My Son Is the Secret That Will Break Them novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Mated

Thea's POV

The council did not rule that day.

The eldest said the hall had seen enough.

The verdict would come at sunrise, when the Alpha had been cleared of poison and could sit his own chair.

Cora was taken to the council chamber behind the dais.

Rowan and two elders guarded the door, and she went with them without another word.

Torin carried his father out to the healer's cottage himself.

He did not look at me as he passed.

I went back to the hotel and ate dinner with my son.

I put him to bed with Blanket and a story about a boat.

I left him asleep, with my investigator in the next room.

Then I took a car to the river.

The boathouse stood where it always had, with its boards gone silver and its door off the latch.

He was inside, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, in the dark.

It was the same wall.

"Don't," Torin said, when I shut the door.

"Don't what?"

"Don't say it wasn't true."

"What she said?"

"That I wanted you gone." His voice was rough. "I told myself I was looking for you for five years, and I drove to the airport once and went home. She's right. It was easier to believe the note."

I crossed the boards and sat down in front of him.

"Did you want me gone?"

"No."

"Then she's wrong."

"I didn't fight for you."

"No," I said. "You didn't. And I didn't fight for you either, Torin. I took your shirt and never asked you a single question."

He lifted his head.

His eyes were bright, gold-flecked and wet, and he looked so tired that I put both hands on his face.

"I'm not here to forgive you in the dark," I said. "You're going to keep earning that every day, in front of people. I'm here about the claim."

"It's whole."

"It's yours. You made it, and I never said yes to it."

He went still under my hands.

"Say yes now?" he asked.

"I'm going to do better than say it."

I pushed him back against the wall and straddled his lap.

His hands came up to my hips and shook.

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