Alpha's Regret: Losing his True Mate novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Her Choice

I gave Emmett my answer at noon, on the woodpile, with an axe in my hand.

"No to the second seat," I said. "Thank you."

He nodded and split a log.

"I figured."

"Red Cedar and Ashmoor should have a treaty that doesn't depend on anyone's father. Equal terms, signed by both Alphas. I'd like to write the first draft."

He leaned on the axe and gave me a long, dry look.

"You've already written it."

"It's in my bag."

"You know," Emmett said, "I'd have liked to hear you say no with a bit more regret."

"I'm sorry."

"No, you're not. It's why I like you." He grinned, quickly, and went back to the log. "Go tell him. He's been standing on the white stones since ten, pretending he's not."

He was.

Lucan stood on the edge of the border with his hands in his coat pockets, staring at a tree.

He turned around as I came across the grass.

"I'm not here to ask," he said at once. "I came to bring your coffee."

He was holding a thermos.

I looked at it, and he saw my face, and went white.

"God. No. It's from my kitchen. I made it myself. It's coffee, Ada, I swear it on my..."

"I know." I took it from him and unscrewed the lid. It smelled of coffee and nothing else. "I believe you."

I drank.

"I'll tell you what I'm choosing," I said.

He held very still.

"I'm not coming back as your gamma. I'm not coming back as your assistant, and I'm not coming back as the woman behind the door. If I come, I come as your equal. My name on every seal beside yours. I read every paper I put my name to, and so do you."

"Yes."

"I don't do the council's laundry. I run the pack with you."

"Yes."

"And you tell the whole pack. Not once. Every day. You take my arm on the pack house steps, in daylight, in front of your elders."

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