The carriage rattled across the stone bridge, the roar of the river below a steady, endless hymn. By the time they entered the town square, Eila's stomach had begun to rumble despite her earlier breakfast.
The square bustled with life—market stalls laden with winter apples, bread still steaming from ovens, and cured meats strung beneath wooden awnings. The twins guided her toward a small inn tucked at the corner, its walls of pale stone draped with ivy browned by the season.
Inside, the air was warm with the mingled scents of roasting meat and spiced broth. They chose a table near the window, where the pale light spilled across their faces. The server brought them platters of roasted venison, hearty root stew, and fresh bread slathered in butter.
Eila, grateful and hungry, dug in. She noticed the way the twins lingered in their movements—not eating immediately, but watching her first, as though her enjoyment of the meal was far more satisfying than the food itself.
"You smile too easily," Zois remarked suddenly, his tone low and teasing.
She blinked at him, startled. "Is that… a bad thing?"
Lukas shook his head, his steel-grey gaze fixed on her. "No. It's dangerous. People will want to take advantage of it."
Her fork stilled halfway to her lips. The seriousness in his tone made her throat dry. For a moment, she wondered if he meant people in general… or if he meant himself.
To shake off the tension, she laughed softly. "You both act as if smiling is a crime."
"It's not," Zois said, leaning back in his chair with a faint smirk. "But when you smile at strangers, it feels like you're giving something away that doesn't belong to them."
The words sent a strange shiver down her spine. Possessive. Almost a warning. She busied herself with the stew, unwilling to meet their eyes.
For the rest of the meal, the conversation circled harmless topics—the expansion of trade routes, the harvest yields of Rosebud River Pack, a minor dispute between two merchants. Yet every so often, when Eila glanced up, she found one or both of the twins watching her with unreadable expressions.
Afterward, they stepped back into the cold. The twins took the lead through the square, but not without a subtle shift in their behavior. Where before they had allowed her to walk freely beside them, now they stayed close on either side of her, forming a silent wall as they moved through the crowd.
At first she thought it coincidence, until a young pack warrior passed them and offered Eila a polite bow. Lukas's hand twitched near his side, his jaw tightening ever so slightly. Zois's gaze followed the warrior until he vanished into the bustle.
Eila's heart gave a nervous flutter. She told herself she was imagining it—but the thought of being guarded by the two of them was both comforting and unsettling.
Sera's voice stirred faintly in her mind, almost amused. You asked them about heat cycles, little one. Perhaps now you've awakened something you weren't ready for.
Eila quickly hushed her wolf, but she could not shake the feeling that something subtle had shifted during that simple meal in Rosebud River Pack.