My Panther Mate & Our Little Cub novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Claws Out

I did not wake Darek.

I carried the boot to the hearth and tipped the grey dust into the coals.

It hissed into a sour yellow smoke.

Then I scrubbed the inside of both boots with salt water until my knuckles were raw, and set them out to dry.

Somebody had walked into this den while the whole clan stood at the stone ring.

Somebody had known exactly how a man's legs go slow.

By dawn the ring was full again.

Hesper had left Tuck asleep with a neighbor, and she stood at the front with her arms folded.

Darek came down the path barefoot and bare to the waist, the stitches black against his shoulder, and nodded to me once.

I nodded back.

I was holding a wooden bucket of salt water with a clean cloth folded over the rim, and nobody asked me why.

Brannoch strode in wearing nothing but a belt, rings off, mane loose, and the cheering of his gray-coated hunters followed him.

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