Chapter 14: Edwin's Reckoning

I walked into Moon Rise Lodge at noon with my bow on my back and my mate beside me.

The hall was full again, and every table was turned toward the dais.

The last time I'd come down this aisle I was barefoot, with my hem black from the snow.

This time I wore my hunting leathers, and I knew my own name.

My father stood on the dais in his good suit, with the Haskins elders in a row behind him.

My mother stood alone in the open floor in front of them.

She wore the plum dress.

She had not been given a chair.

"Under pack law," my father was saying, "a wife who drugs an Alpha's daughter has broken faith with the pack."

He did not look up.

"She will leave Haskins land before dark. She will not come back, and nobody here will speak to her."

Nobody moved.

Junie stood at the side wall with her fists balled up in her sleeves.

My mother said, "I'll go."

"Annette," said an old elder, quietly.

"I'll go," she said again, in the same straight voice. "I did it. I told the girl I'd do it again."

"No," I said.

Every head turned.

I walked up the aisle until I stood beside her, close enough to smell her lavender soap.

I did not look at her.

"I haven't forgiven her," I said to the hall. "I'll tell her so myself, and for as long as I like."

"Tegan," my father said. "This is pack business."

"She's my mother. It's my business. Nobody casts her out but me, and I haven't decided."

A little ripple of sound ran through the tables.

My mother's hand moved at her side, once, and went still again.

"Edwin," she said.

It was only his name.

She said it in the voice she used to call us in from the creek.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Mate and Family's Choice from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.