Chapter 24: The River Stone

Odette left at dawn, on the north road.

She had one bag and the truck I had put in her name.

She also had an envelope from Redfern Timber that she had counted twice at the kitchen table.

I walked her to the gate.

The chain was gone, and the sign that said CLOSED FOR LOGGING lay face down in the ditch where Mathias's truck had left it.

"You look good in your own skin," Odette said.

"So do you."

"It's a bit small. I keep bumping into doorframes that aren't there."

She was laughing, and then she was not.

"I'm not going to say it again," she said. "The sorry."

"Good."

"But I'll write. If you'd want that."

I thought about it.

"Write," I said. "I'll read it."

It was not forgiveness.

It was a door left open a hand's width, and we both knew it.

She put her arms around me, quick and hard, and got into the truck.

I watched her drive north until the road bent into the pines.

The full moon rose over the river at dusk.

Both packs came down to the bank.

They carried lanterns and no weapons.

They stood in two long lines with the water between them.

The old grey stone stood in the middle, waist-high and wet with spray.

I had walked past that stone in Odette's coat on the worst night of my life.

I came down to it now in a dress the colour of oak leaves.

My own long hair hung loose to my waist, and there was no bracelet on my arm.

The red scarf was wound twice around my left wrist, over the silver mark.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Body-Swapped Heiress Returns as the Alpha's Mate from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.