Unwanted Shewolf novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Bride Price

Rafe's POV

I had counted the blades before the doors finished swinging.

Forty, in two rows down the steps, and every wolf behind them was waiting on one man's word.

Hazel stood in the ring with a shawl held shut at her throat and blood running down her arm.

I had stayed out of that ring because she told me to.

I was done with it now.

"The Luna said the doors would be open," the Brannock Alpha called down the aisle. He walked in with his fur coat swinging and his men closing in behind him. "She did not lie."

"Sydney," the eldest elder said, and her old voice broke. "What have you done?"

Sydney looked at no one.

She stood with her hand on the iron ring, and the small smile stayed on her face.

"The treaty is signed and sealed," the Brannock Alpha said. "Elias held the seat when he pressed it. I paid for a bride at the Blood Moon, and I will have my bride."

"You paid for nothing," Hazel said.

"Little wolf." He smiled. "I came for what is mine."

He crossed the stone floor with his stride unhurried.

I moved before I decided to.

I got between them, and his men's blades came up, and I felt the whole hall lean in around us.

"Hollow law ends at the boulders," the Brannock Alpha said to me. "This is not your gate, Warden."

He shoved me aside with a forearm, and I let him, because Hazel's eyes found mine and gave the smallest shake of her head.

Then he reached out and took her by the hair.

He wound it around his fist and hauled her head back, and he put his other hand flat on her wounded shoulder and squeezed.

She cried out once.

The sound went into me and did not come out.

Something old and enormous woke in my chest, and I heard it roar before I knew it was me.

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