After He Left Me to Freeze, I Rejected Him as My Mate novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Mismatched Socks

Her father arrives at 3 a.m. and Willa makes three requests. She will watch the last test with her eyes open. The pack forum posts a coffin with Kellan's name.

My father reached the hospital at three in the morning, wearing one navy sock and one green one.

He came through the doors of the territory medical center at a half run, with his coat on inside out.

I was in a bed under three warmed blankets, with a clip on my finger and a line in my arm.

Duncan Rook has been the head healer of Meadowland for thirty years. I have never seen him forget which sock goes with which.

He took my face in both hands. His eyes went red.

"Where is he?"

"He left," I said. I kept my voice even. I didn't want to hurt him more. "He had to go back and get ready for the ceremony."

My father said a word I had never heard him say.

"Dad. Sit down."

He sat on the edge of the bed. His hands were shaking, so I took them.

"I need three things," I said.

"Anything."

"One. A lawyer. Not a pack lawyer. A human one, who can read a contract and doesn't care who the Alpha is."

"My lawyer is already driving down. I called him from the car." My father wiped his glasses on his shirt. "Two?"

"The stream from the freezer is all over the Westridge forum. I want every copy saved before somebody deletes it. Also I want everything the doctor wrote down tonight, with the time on it."

"Done. I'll ask them for a certified copy." He gave me a look. "Three."

"I reject the bond. I did it in the freezer, on camera. I want it witnessed again, properly, with you and the doctor and the lawyer in the room, so nobody can say I said it half dead."

My father didn't say anything for a while.

"Willa," he said at last. "There's a list. Isn't there."

"Yes."

"Tell me."

So I told him.

The ice bucket. The radiant heat. The river. The rogues.

Twelve games. Eleven of them done.

By the end he had gone grey.

"And the last one?" he asked.

"Tomorrow, at the marking. He plans to die in front of the whole pack, to see whether I'll cry."

"Then you won't be there."

"No."

"Good." He pressed my hands to his forehead. "Good girl. Good."

We sat there. The monitor beeped.

Then he said, to the blanket, so quietly that I wasn't sure I heard it, "Twelve years I've kept my mouth shut for that boy."

I went still.

"Dad."

"I know." He shook his head hard. "I know what I swore. I'm not breaking it tonight. I'm only saying I wish I had."

I didn't ask what he meant.

I should have. But a nurse came in just then to check the line, and my father stood and straightened his coat, and I let it go.

I was too tired to chase a thing I didn't understand.

At five I opened my laptop on the blanket and wrote one email.

It went to the Beta of Westridge, who is the only man in that pack house I trusted.

Beta, the Luna will not attend the ceremony at ten. Cancel it. The banquet is booked in the Alpha's name, so he will cover the cost. Please do not tell him until the hour. W. Rook.

I read it twice and sent it.

Then I finally slept. It was a bad sleep, thin and cold, with the hum of machines in it.

I woke to a light on my phone.

It was past eight. There were eleven new messages.

The first was from a number I didn't know. I opened it with my thumb.

It was a link to the Westridge forum, to a livestream called WESTRIDGE ALPHA MEMORIAL CEREMONY, LIVE AT 10:00.

The thumbnail was the pack hall.

There were white lilies up both sides of the long table, and a black cloth over the portrait.

And in the middle of the room, in the place where the two of us were meant to stand, there was a coffin.

On the lid, in silver letters, was a name.

KELLAN ASHGROVE.

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