The Alpha's Debt the King's Claim novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Terms

Maeve sets three terms for the king's claim and makes Torin kneel to speak the unbonding. Brigid finds silver dust across the threshold.

Nobody in the hall breathed loud enough to cover the king's footsteps.

Evander Rook came down from the witness table and stopped two paces from me.

He did not look at my gown or my scar.

He looked at my face, and something in his own went tight, and then it was gone.

"A wolf with no pack falls under the Crown," he said. "I've said the words. You have until the herald finishes to say no."

The herald stepped forward with a scroll.

"The claim lasts a year and a day," he read. "In that time no hand is raised against her without answering to the throne. At the end of it, she may stay or go."

"I say no to being owned," I said.

A gasp ran down the pews.

The king did not move.

"Then say what you will say yes to."

I had one chance at this, so I laid it out plain.

"One. I belong to nobody. Not you, not a pack, not a bond."

"Agreed."

He said it so fast that I frowned.

"Two. I keep my own name and my own door. Nobody walks into my room without my say."

"Agreed."

"Three. If I ever share your bed, I open it myself. You never ask, and you never expect."

The elders hissed.

The edge of the king's mouth moved.

"Agreed," Evander said. "You'll find me patient."

I did not know what to do with that.

Torin did.

"This is a joke," he said, and shoved through the crowd with Elspeth hanging off his arm. "She's mine. She was bonding to me ten minutes ago."

"She was bonding to you until she called your debt," Evander said. "Now the debt is owed in full. Pay it."

Torin's jaw worked.

"The unbonding words are old, and they're long," he said. "I'll speak them in private."

"No," I said. "In front of everyone who watched you promise me the bond."

His hand tightened on the gold pack ring on his right hand.

Every elder in the pews was waiting to see what an Alpha did when the king watched.

He let go of Elspeth, walked up to the dais and went down on one knee.

I had never seen him kneel to anyone.

It should have felt better than it did.

"By the moon and the river, I release Maeve Corrigan from my hearth, my name and my claim," Torin said through his teeth. "I owe her nothing. She owes me nothing. The bond is not made."

The wreath slipped from my hair.

Evander caught it before it touched the floor.

"The seal on the debt is broken," the herald said, and tore a thin red thread across the scroll.

The pack's old heart-bell above the door rang once by itself.

That meant the unbonding had held.

I should have felt free.

I felt shaky and cold.

Torin got up slowly, with his face dark.

"You'll regret this," he said so softly that only I heard. "You'll beg to come home."

"I won't be begging," I said. "Not you, and not this pack."

He stared at me.

It was the first time in his life I had not backed down.

Behind him Elspeth gave a thin sob.

She had her cane in both hands now and leaned on it with her whole weight.

"Torin, my chest," she whispered, "I can't..."

She slid to the floor again.

This time nobody ran.

The king looked at the doors again.

I saw it that time, and did not understand it.

Cullen Dacre, Torin's Beta, caught Elspeth under the arms and hauled her up with a very tired face.

"She's breathing, Alpha," he said flatly. "She's fine."

"Don't you start," Torin snapped.

The hall broke into noise.

Wolves talked over each other. Chairs scraped. The elders stood in clumps, glaring at me and at the king.

An old woman pushed through them toward me, small and sharp, with white hair in a braid.

Brigid Fenn had taught me everything I knew about healing.

She took both my hands and looked into my face for a long moment.

"You did it," she said quietly. "Whatever it was in your head this morning. You did it."

"You noticed?"

"Girl, you walked into that hall a different woman than the one who left your room."

She squeezed my fingers, and her eyes were wet.

I wanted to tell her all of it.

I could not, not here.

Evander turned to his guards.

"Escort Healer Corrigan to her own house," he said. "Two at the door tonight. Nobody in or out without her word."

"I don't need guards," I said.

"You said you keep your own door," he answered. "I'm only standing outside it."

That was so smooth that I looked at him twice.

He bowed his head slightly and went back to his table.

The guards took me out of the hall.

Brigid walked beside me through the cold courtyard, and the guards stayed a few steps back.

At the healer's house she went ahead to light the lamp.

Then she stopped.

"Maeve," she said sharply. "Don't step down."

I looked at the threshold.

A fine line of grey dust had been laid across the doorsill, from one post to the other.

It glittered in the lamplight.

Brigid crouched and touched a grain to her tongue and spat.

"Silver," she said. "Ground fine, and fresh. Someone laid this while the whole pack was at your wedding."

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