He Rejected Me the Night I Birthed His Twins novel · Chapter 22 of 32

Chapter 22: A Third Way

They put me in the east room of the pack house with a wet cloth on my forehead.

My nose was bleeding.

I had not noticed until the girl's mother pointed.

The old elder shut the door and sat on the edge of the bed with both hands on his cane.

"You held her," he said. "I watched you do it."

"It wasn't hard."

"Don't lie to me, child. I'm too old."

I let my head fall back.

My ribs ached, and my arms felt hollow to the bone.

"Tell me what's happening," I said. "Ember won't say it plainly."

"I won't," said Ember, tired and low. "It will sound like blame."

The elder rubbed his face.

"I was a young man when the last white wolf held this pack," he said. "She was Luna for twenty years. Nobody remembers it right, because her mate took the credit. The Alpha bond doesn't live in the Alpha. It lives in a wolf like her, and the Alpha is only the handle."

"Cedric?" I said.

"Cedric was the handle. Every wolf in Black Fir has leaned on you for three years, through him. You never felt it because you were asleep."

"And now?"

"Now he's let go of the handle." He looked at me. "They lean on you directly."

I stared at the ceiling.

"How long can I hold it?"

"A day at a time. Maybe a week. You've already given a great deal." His voice cracked. "If you let go, they go feral. Not a few. All of them. By the Wolf Moon, six weeks from now, this pack will have torn itself apart."

"And if I don't let go?"

"It will take what you have."

"All of it?"

He did not answer.

I closed my eyes.

I thought of the girl on the bench.

I thought of a hundred more like her.

Then I got up.

← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →

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