Chapter 19: The Cupboard

Jarrett's POV

I opened my father's first letter at midnight, at my desk, with my ribs strapped and one eye swollen shut.

The paper was soft and brown at the folds.

It said what my mother had told me.

The Redfern alliance came first, a mate could be put aside, and an Alpha did not choose with his heart.

He had signed it, and his handwriting was sure.

I read it twice and put it down.

The door opened without a knock.

"Ma," I said.

"You've read it."

"Yes."

She came in on her cane and laid a second envelope on top of the first.

It was thin and white, with my name on the front in the same hand, but it shook.

"Your father wrote this one after midnight," she said. "The night he died."

I did not touch it.

"He gave it to me with his last breath nearly, and he made me swear. I was to hand it to you only if you came to me and said you had known."

"I said it."

"You said it last week. I would have brought this then, but I wanted to see what you did with it."

"Ma."

"Open it."

My hands would not work, so she took it back and slit it with her thumbnail, and she put the page in my palm.

I read it by the desk lamp.

Jarrett.

I wrote you the wrong letter at dusk. I wrote it as an Alpha and I was afraid for the border.

I wrote this one as a man who is dying and has no more reasons.

If the ring ever refuses a woman you've chosen, do not make her wear it harder. Believe the ring.

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