She Stole My Wolf, So I Rejected the Alpha novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Cold Creek

Merrick carries her across while the Alpha offers a rank and the pack's hunters stop at the water; the silver bond ignites and he says her wolf is howling in her sister.

"Briony." Alpha Garth barked my name. "Come back to the fire."

I didn't turn around. The silver pull was dragging me toward the creek one step at a time.

"You're in shock," he went on, smooth as ever. "Your sister has your wolf, and that's a loss. But Lorna loves you. There will be a place for you in the hall."

"Lorna, tell her," Torin called.

My sister's voice came, soft and trembling. "Bri, please. I only wanted us both to be safe. Come home."

Two hundred wolves watched me and waited for me to kneel too.

I kept walking.

Garth's voice dropped, and it was not smooth anymore. "Hunters."

Boots thudded behind me. Three men crossed the grass in a rush.

The nearest one caught my arm and spun me around. He smelled of cold and cedar. "Alpha says come back, girl."

My chest was an empty room, and I could not even growl at him.

"Let go of her," said a deep voice from the water.

The hunter let go.

I don't think he chose to. His hand opened by itself, and he took a step back from the creek.

The man from the far bank stood at the water's edge with creek water running off his boots.

He was tall, lean and heavy in the shoulders, with black hair cut short and a long scar down his left forearm.

His eyes were the palest grey I had ever seen.

"She isn't pack anymore," he said. "She rejected the Alpha line in front of every wolf here. Silver bond, struck at the stones. You can't drag her anywhere, and you know it."

"MacNeil," Torin said, in the tone of a boy who has said a name a lot and never liked it.

"Torin."

The hunters looked at Garth. Garth looked at the man in the creek for a very long moment.

"The law is the law," Garth said at last. "Let her go."

He said it to his men, but he kept his eyes on the stranger.

My legs finally gave out. I stumbled.

The man was beside me before I hit the ground. One arm took my waist and the other came under my knees.

Heat went through me where he touched, a clean bright jolt from my collarbone to my toes.

The silver light in my chest flared.

He sucked in a breath. "There you are."

"Who are you?" I whispered.

"Merrick." His hand tightened on my hip as if he couldn't stop it. "Merrick MacNeil. I've been standing on that bank on ceremony night for nine years, waiting to find out who the silver was for."

"It was for me."

"It was for you."

Behind us, Lorna called out again, sweetly, to anyone who would listen. "Briony, wait! Your things are at home!"

"Burn them," I said, loud enough for the first rows to hear.

Nobody answered.

Merrick carried me down into the creek.

The water was so cold that it stole my breath. Then the silver pulse caught and spread, and I stopped feeling the cold at all.

I looked back over his shoulder.

Alpha Garth stood on the pack side with his hands folded in front of his good coat.

Torin stood beside him, staring at me.

And Lorna stood between them with her amber-ringed eyes and a crowd of kneeling wolves around her.

She raised one hand and waved goodbye.

I thought of the fire again, and my stomach turned.

"Don't look," Merrick murmured. "They'll still be there when you're ready."

He climbed the far bank, and the silver pull went quiet at last, like a held breath let go.

The ground on this side was only pine needles and old snow.

The cabin was a short walk up the slope. Smoke rose from its chimney. I had never seen anyone live there.

"You light your fire every ceremony night," I said slowly, "in case it's me."

His jaw moved. "In case it's whoever it is."

He kicked the door open and carried me in.

Inside it was one big room with a woodstove, a plain bed under a quilt, and a shelf crammed with paperbacks.

He sat me on the edge of the bed and knelt to pull my wet boots off.

"You're shaking," he said.

"I'm not cold."

"I know." He held my feet in both hands, rubbing them, and the silver in my chest hummed with every pass of his thumbs. "That's the bond. It's holding you up. It won't hold you forever, though."

"Why not?"

His face changed.

"Because there's a thing I can hear that you can't," he said quietly. "It's coming from across the creek, and it's been coming since the moment she took it."

"What is it?"

"Your wolf." His grey eyes met mine. "She's howling for you, Briony. From inside your sister."

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