Marked by My Ex's Biggest Rival novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Not Your Property

Kyler claims Danica as Yardley property, she renounces his pack on the sidewalk in front of the street, and a Council letter names Kyler as Addison's assigned marker.

"Stay in the truck," I said.

Roark's hand was already on the door handle.

"He's in your chair."

"It's my chair. Town's neutral ground. If you walk in there and he swings at you, the Council calls it a Brannigan attack, and you know it."

He held the handle a second longer.

Then he let go.

"I'll be right here," he said. "Windows down."

I got out and pushed open my own door, and the bell rang over it.

Gran hung that bell when she opened the shop. She raised me upstairs, and I learned to draw at that front counter.

Kyler didn't take his boots off my tray.

"There she is," he said. "Look at you. Brannigan flannel. Very cute."

"Get out of my chair."

Desiree laughed without looking up from her phone.

"She's feisty when she's been rescued," she said. "Is that a fated thing?"

Kyler's bite sat there under her platinum hair, red and neat and plain.

No ring.

She saw me looking at mine, and her smile slipped for half a second.

Kyler finally swung his boots down and stood up.

"Let's not do this the hard way," he said. "Here's what happens. You come home. You tell the pack Brannigan grabbed you out of your head with fever. I forgive you."

"You forgive me."

"You were a Yardley girl when you walked into that river. A Brannigan put his teeth in Yardley property. That's theft. I can make it a war."

"I'm property now?"

"You've always been pack. Same thing."

The bell rang behind me.

Krista came in with two iced coffees and her bleached pixie cut sticking up on one side.

"Oh, absolutely not," she said.

"Morning, Krista," Kyler said.

"Get out of our shop, you giant golden retriever."

She put the coffees down on the counter and came to stand beside me.

She was five foot nothing and human and she looked like she'd bite him herself.

Kyler sighed.

"Krista, go pierce something. Danica, get your stuff. Desiree's going to be very nice about this."

"I'm going to be so nice," Desiree said. "You can keep the shop. You'll just do my nails."

"I'm a tattoo artist."

"Then you'll learn."

Something in me went very calm.

"Outside," I said.

Kyler raised his eyebrows.

"What?"

"You want to talk about property and forgiveness? Say it outside. In front of the street. Since you like an audience."

I walked out and held the door.

After a second he followed me, because he couldn't stand to look like he'd backed down.

Desiree came after him, holding her phone up to film.

Main Street was busy for a Friday morning.

The diner across the road had its windows full of faces.

Roark's truck sat at the curb with the engine off, and he didn't move.

But I could feel him.

Like a hand at the small of my back that wasn't there.

"Everybody," I said, loud.

Heads turned up and down the block.

"Last night Kyler Yardley promised to mark me at my Awakening. He showed up with her instead and bit her in front of the pack. Then he offered me second."

Kyler's smile went stiff.

"Danica."

"I said no. I walked out. I would've died on that riverbank. Roark Brannigan asked me if I wanted to live, and I said yes."

I pulled the flannel collar off my shoulder.

The silver ring caught the sun.

The whole street saw it.

A woman with a stroller put her hand over her mouth.

"So here it is, in front of all of you," I said. "I renounce the Yardley pack. I'm not his. I'm not property. I'm not coming home."

My wolf stood up inside my chest, and something that had always been tied to Kyler snapped.

He felt it too.

I saw it hit him, just under the ribs.

"You can't just say that," he said.

"I just did."

Krista stepped out beside me and folded her arms.

"And she's got a witness," she said. "Several hundred, actually. Go home, Kyler."

Kyler looked up and down the street.

Every face was on him.

Nobody was clapping.

He leaned in close so only I would hear.

"You think you won something," he said. "You're going to find out what Brannigan's mark costs."

He walked to his car.

Desiree lowered her phone and gave me a little wave with her fingers.

"Love the shirt," she said, and followed him.

They drove off.

My knees started to shake.

Krista grabbed my arm.

"That's the hottest thing I've ever seen," she said. "I'm getting it tattooed on me."

I laughed, and it came out half a sob.

Across the sidewalk, a car I didn't know pulled up behind Roark's truck.

A man in a gray suit got out with an envelope.

He had the Council seal on his lapel, a silver moon on blue.

He walked straight past me to the pickup.

"Roark Brannigan?"

Roark got out slowly.

"That's me."

"From the Council chair," the man said. "Concerning your sister's Awakening at the Hunter's Moon."

Roark tore it open right there on the curb.

I watched his face go from nothing to white.

He held the letter out to me without a word.

ADDISON BRANNIGAN. AWAKENING MARKER ASSIGNED BY ORDER OF THE COUNCIL: KYLER YARDLEY.

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