After My Fiancé Rejected Me, I Became His Uncle's Fated Mate novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: The Challenge
Lachlan walked out onto the lodge porch in nothing but his jeans.
He looked down at his nephew and the grey-haired Alpha, and at the twenty wolves standing in the mud.
"Accepted," he said.
Cade's smile slipped a quarter inch.
He had expected an argument, or a plea, or a night of fear.
"Dusk," Lachlan said. "The clearing. The old rules."
"The old rules," said the Eastern Alpha, and gave a stiff nod.
"One more thing," Pearl said.
She stepped out onto the porch beside her son with a wooden spoon in her fist.
"Nobody fights in my pack on an empty stomach, and nobody watches one either," she said. "Every wolf who comes to that clearing eats first. I'll feed two hundred by noon."
"Mother," Lachlan said.
"Hush. Your father fought his challenge on a bowl of my stew, and he won it."
A snort of laughter went through the yard, and Cade's smile died completely.
Pearl turned her spoon on him.
"And you, Cade Brannigan, you'll eat too. I taught you to hold a fork. I'll not have you faint in front of company."
By noon the pack hall smelled like onions and roast pork, and nobody would meet Cade's eye.
By dusk the whole pack stood in the moon clearing.
Fires burned in a ring.
The ground had been swept clean.
I stood at the front, in a plain wool dress, with my hair braided back and Lachlan's scent still on my skin.
Across the ring, Mirabel stood alone at the edge of the crowd in her grey coat.
She met my eyes.
She laid one hand flat on her chest where the letter was sewn in.
I gave her a small nod.
"Before the challenge," said a hard voice at the elders' table, "I have a petition."
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