His Mate, Her Choice novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Order

I didn't say anything in the yard.

I turned and went up the steps and into the lodge, and Dain followed me.

Behind us I heard Ansel's quiet voice settling the pack, and Halvard saying nothing at all.

In the guest wing I went into Dain's room, not mine.

He shut the door.

"Say it," I said.

"Wynn."

"Say it, Dain. I'm not going to ask you twice."

He stood in the middle of the floor with his hands open at his sides.

For the first time since I had met him, he did not look like a king.

"I signed it," he said.

I had known since the yard.

It still went through me.

"Tell me all of it. Plainly."

"My father died in the autumn I was twenty."

His voice was very steady, and that was worse.

"I was crowned within the week. Alpha Halvard was my father's friend, and he came to the funeral with a report."

"Halvard."

"He said Hollowmere had poisoned my father.

"He had a letter with Hollowmere's seal, and a physician's note, and a list of conspirators."

"Forged."

"All of it. My father died of his heart. I learned that three years ago from the physician himself, on his deathbed."

His mouth twisted.

"But I was twenty, and grieving, and I wanted someone to blame. I signed the order Halvard put in front of me. I pressed the seal myself."

I wanted to hit him.

I stood very still instead.

"What did the order say?"

"That the Hollowmere pack be put down.

"That its fighters be broken and its land taken in the Crown's name.

"That its children be placed with kin until they came of age."

"Placed with kin."

"I never saw a name," he said. "I never read a list."

"Halvard told me the children went to the eastern packs.

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