Claiming the Spare Twin novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Ridge

Dorran took me up the ridge behind the lodge, where no one could hear us.

He walked fast, and I kept up with him, which I had never been able to do with anyone.

At the top there was a flat shelf of rock above the whole valley.

Cold Creek lay far below in the early light, a few roofs and a silver thread of river.

"Shift," he said.

"I can't."

"You growled a hall of wolves onto their knees an hour ago."

"I didn't mean to. I don't know how I did it."

"Try."

I closed my eyes and reached for the thing in my chest.

It was there. I could feel it pacing behind my ribs, big and warm and furious.

But when I reached, it hit a wall and stopped, and my bones did nothing at all.

I tried until sweat ran down my back and my hands cramped.

"Nothing," I said finally. "I'm sorry."

"You aren't sorry. You're tired." He had not moved from the edge of the rock. "Sit."

I sat on a stone. He stayed standing.

"Now we'll talk about your sister," he said.

"I told you last night. I don't know where she is."

"I believe that part." His voice was flat. "I don't believe the rest."

"What rest?"

"You walked down my aisle with steady feet and a veil over your face."

I stared at him.

"You've been a spare for twenty-three years, you said. You knew exactly what would happen the moment I lifted that lace. You knew I'd have to bite you or lose the treaty, and you came anyway, quietly, in her dress."

"I was scared out of my mind."

"You didn't look it." His eyes were hard. "I think you and your father and your sister planned this together. I think the plan was to put a wolfless girl in my bed and hold the river over my head."

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