Chapter 14: The Third Drawer

Cade's POV

I walked to Godfrey's lodge the next morning on a cane I'd borrowed from the clinic.

Rhys wanted to come with me.

I told him if I wasn't back by noon, he could come and carry me home.

The lodge sat behind the Hall under three pines, small and square, with smoke already going up from the chimney.

Godfrey opened the door before I knocked.

"My boy," he said. "You shouldn't be on your feet."

"I need ten minutes."

"You'll have an hour. Come in."

He sat me by the fire and poured ginger tea, and I did not drink it.

I had drunk his tea for twenty years.

I looked at the cup and set it on the floor.

"I came to make you an offer," I said.

"I'm listening."

"The seat. I give it up. I'll stand in front of the elders and put it in writing. You name the next Alpha, and the Luna goes free of the writ."

Godfrey's face did not change.

He tilted his head, and the fire lit his silver beard.

"You are sick, Cade," he said gently. "Your wolf is going. You can't give up what the pack takes from you in three weeks."

"Then it costs you nothing."

"It costs the pack its order."

"What do you want, Godfrey?"

I had never asked him that in my life.

He smiled, and he laughed once, softly, through his nose.

"What I have always wanted. Peace in this house. A child born safe. A Luna under a roof where I can look after her."