His Mate, His Enemy novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Bell

Lorcan's POV

I rang the lodge bell at noon, the way my father did when he wanted the pack to hear something at once.

They came up the hill in coats and work boots, with flour and sawdust still on them.

The hall filled in a quarter of an hour.

It was the same room where Corinna had cut herself loose from me, and I made myself stand in the same spot.

The beta leaned on the doorframe with his arms folded.

The three elders sat in the front row.

Brynn sat in the big chair by the fire with Wyatt asleep on her shoulder, her left palm turned up on her knee.

"The elders gave me until the full moon," I said. "I'm answering now."

A murmur ran through the room.

"I will not take Brynn Flannery as Luna. Not at the full moon, and not after it."

The first elder stood.

"Then you've chosen to lose the seat."

"Let me finish."

She sat down slowly.

I took the folded card out of my coat and laid it on the table in front of them.

It was brown at the creases, in my father's slanting hand.

"Four years ago I stood here and read from this, and told you it was a mating vow."

Nobody moved.

"It isn't. It's a rite of making. The Moon never gave me Corinna Marrin. I forged the bond myself."

The sound that came up out of the hall was not a gasp.

It was lower than that, and it came from sixty throats at once.

Two of the old men in the back row looked at their boots.

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