I Wed the Ruthless Alpha, and Now His Wolf Kneels to Me novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Powder House

The old powder house stood a quarter mile above the Dry, a squat stone hut with an iron door and no windows.

Miners had kept dynamite in it once.

Now it held my brother, and a warden sat on an upturned bucket outside with a rifle across his knees.

Petroc walked me up through the snow at one in the morning and unlocked the door with his own key.

"Ten minutes," he said.

I went in alone.

Toivo sat on the stone floor with his back to the wall and his hands still wired behind him.

A lantern stood on a crate.

His lip was split, and one eye had swelled shut, and he looked up at me with the other and tried to smile.

"You shouldn't have come," he said.

"Why were you at Mummu's door?"

"She leaves the porch light on every Christmas Eve." His voice was thin. "She has since I was nine. I thought, one night, one plate of rye, and I'd be gone before the wardens turned around."

"You're a fool."

"Probably."

I knelt and picked at the bailing wire with my fingers.

It was twisted tight, and it had cut his wrists to the red.

"Leave it," he said. "They'll only wire me again."

"Toivo."

"Listen." He leaned toward me. "Don't beg him."

"I'll do what I have to."

"No. You hear me. Whatever he does tomorrow, you keep your head up. You lit that lamp. You walked into that hall by yourself." He swallowed. "I never had the guts. I got a hockey stick and a temper."

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