Three Wolves, One Irresistible Pull novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Ironwatch Rules

Both Alphas arrive at her fort and learn they will obey her like soldiers; the Chancellor's order lands that her officers will be replaced in thirty days.

Ironwatch sat on its ridge, grey stone and black slate, with the border wind howling through it.

I had ridden home in two days instead of six, and my aide was waiting at the gate.

Eira Larkin was twenty-two, red-haired, freckled, and she had never in her life kept her voice down.

"Is it true?" she shouted across the courtyard.

"Both of them?"

"Eira."

"The whole Host knows, General.

"A rider came ahead of you."

"Then the whole Host can know the rules."

I swung off my horse and tossed her the reins.

"Ring the muster bell."

By noon, four thousand soldiers stood in the yard in ranks.

At one o'clock, the Alphas arrived.

Jorund Segrave came first, on a black horse, with six Redmoor riders who stopped at the gate because I held up a hand.

Caelan Gournay came second, alone, whistling, with a packhorse loaded.

They dismounted on opposite sides of the yard and did not look at each other.

I walked down the line of soldiers and stopped in front of them both.

"This is Ironwatch," I said.

"For thirty days you live in the east tower, you eat at the officers' table, and you take my orders."

Caelan raised a hand.

"All of them?"

"Every one."

"Including the ones I don't like?"

"Especially those."

His smile came back, easy and warm.

"I think I'll enjoy this."

Jorund said nothing at all.

"Alpha Segrave," I said.

"Do you have a question?"

"Only one."

His voice moved through the yard like a hand on a bowstring.

"Why did you not say yes to the Chancellor's marriage?"

"Because I haven't decided I'll marry anyone."

"You burned my granary."

"You burned my forts."

"I did it with a reason."

"So did I."

A muscle jumped in his jaw.

"Six hundred of my people starved that winter."

"Four hundred of my soldiers froze in the forts you took," I said.

The yard had gone silent.

I heard Eira breathe in.

I did not look away from his eyes, and he did not look away from mine.

For three heartbeats the cold wind was the only sound.

Then something moved low in my stomach, the same rope-tight pull from the Hall.

I swallowed it down.

"The war is over," I said.

"If you want to fight me over it, do it in the yard, with swords, in front of my Host."

"Is that an invitation, General?"

"It's a rule."

Something that wasn't quite a smile touched his mouth.

"Then I'll follow it."

Caelan laughed out loud.

"I'm going to like him," he said, to nobody.

I put them in the east tower, in rooms across a stone corridor from each other.

Eira walked me to my own quarters, bouncing on her toes.

"General, they're both gorgeous."

"Eira."

"I'm just saying.

"The big one looks like he'd break a door."

"He broke my ribs once."

"And the other one looks like he'd bring the door flowers."

"He brought me wine in the field last spring."

"Did you drink it?"

"I poured it on a fire," I lied.

I had drunk all of it, alone, in my tent, and I'd hated myself a little.

I stood at my window after she left and watched the yard empty.

Jorund Segrave was out on the training ground, alone, stripped to his shirt in the cold, hitting a post with a wooden sword.

He hit it.

I should not have watched him.

I watched him for half an hour.

When I turned away, there was a sealed packet on my desk.

The seal was the Chancellery's black wax.

I broke it with a thumbnail.

The letter was in the Chancellor's neat hand.

"By the king's decree, the Ninth Host's senior officers will be reassigned to the capital at the end of the Trial.

"The Chancellery will name their replacements.

"This is for the good of the realm."

My stomach dropped.

Thirty days, and then my captains scattered, my Host broken into pieces.

If I named no mate, I would still lose the army that was mine.

He had given me an answer that looked like a choice and was a leash.

I crushed the paper in my fist.

Outside, in the corridor, a man cleared his throat, softly.

I looked up.

Caelan stood in the doorway, holding a bottle, with a rueful look on his face.

"General," he said gently.

"I think we need to talk about the Chancellor."

"Why?"

"Because he sent one for me, too."

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