Aviva
Rain patters across the wooden roof covering one corner of the old temple. I roll off the makeshift bed of hay and wool blankets I keep here. I stretch, rolling my neck. My hands are still bloody from the rogue I encountered last night as I gather my weapons and head down to the creek.
I sleep out here sometimes, especially when the weather is nice. The old temple is just far enough from the village where I don’t have to worry about running into anyone during my nightly hunts but also close enough to keep me out of harm's way from the beasts that linger in the thick forest beyond the village.
I’m washing my hands when I catch Alpha Ryan’s lingering scent. I forgot he’d come here last night, encountering me by accident, I believe. I try not to think about it as I walk back to the village, but it’s hard not to imagine every facial expression, especially the wry twist of his lips whenever I spoke.
Something about Alpha Ryan grates on my nerves. Maybe it’s just because he’s a male. Maybe it’s because he talks back as much as I do, each remark more cutting than the last. If we are to wed, it’s not going to be an easy marriage. Maybe he’ll understand that and leave, taking Mercy with him.
I hike the six rabbits I snared over the course of the night over my shoulder as I walk into the village which is already up and bustling like usual. No one even looks in my direction as I cross the main square. No one ever notices me. No one but Alpha Ryan, who is standing beside one of his supply carts divvying out bags of grain to a small circle of villagers. He watches me walk by. I don’t look at him until I pass, then throw a glare over my shoulder.
He chuckles and looks back at his cart, but I catch him looking at me again, one final time, before I cross between two hill houses and step down into mine.
I’ve barely crossed the threshold before Mercy’s hands are at my throat. She shoves me against the snug, earthen wall of the entry. “Where have you been?”
“Hunting,” I snarl, shoving her back.
“Do you realize what happened last night and how embarrassing it was when you ran off? Father gave you to an Alpha, Aviva.”
“I guess I’m worth more than six goats, huh?”
She snarls at me. “I should have been the one Father chose. I’m the oldest, and I mean, look at you, Aviva. Covered in blood and dirt, twigs stuck in your hair. What was father thinking?”
“There was a rogue ten miles north of the village. I had to take care of it.”
“You’re meant to be here weaving and sewing like the rest of us! Not running through the woods showing off–”
“I’m not showing off,” I growl.
Mercy looks me up and down, her eyes lingering on the slit in my dress. “Sure, Aviva. I saw you walk past the Alpha just a few moments ago.” She reaches down and tugs on the hem of my dress. “Do you think you can tempt that man? Have you looked in the mirror lately?”
“I’m sorry I was given to him instead of you. It wasn’t up to me, Mercy. You know that as much as I do. I doubt the Alpha even knew what he was doing when he gave father that pelt.”
“Don’t act so smug,” she growls. “Father just wanted to be rid of you.”
I doubt our father remembers I exist unless he needs me for something. “Let me go. I need to dress these rabbits.”
“I’m not done!”
“What do you want, Mercy? Do you want me to fall on my knees and beg your forgiveness for being thrown at the Alpha you had your eye on? This wasn’t up to me.”
“If it were up to you, you’d live in the woods like the beast that you are!”
“I might be a beast, but at least I’m not a sniveling, jealous bitch! Let me pass!”
Mercy’s hand meets my cheek in a vicious slap that knocks me slightly off kilter. I gasp, my vision going red, and lunge for her. This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve gone at it like this.
But a squeak in a doorway down the hall stops me before I catch Mercy by the throat and slam her to the ground like she deserves.
Lora and Shoshannah are standing side-by-side, owl eyed and worried. Mercy chuckles slyly when she notices them standing there. “Oh, don’t look so glum, Shoshannah. It does nothing for your features.”
Shoshannah’s full lower lip quivers before she turns her expression to steel and glares at Mercy. “You need to say sorry for hitting Aviva.”
Mercy rolls her eyes, planting her hands on her ample hips. “Oh, Shoshannah. Now that Aviva’s being married off and leaving us, you’ll have to start acting like a woman. You’re not going to go hunting anymore, do you understand? You’d be lucky to be married off to someone half as wealthy with a quarter of the territory our dear sister now has, for some fucking reason.” She throws a glare at me and continues, “Actually, you look so much like Aviva that I doubt anyone would want you, anyway.”
“What the fuck is your problem?” I snarl, giving Mercy a shove.
Shoshannah fumes, but Lora is teary eyed as she clutches the teddy bear I used to sleep with every night as a child. I look between the girls, hiking the rabbits back over my shoulder. I don’t want them to see this. “Both of you, come with me.”
Mercy opens her mouth to protest as both girls sprint toward me, but I open the door and trap her behind it. “Hey!”
“Hurry now, before the wicked witch catches us and turns us into toads,” I taunt, and both girls giggle and run outside. I slam the door behind me, blocking out Mercy’s curses and shouts, and walk behind the girls through the village.
“Where are we going?” Shoshannah asks as Lora grabs my hand, her other hand clutching her bear.
“To clean the rabbits in peace.” We pass the meeting hall where Alpha Ryan and the blond man from last night, I assume his Beta, or whatever his second is called, are still standing with their cart.
I don’t look at him as we walk by, but I can feel his gaze on the stinging, red side of my face where Mercy’s hand left a welt.
His gaze lingers as we cut between two hills and begin walking back into the woods where I belong, according to Mercy.
* * *
“Are you really leaving?” Shosh asks, knee deep in the creek with a rabbit pelt in her hands. She washes it off in the calm water, her skin pink to the knees from the chill.
I glance at Lora, who’s building a house for the fairies on the creek bank, before saying, “Yes, I am.” It’s the first time I’ve accepted my fate. It settles in my stomach like a large rock, weighing me down.
“Can I come too?”
“No, Shosh. You can’t. You have to stay here and take care of Father and Mercy.”
“I hate Mercy,” she grumbles, shaking out the pelt before laying it on a flat rock with the others to dry in the sun.
“You don’t hate her,” I sigh.
“I do. She’s so mean. She hit you. We’re not supposed to hit.”
I chew my lower lip, thankful my hands are busy skinning the remaining rabbits. Otherwise, I’d be tempted to cup the hand shaped welt on my cheek. “Mercy wants to get married and is jealous that I’m getting married first, is all. She’ll calm down once I’m gone.”
“Why is she so mean to you?”
I toss her another pelt, and she deftly starts rinsing it. “I don’t know.” I think I know, but I don’t like thinking about Mama. Shosh was only four when she died. Mama was dead before she even got to hold Lora for the first time. But I was sixteen, and Mercy was seventeen. We’d been there when she took her last breath–and whispered her last word. Aviva.
She’d said my name, not Mercy’s. She’d reached for my hand, not Mercy’s.
I close my eyes at the memory and sigh.
“Hello,” Lora says, giggling.
I open my eyes as Alpha Ryan’s voice ripples through the clearing around us. “Hi there.”
I stand abruptly, and Shosh, taken off guard by a stranger's voice nearby, drops the pelt in the water where the current starts carrying it away. She shrieks in panic, but the Alpha scoops it out of the water, shakes it off, and hands it back to her.
Shoshannah has no idea she’s staring at the wolf she shot with her arrow yesterday, but I do. I clutch the handle of the blade I’ve been using to skin the rabbits as the Alpha’s gaze turns from her to me.
Alpha Ryan motions to the rabbits. “Did you catch these yourself?” he asks Shosh.
“I’m Lora!” Lora shouts, bouncing up and down.
“Hello, Lora. I’m Ryan,” he laughs.
Shoshannah, still standing in the creek, gives him a skeptical once over before edging through the water in my direction. “Aviva got these rabbits. I got a few yesterday, but Mercy gave them away.”
I frown. I was wondering what happened to the three rabbits and the squirrel Shosh snared during our trip yesterday. My eyes stay on Alpha Ryan, however, as he stands on the opposite side of the creek from us. Shosh can tell I’m tense and is acting accordingly, squaring her little shoulders and turning her expression to something unreadable and slightly bored, but Lora is giggling, swinging her bear around, and enthusiastically talking about her fairy house.
Alpha Ryan nods along, his eyes occasionally flickering to mine.
“I’m going to be a hunter like Aviva when I grow up,” Lora concludes. “Shoshannah is training with Aviva to be a hunter too. Oh, yesterday, did–did you know she shot a wolf with an arrow because she thought it was a bear?”
“Did she?” Ryan chuckles, his eyes sliding to mine again. “That’s very impressive. What is she going to do with the pelt?”
Shoshannah tilts her chin. “I didn’t kill it. But next time, I will–”
“We don’t kill other wolves, Shoshannah,” I say quietly, keeping my eyes on Alpha Ryan. My gaze grazes over his arm. If he’s wearing a bandage beneath his shirt, I can’t tell. “Unless they deserve it.”
“Aviva chased it off,” Lora says matter-of-factly, her round face shining with pride. “It was SO BIG. Like, THIS BIG!” She stretches her arms high above her head.
“That’s a big wolf,” Ryan nods, smiling softly.
I can feel tension settling between us as he turns back to me, his gaze sweeping over my face. I blush, knowing he’s looking at the welt on my cheek. He can probably see each of Mercy’s fingers outlined in crimson.
“Girls, take these back to the village for me. Shosh, after you put the meat away, start salting the pelts. I’ll be there shortly to help you hang them to cure.” Shoshannah, to my surprise, doesn’t argue and quickly gathers the rabbits and Lora, leading her away. Lora sings a song about the fairies in the woods which she likely made up just now, but neither Alpha Ryan nor I speak until her voice fades completely.
“Is there a reason you’re following me?” I ask, dropping my gaze as I crouch to clean my knife in the creek.
“I wanted to know if you’re going on the hunt.”
I nod. I wouldn’t miss it. The spring hunt is a big deal. The pelts and furs gathered tonight will be traded at the Harvest Festival in a few months for the supplies we need from Navvan and Teshka. Endova has the best hunting lands, therefore, our furs are the finest quality and the most coveted.
Alpha Ryan doesn’t know any of that. To him, this is just recreation. I feel slightly bad for thinking so little of this man I barely know as I rise and meet his gaze.
“What happened to you?” he asks, motioning to his cheek, to the very place where mine still stings.
I reach up and cup my face, my cold hands a welcome relief. I can feel my heartbeat through my skin. Mercy got me good this time, that bitch. I’m kind of impressed. “It doesn’t matter. I might have deserved it.”
He arches a brow. “Why would you deserve getting hit so hard it leaves an imprint of someone's hand on your face?”
I lick my lips. “I called my sister a bitch.”
“Was she being one?”
My mouth twitches into a smile despite my best efforts to keep it tamped down. “She was.”
“Did you hit her back?” There’s a teasing hint in his voice, and his eyes shimmer with warmth. I wonder if he has siblings and has experienced something similar.
“I wanted to,” I admit.
“Let me guess,” he chuckles, pacing across the creek bank. “This is the same sister you want me to take back to Silverhide instead of you?”
“She has other… fine attributes other than her personality.”
He hums a laugh, his mouth slightly lifted in a wry smile. “The hunt then. I’ll see you tonight?”
“That depends,” I smile.
“On what?”
“If you can keep up.”