Page 37 of Renegade Queen
Except, if anything, we blended in here. All the other people here were rushing inside, huddled in small groups, keeping their faces hidden and their words whispered.
This was a place of frightened people, and it showed.
I watched as a woman hurried two children into a house, slamming the door closed tightly behind her. I could hear the hurried click of locks as she sealed them inside, and I couldn’t help but wonder what these people were so afraid of. Was it whatever came from the forest at night or something worse? Because it seemed to me that if the forest was such a terrible place, they wouldn’t have made their homes here.
“The inn is just up ahead,” Alyssa reassured us, her pace quickening as I spotted the building she was referring to.
Slightly bigger than the others around it, an inviting glow came through the slats of the closed shutters at the windows. A sign outside creaked quietly in the wind; whatever had been on it had weathered away long ago.
My gaze moved around me when I realised that, cataloguing all the signs of neglect in this place. The way the grass was starting to push up through the cobblestones of the streets, the broken roof tiles and the hastily boarded windows. This wasn’t a happy place anymore.
What the hell was going on here?
“Should we wait outside while you arrange the rooms?” Ryder asked as we approached the inn.
“Why?” Alyssa sounded confused by the perfectly reasonable question.
“So… we don’t draw attention?” Ryder seemed more confused by the question than his own explanation.
“You’re not human anymore, Ryder. They have no way of knowing that you aren’t from this world. Besides, standing outside when everyone else is running to hide will look far more suspicious.”
She had a point, even if I disagreed with her that no one could tell we weren’t from around here. Looking at us, it was like we screamed that we didn’t belong. Our clothes were too clean, and our swords shone too brightly. We didn’t have those lingering shadows beneath our eyes that spoke of living a life waiting for the axe to fall.
There was no way we were going to pull this off.
“The streets aren’t safe after nightfall,” Fizzle added. “And in case you hadn’t already noticed, it’s getting very dark out here.”
They might have been right, but that didn’t mean one of us shouldn’t check the place out first. Alyssa was my mate, and we had no way of knowing who was waiting inside. But before I could open my mouth to tell them I’d make sure it wasn’t a trap, Dean strode ahead, pushing open the door and storming into the inn.
Fucking wolf. He needed to learn his place. Either that or he needed to learn how to work as a fucking team.
My bear snorted quietly in amusement, and I had no idea what he could find funny about this situation. We were about to walk our mate from one dangerous situation into another with nothing but three new shifters and an over-inflated house cat for backup.
This was going to go so badly.
Chapter 18
Alyssa
The inn no longer had that warm, cosy vibe you expected in places like this. It was clear that something was happening in the village because the strain on the faces of the people there made you want to turn away rather than look at their pain. They sat quietly at tables, huddled over their drinks, exchanging whispered conversations.
No one made eye contact as we entered. To be honest, it was like they didn’t dare to engage.
I nodded over to a table at the corner for the guys to sit down and could already see the look on Dean’s face, which practically screamed no fucking way. I was already starting to see how bringing the grumpy potential alpha along would antagonise me in so many new and hopefully not stabby ways.
The bartender was the only one to make eye contact with me, nodding in greeting as we approached. He gripped the glass in his hand tighter as he watched us move closer. Every time he twisted the cloth against it, his muscles strained against his shirt. It gave the impression of him preparing for a fight and he definitely had the body to back up the threat. His steel grey eyes glinted in challenge as he carefully took in our group with wary apprehension.
“We need some rooms for the night,” I told him.
He grabbed a cloth from beside him and lazily dragged it over the bar top as he looked over at the others now at the table. “I’ve got two rooms,” he finally said.
I could practically feel Dean pressing against my back as he moved closer, and I knew his wolf was pushing him to put this man in his place. From the smirk on the bartender’s face, I had a feeling he knew it too.
“We’ll take them.”
He watched me curiously, and I fought the urge to pull the hood of my cloak further down. Keeping it up shouldn’t be raising suspicion; plenty of others here kept their faces hidden; it seemed to be the way of life around here.
Instead, I took two gold coins from my pocket and slid them across the bar to him. His eyes widened as he took them in, and I immediately realised my mistake. I was too out of touch with this world, and in hard times like they seemed to be experiencing right now, gold wasn’t something to start throwing about.