He Destroyed My Youth, Killed My Child, Now He Begs, But I Am Gone Forever novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: She Stays in the House

I left Finlay in the kitchen with Linnea and walked to the gate beside Hamish.

Half the pack was already there.

The Hale elder sat a gray horse in the road, a heavy old man in a canvas coat, with six riders behind him.

He did not get down.

"Alpha Roake," he said. "I have come for the boy."

"You have come to my gate with a piece of paper," Hamish said. "That is not the same thing."

Hale held out the writ, and a warden carried it to Hamish.

Hamish didn't take it.

"Read it aloud," I said.

Hale's eyes moved to me, and he took his time.

"You're the bond-breaker."

"I'm the boy's mother."

"That has not been settled."

"It was settled by this pack's own council last night," I said. "Twelve elders. You can ask any of them. They're standing right behind me."

"The Ridge's elders are compromised by the Luna's disgrace." He said it in a bored voice. "The old law gives a neighbor pack the right to hold a pup of disputed line until a fair council hears the matter. Beatrix Roake asked for our protection. We are granting it."

"She asked for your protection from what?" I said.

"From her own son."

A few of the wardens laughed, and then stopped.

I stepped out into the road and walked up to the gray horse.

He looked down at me.

I held up both hands and turned my wrists so the morning light hit them.

The silver scars ran around each one in a pale, raised ring.

"Look at them," I said. "Look closely. They were put on me nine months into carrying that boy, because his grandmother didn't want me shifting while I delivered him."

The yard went quiet.

"She took him from me before I woke up. She sent a man to bury a box of sand. Her son stood by and let it happen, and he has already said so in front of two hundred people." I lowered my hands. "You want to take him out of this house and give him to the woman who did that to me, and you want me to wait politely for your council."

"The law is the law, girl."

"Then your law is a cuff," I said. "And I'm done wearing them."

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