Chapter 10: Separate Rooms

"Thirty days is a long time for a woman alone," Hugh said.

He raised his glass to me down the length of the dinner table.

Three hundred wolves went quiet over their plates.

Thane put down his fork.

"She isn't alone," he said, and he stood up.

His chair scraped the floor.

"Tonight I'm going to put my mouth between her legs and keep it there until she says my name," he said.

He said it loud enough for the back wall.

"Anyone who has a problem with that can take it up with me outside."

Nobody breathed.

I wanted the floor to open up under my chair.

Lorcan's lips twitched, and Gareth looked at the ceiling with great interest.

Hugh set his glass down very slowly and said nothing.

"Sit down, Thane," I said.

He sat.

"I'll decide," I said, to the whole room.

I got up and walked out with my head high.

My knees shook the whole way down the corridor.

My mother was awake when I came to the infirmary.

She sat up in her iron bed between my three sleeping children, with her white hair loose.

She looked at me with clear, sharp eyes.

"Go," she said. "I'm their grandmother. I know how to keep watch."

"Mom?"

"Go, Sorrel. Tonight is the night. Don't make it wait."

I stood there with my mouth open.

Then she lay back and shut her eyes, and her face went blank again.

I went to my room with the moon coming through the window.

I had hardly shut the door when I heard them in the corridor.

Three sets of footsteps stopped outside it.

Nobody knocked.

I opened the door.

They stood in a row, all three, with their eyes gone gold, breathing hard.

"Separate rooms," Lorcan said, his voice rough. "You said."

"These are separate rooms," I said. "I'm in mine."

I stepped back.

They came in.

Thane shut the door and locked it, and then he took my face in both hands.

He kissed me slowly and thoroughly, and my whole body went soft against him.

Behind me Lorcan's hands found my hips, and his mouth found the back of my neck.

"Tell me to stop," he said into my skin. "Say it."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Three Alphas Who Denied My Triplet Babies Came Back... from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.