeingsome other woman better than me while we were still together, and that is whyhe rejected me for her. But what I cannot reckon is why he would want medead."
"You were right about him seeing another woman, but whywould he would he wait until you made him Alpha King of..."
"Tweed pack," she completed.
"All I can say is that there was a plan between him andthat beta of his to get you out out the way," I explained to her."But whatever means necessary. See it like some honeypot. Bad investment.Chose the wrong Spud. Because if you had not let him on to what you wanted todo for him, he would never have done this to you. Probably started planningyour death since the day you told him."