They Thought My Mate Chose Her novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Tressa

I came down the ladder slowly.

Kitto came out of the new storeroom with a paint roller in his hand and stopped dead.

"Oh," he said. "Oh, no. No, ma'am."

"Kitto."

"She burned the back of this building, Wenna. I've still got pink hands."

"The pack took the house," she said to me. "Daddy's accounts are frozen. I'm on a cousin's couch in Lake Linden. Nobody in Calumet will hire me." She swallowed. "You're the only one who might, because you're the only one who ever told me no to my face."

"I can't sew. I can press. I've watched you press my gowns for two years." Her chin came up. "I paid attention. I just never paid."

Kitto made a strangled sound.

I folded my arms.

"You want work," I said. "Here's the price."

She waited.

"Clement leaves at the moon. In the hall, in front of the pack. Before he goes, the elders ask if anyone has anything to say." I held her eyes. "You stand up. You tell them everything. The dress. The fire. My aprons. All of it, in your own words."

All the color went out of her face.

"He's my father."

"He held me still while you took my dress off my mother's form."

"I know."

"Then you know the price."

She stood there a long time in her borrowed parka.

Then she turned around and walked out.

The bell rang behind her.

"Well," said Kitto. "That's the last we'll see of her."

The night of the moon, the union hall was full again.

The pack stood along the walls the way they had at the Choosing.

Clement stood alone in the middle of the floor with a suitcase.

The senior elder stood up.

"Clement Hocking leaves the Keweenaw tonight," he said. "Before he goes, does anybody in this pack have anything to say to him?"

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