Chapter 5: The New Moon

"Eight nights," Imogen said, from the step, to Jarrett. "I'd say that's plenty of time to get her out of our lives."

She said it softly and kindly, with the tape still shining under her ring.

Then she took his arm and walked him back toward the hall.

He looked over his shoulder once.

I shut the door in his face.

The next eight nights I packed.

I did it slowly, with Bess, in a cottage where nobody would knock again.

On the ninth night, there was no moon in the sky at all.

The whole pack stood in the Stone Hall with candles in their hands.

A release is the quietest rite we have.

A wolf walks into the circle alone, the Alpha signs, and she walks out.

I had planned three of them for other people.

I wore my plainest gray dress and carried one bag.

Bess stood at the edge of the circle, crying openly and not caring who saw.

Darek stood against the back wall with his arms folded.

Muriel sat on the elders' bench with a cane across her knees.

Imogen sat in the front row in white, with the ring on her hand and the tape gone.

I looked at her fingers.

She had pushed a second ring behind it as a stopper, a plain gold band, and wrapped them both in a fresh strip of tape.

The diamond still leaned sideways on her hand.

She saw me looking and smiled.

"Faye Chandler," the oldest elder said. "You ask to be released from Stillwater."

"I do."

"Does anyone speak against it?"

"I do," Imogen said, standing.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Alpha's Regret: Losing His True Mate from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.