Louisa’s POV
The next morning, the pack started moving.
I was transferred into the carriage cage again, and the giant black wolf was chained to my carriage.
After a whole night of rest, he looked more energetic.
His black fur was shining with diamond light under the sun.
Alpha Lucas didn’t show up.
Maybe he was busy fucking other she wolves, I thought to myself.
However, I wasn’t sure about that, because I didn’t feel the infliction like the other day.
Lucian came and checked on me from time to time, bringing me food and water.
He still refused to talk to me even though I was trying to apologize to him.
I felt demotivated and looked out of the barred window.
Stretches of villages had been burnt down and ruined, reduced to ashes.
Charred corpses and collapsed houses were found everywhere.
When the soldiers saw living villagers, they would jump at them and finish them off.
Women were raped and slaved, chained one after another in a line.
They walked on their bare feet while being whipped.
My heart was throbbing.
It seemed that the White Walkers were born to be sadistic.
There seemed to be a void in their chest, which could only be filled with belligerence and slaughter.
They raged with violence and destroyed all the beauty within their sight.
They shifted to wolves and howled with joy while grilling innocent people on fire.
They did this because they dwelled and thrived on people’s agony.
Because that was the only way for them to exist.
Were they going to grill this giant black wolf on fire?
The thought itself terrified me.
I didn’t know why, but I couldn’t bear the thought.
The thought of him getting hurt made me feel agonized.
I stretched my arms out of the barred windows towards him.
He noticed and slowed down his steps, letting my hand touch his neck.
"Please don’t go away." I whispered, "Please stay with me."
He used his snout to touch my hands.
I knew he heard me.
Around midday, the carriage stopped.
I was released from the cage to help the soldiers to cook.
But I was still loosely chained to the carriage.
The giant black wolf was lying in the shade, watching me from a distance.
The person who was in charge of cooking was a giant and happy man.
He had no hair on his head and his facial features were squeezed at the center of his giant face.
His fingers were like sausages and his waist was like a barrel.
His style of cooking was a bit too… stylish?
Basically, he cracked everything into two halves, eggs, rabbits, quails, hogs, carrots or turnips, and threw them into a cauldron and stirred them.
He did it wholeheartedly, with great expertise and conscientiousness.
I could tell that he had been doing things like this for a really long time.
The only question in my mind was —
How could this guy cook like this without being killed?
My father once almost threw a chef into the cauldron because he forgot to add thyme into his Lobster Bisque.
"Do you cook for Alpha Lucas as well?" I frowned and asked.
"No, I only cook for soldiers." the chef shook his giant meatball head and pointed to the other side, "Beta prepared for his food. He wouldn’t let anyone else touch his food."
I turned my head and saw Lucian peeling the feathers of a duck on the side of the river.
"Well, do you want me to cook for you?" I asked the chef, "I used to help in the canteen all the time."
"There can’t be too many chefs in a kitchen." he frowned.
"So you can take a rest. You can drink some honey beer while watching me cook." I rolled up my sleeves and tied up my hair.
"OK." he shrugged, "What do you want to cook for today?"
I looked at the hog and the chef’s head.
"Mmm…" I said, "I guess I’ll make some juicy meatballs in garlic sauce. Do you have garlic?"
"Yeap." he said.
"Butter?" I asked.
"What is that?" he frowned.
"OK. One thing at a time." I said, "I’ll see what I can do. Bring me some cranberries, cinnamon, rosemary and thyme."
"That… we don’t have." he said.
"So what are you waiting for?" I clapped my hands, "Go get them in the valley."
The chef started at his busboys and said, "You’ve heard her. Move your ass. Cranberries, cinnamon, rosemary and thyme."
"Yes, chef." The busboys quickly disappeared.
I looked at the blunt knives on his chopping block.
"I need sharper knives. Can you sharpen them?" I asked.
"Yeah, but for what?"
"I have to mince the meat into a paste and roll them up in balls." I said.
"I don’t understand…" the chef pointed at the meat and said, "This is a whole chunk of meat. You work your ass to cut them up into pieces just to put them back together in balls?"
"Yes, you’re right." I could see that his mind was accelerating and eventually jammed.
"But why don’t you put the whole chunk of meat directly into your belly?" he asked.
"Because meatballs taste better. You’ll see." I explained.
The chef scratched his head and looked at me awkwardly.
I looked at the knives and said, "You’d better move fast, because those knives won’t sharpen themselves."
The chef nodded and quickly took the knives away.
Lucian saw him and asked, "Where are you going?"
"Away from that lady in the kitchen, Beta." the chef grumbled, "She’s formidable."
I put the meat and vegetables in a basket and walked towards the river.
"You’ve scared the chef." He walked with me and said.
"His way of cooking scared me." I said.
"He does have a point. Those ingredients will eventually be mixed up in their stomaches." he said.
"We’re all going to hell, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t enjoy the ride." I replied, "Now stay out of my kitchen. I have a whole wolf pack to feed."