After Rebirth, I Broke Our Bond and My Alpha Regretted It novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Law

The elders bind her to Thornwood land for a year; Caleb refuses to release her; Kestrel moves into the healer's loft and has Ida log Lenora's cough before anything happens.

Caleb did not let go of my wrist until the elders reached us.

There were five of them, in grey cloaks, and the oldest one had to stop and catch his breath after crossing the ring.

"Alpha," he said. "The law is clear on this, and it is not kind."

"Then read it," Caleb said.

His eyes had not left my face.

The old elder unrolled a strip of hide that he did not need, because every wolf in Thornwood knew the words.

"A woman who refuses the Alpha's choice before the pack," he read, "may not cross the border of these lands until the next autumn Moon Cup. Unless the Alpha releases her."

A year, then.

I had known the number before he said it.

I had known the law, too, and I had refused anyway.

"I accept," I said.

My father pushed through the crowd and stopped in front of me, red in the face.

"Kestrel, you've shamed this family. Whatever you think he did, say it, and say it now."

"I can't," I said. "You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me."

"Dad, he hasn't done it yet."

My father's mouth opened and closed.

Caleb turned his head, slowly, and looked at me again.

"Release her," my father said to him. "She's a child, and she's frightened. Let her go home and we'll forget tonight."

"No."

Caleb said it quietly, and the ring heard it.

"I'll make no decision about her tonight. But I don't release you, Kestrel Thorley."

I looked at him, and I saw something I had not seen in my first life.

He was not angry.

He was frightened, and he did not know of what.

"Fine," I said. "Then I'll stay out of your house."

I turned to leave, and a hand took my elbow.

It was Ida Butterworth, our healer, in her old green shawl, with her reading glasses swinging on their cord.

"She'll stay with me," Ida said to the elders. "The loft over the clinic is empty. If the Alpha has no quarrel with it."

Nobody argued with Ida, and Caleb gave one short nod.

We walked out of the ring together, and the pack parted to let us through.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody touched me, either, as I passed.

The cottage smelled of dried yarrow and woodsmoke.

Ida lit the lamp in the loft and shoved a folded quilt at me.

"You've got blood on your palm," she said.

The frayed cord had burned a thin red line across my hand.

She cleaned it without asking questions, and I loved her for that.

Then someone knocked at the door.

It was Maud Hesketh, with a covered pot in both hands and her shawl pulled up over her hair.

"I heard where they put you," Maud said. "I thought, she's had no supper. It's only chicken and barley."

She set the pot on the table and took both my hands.

"I don't know what's gone on between you and Caleb, dear, and it's none of my business. But you were brave tonight, and I'll say so to anyone."

Her palms were warm and dry.

I thanked her.

I meant it, partly, and I hated that I meant it.

"Lenora wanted to come herself," Maud said. "She's only tired. The journey took it out of her."

"She was coughing," I said.

"Oh, it's just a cold, from the damp over the river. I've a good tea for it."

She patted my hand twice and went out into the dark.

Ida shut the door behind her and stood a moment with her hand on the latch.

"Lenora came to the clinic at noon," she said. "Her mother brought her. I looked at her gums."

"What colour?"

"Grey-blue at the edges. I didn't like it." She turned around. "You asked about her before you'd heard a word from me. Why?"

I sat down on the quilt.

"I need you to do something for me, and I can't tell you why yet."

"Go on."

"Write down what you saw today. Her cough, her gums, the day and the hour. Sign it. Keep it somewhere that isn't here."

Ida looked at me over her glasses for a long moment.

Then she took a pencil off the shelf and a page from the day book, and she wrote.

"I've been healer here for thirty years," she said as she wrote. "I know a girl who's afraid of something that's real."

I did not answer, because my throat had closed.

It was past midnight when I heard boots on the gravel outside.

I knew the step.

I went down the loft ladder in my stockings and opened the cottage door a hand's width.

Caleb stood at the garden gate with no coat on and his hands at his sides.

I felt him before I saw his face.

The frayed cord ran something hot and tight up my arm, and I knew without being told that it was his fear.

"You went white when I lifted the cup," he said.

He did not come closer.

"You didn't go white at the elders. You didn't go white when your father shouted. You went white at the cup, Kestrel."

I held the door and said nothing.

"Tell me why."

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