Sold to the Alpha novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Gate

I left at dawn, with the gate pass in my pocket and my mother's iron lid on my back.

I did not say goodbye to anyone.

I walked down the dark stair of the Wolf Tower, and across the yard, and out through the little door beside the kitchens that leads to the outer ward.

Nobody saw me go except a guard, who looked at my face and decided to be busy.

I needed air.

I needed to be somewhere that wasn't his house.

That was all I told myself.

I had already decided that I would come back, and I hated that I knew it.

The big north gate stood open for the dawn market.

Farmers' carts creaked in with turnips and live hens, and a fishwife shouted at a boy about a basket.

The moor stretched out beyond it, bare and gold under the rising sun.

I stopped in the arch with the cold wind on my face.

"Thyra," said a gentle voice.

I knew it before I turned.

Ivar Haugland stood beside the gate post, with his keys at his belt and his hands folded.

He wore his good gray cloak, as if he had dressed for an occasion.

Beside him, in a coat I recognized, stood my father.

Odd Lorne's face was gray under the stubble.

His hands shook, and there was a bruise on his cheekbone.

"Da," I said.

"Thyra, love."

He tried a smile.

It crumbled.

"They fetched me from the Drover's Rest, down at the foot of the moor.

"I've been there three weeks, love, on the steward's coin.

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