Louisa's POV
"Why are you so kind to me?" I gathered all my courage and asked. "People like you don't treat people like me nicely without any reason."
"People like me?" Alpha Zackery looked a bit hurt.
"I didn't mean to offend you, but..." I tried to explain.
"It's OK. I totally understand. You must have heard some rumors about my family stories and it's normal for you to form some preconceived notions about me. The truth is..." He paused and pulled me closer to his seat.
My heart was almost getting out of my chest when he looked into my eyes in close vicinity and said, "...whatever you've heard about my family is all an unfair description of what has really happened. The reality is a hundred times worse than the stories and rumors."
I was petrified. I had never thought that he would be this honest and direct with me.
I didn't know what to say.
Well, when you expected a left or right hook but you got jabbed straight at your nose.
That was how I felt at that moment.
Alpha Zackery smiled at me again and tried to calm me down, "But don't worry, Miss She-wolf. That's my family. Not me. I'm an excellent full-time gardener and a lousy part-time sculptor. I don't do politics and I have absolutely no evil agenda for approaching you. The reason I'm being kind to you is partly that you do come across as needing some help, and nobody seems to bother to give you a hand. And at the same time, I'm driven by your beauty. As I said, your features and frame remind me of someone. I wasn't able to complete a sculpture for her when she was still alive, so I would like to make a sculpture of you, of course, with your full consent."
He went to such great lengths to help me, just because he wanted me to be his model?
If the ring in my hand was really as valuable as he described, that sculpture he wanted to make would turn out to be a very expensive one.
But wait a moment.
I had seen those sculptures in the shrines and gardens before.
Regardless of their genders, they were all naked!
Was he asking me to strip naked and stand in front of him while he was working on his so-called art project?
That would never happen. Not in my lifetime.
"Why are you still looking so indignant?" Alpha Zackery asked with amusement. "Have you heard of my sculpture skills before? I did make a sculpture of a horse that looked like a dog. But for my justification, it was a little pony and I was only seven at that time."
I couldn't help myself but titter.
Alpha Zackery looked relieved.
"Ah, finally," He said, stretching out his long legs. "Getting a smile from you. Phew, that was the hardest thing I have ever done recently, other than trying to prevent a northerner chef from adding lard on top of a cheesecake."
I chuckled and whispered, "You should see the way they prepare deep-fried lard tarts."
Alpha Zackery rubbed his forehead and shook his head all wry, "Seriously?"
"That's just what they do. They eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes when they're really hungry, they pop them as snacks with a pint of ale between meals, just like the way we eat cookies altogether with tea in the south," I added.
Alpha Zackery burst out into laughter.
I covered my mouth, but I still couldn't stop laughing out loud with him.
"You're very funny, little girl. So I take that you're from the South as well, aren't you?" he asked.
His eyes were gleaming with excitement.
Feeling relaxed, I nodded and said, "I was brought to the North by Lucian from the Crimson Pack. Shortly after I was gone, the whole pack was wiped out by the Defiant Pack."
He looked concerned and said, "I'm so sorry to hear that. How about your parents? Are they still alive?"
I shook my head and said, "My mother passed away shortly after she gave birth to me. I have never met her and she wasn't able to give me a name. My father... hated me because of this. He ignored me for all my life and eventually traded me to Alpha Lucas."
"Are you Alpha Jacob's daughter?" Alpha Zackery asked.
I nodded.
Alpha Zackery said, "Aha, that's why I've never heard that he has a daughter. I'm sorry, but how about your mother? Have you heard anything about her?"
I replied in sorrow, "My stepmother used to trash my mother's good name all the time, calling her a whore. But my old nanny said that my mother wasn't a whore. She told me that my mother used to be the princess of Blade Ridge Pack. My stepmother Rosalie used to be her chambermaid. That's why she hated her."
Alpha Zackery looked at me with an incredible look on his face.
"Blade Ridge Pack. It was a long-lost pack from the old South, dating back to the Azula Age. Only a few people still know about its existence." He whispered as if he was talking in his dream.
The Azula Age. The Jewelry of the Crown and Truncheon. The incredible treasure that was hidden permanently under the bleak tundra, along with thousands of dark secrets of a lost Kingdom.
I had heard my old nanny talking about it all the time. But every time she mentioned it to me, my stepmother would call her a lunatic and punish me severely.
"So... how do you know about it?" I frowned and asked.
Before Alpha Zackery could say anything, the carriage stopped.
He lifted the curtain and looked outside.
"Why do we stop? We're not at the hunting ground yet."
"I'm sorry, Your Excellency. It's Alpha Lucas' order to stop here for the first leg," the cartman said.
I looked outside and saw the tip of the giant watermill.
I wanted to get out of the carriage, but I was stopped by Alpha Zackery.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"I have to pick up some friends here," I said.
"Please don't go out," he said.
"Why?" I felt confused.
"I'm not sure about it, but I guess some people are in the middle of a fight." He said while looking out from the window.
"A fight?" I immediately had a bad feeling about this.