Читать книгу Rebirth - Dmitry Nazarov - Страница 11

– Rier! – The alpha barrel growled, oblivious to me, and seemed to be echoed with a muffled murmur by everyone present. – No one invited you here!

– I didn’t know I needed an invitation from you to come here whenever I wanted! – The invisible man, still unseen by me, emphasized this «me» as if he were some kind of ruler of all things, and to doubt this was at least a mistake that called into question the safety of the life of the loser who had allowed himself to do so.

There was a menacing silence, in which there was a general sense of extreme, hard-to-restrain aggression and, at the same time, a certain insecurity. It was as if each of the alphas around me wanted to attack the newcomer wildly, but hesitated in the hope that someone else would.

– You’ve never shown any interest in the selections before,» Vidid’s alpha finally muttered, his displeasure unconcealed, and he glanced at me. – Suddenly you want a flock, and you want to start with a misunderstanding like this? You think you can’t handle anyone more serious than that because you’re inexperienced?

– Get a pack? – With distinct disdain this very Ri’er answered. – Why should I bother? If I ever wanted one, I wouldn’t go to the trouble of making one from scratch. Why, when I can just come and get it all ready. Like you, Vidid.

– How dare you…» The blond man burst out and stepped forward, giving me a glimpse of the insolent man who was teasing him, but the alpha barrel blocked his path. All I could see was a flash of deep red in his hair in the sunlight streaming in through the open door, and that the visitor was dressed in gray jeans and a leather jacket, unlike the other suits.

– This was neither the time nor the place! – The father of all three living closets barked forcefully, and now Vidid grinned at him.

– Artan is right! – The Kavkazian was in his favor. – We shouldn’t be clinging to halflings, should we?

The blond man stopped, clearly holding back with great difficulty, and suddenly his eyes fell on me, as if he had briefly forgotten I existed, and now remembered again.

– Do you want a girl? – He smirked, and I started to crawl away, knowing that nothing good would come of his attention, but he caught up with me in a few swift steps and kicked me under the ribs, which made my body like a feather in the air and flew down the aisle between the cells right at the feet of his opponent. – Take it! No real bitch gives a shit anymore, so you’re just going to take a converted stump?

I collapsed to the floor, I couldn’t even scream, because the bastard’s blow knocked the spirit out of me, and probably broke every goddamn bone in my body, and I just gulped helplessly for air, curled up in a ball, staring at myself.

– Says who? – Reer snorted. – The great alpha Vidid, whose balls have long been worn as an accessory by his bitch wife, who only gives him a hand on holidays and is ready to twist his head off if he gets a hard-on for another?

Suddenly I was almost completely enveloped in something warm, imbued with the distinct smell of a strong man’s body. It wasn’t until a few seconds later that I realized that Ri’er had taken off his jacket and thrown it over me, and then just stepped over, stepping closer to the other alphas. His gesture was almost careless, but it made me suddenly realize with extraordinary clarity how naked and defenseless I was in the face of a mob of heartless bastards who had no sympathy for me and could take my life at random, just because they were disproportionately stronger. My teeth chattered and the tears welled up on their own, no matter how shameful I thought they were in this situation. And it was good that I could cover my expression of weakness and pain with my jacket, like a screen.

At Rier’s sarcastic remark, Vidid roared again, and the other three stood as a wall, fending them off from each other until the blond jock nearly deflated.

– I wonder if these fucking lunatics kill each other, is there any chance they’ll just let us all go free? – I whispered to the guy whose cage I was in, and I shook my head in the negative. Because I was pretty sure that was the case now.

– Ri’er, are you just here to start a fight? – The «Caucasian» asked directly.

– I’ve come to speak on a very important subject that concerns you all, Nirah,» Ri’er replied, well, if not with the respectful tone, then at least without the outright sarcasm that had previously been directed at Vidid.

– Well, I certainly have nothing to say to that ridiculous freak! – snarled the alpha blond. – He’s not even my equal that I want to listen to him!

– You can’t argue with that! – Ri’er snorted. – I’m not up to your level, mind you.

– This month my flock doesn’t need new recruits,» said Rhymer, who this time ignored the taunt from Rhymer. – Luca, get me the bitch I chose, and I have nothing else to stay for.

– Well right, why should you know there’s a chance of losing everything you’ve got. Personally, I don’t mind that turn of events.

– If you really have something to say, lad, then say it,» Nirah asked him, though a normal person would have taken it more as a command. – There’s no time to waste on provocation. If you want a fight, make your challenge clear.

– That’s right,» Ri’er agreed, and I was relieved enough from the blow to be able to see the back of him.

His curly hair was almost shoulder-length, that peculiarly dark, almost black in normal light, which turned a bright red in the sun. Naturally, he was about two meters tall. Shoulders, each of which I could comfortably rest my ass on without feeling the slightest bit cramped. Large, well-defined veins on my arms with wide wrists. A long back line with a distinctive deep notch along the spine, indicating an impressive muscularity that even the gray T-shirt couldn’t hide. The ass was… well, what could I say? Beneath the rather loose jeans was a gorgeous specimen of that part of a man’s body, but I wasn’t in a position to look at it right now. Long legs, with a slight, purely masculine curvature and very impressive muscular thighs. Her overall appearance did not give the impression of being overly massive, overly laden with muscle mass, as in jocks. The body was not for beauty or idle admiration, but rather a precise, lethal, perfectly calibrated and developed instrument of its owner. The man himself seemed to stand relaxed, but there was no doubt that he could turn into a lump of muscle ready to attack or repel an attack.

– Well, let’s see what we have here,» Ri’er began, glancing around the cells without looking at me. – Twenty-nine attacks in a month, and not a single fatality… Don’t you think that’s odd for a wildling? They attack to eat, and instead of torn corpses, we pick up only slightly bitten ones. Well, except with one exception.

And he finally gave me a short, indifferent look.

– Times change, the city is already as active at night as it is during the day, and even a wildling has trouble finding a place to devour its prey without being frightened away,» the alpha barrel murmured.

– If so, why, after staying hungry time after time, has it not attacked twice in one night, except the day before the full moon?

– Why the fuck should we even care? – The nasty Vidid, who obviously changed his mind about leaving by spectacularly slamming the door, intervened in the conversation.

– Hmmm… because alphas presumably should not only get high off their loved ones, letting their brains get stiff from everyone licking their asses and fake praise, but also think a little about everyone’s safety and well-being? – Ri’er was sarcastic again.

– What would someone like you know about that?

– You mean licking someone’s ass or caring for their fellow man and their subordinates, because in both cases my experience is very different.

Hell, sure, they’re all probably not far-flung bastards around here, but under different circumstances this man would at least get my undivided attention and most likely arouse enduring sympathy.

– To business! – Nirah sternly interrupted the argument.

– Of course,» Ri’er nodded without a hint of deference. – The men who have been bitten this month are all healthy, advanced men, hypothetically capable of surviving the conversion and becoming better fighters.

When the others were silent, he turned to our warder, and with a look of obvious distaste, he asked:

– How many failed to survive the conversion this time?

– Six out of twenty-nine,» he replied, looking at the floor.

– He was a bit irritated,» Ri’er corrected him, and then nodded at me. Usually at the moment of turnover dies… how many? Half, or more than half the people accidentally stung?

– Somewhat,» Artagn answered, darkening markedly, as did the other alphas.

– Which leads me to believe that none of them,“ R’er gestured with a unifying gesture around the cages, „are accidentally caught in the wildling’s teeth.

– That’s ridiculous! – Vidid snorted dismissively. – As if wildlings in their beastly form could think of anything. All they think about is eating and fucking!

– That’s what I’m saying. I don’t suppose these attacks have anything to do with wildlings at all,» he was silent again, and Ri’er seemed to be getting impatient. Twenty-nine bites, one for each night of the lunar month, and at the end, a sacrifice to end the cycle with his death.