He Destroyed My Youth, Killed My Child, Now He Begs, But I Am Gone Forever novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: My Mother's Wing

Hamish's POV

Finlay's door stood open a hand's width, and I stayed in the hall and listened to Yvaine read.

She did the wolf's voice low and gruff, and Finlay laughed at it.

"Does the mother ever come back?" he asked.

"She always comes back," Yvaine said. "That's how the story goes."

Her voice caught on the last word, only a little.

I walked away before she could hear me breathing.

I did not go to bed.

I went to the library and took the Book of Hearths off the high shelf, the pack law my grandfather had copied out by hand.

My mother had quoted it to me all my life, and I had never read it for myself.

It took me an hour to find the page on mothers.

My hands would not keep still on the paper.

A pup of unsettled parentage, the old law said, could be fostered by the elders of a neighboring pack until the Alpha and the council settled the matter.

A mother who had cut her bond before the council could be heard, but she could not hold the pup while she was heard.

I read it three times.

Then I shut the book and went down the west hall to my mother's rooms.

Two of my wardens stood at her door.

They straightened when they saw my face, and neither of them looked me in the eye.

"Open it," I said.

She was sitting by the window with a pot of tea at her elbow and her cane across her knees.

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