I Bore His Heirs, Then I Vanished novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Bounty

Three bounty hunters come for the baby on Greywater land, Morven shifts for the first time in years to hold the porch, and the hunter Torin pins says the Luna ordered the pup brought back alive and the carrier dead.

The hunters came on the second night, while I was nursing.

Linnet had finally taken the breast, and I was sitting on the back porch of Torin's hall because the house was too loud with strangers being kind.

The porch looked out on the river and the dark pines behind it.

I heard the first boot on the gravel before I saw anything.

Then I smelled them. Three wolves in human skin, unwashed, and none of them from Duskmoor or Greywater.

They were bounty hunters, drawn by a hundred thousand in gold.

"There she is," one of them said softly. "Hundred thousand, boys."

I stood up with Linnet against my shoulder.

"This is Greywater land," I said. "She has sanctuary."

"You've got sanctuary," the tallest one said. "The pup's got a buyer."

He drew a knife. It was silver.

I had never been in a fight. I was a carrier, and carriers were kept in bed.

My wolf had stayed quiet for years, and the healer always told me it was the carrying.

I put Linnet in the basket by the door and pulled the blanket over her.

"Stay," I told her, which was stupid, because she was two days old.

Then I stepped off the porch and let go.

My wolf was there at once.

It hurt. Bones that had just made a child had to make a wolf, and the stitches in me tore.

I went down on four legs in the gravel, and I felt everything in me roar.

The tall one hesitated. That was all I needed.

I hit him at the chest and took him down with my teeth in his sleeve.

The second one swung at me with a club. I took it on the shoulder and did not feel it.

She had been quiet for years, and she wanted blood.

The third one was running for the porch.

I let go of the club man and went after him.

I caught his ankle on the first step and dragged him backward off the boards.

He screamed and kicked me in the jaw.

The basket was two feet behind him.

I changed my grip and bit through his boot.

He stopped kicking.

Behind me the tall one got up with his silver knife, and I turned too slowly.

A gray wolf the size of a pony came out of the dark and put him through the porch rail.

Torin shifted back standing over him, naked and furious, with a split lip.

"Get off my land," he said to the hunters, "or I'll let her finish."

They ran. The club man left a boot behind.

The tall one did not run. Torin had him by the throat against the wall.

I shifted back on my knees on the gravel and pulled my coat on from the porch.

My hands were shaking. I was bleeding in four places. I was laughing, and I couldn't stop.

I went up the steps and lifted Linnet out of the basket.

She was awake and looking at me with wide dark eyes.

She was not crying.

"I've got you," I told her. "Nobody gets you."

Torin turned the hunter to face me.

"You were hired by someone," he said. "Say it again for her."

The tall one swallowed. He had stopped looking brave.

"A rider on the east road. Said the Luna's name. Said she'd pay double if the carrier didn't come back."

The yard went very quiet.

"Say it again," I said.

"The pup comes back breathing. The carrier doesn't need to." He closed his eyes. "Her words. I swear it on my mother."

"You're sure it was the Luna's own word?"

"The rider wore her ring on a chain. I've seen it on her hand at the spring fair."

My arms were tight around Linnet.

For ten months Delphine had carried my tea in with her own hands.

I had thought it was kindness.

My wolf had been silent for four years, and I had never asked why.

I asked now. Nobody answered.

"Morven," Torin said quietly. "Give me the knife."

I looked down. I had picked up the silver blade from the gravel without noticing.

I put it in his hand.

He let the hunter go with a boot in the back.

The man stumbled away into the trees after his friends and did not look back.

Torin stood on the porch with his hand at the rail.

"I'm going to send a message across the river," he said. "Tonight. To your Alpha."

"He won't believe it."

"I think he will." He looked at the blood on my jaw and then at my daughter. "I think he's going to find out a number of things."

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