Fated to My Mate's Uncle novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: Upstream

We drove home in silence most of the way.

Somewhere past Missoula, Fraser said, "The fishing cabin."

"What fishing cabin?"

"My father built it. Before Gregor was born, before Angus. A mile up from the ford, on the slow bend above the rapids. It's got a dock."

"I've never been."

"He never took you?"

"Five years. He said it made him sad. He said it reminded him of his brother."

Fraser's hands tightened on the wheel.

"I bet it does."

We came down the burn road at four in the afternoon.

The whole crew was standing at the ford.

Patsy was at the front of them with the boy's hand in hers.

On the far bank stood the eldest elder, in his Sunday shirt on a Thursday.

Two enforcers stood behind him.

He held a sheet of paper, and he looked like he'd rather be holding a snake.

I got out of the truck and walked down.

"What is it?"

"The Alpha's sent for the boy," Patsy said. "Formal. Through the elders. Says the boy belongs to the Alpha's house and he's being kept from it."

"Kept from it? His mother dumped him in your bed!"

"I know, honey."

"Carys Kinnaird," the eldest elder called across the water.

He sounded tired.

"Under pack law, an orphaned pup of the Alpha's line is a ward of the Alpha's house. The Alpha has asked for him back. I'm bound to ask you."

The crew growled.

"We could say no," the kid in the yellow shirt said low. "What's he going to do? Come get him?"

"Yes," the gray-bearded wolf said. "That's exactly what he's going to do. With thirty men. And then it's a war, and we're the exiles who started it, and they've got a kidnapping."

I looked down at the boy.

He was holding Patsy's hand so hard his knuckles were white.

He'd heard every word.

He was eight. He'd heard every word his whole life.

"He's right," I said. "It's the law."

"Carys..." Fraser said.

"If I keep him, Gregor gets to stand up in October and say I stole a child. Everything I say after that is a kidnapper talking."

I knelt down in front of the boy.

"I have to take you back across."

"I know," he said.

"Patsy packed you a bag?"

"Two pancakes in tinfoil and a toothbrush."

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