Chapter 5: The Leash

I ran back into the cave.

Rook caught me around the waist before I reached the glass.

"Juniper, stop."

"My mother," I said. "She's in there. She's alive."

"It's a mirror."

"Everything it showed me was true."

I felt his arm go still around me.

"The Hollow shows what's true," he said, very slowly. "That's the whole trick of it."

The final mirror was dark now, just black glass and my own wet face.

I let him pull me out into the cold.

Back in my room I locked the bathroom door, turned the shower on loud, and dialed the burner phone with a shaking hand.

Hiram answered on the first ring.

"You're late with the ledger."

"My mother is alive."

Silence.

Then I heard him breathe out through his nose.

"Junie."

"Tell me she's alive. Tell me you lied to me for ten years."

"You're upset."

"Tell me!"

"Juniper Hallowell," said Hiram Kavanaugh, and the bond in my chest hummed like a plucked wire.

"You will not speak of her to anyone. Not to the producer, not to the Alpha, not to a living soul."

The command hit me.

My lungs locked.

My knees went out and I hit the tile with my palm flat, gasping.

Every muscle in my body wanted to obey.

"Say it back," Hiram said, almost kindly.

My throat worked.

"I will not speak of her," I said, and tears ran down my chin.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Mating Season: Luna Trials from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.