Once the gates closed, the cold halls of the Winter Pack felt very far away. Heat from fires beneath the mountain ran through Kael's floors. For the first time in years, I could sit beside a hearth without waiting for someone to bring out a needle.
Kael dismissed his last guard and shut the chamber door.
"They call me a monster," he said. "A tyrant who eats the bones of his enemies."
He came to stand across the hearth from me. "Are you afraid of me?"
Derrick had smiled whenever he opened my vein. Elara had thanked me while pups grew weak around her.
"I've met worse men."
Kael studied the fire for a moment. "You should see something before you decide."
At the foot of his bed stood an iron-banded chest. He opened it and brought me a dark wooden box, worn smooth along its corners.
It
