Unbonding the Ruthless Alpha novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Thirty Days

The Council's witness sets thirty days to the dark moon; Ivy writes the terms and Ronan signs, until runners report Mirelle's trunks are already in the Luna's suite.

I woke on a cot in Hazel's clinic with a wet cloth on my forehead and a dry voice over my head.

"Don't sit up. Your temperature's a hundred and three, and your wolf is chewing on the bond."

Hazel Harkin stood at the end of the cot with her reading glasses pushed up into her hair and a clipboard against her hip.

"What happened?" I said.

"You tried to leave the Alpha's land with a Moon Right petition in your pocket." She wrote something down. "The bond doesn't like that. It'll let you go as far as the lake. Past it, it drags you back."

"How far is the lake?"

"Four miles from the big house. You'll live in my cabin."

"You're volunteering."

"I'm informing. I already aired it out."

Through the clinic window, the sky was gray and low.

"Where's Ronan?"

"In the hall," Hazel said. "He's been there since two a.m. He won't eat, and he won't leave. If you ask me, it's the most useful thing he's done in two years."

I closed my eyes, and my wolf pushed against my ribs, restless and hurt.

At nine, a woman in a gray parka came in with a leather-bound book under her arm.

She was the Council's witness, and she had driven four hours through the night to get here.

Ronan came in behind her.

He had not changed his shirt, and there were shadows under his eyes.

"I will say this once," the Council witness said. "The Moon Right is the Luna's, not the Alpha's. He cannot refuse it, and he cannot delay it."

"I'm not refusing," Ronan said.

"Good. Thirty nights from now is the dark moon. At the Moon Stone, in front of three Alphas, the bond is cut. Until then, the pair of you are still bound, and the terms of the thirty days are yours to set."

She held out a pen.

"Write them. Both sign. I witness."

I took the pen.

My hand was steady, which surprised me.

I wrote on Hazel's prescription pad because it was the only paper near me, and I read the terms out loud while I wrote.

"One. I live in Hazel's cabin on Lantern Lake until the dark moon."

Ronan's jaw moved.

"Two. Ronan doesn't enter the cabin."

He said nothing.

"Three. He doesn't touch me unless I say so."

A low sound came out of his chest, and he heard it a second after I did.

It was his wolf growling.

His eyes had gone gold for a breath, and then dark brown again.

"Four. He doesn't give me the Alpha's command."

"Ivy," Ronan said.

"Five. The Luna's suite at the big house is mine until the dark moon, and so is the Luna's seat at pack meetings."

Hazel made a small noise that was almost a cough.

"Is that all?" Ronan asked.

"It's all I can think of at a hundred and three."

The Council witness took the pad, read it through and set it on her book.

"These are binding," she said. "If either of you breaks a term, the other may call it before the Council and name a forfeit. Mr. Hargrove, do you agree?"

He read it over her shoulder.

He read it twice.

"I agree," he said, "to every line. I want one thing added."

"You're not in a position to want," Hazel said.

"If she needs anything, she sends for me."

"I'll send for Hazel," I said.

"Ivy."

"I'll send for Hazel."

His mouth tightened, and he took the pen from my hand without touching my fingers, which I noticed because he was so careful about it.

He signed under my name.

His handwriting was exactly as hard as I remembered from the marriage papers.

When he'd finished, he didn't give the pen back at once.

"The pup," he said, very low. "Was it a boy or a girl?"

The question hit me harder than anything he'd said at dinner.

"Hazel couldn't tell yet," I said. "It was too early."

Ronan nodded once and looked at the floor.

The Council witness signed, closed her book and went out into the gray morning.

Ronan stood a moment longer by the cot.

He didn't touch me, and I watched him not touch me.

"Eat something," he said, and left.

Hazel let the door settle, and then she handed me a cup of broth.

"That man owes you a sentence that starts with I'm sorry," she said.

"He didn't say it."

"That's what I said."

I almost laughed, and it hurt.

There was a knock, and a pack runner put his head into the room, a young man with mud on his boots.

"Sorry, Hazel. Luna." He swallowed. "You should hear this before somebody tells it wrong."

"Hear what?" I said.

"Mirelle Foxworth's trunks came up to the big house an hour ago, in the back of Godfrey's truck. They carried them into the Luna's suite."

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend