THIRD PERSON POV
Claw sat on the ground, a sword placed on his neck as he stared up at Astrid with an impressed expression. How exactly could she tell with utmost certainty that he wasn't Eren.
"I won't ask again. Who are you?" She questioned her eyes blazing with fury. Panicked, Claw said the first thing that came to mind "I'm Eren, and you know that first hand"
"No" She yelled her body trembling with rage, and nonplussement "You're a skin stealer, aren't you?"
Skin stealers, a bunch of unsatisfied ghost who go about, looking for the bodies of recently dead individual so they could harbor, or at least that was the rumor that was passed down from generations to generations.
Claw swallowed hard still maintaining his neutral demeanor, despite his heart racing like a beating drum.
"Astrid that's absurd. Skin stealers don't exist, they are just fairy tales" Claw said casually with an abject laugh.
"If that be the case, you should be dead. I saw your corpse just a couple of hours ago" Astrid voiced, her eyes not leaving him.
"You were probably seeing things. Think about it, you were tired and hurt. You could have imagine the entire situation" Claw lied in a bit to convince her, there was no way he could tell her the truth after she killed him in his past life.
"Okay, I believe you" Astrid said, taking her sword off his neck.
"Really" Claw said with a smile, which dies down almost immediately.
"No!" She said firmly, placing back his sword on her neck. Turns out Astrid was just joking.
"I'm going to ask you three questions, and you better answer truthfully or you're dead" Astrid threatening, still maintaining her stern expression.
"First question, where were you this last three days if you weren't dead? "
"I was at Flavin, waiting for the breeze to blow over" Claw responded effortlessly, guess his super human intelligence could be a good thing.
"Second question, what was the last conversation we had before you and your men left for Flavin?" Astrid asked, but this time she fell right into Claw's hands, since he had witnessed the entire conversation first hand that night and he still recalled every word, after all it was the night he met Astrid for the first time.
He smiled and said "We had an agreement. I said we needed something to scare off witches, you called me names and I angrily left"
Astrid stared down at him, her head still a big mess but before she could make up her mind to drop her sword. Lora and Eren's servants walked in.
"What do you think, you're doing to the alpha?" One of the questions as they hurried to Eren's side.
The other pulled out his sword, raising it to Astrid's neck.
"Take your sword off his neck or you're dead" He threatened.
Astrid took in a deep breathe, her expression unyielding as she took her sword of Eren's neck
"Relax, I was just asking him some questions. I wasn't going to kill him" She declared calm and Eren let's out a breathe of relief, his servants on the other hand weren't very impressed by her alibi.
"And we are supposed to buy that?. What if we weren't here, would you have been saying the same thing?" The man questioned, his sword still on her neck.
Astrid's face still maintained it's cold demeanor.
"Like I said I wasn't going to harm him" She stood her ground.
"John drop your sword" Lora commanded, her expression laced with boredom.
John didn't dare argue, how could he, unless he wanted his head to be chopped off, he just obeyed, dropping his sword and helping Eren to his feet.
Astrid stared back at Eren and his men, rolled her eyes and turned to leave but Eren's servants weren't enjoying a second of it.
"Aren't you going to apologize for what you just did?" John questioned once more, his hateful stares still emanate.
"I see no reason to, I didn't do anything wrong..." Astrid proved stubborn but this time around she was interrupted by Lora.
"Apology at once Astrid" She commanded taking Astrid aback.
Lora was never one to apologize for anything and she had taught her students to do same, so her sudden outburst was out of character.
Astrid stood there, her mouth ajar as she tired to make sense of Lora's words, but unknown to her Lora was only getting started.
"Do it now" She added, consequently compelling Astrid to oblige. With great discomfort, Astrid bowed her head and said the last thing she thought she would ever say "I'm sorry Eren"
Her words though not from the bottom of her heart, seemed to rip Astrid from the inside.
"It's fine, don't just do it again" Eren(Claw) said, with a breathe of relief. Astrid felt his remark was kind of condescending than sympathetic.
She raised up her head, her eyes blazing rage but she doesn't say a word instead she silently walked out of the scene and Lora followed.
"Alpha are you feeling alright?" John questioned his voice laced with concern, as they scan Eren's body in a circular fashion.
Eren just let our a small smile
"I'm fine" He said in a bit to put their mind at ease, but deep down a storm raged on, along side a tornado of unanswered questions.
"Are you sure, cause you have some scars on your neck. Did someone hurt you back at Flavin?" John questioned, his voice laced with panic.
"Yes alpha, we need some clarifications, Astrid said you were dead. She claimed she saw your corpse" Calvin informed and Eren's heart skipped a beat.
He understood what Astrid said but how was he going to explain to them that he was tramped in the wrong body and that Eren was indeed dead was a problem . Taking in a deep breathe he let out the first thing that came to mind.
"I can't answer that right now. I'm tired and I need a bath" He said his voice drawl and nonchalant as possible.
"Forgive our carelessness alpha" Both of the men apologized in unison as they bowed down on their knees.
"We should have put your needs above our curiosity and for that we are extremely sorry"
Eren just stood there nonplussed, he had never seen such loyalty and submissiveness, even his living dead buddies which he brought to live never respected him this much.
"Permit me to show you to your tent" John offered, as he raised to his feet and begin leading the way.
Eren praised, quietly followed them to a gigantic, luxurious black tent at the center of a tent settlement.
Claw walked into the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, the inside of the tent looked like an actual bedroom. a lavish one at that, it had fancy furniture, a fireplace, a kitchen, a gigantic bed and at the center of the room stood a large boiling spring.
Indeed Eren was living the dream that, Claw glanced around, his mouth falling open in amusement.
"Alpha I can see that you're shocked, is the room not the way you remember it?" Calvin questioned curious.
"It's fine" Claw said nonchalantly, composing himself.
"I will let you have your bath" John said, excusing himself.
"Alpha are you hungry?" Calvin asked eagerly with a smile, as though reading Claw's mind but before Claw could open his mouth his stomach roared loudly.
Shame immediately crawled to Claw's face, he could no longer open his mouth but Calvin understood the assignment.
With a smile and bow, he said and excused himself.
"I will send in your meal, alongside your meal in a bit"
His words though simple, seemed to strike a cord in the back of Claw's mind, "What did he mean by meal, alongside meal"- He wondered for a while as he took off his clothes but later attributed Calvin's words to the rantings of a human.
Claw got into the warm springs, resting his back against the wall as he reflected on all the happenings of the day.
What might have happened, he died the day before and today he was in the body of a human. An extremely handsome one at that.
"Gosh, I could get use to a face and body like this" He said with a contented smile as he stared down at his reflection in the water.
"Excuse me but we heard you were hungry" He heard a gentle feminine voice echo from behind him.
Panicked Claw turned to look, only to see three beautiful women dressed in transparent clothing standing there with three food trays in hand.
They were only putting on tiny bikinis underneath, which left little or nothing to the imagination. Never before had Claw seen women in such revealing clothing this close to him, the mare sight of them made him hard.
"Permit us to wash your back and some other things while we are at it" The prettiest of the three said sexily as she beat her lower lip.
In that moment, Claw understood what Calvin meant, tonight was indeed going to be a day Claw would never forget, the day he got laid for the first time.