Chapter 21: Morning

On Sunday morning the whole of Larch Hollow came to Lund's for coffee, to look at us.

We walked down the ridge at eight in the cold, hand in hand, with a bite on my shoulder and a silver crescent on his.

I had wrapped myself in his flannel shirt over yesterday's jeans, and he did not seem to mind that the sleeves hung past my fingers.

Gerda had unlocked the front door and turned the sign to OPEN.

The bell rang.

Every head in the store turned, and the room went quiet in the old way.

Then it did something it had never done for the Alpha.

It cheered.

A man at the deli case thumped the glass.

A woman by the milk cooler cried openly into a napkin.

Karsten crossed the floor and picked me up off my feet.

"I'm sorry I talked," he said into my hair. "I'm so sorry. I love you. Welcome to the family."

"Put me down."

"Never."

"Karsten."

"Fine." He set me on my feet and wiped his eyes with the heel of his hand.

"Alpha, I need you to know I'm now going to say everything I ever thought about this."

"Don't," said Lennart.

"You looked like a lost dog for a year!"

"Karsten."

"You walked into a door!"

"Go and buy a coffee."

Karsten went, laughing, and in his wake the line of neighbors came and shook my hand.

They did not say I was sorry.

They said welcome, and about time, and my aunt used to type too.

One old woman patted my cheek and said, "Honey, that bite is on the correct side."

I was dizzy by the time we reached the counter.

Gerda stood behind the register in her green apron, with her braid wrapped round her head.

She looked at my shoulder, and at his, and her small, severe mouth twitched.

"Well," she said.

"Gerda."

"Box 9 has been open to the Alpha for fifty years of Alphas," she said. "It ought to be open to the Alpha's mate."

Lennart lifted the cord from his own neck, the iron key swinging on it.

"Take mine."

"That's yours."

"It's the one I opened her box with. It was always meant for you."

He slipped the cord over my head.

The key settled against my breastbone, still warm from him.

Then he took my right hand and turned it over, and looked at my middle finger.

The ink stain had faded in the night and the shower, and he frowned.

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