Chapter 13: Terms Thrown Back

Nobody on the ridge moved.

Dane looked at his father on the stretcher, then at the half circle of Alphas, and I watched him pick a face.

"He's delirious," Dane said. "He's been sick for months. You can't take a dying man's word."

"I healed him tonight," I said. "His head is clearer than yours."

I took my hands off the stone.

They were still humming, and the skin on my right shoulder was warm.

"Say it, Dane," I said. "Out loud, to them. That's all I want from you."

"Marlo."

"Say what you did."

The envoy stepped up beside the slab with his paper.

"Forging a mate bond is a crime under Council law," he said. "The penalty is loss of standing in every pack in the country."

Dane looked at the paper, then at me.

He had always known how to read a room, and now he could see there was nowhere left to stand in it.

"I said yes," he said.

His voice was flat.

"The night the witch came to the lodge, Dad told me what she'd burn into your neck, and I said yes."

"Why?"

"Because you were leaving for the Healers', and Dad was dying, and there wasn't another healer in four counties."

"I needed your hands," he said. "I told you it was a quiet bond so you'd stop asking why it never felt like anything."

An old Alpha in a fur collar spat on the grass at his feet.

Nobody else spoke.

"Silver Creek votes its seat at dawn," the envoy said. "Mr. Brickell, you will give me the Alpha's ring now."

Dane pulled it off his finger and dropped it in the envoy's palm without looking at it.

Then he walked down the ridge alone, and no wolf stepped aside for him and none stopped him either.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Mate Gambled Me Away to the Lycan King from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.