The Wolf Prince Hid His Mate, So the Lords Wanted His Crown novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Nine to Three

"Whose mark is this?" Hakon said.

He did not turn around.

His thumb was still on the crescent cut into the granite, and his hip burned under his coat.

Behind him the wet grass shifted as Joren knelt.

"Nobody's," Joren said. "It's a stone."

"Joren."

"Don't ask me here."

"Then where?" Hakon looked up at him.

"At the Ball, in front of the Duke? I read the book. I know what a stone with that mark means."

Joren stared at the cliff for a long moment.

"It was my father's," he said.

It came out flat and tired.

"I thought it might be." Hakon stood slowly. "You think Wexel killed him."

"I think a lot of things," Joren said. "I can't prove any of them."

"Tell me what you can prove," Hakon said.

Joren's hand rose to the iron ring at his collar and closed on it.

"I was nine," he said. "They sent for me from the barracks at night, and nobody would say why."

"Go on."

"The Captain's body was in the long room. They had cut his shirt open."

His voice stayed level, but his knuckles did not.

"There was a mark on his left hip. Silver, and still lit."

"I had never seen one, but I knew what it was."

He swallowed.

"My father told me once, on a night when he'd been drinking, that he had one."

"He said it was a secret, and that I must never look for it on anyone."

Hakon felt the cold run up his arms.

"A mate's mark," he said. "On the Captain of the Guard."

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