She Was Supposed to Stay Broken, So I Let Her Think She Had novel · Chapter 12 of 40

Chapter 12: The Choice at the Threshold

I take the carved wolf from the table and place it in Kael's palm. His fingers close around it, careful not to catch mine.

'What are you asking me for?'

The council cord presses against my wrist. The summons has made its demand. The rest of this room belongs to me.

Kael looks down at the wolf, then at me. He does not use the silence to fill in an answer I have not given him.

'Permission to kiss you,' he says. 'Nothing beyond that unless you ask.'

Dov's voice carries from the front room. She tells the customer the order is ready, then asks him to check the label before he leaves. A paper packet rustles. The bell rings once.

I keep my attention on Kael. His request gives me no answer about the case, no promise about the council, and no claim on what I choose tomorrow.

That is why I can consider it.

'You want to kiss me,' I say.

'I do.'

'And you will stop if I tell you to.'

'Immediately.'

He speaks with the same care he uses in front of the pack. Here, it costs him more. I see it in the held set of his shoulders, in the way he keeps his hand open around the small wooden wolf.

I remember that hand at the gate. It had pointed toward terms that would have stripped our children of their claim. He cannot make this touch harmless by asking properly.

He can only ask.

The answer is still mine.

Dov comes through the curtain carrying an empty tray. Her eyes rest on my wrist, where the red summons cord sits, then move to Kael and the wolf.

'I'm taking the front order to Mrs. Bell,' she says. 'She'll want to discuss the cough syrup, and I refuse to let her diagnose herself with a spoon.'

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