Chapter 10: The Standoff

The Salt Road crosses a stone bridge at the border between the two packs.

That evening, forty Merrow wolves stood across the bridge in a ragged line, with blue armbands tied above their elbows.

Behind me, thirty Kestrel wolves stood on our side, silent and ready.

Ronan stood in front of them, with Wynn at his shoulder.

I stood beside him in the cold wind.

Nobody had fired yet.

Nobody wanted to be the first.

"They're here to push the treaty," Wynn muttered. "Or to start a war and call it self-defense. Take your pick."

"It's the second," I said.

Ronan looked down at me.

"They think we're about to attack the lodge," I said. "Someone told them the Kestrels poisoned my father. They believe it."

I could hear them from here.

Forty minds, scared and loud, stretched across the bridge.

I looked at the wolf in the middle of the line.

He was a big man with a red beard, and his hands shook on his rifle.

"I'm going out there," I said.

"No."

"They won't shoot a Merrow."

"They might."

"Ronan." I turned to him. "I can hear every one of them. I know exactly who's afraid. Let me."

His jaw worked.

His hand closed around my wrist, and for a second I thought he would hold me back.

He let go.

"Wynn takes you the second you're hurt," he said. "Not an argument."

"Fine."

I pulled a white dish towel from the truck's glove box and tied it to a stick.

I walked onto the bridge alone.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Reborn to Get the Alpha She Rejected from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.