Jasper's POV

"What can I do?" I pleaded with her.

Her eyes met mine. Her lip quivered when she went to speak. "Take me home." Her voice cracked. She began to sob.

My heart broke. "If that's what you want."

Brenna's POV

My head was spinning. I didn't know what to believe. I wanted to trust Jasper, but we are supposed to hold our elders in high regard. It felt wrong to doubt my father.

"Could he genuinely care so little for his own child?" I thought to myself.

I didn't want to believe my father viewed me as expendable. I felt sick to my stomach. I needed to find out for myself. I didn't want to hurt Jasper, but I had no other choice.

When I told him I wanted to go home, he looked at me with this gutted expression. He kept true to his word, though. He had my things packed within the hour.

He didn't say much after I told him I wanted to leave. It was like he put up this protective wall and shut me out. I had hurt him, and he didn't want to show it.

Everything happened so suddenly. I didn't expect to be sent away within the same day. He was very prompt about it all. It was almost like he was trying to rip the bandage off and not dwell on my choice.

He walked me to the front entrance of the castle. I looked at the gates in front of us that separated me from the outside world. I couldn't help but question if I was making a mistake. He held my hand a moment and squeezed it.

"If you ever choose to leave Blackwater, come visit me, will you?" he said with pain in his eyes. He didn't give me a chance to respond. He turned and walked back to the mountains.

Sten placed his hands on my hips to lift me onto his warg. Two orcs loaded up the few belongings I had acquired. Most of it was things Jasper had gifted me.

"I figure we'll have you back in Blackwater by sundown," Sten said as we rode away from the mountains.

It was mid-day already. We didn't speak the rest of the way there. Just as he said, we neared the border as the sunset. We must have been riding for nearly five hours.

I grew more anxious as we rode closer. I was so afraid that Jasper would be right about my father's thoughts of me. My heart began pounding.

I could see a clearing up ahead. We must be nearing the border now. Sten started to slow his warg and move forward more cautiously. I heard men up ahead calling out to one another. They were signaling that there was movement in the tree line.

I saw Sten's jaw clench. He was clearly on edge. I hadn't thought about the potential danger it would put them in to take me back. Soon we were close enough that they were now in view.

Sten called out, "We don't want any trouble. We have come to return Brenna of Blackwater Hold." His voice echoed off the trees around us.

We slowly approached the clearing and stopped just at the border. My father's men stood on guard with spears pointed toward us. Sten looked annoyed at this but didn't react otherwise.

He swung his leg out to dismount the warg before helping me down. One of the other orcs held out my things. I walked over to get them as Sten got back on his warg. I glanced up at him and gave him a thankful expression. He nodded back in return.

I took my things and walked toward the soldiers ahead of me. I still wondered if I had made the right choice. It was too late to change my mind now. They pulled me atop a horse and ushered me to Blackwater Hold.

Once the soldiers had me back at the hold, they didn't waste any time taking me to my father. I didn't know what to expect. Would it be a warm welcome or a gut-wrenching truth? They guided me to the throne room. It had to be past six o'clock in the evening now.

It was totally empty and quiet. You could have heard a pin drop. It felt like a decade had passed as I waited. My heart was pounding, and my knees were weak.

Again, the questions flowed through my mind. Did my father really care that little for me? Did he love me at all? Was I just livestock to him? My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of footsteps echoing off the walls as they grew near.

The steps grew louder before he finally entered the room. He didn't even bother to look at me. He went directly to his seat and plopped down in it. He placed his index finger and thumb on the bridge of his nose.

His forehead scrunched as he rubbed. My father had always been very intimidating. His appearance didn't stand out, but his power did. He's about average height and build. He had jet black hair and stubble; that was beginning to gray with age.

His eyes were bright blue when he was younger, but they had faded too. Finally, those pale eyes stared back at me. His gaze definitely was not welcoming. He seemed irritated by my presence.

He let out a huff before dropping his hand to his knee. "Did it ever occur to you there was a reason I sent you away?" His voice was cold.

I tried to speak, but my words got caught in my throat.

He stood up and walked over to me. He leaned into my face and analyzed me for a moment.

"I... I thought you..." I kept stuttering.

"You thought what?" His voice boomed.

"You told the Orcs you wanted me back." My voice cracked. "To... stop the war."

He scoffed and grabbed ahold of my face. His rough fingers squeezed into my jaw, hurting me. "I don't want you! I want that ape they call Chief." He was almost screaming in my face at this point.

"And you... are in my way!" he growled.

"Father, I don't understand. I..." He cut me off before I continued.

"What did you think that I love you? Do you think I care for you? I can replace you a million times over. Our people need the North, and I will provide it to them, no matter the cost. I needed a façade to get the young men behind me, and you were just that."

Tears began to stream down my face. My father had resented me since birth. He blamed me for my mother's death. She had died in childbirth, and he'd been unlucky at producing a male heir with the wives he'd taken after her. I just never thought his hatred of me could go this far.

"Only a few of my closest men know about this plan, and your returning will ruin it. So would you do something useful for once in your life?"

All I could do was stare down. I couldn't bear to look into my father's eyes.

"Go back to that bastard's cave and stay there. Better yet, entertain him, fuck him, anything you can to get his ass here, and then, just maybe, I will allow you to come back. Otherwise, you'll be sleeping on the street."