The Alphas Broken Mate novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Unfit

Caius's POV

I had cut down half a dozen men on that field by the time Merrick took the healer.

I had not knelt once.

Each time Lark's note came down the hill I felt it reach for me.

Each time I felt her lift it off my head.

She steered it around me from the top of a tower with her throat tearing.

I would remember that when I was dying.

Then I saw the grey cloak behind Bryony.

Merrick had one fist in her rust-colored hair, and the knife lay across her throat.

My wolf rose so hard that my vision went gold.

"Come, Dunraven," Merrick said, pleasantly. "Drop your sword, or she bleeds."

"Your mate knows what her note costs. Tell her to stop."

I dropped my sword.

The fighting around us slowed, because men on both sides were watching.

I took one step toward him with my hands open.

"You will not touch her again," I said.

"I will do as I like. You took my daughter, you stole my stepdaughter, and you burned my name in your hall."

"My daughter ran," Merrick said. "She will answer for that herself."

"Release the healer," I said.

"Kneel," said Merrick.

I looked at his face.

I looked at the thin line of red under Bryony's jaw.

She was staring at me with her mouth set flat, and she gave me the smallest shake of her head.

Then I saw what her right hand was doing at her apron pocket.

I went to one knee.

I made it slow, so every Thornfield eye would be on me.

"Good," Merrick said. "Now the other."

Bryony drove a bone needle the length of her finger into the back of his knife hand.

She had spent twenty years finding the places in the body where a man's grip let go.

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