where the thorns grow

CHAPTER FIVE,

CHAPTER FIVE | WHERE THE THORNS GROW

  SUNDAY AFTERNOONS MEANT the weekly Iron Wolves meeting in the main dining hall none of them ever used. Rhys took her usual seat three seats to the left of Zhang daren's currently unoccupied position. Dom and Ronan sat down besides her. Lu Yi, a peevish brown-haired boy casted Ronan a glare before slumping down beside Dom.

  Guess she and Dom were human barriers today. Rhys suppressed a sigh. This was going to be painful.

  There were around sixty of them now. Their numbers had grown since she'd first arrived, but many Wolves had chosen to retire in the past few years. Many of them wanted a chance at a normal life. After all, with wiccai being more widely accepted in public every day, it was possible. But with those who left new ones came. Their ranks were frequently being replenished. It probably gave Zhang daren a headache, needing to train every single one individually, but the man never complained. He was most admirable in regards to that.

  Usually, though, he really was a pain in the ass. For good reason, but still. Rhys liked to think she had quite the rebellious streak in herself.

  Okay. Fine. It wasn't even a streak.

  As more and more Wolves funnelled into the room, the serious mood began to dissipate as small talk started in all corners. Rhys joined in, trading snide remarks with Dom as usual. After a while Lu Yi joined in. Ronan remained silent and broody and all those things that didn't fit him.

  Ai, she thought to herself. Ta ma de, what was up with kids these days? Them with their damned attitude. Quan bu dou qian zou. They all needed a good ass-whooping. But now she was just thinking like a traditional Saian mother, and she was far too young for that, so she shook her head and forced herself to zone back into some conversation occurring near the far side of the room. It was boring, though, so she returned to Dominic, Ronan and Lu Yi's little warzone.

  So dramatic. Dom was talking to them now, trying to convince them to "grow the fuck up and stop being immature little bitches", and it didn't look like it was working particularly well. Rhys, who hadn't been particularly expecting it to, just shrugged and sank deeper into her seat, trying her best to make herself as insignificant as invisible as possible.

  Sometimes it felt lonely, being the only female Iron Wolf. She couldn't understand why there weren't more. It wasn't as if female wiccai were rarer. One of the Wolves from the Isles had explained to her years ago that it was because female wiccai were usually forced into domestic roles in the Hatlen Isles, so their powers gradually turned less and less aggressive. And that also caused them to be less likely to head out to join the Wolves. What about the ones in Sai? she'd asked afterwards. That, none of them could give an answer to.

  It was almost suspicious. But as she could come up with no logical reason that existed in the sensible world for the Saians to purposefully exclude female wiccai, she could only assume they were speaking the truth, and there was some kind of reasoning behind all this strange gender ratio. Because it really was awkward living in a house full of men as the only women. She was isolated no matter how hard she tried. It was even worse when she was younger, since her age made her an enigma too. That was slightly better now. There was Irina and all the others, but she was mostly an outsider around them too. Io was someone who she could relate to, but she was rarely in Sai. Same with Justine. The others were all born and raised with a silver spoon in their mouth. Even Danna had had it far easier than her and some of the others.

  Zhang daren's appearance snapped her out of her trance. The man walked into the centre of the room, sat down, and regarded his Wolves. "Good afternoon," he said, one brow arched as if he was judging every single one of them, as usual.