The Lion King's Reluctant Mate novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Alpha of Nothing

"No," Jory said.

The old Ironbark elder blinked at him.

"I'm sorry. I'll say it again, because I want it plain." Jory raised his voice for the grey side of the field. "I won't be your Alpha."

A groan ran along the wolves.

"You beat him in the ring," the elder said. "By our law, the seat is yours."

"Then I'm giving it away. I'm allowed that, aren't I?"

"It has never been done."

"A lot of things haven't," said Jory.

Behind him, he heard Sabra snort.

He looked over the crowd.

Hundreds of faces looked back, thin from a winter of hunger and a lifetime of being afraid of one man.

"I've got a den across the river," he said. "I've got a cub and a lion who can't cook. I'm not leaving them."

"And I don't want to run a pack. I've seen what it does to people."

"Then who?" the elder said, helplessly.

Jory scanned the faces.

A memory came up out of the body without warning, warm and sudden, of a small hut and a smell of crushed herbs and a hand binding his shoulder.

"The old healer," he said.

At the back of the grey crowd, a stooped woman with white braids looked up in alarm.

"Me?"

"You set my shoulder when I was a pup. You kept that cub from the river for two winters, didn't you? I think I remember."

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