My Pack Called Me Empty, So the Coldest Alpha Claimed Me Out Loud novel · Chapter 8 of 24
Chapter 8: The Bargain
The great hall smelled of whiskey at seven in the morning.
My father sat at the long table in his Beta's chair with a glass in front of him, and Reino Kettunen sat across from him in the guest's seat, his fur collar up.
Tamarack wolves stood along the walls, and so did half of Ironwood, drawn in by word of mouth.
Reino's daughter sat at the end of the table with her hands in her lap.
Eskil walked in beside me.
He had dressed in the dark in the same black sweater, and nobody in that hall missed that he had come in from the point road.
"Ah, there they are," Reino said, pleased. "Come in, Miss Hakala. I've been telling your father how glad I am for you."
"Have you," I said.
"A bright young woman should have a trade. Your mother was a healer, God rest her. I've a house at Tamarack with a proper clinic and a proper furnace, and I'd be honored to give it to her daughter."
He spread his hands.
"A healer's place for you. And your father has my word on a seat at the joined council, once the packs come together."
"Beta of a bigger pack," my father said, not meeting my eyes. "It's a real chance, Maija."
"The joined pack," I said. "You mean after Midwinter."
"After the Accord is honored, yes."
"You mean after he marries your daughter or loses his seat."
"I mean," Reino said gently, "that a girl like you could do a great deal better than a man who can't mark her."
The hall went quiet.
Every wolf in that room could smell it, I realized, standing there in Eskil's sweater.
They could smell me, and him, and the plain fact that I had no bite on my shoulder.
Someone near the wall snickered.
I felt the heat climb up my neck.
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