Married My Alpha's Brother novel · Chapter 12 of 32

Chapter 12: The Choice

The door closed behind my father.

His truck started. The headlights swept the kitchen wall and were gone.

I turned around.

Granger hadn't moved. He was looking at the map on the table.

"Who sent you up Sawtooth?" I asked.

"Sit down, Rae."

"I don't want to sit down."

"Then I'll say it standing." He put his hands on the armrests and pushed himself up, and held on to the edge of the table. "Jagger did."

The stove popped.

"We were holding the lower pass," he said. "Jagger ran the rear camp at the Lodge. His orders came up by runner. At midnight the runner came to my tent with a paper in Jagger's hand."

"Take the vanguard up Sawtooth tonight," I said slowly. "Something like that."

"Rogues massing on the north side. Go now. Go quietly."

He looked at me.

"So I went. They were there. We fought them off. On the way back down, somebody came up behind me with a Blackburn knife."

"And the runner."

He didn't answer.

"Granger. Who was the runner?"

"Your father," he said. "The Beta carries the Alpha's orders. He put the paper in my hand himself."

I sat down.

I didn't decide to. My legs just did it.

"He knew," I said. "He knew it was a trap."

"I watched his face when he gave it to me. I've watched a lot of men lie."

Granger shook his head.

"I don't think he knew anything. I think he was a man carrying a piece of paper."

"Where's the paper now?"

"I left it in my tent. When I woke up in your ward, the tent had burned."

Of course it had.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked. "That first night. When you told me about the crest."

He lowered himself carefully back into the chair. His arms were shaking.

"You'd lost a husband and a father in one morning," he said. "I wasn't going to take the only one you had left."

I put my face in my hands.

He waited. He's good at waiting. I'd learned that in six weeks of watching him lie still.

When I looked up, he was still watching me.

"Say something," he said.

"I'm thinking."

"About your father?"

"About you."

He didn't move.

"You stood up today," I said. "Twice. Once because you thought I was hurt, and once to tell me something terrible to my face. You could have stayed in the chair for both of those."

"Rae."

"I keep waiting to find out what's wrong with you. Besides your legs."

"I'm very bad at toast."

"I've noticed."

I stood up.

I walked around the table to his chair and stood in front of him, between his knees.

"Earlier, on the porch," I said. "You asked if I looked sorry for you. You don't. And I need you to know this isn't for your legs either."

"I know that."

"No. Listen."

I took his face in both hands.

"If my hands didn't do anything at all to that poison, I would still be standing here. I'd still want you. I'm not doing this to fix you. I'm doing it because I choose you. On purpose. With my eyes open."

The gold came up in his eyes slowly. Like a sunrise.

"Say it again," he said.

"I choose you."

"Again."

"I choose you, Granger Blackburn. Do you want me to write it on the board in the dining hall?"

He laughed. Low. It went right through me.

He pulled me down into his lap and kissed me.

It was slower than the porch. Deeper.

When we came up for air, his forehead was against mine.

"Bed," I said.

"Say it again."

"I just said it four times."

"Say it once more anyway."

"Yes," I said. "Yes. Take me to bed. I'll push."

He laughed against my mouth.

I pushed.

His hands went to my hips the second the chair stopped.

I stayed standing over him, my fleece already half off from the push down the hall.

"You first," I said.

"I'm not stopping you."

"Watch me take my time anyway."

I pulled the fleece off and dropped it on the floor.

Then the T-shirt, up and over, and I stood there in my bra and running leggings while he watched me like he was memorizing the shape of it.

"I've thought about this," he said. "Every night you've slept in this bed with your hand on my leg."

"What did you think about?"

"Your hair on the pillow. Your breathing when it changes. What sounds you'd make."

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