Chapter 23

Chapter 23
Natalie 

I winced as the heavy bucket handle dug into my cracked palm. The walk to fetch water from the well felt longer than usual today, my steps leaden. Strange dreams had chased any true rest from my hours last night.

Ever since that tense encounter in the kitchens, Leo preyed on my thoughts in waking and sleeping. His geniality hid something darker and harder to read than Lucas' outright cruelty. 

Leo's games of cat and mouse left me tense as a hunted doe, braced perpetually for the killing stroke. But it never came. His feigned kindnesses served only to confound me further.

I shook myself from troubled thoughts as the well came into view. This endless fretting solved nothing. An Alpha's motives were forever opaque to lowly slaves. 

Best accept any small reprieves and not question the causation, lest they be withdrawn as capriciously as granted. The trick was enduring day to day.

I had nearly finished filling the second bucket when approaching footsteps sent prickles of unease down my neck. But the voice that hailed me warmly was not the one I dreaded.

"Natalia! Just who I was hoping to encounter." Lucas bounced on his toes, grinning ear to ear. The shadows that had clung to him since arriving at the compound had lifted, replaced by youthful energy.

Despite my melancholy I couldn't help returning his infectious smile. "Hello, Lucas. Off to train with your Alpha again?"

He nodded eagerly, chest puffed up with importance. "You know Alpha Leo is 5he best Warrior right, he's been teaching me to hunt and track! He says I have a knack for it." Lucas leaned in conspiratorially. "Just between us, I think he plans for me to be one of his personal guards when I'm grown."

I ruffled his sandy hair. "I've no doubt. You're a fine young wolf - your Alpha sees that plain enough." Lucas preened under the praise, looking for all the world like an ordinary boy and not a slave. Leo had given him back that bright spark.

We chatted until I finished hauling up the water, Lucas chivalrously lugging one heavy bucket for me on the walk back. As we neared the kitchens, his smile faded.

"Natalia, can I tell you something? You have to promise not to tell Prince Leo." At my solemn nod he bit his lip. "Some of the other slaves say I'm getting above myself. That I'll come to a bad end playing pet to an Alpha. They're wrong, aren't they?"

My heart clenched at the worry shadowing his young face. I set down the buckets and gripped his shoulders. "You listen to me now. Prince Leo saw a good wolf in you when no one else did. He's given you a rare chance to better your future. Don't waste it worrying about what others say." I gave him an encouraging shake. "Keep working hard and proving them all wrong. You'll go far."

Lucas' smile returned, brighter than ever. "I will, I promise!" He surprised me by throwing his arms around my waist in a fierce hug. I held him close for a long moment, savoring this bright spot of hope in our bleak world.

With a parting grin, Lucas raced off to meet Leo. I watched him go, throat tight. However strange the circumstances, Leo had shown real compassion in taking Lucas under his wing. It hinted at depths beneath the hedonistic image he projected.

I was still lost in contemplation when Mary appeared at my shoulder, startling me from brooding. Her brow furrowed as she studied my pensive face. 

"Copper for your thoughts, Natalia? You seem troubled." Looping her arm through mine, she drew me toward the shaded alcove we often shared our meager meals in. "Here now, tell Old Mary what's weighing on you so."

I smiled ruefully, touched by her perceptiveness. Settling on the worn stone bench, I gathered my thoughts before responding. "You know how Lucas has become Prince Leo's protege of late..."

At Mary's encouraging nod I continued haltingly. "Did you ever imagine one of his kind showing such care for a slave boy? Much less taking time to teach him useful skills. Leo's behavior confuses me. I cannot reconcile it with what I know of the Alphas' cruelty."

I exhaled heavily. "Am I foolish to think he is capable of compassion without ulterior motives? I fear hope more than I ever did Lucas' outspoken malice."

Mary was silent so long I thought she wouldn't answer. But finally she spoke, eyes distant. "You are wise to be wary of false kindness, child. But perhaps also wrong not to hope."

Squeezing my hand, she continued gently. "We see all the Alphas as the same because it is safer that way. If they are simply monsters, we need not grieve their lack of humanity or mercy. But the truth is never so simple."

I frowned, unsure if I found her words comforting or alarming. But Mary gave me a sad smile. "That Leo has shown young Lucas true care suggests he is not his brothers' mirror. There is light still in him, if it can but be nurtured." 

She tucked a lock of hair behind my ear maternally. "Have faith in what your heart knows to be just, Natalia, even if it goes against what your head says is wise. Our pack needs that brave faith more than careful fear."

I walked back to work feeling no less conflicted, but the weight on my soul had lifted somewhat. Mary was right - these oppressive times called for open hearts as much as shrewd heads. Fear too often won the day.

Over the next few days, I watched Leo and Lucas together whenever they passed through the kitchens. The obvious affection between them was undeniable, with much laughing and natural physicality. Not at all the rigid formality of other Alpha and slave interactions.

Seeing Lucas thrive loosened something in me. Perhaps Mary saw the truth of it. All beings had potential for good or evil. Leo had chosen to nurture this orphaned boy when it served him nothing. That revealed the man within the Alpha facade.

But knowing Leo's humanity and appealing to it were very different things. I harbored no illusions he would extend the same kindness to me as a lowly slave. His whims were fickle, dangerous to rely upon. I would share hopes with Mary, but keep my expectations well guarded.

So the next time Leo's wandering path brought him through the kitchens as I worked, I ignored his presence steadfastly. Let him make of that what he would. I must walk a knife's edge between faith and foolishness.

Still, when a basket of fresh apricots appeared that evening - my favorite - I saved the choicest one to enjoy after the others had drifted off to sleep. Its sweetness on my tongue felt like a shared secret. A small connection to whatever truth dwelled inside us both, separate from statuses and divisions.

One day, Goddess willing, that truth would transform this land. Until then, I would return Leo's subtle kindnesses when I safely could, and hold fast to hope. A storm raged without, but shared humanity endured sheltered within. 

Maybe Leo and I could keep its light burning for the day when clouds parted to reveal it again.

Maybe.