Chapter 14: The Black Book

Ewan stopped at the foot of the steps and stood beside me on four legs, with his hackles up.

The Hartwell wolves fanned out behind us across the gravel.

Rafe didn't look at them.

He looked at me, and at the flannel shirt, and at the new mark on the side of my neck.

His mouth went thin.

"You slept with him," he said.

"Take the knife off the line."

"The ring, Briony."

"No."

"Then he stops breathing in about four minutes."

My grandfather's lips were blue.

He lifted his eyes to mine, and he shook his head once, very slightly, and I could not tell if he meant don't give it to him or don't be afraid.

I took a step up.

Rafe's hand tightened on the knife.

It was shaking.

I saw it, and so did the wolves behind me.

He had been drinking my strength for six years, and in the Bowl it had all gone back into me.

What he had left was only what he was born with.

"You're tired, Rafe," I said. "I can hear your heart from here."

"Stay where you are."

I took another step.

My wolf rose up under my skin and white light ran along my arms.

The knife blade began to smoke in his hand.

Silver burns any wolf, and I was not holding it, but I was close enough that he felt the pull of her.

He yelped and dropped it.

It rang on the stone step.

Corbin came up the stairs in three strides and took the handles of the wheelchair out of Rafe's hands.

Nobody stopped him.

Corbin's whole back was shaking as he turned the chair around.

"I've got you, Grandpa," he said. "I've got you."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Mate Rejected Me as Wolfless, Then My White Wolf Woke from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.