Chapter Three: Crying on His Knees

Jareth

The boy and I usually came to Poppy’s tavern several times a week to have a meal. The food was terrible, but it was hot and filling, and at least I didn’t have to cook it, or wash the dishes afterwards.

It also allowed me to keep tabs on who was coming and going through the Crimson Falls pack, since the tavern was at the crossroads near the borderlands.

The fact was Crimson Falls was such a small and sleepy little pack, that not much ever happened that was noteworthy. Which was exactly why it was the perfect place to hide the young alpha. But any new faces were a cause for suspicion and concern, and the woman who brought the food to the table was definitely unfamiliar. She had brown hair and large brown eyes. She wore a greasy apron and a sad, weary expression. Strangely, she didn’t seem to have a scent. When I questioned her she pursed her lips and gave me short non-answers. She claimed she was Poppy’s assistant, and then scurried away without giving me a proper name.

“The stew is nice,” Colten said. Except I didn’t call him Colten anymore, I had changed his name to Kevin. He shoved a big spoonful into his mouth. Nice wasn’t a word we usually used to describe Poppy’s food. I immediately worried that it might have been poisoned. “Wait!” I snatched the bowl away from Kevin and sniffed it.

It smelled… delicious.

I lifted it to my mouth and sipped the broth. It was rich and flavorful and slightly salty. There was no way that Poppy had prepared that stew.

“How do you feel?” I asked the boy.

“Hungry,” He said, reaching for the bowl. “Can I have it back now?”

I watched in wonder as the young alpha, who had barely touched his food for months, polished off the whole bowl. I then lifted my spoon and did the same. If I was going to die from poisoned food, at least I was going to go out with a full and happy stomach. I waved my hand at Poppy when she paused behind the barkeep. She was refilling mugs of ale for the young men at the other table. After she delivered the drinks, she danced over to our table. “Now then, Jareth,” she greeted me with a wide smile. “What do you say?”

“Who is the new girl?” I asked quietly.

“Ah, you don’t know her, do you? Well, that is Sarah Hunter. That poor girl was mated to the Alpha’s son.”

I felt my brow wrinkle. I had met the Alpha’s son and his mate. The red-haired strumpet on Jasper’s arm bore no resemblance to the brunette who had served us. “Was mated?”

“I’m not one for gossip,” Poppy said, lowering her voice. “But if you don’t hear it from me, you’ll hear it from someone. Sarah was his true mate, but he chose the beta’s girl over her. Though the Goddess only knows why! He called the whole pack to witness the rejection, but she got the upper hand on him!” She cackled happily. “I wasn’t there, you know. I’m practically shackled to this tavern. But I heard she left that sop of a boy crying on his knees.”

Poppy was really getting into the story now, so she pulled out the extra chair at our table and sat down. “But you know how it is with a rejected she-wolf, especially one who was rejected by an alpha. She’s become a regular pariah around here. Such a shame, because she’s really a nice, decent girl. A few folks tried to help her out, but that Jasper, he won’t let her live in peace. He’s chased her from every job, every apartment, and punished every wolf who tried to befriend her. She humiliated him that day, and he won’t let it go.”

“Ah, so that’s why she was so reluctant to tell me her name.”

“Aye, she’s got a good reason to be shy now, poor thing. But she has a place here. I won’t let that little c.ock sucker run her out of my place.”

I chuckled. There was just something funny about an eighty year old woman calling the Alpha’s son a c.ock sucker.

Satisfied that the young woman was not a spy or an undercover assassin, I lifted my bowl. “Could I have another bowl, please?”

“Eh! It was that good wasn’t it! That girl knows her way around the kitchen!” She eyed Kevin and his empty bowl. “She'd make a fine mate and mother, if a man could forget that Jasper had his hands on her first.” She shook her white-haired head regretfully. “Too bad, she’ll never live that down. She’ll die alone because of that selfish slob.”