"I don't accept you" — he shouted it in front of everyone novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Second Scent

Ezra faces down Dunstan in the lot and explains the rare second scent. Imogen won't walk into anyone's arms yet; locked in her room, Celia threatens that she won't leave the pack alive.

"Mine," the stranger said again, quieter.

My father's hand dropped from my arm.

"Alpha Duncannon," he said. "This is a family matter. You have no business here."

"Your daughter's scent is the business."

Ezra Duncannon did not raise his voice.

He did not look at my father either.

He looked at me, at the red print on my cheek, and a muscle moved in his jaw.

"Who hit her?" he asked.

Nobody answered.

Every phone in the lot was up.

"I asked a question," he said.

His wolf was in it.

Three Redwood wolves near the buses dropped their eyes and stepped back.

My father stayed where he was, but the color had gone out of his mouth.

"I corrected my own child," he said.

"Not on my land," Ezra said, "and not in front of me."

Behind us, Jasper made a high ugly sound.

He was on his side on the asphalt, back arched, hands clawing at his chest.

His father the Beta had dropped beside him, shouting for a healer.

"Her rejection," the Beta said. "She did this. She cut him open in front of the whole school."

"He cut first," Clover said.

She had walked up beside me with her phone still raised.

"I have it all on video, sir. Do you want me to play the part where he shouts?"

Nobody wanted that.

Two seniors lifted Jasper and carried him toward the nurse's building.

His boots dragged.

His head rolled toward me once, and his eyes found mine, and I looked away.

I was not going to cry in front of those people.

"Imogen!"

Celia came running from the other side of the cars.

Her golden hair had come loose and her face was wet.

She did not stop at me.

She went straight past and grabbed the front of my hoodie with both hands.

"What did you do?" she cried. "Mimi, what did you do to him?"

"I rejected him. He rejected me first."

"He was upset! He didn't mean it! He's my boyfriend, you knew that!"

"He is my mate," I said. "I knew that for thirty seconds, and so did he."

"He's dying!"

"He's having a reaction. Everyone does. It passes."

It did not pass for everyone.

I had read that much.

My throat tightened anyway.

Celia let go of me and wiped her face.

For a second the wet look went out of her eyes and she was only watching me, calm and still.

Then she started to sob again, and ran after Jasper.

Ezra had not moved.

"Second Scent," he said, to me and nobody else. "That is what this is."

"I don't know what that means."

"The Moon gives a wolf one mate. If that bond is cut from both sides, she sometimes gives a second scent. Almost never. I have never met anyone who had one."

"And it's you."

"And it's me."

The whole lot heard it.

I heard a girl whisper, "Oh my God, the Black Fork Alpha," and another whisper, "On her birthday?"

I stood there with my cheek burning and my father's glare on the side of my face.

Tilda was on her feet inside me, turning in circles.

She wanted to go to him.

She wanted to be near the cedar and river stone.

I wanted something very different.

"I was rejected thirty seconds before you got here," I said. "I'm not walking into anyone's arms today."

"I didn't ask you to."

"Good."

"I'll wait," Ezra said. "As long as you say."

He said it plainly, and his hands stayed in his pockets.

"Imogen." My father took my arm again, gentler this time because a hundred phones were watching. "We're going home."

"Let go of her," Ezra said.

"She is my daughter."

"She is a wolf with her own scent and her own say. Take your hand off her."

My father let go.

I think it was the first time I had seen him obey anyone.

I did not wait for him to take me.

I walked to his car on my own.

Clover grabbed my backpack off the ground and tossed it at me.

"I'll come tonight," she whispered. "Keep your window unlocked."

Ezra stood at the edge of the lot with his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Black Fork's border is a mile past your back gate," he said as I passed. "Say my name there and my wolves will hear it."

I did not answer.

I got in the car.

The ride home was silent.

At the house, my father walked me up the stairs himself.

He took my phone.

He took my keys.

He closed my bedroom door and I heard the lock turn.

I sat on my bed for a long time.

Tilda lay with her chin on her paws, quiet, hurting.

The knock came at dusk.

Not at the door.

At the window.

I got up and pulled the curtain back.

Celia was crouched on the porch roof in her cardigan, with the setting sun behind her.

She slid the window open and climbed in.

"Mimi," she whispered. Her eyes were still red. "I came to help you."

"Help me how?"

"Take it back. Tonight, at Moon Hall. Tell them you were afraid and you'll withdraw it. Jasper gets his wolf back, Dad calms down, and nobody hurts you."

"No."

She sat on the edge of my bed and smoothed the blanket with one hand.

"Then hear this," she said, still soft. "You reject him in front of the pack and you will not leave this territory alive. Dad will make sure of it."

Her voice never changed.

That was what frightened me.

"You can't mean that," I said.

"I never say what I don't mean," my sister said. "I only say it nicely."

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